Social Cognitivism Case Study

1. Which teacher in the scenario demonstrates vicarious reinforcement? Justify your response with definitions and an example from the case study.


Mr. Kessinger demonstrates vicarious reinforcement in the scenario. The definition of vicarious reinforcement is when an observed behavior leads to a positive or negative outcome. If the outcome is positive the behavior is repeated and if it is negative then the behavior is not. In the case study it is noted "Robin never again took notes of any kind in Mr. Kessinger's class." Mr. Kessinger received the response he was looking for.

2. Is Mr. Kessinger considering reciprocal causation in his class? Explain your response, including all aspects of reciprocal causation in your reasoning.

I do believe that Mr. Kessinger is modeling reciprocal causation in his class. Mr. Kessinger is taking into count the environment component, the behavior component and the personal component. The environmental component is evident because of the use of the teacher as the social stimuli and behavior component because Mrs. Kessinger has created an emotional response with the given situation (the concept map). Most of all Mr. Kessinger has affected Robin's personal component because he has imposed beliefs that she was cheating and humiliated her in front of the class and now has affected her learning potential.

3. Which self-regulated learning process is Robin engaging in when she creates her concept maps? Explain your reasoning.

Robin was engaging in self-control when she created her concept maps. Robin demonstrated this step by creating the maps to help her link information about leading into WW2. This concept map (a strategy) was allowing Robin to help achieve her goals. Her goal was to understand and link the correct material together and the concept map allowed her to do so.

4. How do you think Robin's self-efficacy has been affected by this experience. Be specific about which self-efficacies have been affected and justify your response with examples from the case study.

Robin's self efficacy has been negatively affected by this experience. Specifically, Robin's outcome expectancy has been damaged because Mr. Kessigner has damaged the outcome of a performance (the concept map). When Mr. Kessinger claims she is cheating in class when she only thought she was trying to learn the material. Mr. Kessinger has enforced she was cheating by using notes. She no longer takes notes in his class, she doesn't believe she can.