hment in regulating behaviour. Punishment has its problems therefore, as both punishment and negative reinforcement may take the subject hostile, fearful and anxious. These emotional side-effects may then generalise to the entire situation in which punishment occurs; the location, the person administering the punishment, the circumstances may all elicit anxious, fearful and angry responses through classical conditioning. This can create more problems than it solves. Punishment also indicates that a particular response is wrong, and doesn't indicate what action should be done correctly. A young toddler could still be clueless about how to use the potty, and still be smacked for messing himself. Adding to this, it can be in human nature to overreact to a response, such as shouting, physical violence. The recipient may see that the punishment would still not have its clarity to why the response was wrong.Punishment often has the opposite effect of that desired because it may involve a powerful reward in the form of attention. This is a particular problem in the classroom, as some children misbehave in order to receive extra attention from the teacher, rather than from the quieter students who behave appropriately in a classroom. Social learning theory is about learning by observation and imitation of others and by imagining what would happen if that behaviour were imitated. Social Learning Theory was formulated by Bandura. Unlike Watson, Skinner and any other behaviourists, social learning theorists concentrate mainly on human learning, especially the acquisition of social and moral behaviour. It is not that people act and copy everyone they see or every act they witness. Bandura has laid down the specific circumstances under which imitation occurs. Unlike the behaviourists, there is no scientific approach of the cause and effect of learning, it is by learning through imitation and what motivates us would be the attraction of success, suc...
