Psychology of personality.....
Analyzing Michael Jackson Character according to Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.
Content
1. Introduction………………………………………………………………..
2. Albert Bandura and Social Learning Theory…………………………...
3. Michael Jackson …………………………………………………………..
4. Analyzing Michael Jackson Character according to
Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory………………………………
5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………….
6. References…………………………………………………………………..
Introduction.
There are lots of definitions about personality. According to Allport Personality is dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics behavior and thoughts. And also difficult to measure personality.Personality is the particular combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual. So it can be either mental or physical. Each person has his own personality which they have been maintaining since their childhood. Normally people don’t care such things though they are the vital factors that people should care. In order to identify persons’ personality through personality theories. There are many Personality theories. Such as Freudian Theory , Social Learning Theory, Cognitive Personality Theories, Humanistic Personality Theories etc.
In this article I analyze Jackson character according to Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.
Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
“Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.
People learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. ‘Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.’ (Bandura) . Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.”
Michael Jackson
“ Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29th, 1985. He was born in Gary, Indiana. Michael's mom was a house wife and his dad was a former boxer and a former musician. He had 8 siblings, 5 brothers and 3 sisters. At a young age Michael's talent started showing up and his brothers took him into their family group called Jackson 5 at the age of 5. His brothers were Tito, Jermain, Marlon, Jackie, Randy, and Brandon(Marlon's twin who died shortly after birth). His sisters were LaToya, Janet, and Rebbie. Jackson 5 had their first album published which was "Diana Ross Presents Jackson 5". Diana Ross was a very good friend of Michael, and Michael really liked her as a friend. Then the Jackson 5 had to change their group name to Jacksons because they changed record studios from Motown to CBS.After Michael quit the Jacksons/Jackson 5 he started his own career, his first album as an adult was "Off The Wall". He got really famous after his song "Thriller" got published, which then became the best selling album of all time. Then, he started publishing amazing albums like "Bad" and "HISTORY". He was married to Lisa Marie Presley (Elvis Presley's daughter), and then he got divorced. He bought a ranch in California that he called "Neverland". There was a zoo and an amusement park on the ranch. He was inviting kids to his ranch to play because he loved them so much. He visited hospitals when he was free ,and spent lots of money for donations, he also had his own foundation called "Heal the World". He was then married again to Debbie Rowe, and had three kids, Prince, Paris, and Blanket. The kids grew on the ranch, and Michael loved them so much. Michael was accused for child abuse, and was then proved innocent. Right before his last tour "This Is It" he died because of a drug overdose. Michael Joseph Jackson was announced dead on June 25th at UCLA Medical Centre. The funeral was held at Staples Center, LA. That is the end of Michael Jackson's story.”
Analyzing Michael Jackson Character according to
Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.
"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. -Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977-”
(Cherry,n.d.).
Now I going to discuss that theory with Jackson character.
1.Reciprocal Determinism
“Bandura(1978,1989)uses the term reciprocal determinism to label the processes that drive behavior. He sees an individual as being influenced by personal factors, behavior and environmental factors. All three factors interact with one another to influence how individuals behave.” (Maltby, Day & Macaskill,2007)
1.1 Personal Factors.
“Personal factors include the individual’s cognitions, emotions and biological variables that contribute to their inner state. These personal factors can impact on both an individual’s behavior and on their environment.” (Maltby, Day & Macaskill,2007)
1.2 Behavioral Factors.
“Bandura also suggests that behavioral factors can affect the individual’s cognitions, feelings and emotions.” (Maltby, Day & Macaskill,2007)
1.3 Environmental Factors.
According to this model we have living environment. Internal environment have beliefs, motivation, expectation and etc. In the external environment has punishment and reinforcement.
All of these three are interconnected.
There is a close integration among Personal, behavior and environmental factors. When consider about the personal factors, individual’s cognition, emotion sort of things should be minded. Jackson’s cognition and emotion are being inclined towards music even in the little age. That is one good factor we should understand when considering the personal factors. Even though Jackson’s childhood went with many sorrows he loved music. Jackson says that he stepped into music not because his parent’s influence but because his personal interest. He had lived with the music. Music became his soul mate. He managed to find a job at the age of five. He has done his job really well. It is impossible for child to do so. But music made him do such amazing work load without any trouble. He used high pitch voice for singing when he was working. Therefore we can say that his cognition is grabbed the music. That would be the main reason behind his remarkable success of singing. He could easily understand the music rather than others.
In order to build up a relationship with music, not only the personal factors but also other factors are vital. One of such factors is environmental factors. He was lucky enough to build up with a family belongs to music. Because of that he was able to sharpen his ability. There you can understand the integration of personal and environmental factors and how critical they are to make a musical giant. Jackson says “since my farther, and my mother’s love towards music is very helpful for us to enjoy music even in our home”. Likewise this illustrates that the environment has been influenced his personality dramatically. This is quite obvious for all of us. When we consider about our relations, most of sons have gone their father’s path. If his father worked on maritime sector most probably the son is also working on the same sector. That is because there is an influence from the environment. Jackson’s mother sang in front of Jackson and his brother. So it would make them listened music very often. And also she was brain enough to provide materials that are required for Jackson’s music life. Jackson’s all music albums dedicate to his mother .Because she help more for achieve his goal. Not only mother but also Jackson’s father brought them up with difficulties. But he always pushed them to achieve the ultimate goal.
Behavioral factors also influence for built our personality. When we talk about personality actually our behavior is one of main thing in our personality. Jackson always behaved to achieve his goal. His father gave music practice for them. He also practiced well. Because he want to get good knowledge about music. So these behaviors influence to build his personality.
Jackson has pleasure emotion about music. His family had music environment. Not only had that he behaved to achieve his goal. It means he learned music well. So when build his personality these three concept are influence.
2. Self- Efficacy
“Self-efficacy is defined as being your belief that if you per-form some behavior, it will get you a desired positive out-come” (Maltby, Day & Macaskill,2007)
Jackson has strong self-efficacy. He always believed he can do. “Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever.” (Jackson,n.d.).According to these words we can understand he has good self-efficacy. He always try to achieve his goal since his child hood.
He believed, person have the ability of reaching his hopes. He also had hopes. When the sun set he wish his hope. Actually it was not a hope it was a target. These examples also represent his self-efficacy.
3.Observational Learning
It means People can learn through observation. “One of the most well-known aspects of Bandura’s work is Observational learning. He points out that more of our learning occurs by watching and following what other people do and imitating their behavior than occurs by classical or operant conditioning. What happen is that an individual watches someone perform a novel behavior, and when they are required to perform the same behavior, they copy what they have previously seen. This is termed Modeling by Bandura ” (Maltby, Day & Macaskill,2007)
Jackson more things learn from observation. His mother was very kind and lovely person. So it observed Jackson and he also became a kind and lovely person. “I just want to say to fans in every corner of the earth, every nationality, every race, every language: I love you from the bottom of my heart. I would love your prayers and your goodwill, and please be patient and be with me and believe in me because I am completely, completely innocent. But please know a lot of conspiracy is going on as we speak.” (Jackson,n.d.).
When he went to concert he observed others dancing events. He observed step by step and all movements very carefully. He observed simple movement also very carefully. So he could learn dancing well. He got idea through observing dancing.
Most of people who are in this filed they addicted to drugs. But Jackson didn’t use drugs. He had experience about drug addicted people. He observed and leant it cause to unhealthy life. He always thank to God for giving healthy life. He said, I have bad qualities but using drugs is not with my bad qualities. So he observes and learns it is not good.
The most important thing is he learns music also by observing others. In his childhood he observed his younger brothers and his mother when they sang a song. Then he tried to sing as them. So Jackson comes to his position through observational learning.
4.The Modeling Process
“The following steps are involved in the observational learning and modeling process:
· Attention:-In order to learn, you need to be paying attention
· Retention:-The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process. Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning.
· Reproduction:-Once you have paid attention to the model and retained the information, it is time to actually perform the behavior you observed. Further practice of the learned behavior leads to improvement and skill advancement.
· Motivation:-Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be motivated to imitate the behavior that has been modeled.Reinforcement and Punishment play an important role in motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be highly effective, so can observing other experience some type of reinforcement or punishment”
(Cherry,n.d.).
This model 1st step is attention. Jackson also had a good attention. Jackson was small child of his family. So he has younger brothers. He always give attention about their action.
When we consider Jackson we can nicely understand this modeling process. He wants to learn dance well. When someone dances he gives his best attention for their dance. He gets good idea about all movements and also all feelings. Then those things he keeping mind and recall. It is retention. After that he imitate and display these observe dancing steps. It is reproducing. Motivation is the final stage. In that stage he learns dancing well. He motivate about dancing which are suitable for him. So many times this modeling process happens inside him. Not only dance when he learns singing then also we can see this modeling process.
According to these things we can say this modeling process also influence to build his personality.
5. Self Regulation
There are 4 characteristics in self regulation behavior.
i. Goal setting
ii. Self Observational
iii. Self Assessment
iv. Self Reinforcement
Above 4 characters we can clearly understand in Jackson’s life.
Jackson always tries to achieve his goal. He always keeps his goal in his mind. So he practice more and more since child hood. And also work hard. So he could achieve his goal. It is Goal Setting.
He learns more things through Self Observation. He learns music, Singing and also dancing through self observational.
After when he do something he come to self assessment about his task. He always tries to do everything with his best. So he had good understanding about his task. He had not any fear when he singing in the club. He knows it very well. Because he had many experience. So he had stander. In one time many people give congratulations for his dance. But in that time he was not satisfaction with his dance. After he gives more attention about his dancing events. These are the example for Self Assessment.
He always tries to do everything in his best. When he couldn’t do so he never gives up it. He practices more and more and also study more and more. It is like a Self Reinforcement.
According to these things we can say he has Self Regulation Personality.
Conclusion
When we consider all these things we can clearly understand Jackson’s personality according to Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Reference
A Short Biography. Retrieved from http://michaeljacksonfanweb. blogspot.com/p/biography.html
Cherry , K.(n.d.). Social Learning Theory . Retrieved Fromhttp://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/sociallearning.html
Jackson,M. (n.d) Moon Walk-Autobiography. (Sanda Matha Ragami. Sinhala Translate- Sumithra Rahubadda), Maharagama: Tharanji Prints.
Maltby,J., Day,L.,& Macaskill,A. (2007). Personality, Individual Differences and intelligence. Italy: Rotolito Lombarda.
Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning- theory-bandura.html
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