Page 137 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

126 BANDURA

VICARIOUS CAPABILITY

Psychological theories have traditionally emphasized learning by the
effects of one’s actions. If knowledge and skills could be acquired only by
response consequences, human development would be greatly retarded,
not to mention exceedingly tedious and hazardous. A culture could never
transmit its language, mores, social practices, and requisite competencies
if they had to be shaped tediously in each new member by response con-
sequences without the benefit of models to exemplify the cultural pat-
terns. Shortening the acquisition process is vital for survival as well as for
self-development because natural endowment provides few inborn skills,
hazards are ever present, and errors can be perilous. Moreover, the con-
straints of time, resources, and mobility impose severe limits on the places
and activities that can be directly explored for the acquisition of new
knowledge and competencies.
Humans have evolved an advanced capacity for observational learn-
ing that enables them to expand their knowledge and skills rapidly
through information conveyed by the rich variety of models. Indeed, vir-
tually all behavioral, cognitive, and affective learning from direct experi-
ence can be achieved vicariously by observing people’s actions and its
consequences for them (Bandura, 1986; Rosenthal & Zimmerman, 1978).
Much social learning occurs either designedly or unintentionally from
models in one’s immediate environment. However, a vast amount of
information about human values, styles of thinking, and behavior pat-
terns is gained from the extensive modeling in the symbolic environment
of the mass media.
A major significance of symbolic modeling lies in its tremendous reach
and psychosocial impact. Unlike learning by doing, which requires altering
the actions of each individual through repeated trial-and-error experiences,
in observational learning a single model can transmit new ways of thinking
and behaving simultaneously to countless people in widely dispersed
locales. There is another aspect of symbolic modeling that magnifies its psy-
chological and social impact. During the course of their daily lives, people
have direct contact with only a small sector of the physical and social envi-
ronment. They work in the same setting, travel the same routes, visit the
same places, and see the same set of friends and associates. Consequently,
their conceptions of social reality are greatly influenced by vicarious experi-
ences—by what they see, hear, and read—without direct experiential cor-
rectives. To a large extent, people act on their images of reality. The more
people’s images of reality depend on the media’s symbolic environment,
the greater is its social impact (Ball-Rokeach & DeFleur, 1976).
Most psychological theories were cast long before the advent of extra-
ordinary advances in the technology of communication. As a result, they