Week 2 Post 2

Although I have learned about a lot of the concepts in this chapter in past psychology classes, I still found it to be interesting. One section that stood out to me was the section about social learning. While reading the part about learning through modeling, I was very fascinated by one of the examples. One example explained that some children witness their parents hitting each other. It then states that when some of these children become adults, they abuse their spouse. In other cases, these children will avoid conflict within the marriage. I was surprised that these responses are opposite, yet they are both social learning produced by childhood observation. I also found it interesting that modeling is most likely to occur when the observer is uncertain or inexperienced. This is also the reason that modeling is so influential during childhood. In reading this section of the chapter, I came across the term self-efficacy which is something that I had never learned about before. Self efficacy is the belief that a personal achievement depends on personal actions. I found it intriguing that when people see others solve problems successfully, it teaches them to have great aspirations and strive for noteworthy accomplishments. I have seen many example of this in my own life and in other people's stories. For example, many people are inspired by others' progress in eating healthy and weight loss.