Social learning theories of personal moral development. Albert Bandura and his social learning theory

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Departure from classical behaviorism

In American psychology it is believed that theories social learning- this is the most significant direction in the study of child development.

In the late 30s, N. Miller, J. Dollard, R. Sears, J. Whiting and other young scientists at Yale University made an attempt to translate the most important concepts of psychoanalytic personality theory into the language of K. Hull's learning theory. They outlined the main lines of research: social learning in the process of raising a child, cross-cultural analysis - the study of the upbringing and development of a child in different cultures, personality development. In 1941, N. Miller and J. Dollard introduced the term “social learning” into scientific use.

On this basis, concepts of social learning have been developed for more than half a century, the central problem of which has become the problem of socialization. Socialization is a process that allows a child to take his place in society; it is the advancement of a newborn from an asocial “humanoid” state to life as a full-fledged member of society. How does socialization happen? All newborns are similar to each other, but after two or three years they are different children. This means, say proponents of social learning theory, that these differences are the result of learning, they are not innate.

There are different concepts of learning. In classical conditioning of the Pavlovian type, subjects begin to give the same response to different stimuli. In Skinner's operant conditioning, a behavioral act is formed due to the presence or absence of reinforcement for one of many possible responses. Both of these concepts do not explain how new behavior arises. A. Bandura believed that reward and punishment are not enough to teach new behavior. Children acquire new behavior through imitation of a model. Learning through observation, imitation and identification is the third form of learning. One of the manifestations of imitation is identification - a process in which a person borrows thoughts, feelings or actions from another person acting as a model. Imitation leads to the fact that the child can imagine himself in the place of the model, experience sympathy, complicity, and sympathy for this person.

Social learning theory examines not only “how” socialization occurs, but also “why” it occurs. Particular attention is paid to the satisfaction of the biological needs of the child by the mother, reinforcement social behavior, imitation of behavior strong personalities and similar influences of the external environment.

Several generations of scientists have been working in the field of social learning. The evolution of social learning theory is presented in Table. 4. This direction is characterized by the desire to synthesize different approaches to the study social development. From the table 5 clearly shows that this direction, as it developed in the USA, was a movement towards the awareness of a general theory, and not a separate field of knowledge.

Let us briefly consider the contributions made to the concept of social learning by representatives of the first, second, and third generations of American scientists.

N. Miller and J. Dollard were the first to build a bridge between behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory. Following Z. Freud, they considered clinical material as a rich source of data; in their opinion, a psychopathological personality differs only quantitatively, and not qualitatively, from normal person. Therefore, the study of the behavior of a neurotic sheds light on universal principles of behavior that are more difficult to identify in normal people. In addition, neurotics are usually observed by psychologists for a long time and this gives valuable material long-term and dynamic changes in behavior under the influence of social correction.

On the other hand, Miller and Dollard, experimental psychologists skilled in precise laboratory methods, also turned to the mechanisms of behavior of animals studied through experiments.

Table 4. Evolution of social learning theory (cited by R. Cairns) 1900-1938 Predecessors 1938-1960 First generation 1960-1970 Second generation 1970 - to date vr. Third generation Psychoanalysis Social learning Social learning and personality development Interactional analysis 3. Freud R. Sears A. Bandura G. Petteoson J. Whiting R. Walters A. Yarrow Learning theory N. Miller R. Bell I. P. Pavlov J. Dollard Analysis behavior W. Hartup E. Thorndike J. Rotter S. Bijou J. Watson J. Gewirtz Social cognitive analysis K. Hull Operant conditioning W. Michelle E. Tolman B. Skinner E. Maccoby J. Aronfried Cognitive theories J. Baldwin Structures of the social environment J. Piaget H. Rausch Field theory R. Park K Levin Y. Bronfenbrenner

Miller and Dollard share Freud's view of the role of motivation in behavior, believing that the behavior of both animals and humans is a consequence of such primary (innate) drives as hunger, thirst, pain, etc. All of them can be satisfied, but not extinguished. In the behaviorist tradition, Miller and Dollard quantify drive strength by measuring, for example, the time of deprivation. In addition to the primary ones, there are secondary urges, including anger, guilt, sexual preferences, the need for money and power, and many others. The most important among them are fear and anxiety caused by a previous, previously neutral stimulus. The conflict between fear and other important drives is the cause of neuroses.

Table 5 Scheme of the main directions in the study of social development (based on R. Cairns)

Social learning Cognitive development sociology Genetic psychoanalysis Genetic psychobiology Main tasks Learning social behavior Cognitive control of social behavior Evolution of social behavior Development of behavioral pathology The relationship between behavior and biology Main populations Normal children of preschool and school age From infants to adolescents Adults Invertebrate and vertebrate animals Patients Mammals (non-humans) ) and birds Methods Short-term behavioral experiments Interviews Verbal assessments Natural observation Controlled observation Observation Clinical study Physiological and behavioral experiments Basic concepts Imitation Social reinforcement Stage concept Self-development Innate control Video typical patterns Programmed attachment Deprivation Anxiety Bidirectional organization Reciprocal control

Transforming Freudian ideas, Miller and Dollard replace the pleasure principle with the principle of reinforcement. They define reinforcement as something that increases the tendency to repeat a previously occurring response. From their point of view, reinforcement is the reduction, removal of impulse or, using Freud's term, drive. Learning, according to Miller and Dollard, is the strengthening of the connection between a key stimulus and the response that it causes due to reinforcement. If there is no corresponding reaction in the repertoire of human or animal behavior, then it can be acquired by observing the behavior of the model. Giving great value mechanism of learning through trial and error, Miller and Dollard draw attention to the possibility of using imitation to reduce the number of trials and errors and to get closer to the correct answer through observing the behavior of another.

Miller and Dollard's experiments examined conditions for imitation of a leader (with or without reinforcement). Experiments were carried out on rats and children, and in both cases similar results were obtained. The stronger the incentive, the more reinforcement strengthens the stimulus-response relationship. If there is no motivation, learning is impossible. Miller and Dollard believe that self-satisfied, complacent people are bad students.

Miller and Dollard draw on Freud's theory of childhood trauma. They view childhood as a period of transient neurosis, and the small child as disoriented, deceived, disinhibited, and incapable of higher mental processes. From their point of view, a happy child is a myth. Hence, the task of parents is to socialize children, prepare them for life in society. Miller and Dollard share A. Adler’s idea that the mother who gives the child the first example human relations, plays a decisive role in socialization. In this process, in their opinion, the four most important life situations can serve as a source of conflict. This is feeding, toilet training, sexual identification, manifestation of aggressiveness in the child. Early conflicts are non-verbalized and therefore unconscious. To realize them, according to Miller and Dollard, it is necessary to use Freud's therapeutic technique 3. “Without understanding the past, it is impossible to change the future,” wrote Miller and Dollard

Education and development

The famous American psychologist R. Sears studied the relationship between parents and children, under the influence of psychoanalysis. As a student of K. Hull, he developed his own version of combining psychoanalytic theory with behaviorism. He focused on the study of external behavior that could be measured. In active behavior, he emphasized action and social interactions.

Action is caused by impulse. Like Miller and Dollard, Sears assumes that all actions are initially related to primary or innate impulses. The satisfaction or frustration that results from the behavior prompted by these primary drives leads the individual to learn new experiences. Constant reinforcement of specific actions leads to new, secondary impulses that arise as a consequence of social influences.

Sears introduced the dyadic principle of learning child development: since it occurs within a dyadic unit of behavior, adaptive behavior and its reinforcement in an individual should be studied taking into account the behavior of the other, the partner.

Considering psychoanalytic concepts (suppression, regression, projection, sublimation, etc.) in the context of learning theory, Sears focuses on the influence of parents on the development of the child. In his opinion, practice children's education determines the nature of child development. Based on his research, he advocates parental education: every parent will naturally raise their children better if they know more; What matters is how and to what extent parents understand parenting practices.

The concepts of aggression, developed in line with social learning theories, originate from theoretical concepts of the S-R type (primarily from Hull): in them, the components of behavior responsible for its motivation and direction are defined in different ways and are connected in different ways. The most influential representatives of this movement are Berkowitz and Bandura. Initially, Berkowitz took positions closely related to the frustration theory of aggression. Abandoning the untenable postulate that frustration always leads to aggression, he introduced two intervening variables, one related to drive and the other to the direction of behavior, namely anger (as a stimulus component) and trigger stimuli (triggering or response-provoking key features). Anger arises when the achievement of the goals towards which the subject’s action is directed is blocked from the outside. However, in itself it does not yet lead to behavior determined by an impulse of this type. In order for this behavior to be realized, trigger stimuli that are adequate to it are necessary, and they will become adequate only in the case of a direct or indirect (for example, established through reflection) connection with the source of anger, i.e., with the cause of frustration. Thus, the fundamental concept for Berkowitz here is the concept of behavior as a consequence of a push, which fits into the paradigm of classical conditioning.

He himself gives the following definition:

“The strength of an aggressive reaction to any obstacle is a joint function of the intensity of the anger that arises and the degree of connection between its motivator and the trigger.”

Berkowitz later expanded and modified his mechanistic concept of push, consistent with Lorentz's innate trigger model. The trigger stimulus is no longer a necessary condition transition from anger to aggression. Further, it is possible to induce aggression by stimuli associated with the reinforcing consequences of aggressive actions, in other words, Berkowitz uses the instrumental conditioning paradigm as an additional support for his concept. In addition, it is assumed that the appearance of key stimuli relevant to aggression can increase the intensity of aggressive action, for example, noticing a weapon in a situation perceived by a person as provocative, the so-called weapon effect. Bandura is more focused on the paradigm of instrumental conditioning, and he places a central place on learning by observing a model. The emotion of anger is, in his opinion, neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for aggression. Since anger is, in Bandura's view, merely a state of arousal that is labeled only after the fact, any emotional arousal that comes from a negatively perceived stimulation (say, noise, heat) can influence the intensity of aggressive actions, if the action proceeds at all. ways of aggression. The course of such an action is not associated with the simple launch of conditioned reactions depending on the anticipated consequences possible actions, and no state of emotional arousal, no motivating component is necessary for it. Bandura's theoretical position, as a multicomponent, attraction-oriented concept of pull behavior, represents a synthesis of the learning theory traditions and cognitive theories of motivation. First of all, behavior is determined by the attractiveness of the anticipated consequences of actions. Such decisive consequences include not only reinforcement from other people, but also self-reinforcement, which depends on compliance with internally binding standards of behavior for the individual. Therefore, given the same characteristics of the situation, an action of a completely different type may be chosen instead of aggression, for example: submission, achievement, retreat, constructive solution to the problem, etc.

The main provisions of the concepts of Freud, Lorenz, Berkowitz and Bandura are presented in the form of somewhat simplified diagrams in Fig. 2.

More recent theoretical approaches based on social learning theory largely share their rejection of the emphasized simplicity and rigor of the S-R mechanism by expanding the role of cognitive processes in understanding situational information - a trend that goes back to Heider. These processes include attribution of states of emotional arousal, interpretation of other people’s intentions, explanation of both one’s own and others’ actions by dispositional or situational factors, designation of behavior as aggression [N. A. Dangerink, 1976].

Hypothetical constructs are framed

Along with Berkowitz and Bandura, Feshbach should also be named among the authors who played a significant role in the development of this direction. He made a significant contribution to clarifying the concept of “aggression”, and in later works to identifying the conditions for the emergence of aggression and individual differences in aggressiveness, correlating the latter with general cognitive development. Feshbach adheres to a point of view very close to typical cognitive-personal and motivational-psychological concepts, such as those of Kornadt [N.-J. Kornadt, 1974; 1983] and Olweus.

Social learning theory.

7.1.Different points of view on learning.
In American psychology, it is believed that social learning theories are the most significant direction in the study of child development.
Main lines of research: social learning in the process of raising a child, research into the upbringing and development of a child in different cultures, personality development.
The central problem of social learning is the problem of socialization. Socialization is a process that allows a child to take his place in society; it is the advancement of a newborn from an asocial “humanoid” state to life as a full-fledged member of society. Socialization occurs in the process or as a result of learning: For example, newborns are similar, but already at 2-3 years old they are different.
There are different concepts of learning. In classical conditioning of the Pavlovian type, subjects begin to give the same response to different stimuli. In operant conditioning, a behavioral act is formed due to the presence or absence of reinforcement. The third form of learning: learning through observation, imitation (imagining oneself in the place of the model), identification (borrowing from another person).
Social learning theory examines not only “how” socialization occurs, but also “why” it occurs. Particular attention is paid to the satisfaction of the biological needs of the child by the mother, reinforcement of social behavior, imitation of the behavior of strong personalities and similar influences of the external environment.
First generation - N. Miller and J. Dollard. They share Freud's point of view on the role of motivation in behavior, believing that behavior, both animal and human, is a consequence of certain primary (innate) drives, such as hunger, thirst, pain, etc. All of them can be satisfied, but not extinguished.
Transforming Freudian ideas, Miller and Dollard replace the pleasure principle with the reinforcement principle. They define reinforcement as something that increases the tendency to repeat a previously occurring response.
Learning is the strengthening of the connection between a key stimulus and the response that it causes due to reinforcement; if a person or animal does not have a corresponding response in the repertoire, then it can be acquired by observing the behavior of the model. Attaching great importance to the mechanism of learning through trial and error. By imitating the leader, you can reduce the amount of trial and error. Through observation of leader behavior. Miller and Dollard draw on Freud's theory of childhood trauma. They view childhood as a period of transient neurosis, and the small child as disoriented, deceived, and incapable of higher mental functions (processes). From their point of view, a child is a myth! Hence the task of parents: to socialize their children, to prepare them for life in society. Mom plays a decisive role, she is an example of human relationships. Four situations that can serve as a source of conflict: feeding; toilet training; sexual identification; manifestation of aggressiveness.

7.2. Education and development.
The famous American psychologist R. Sears studied the relationship between parents and children, under the influence of psychoanalysis. In his opinion, the practice of child upbringing determines the nature of child development (the influence of parents).
Three phases of child development:
1.phase of rudimentary behavior - based on innate needs and learning in early infancy (in the first months);
Phase 2 of secondary motivational systems - based on learning within the family (the main phase of socialization);
Phase 3 of secondary motivational systems; is based on learning outside the family (goes beyond early age and is associated with enrollment in school);
According to Sears, the central component of learning is dependence (on contact with others). Childhood addiction, from Sears' point of view, is a powerful need that cannot be ignored. The child is physically dependent on her from birth (care). Psychological dependence after several months from birth and persists into adulthood.
Psychological dependence manifests itself in the search for attention: to be near. Reinforcement is receiving attention. Under what circumstances does a child develop dependent behavior?
1) Operant behavior of the mother (caring for the child);
2) development of social expectations in mother and child;
A child’s expectations are an indirect, internal reaction to signals coming from the mother: failure to fulfill – frustration, angry crying.
Phase 1 of child development connects the biological heredity of the newborn with his social heritage;
Phase 2 – from the second half of the 2nd year of life until entering school;
Mom helps the child learn most mature forms of behavior. The child’s actions become self-motivated (to behave as others expect him to). Liberation from dependence in a child begins with weaning, teaching neatness, and instilling sexual modesty.
In the third year of a child’s life, identification with his parents appears (role-playing).
Five forms of addictive behavior:
The most essential role is the participation of each parent in the care of the child.
1. “Seeking negative, negative attention” - attracting attention through quarrels, breakups, disobedience. This form of dependence is a direct consequence of low demands and insufficient restrictions on the part of the mother (towards the girl), and the strong participation of the father. That is, the father does not trust the mother. Fathers love girls, but neglect boys.
2. “Search for constant confirmation” - apologies, requests, promises, search for protection, comfort. This form of dependent behavior is directly related to the high demands of both parents.
3. “Seeking positive attention” is a more mature form of addictive behavior; efforts to gain approval from others.
4. The “staying nearby” form of behavior is the constant presence of a child near another child or group of children (adults). "Immature" addiction. Reluctance to grow up is infantilism.
5. Touch and hold. Parents are not demanding - infantilism. There should be average: neither too strong nor too weak pressure;

7.3. Critical periods of socialization.
As is known, Freud emphasized the importance of early experience in personality development and noted the existence of critical periods in the development of behavior. On the other hand, Lawrence drew attention to the importance of critical periods for the formation of primary connections in animals. In American psychology, the period of maximum imprinting ability was called critical period or critical age. Research has shown that in addition to the timing of the first reaction, intensive practice of the young animal is important for imprinting, which increases the stability of the reaction of following the mother. The “law of effort” was formulated, according to which the force of imprinting is equal to the logarithm of the effort expended by the animal to reach a significant object during the imprinting period. Criteria for the duration of critical periods were developed: the beginning of the period is determined by the maturity of motor abilities; the end is the development of a fear reaction.
The critical period for socialization is determined by the emergence of behavioral mechanisms that maintain contact between animals. For example, the clinging reaction in monkeys; following in the herd; tail wagging; baby's smile. They are accompanied by responses from adult members of the species. The development of attachment stops when a fear reaction occurs, which forces one to avoid contact. For example, at 8 months a child is towards a stranger.
Initially, researchers focused on the critical period of primary socialization. Socialization was understood as attachment to members of one's community, which depends mainly on communication with other members of the group. Socialization in dogs – from 3 to 10 weeks the puppy is susceptible to social influences; primary socialization determines which creature this animal will become firmly attached to.
In relation to children, it has been suggested that there are two critical periods of socialization:
1) in the first year of life, when the child forms a connection with people close to him, when he learns dependence;
2) at 2-3 years - when he learns to be independent in certain important respects;
The process of socialization in infants begins at about 6 weeks of age and reaches a maximum at 4-5 months - a conscious smile. Critical periods of learning were also identified. These are also called sensitive periods for learning. If learning does not occur during this period, it may never occur.

7.4. Reward and punishment as conditions for the formation of a new behavior.
B. Skinner emphasized that human behavior is entirely determined by the influence of the external environment. Human behavior can be “made” and controlled. The main concept of Skinner's concept is reinforcement, that is, an increase or decrease in the probability that the corresponding act of behavior will be repeated again. Reinforcement strengthens behavior. The reward doesn't necessarily encourage this.
Reinforcement can be positive (work - money; child - approval of adults) and negative (boring work - to avoid the anger of adults; person - medicine, to fix the pain). Primary reinforcement (food, water, cold, heat, etc.) and conditioned (an initially neutral stimulus that acquired a reinforcing function due to combination with the first form of reinforcement). Skinner distinguishes between negative reinforcement and punishment. Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior, while punishment suppresses it. Punishment can be carried out by depriving positive reinforcement or implementing negative reinforcement (deprivation of previously promised pleasure, deprivation of rights). However, punitive measures often do not suppress unwanted behavior. Skinner is against punishment. He believes that punishment does not have a lasting effect because the unwanted behavior may recur (if the punishment is delayed). Punishment can have a quick but short-lived effect. Skinner favors the use of positive reinforcement. He believes that children will be more willing to behave correctly if their good behavior is noticed and approved by their parents. What can replace punishment in education? Ignoring unwanted behavior, leading to its extinction: unwanted behavior does not need to be reinforced. Focus on good behavior.

7.5. The role of imitation in the formation of new behavior.
Researchers have focused on the phenomenon of learning through imitation. In their opinion, much of a person’s behavior arises from observing the behavior of another. Reinforcement is necessary in order to strengthen and maintain the behavior formed through reinforcement. The visual learning procedure is especially effective for learning new social experiences. Observational learning is important because it can be used to regulate and guide a child's behavior by providing him with the opportunity to imitate authoritative models. Laboratory studies have shown that children watched a film of aggressive behavior from adults, with different consequences (rewards and punishments); after the screening, children were given toys similar to those used in the film; aggression was more pronounced in children who watched films in which adult behavior was rewarded; where there was punishment, aggression decreased.
Four intermediate processes to explain how imitation of a model leads to the formation of a new behavioral act in the subject:
1. The child’s attention to the action of the model. Requirements for the model: clarity, distinguishability, affective richness, functional significance.
2. Memory that stores information about the influences of the model.
3. Motor skills that allow you to reproduce what the observer perceives.
4. Motivation, which determines the child’s desire to do what he sees.
Thus, the role of cognitive processes in the formation and regulation of behavior based on imitation is recognized. As a result of observing the behavior of the model, the child builds “internal models of the external world.” The subject observes or learns about a pattern of behavior, but does not reproduce it until the appropriate conditions arise.
Social learning theory recognizes that the influence of a model is determined by the information it contains.
Learning is a spontaneous process. Quantitative process of accumulation of skills, connections, devices.
Literature
Abramova G.S. Developmental psychology: Tutorial for universities. - M.: Academic Project, 2000.-623 p.
Nemov R.S. Psychology. In 3 volumes. Book. 2. - M., 2001, 686 p.
Flake - Hobson K., Robinson B.E., Skeen P. Development of the child and his relationships with others (Translated from English). - M., 1993.
Questions for self-testing of knowledge on the topic “Social Learning Theory”:
1. Define the concept of learning.
2.Name the three phases of development according to R. Sears.
3. What is meant by the critical period of socialization.
4. According to B. Skinner, what determines human behavior.

social learning in the process of raising a child,

· cross-cultural analysis (study of child upbringing and development in different cultures),

· personality development.

In 1941, N. Miller and J. Dollard introduced the term “social learning” into scientific use. On this basis, concepts of social learning have been developed for more than half a century, the central problem of which has become the problem of socialization. Socialization is a process that allows a child to take his place in society; it is the advancement of a newborn from an asocial “humanoid” state to life as a full-fledged member of society. How does socialization happen? All newborns are alike, but after two or three years they are different children. This means, say proponents of social learning theory, that these differences are the result of learning, they are not innate.
There are different concepts of learning. At classical conditioning Pavlovian type subjects begin to give the same response to different stimuli.

At operant conditioning According to Skinner, a behavioral act is formed due to the presence or absence of reinforcement of one of many possible responses.

(+) - the reaction receives reinforcement
Both of these concepts explain how new behaviors arise in animals.
Learning through observation, imitation and identification- the third form of learning. One of the manifestations of imitation is identification. It is a process in which a person borrows thoughts, feelings or actions from another person who acts as a model. Imitation leads to the fact that the child can imagine himself in the place of the model, experience sympathy, complicity, and sympathy for this person.
Social learning theory deals not only with How socialization occurs, but also Why it's happening. Particular attention is paid to the satisfaction of the biological needs of the child by the mother, reinforcement of social behavior, imitation of the behavior of strong personalities and similar influences of the external environment.
Several generations of scientists have been working in the field of social learning.

Let us briefly consider the contributions made to the concept of social learning by representatives of the first, second, and third generations of American scientists.
N. Miller and J. Dollard were the first to build a bridge between behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory. Following S. Freud, they considered clinical material as a rich source of data; in their opinion, a psychopathological personality differs only quantitatively, and not qualitatively, from a normal person. Therefore, the study of neurotic behavior sheds light on universal principles of behavior that are more difficult to identify in normal people. In addition, neurotics are usually observed by psychologists for a long time, and this provides valuable material for long-term and dynamic changes in behavior under the influence of social correction.
On the other hand, Miller and Dollard are experimental psychologists skilled in precise laboratory techniques. They also turned to studying the mechanisms of animal behavior with the help of rigorous scientific experiments. In the experiments of Miller and Dollard, the conditions for imitation of the leader were clarified (in the presence or absence of reinforcement). Experiments were carried out on rats and on children, and in both cases similar results were obtained. The stronger the incentive, the more reinforcement strengthens the connection between stimulus and response. If there is no motivation, learning is impossible. Miller and Dollard believe that self-satisfied, complacent people make poor students.
Miller and Dollard draw on Freud's theory of childhood trauma. They view childhood as a period of transient neurosis, and the small child as disoriented, deceived, disinhibited, and incapable of higher mental processes. From their point of view, a happy child is a myth. Hence, the task of parents is to socialize their children and prepare them for life in society. Miller and Dollard share A. Adler's idea that the mother, who gives the child the first example of human relationships, plays a decisive role in socialization. In this process, in their opinion, the four most important life situations can serve as a source of conflict. These are feeding, toilet training, sexual identification, and the manifestation of aggressiveness in a child. Early conflicts are not verbalized and therefore unconscious. To understand them, according to Miller and Dollard, it is necessary to use Freud's therapeutic technique. “Without understanding the past, it is impossible to change the future,” wrote Miller and Dollard.

Famous American psychologist R. Sears studied the relationship between parents and children, under the influence of psychoanalysis. As a student of K. Hull, he developed his own version of combining psychoanalytic theory with behaviorism. He focused on the study of external behavior that could be measured. In active behavior, he emphasized action and social interactions.
Action is caused by impulse. Like Miller and Dollard, Sears assumes that all actions are initially related to primary or innate drives. The satisfaction or frustration that results from the behavior prompted by these primary drives leads the individual to learn new experiences. Constant reinforcement of specific actions leads to new, secondary impulses that arise as a consequence of social influences.
Sears introduced the dyadic principle of studying child development: since it occurs within a dyadic unit of behavior, adaptive behavior and its reinforcement in an individual should be studied taking into account the behavior of another person, a partner.
Considering psychoanalytic concepts (suppression, regression, projection, sublimation, etc.) in the context of learning theory, Sears focuses on the influence of parents on the development of the child. In his opinion, the practice of child upbringing determines the nature of child development. Based on his research, he advocates parental education: every parent will naturally raise their children better if they know more; What matters is how and to what extent parents understand parenting practices.

· Sears identifies three phases of child development:

o phase of rudimentary behavior - based on innate needs and learning in early infancy, in the first months of life;

o phase of secondary motivational systems - based on learning within the family (the main phase of socialization);

o phase of secondary motivational systems - based on learning outside the family (extends beyond early childhood and is associated with entering school).

A. Bandura - the most famous representative of the second generation of theorists of the concept of social learning - developed the ideas of Miller and Dollard about social learning. He criticized Freud's psychoanalysis and Skinner's behaviorism. Having adopted the ideas of the dyadic approach to the analysis of human behavior, Bandura focused on the phenomenon of learning through imitation. In his opinion, much of a person’s behavior arises from observing the behavior of others.
Unlike his predecessors, Bandura believes that the acquisition of new responses through imitation does not require reinforcement of the observer's actions or the model's actions; but reinforcement is necessary to strengthen and maintain the behavior formed through imitation. A. Bandura and R. Walters found that the visual learning procedure (that is, training in the absence of reinforcement or in the presence of indirect reinforcement of only one model) is especially effective for the acquisition of new social experience. Thanks to this procedure, the subject develops a “behavioral predisposition” to previously unlikely reactions.
Observational learning is important, according to Bandura, because it can be used to regulate and direct a child's behavior by providing him with the opportunity to imitate authoritative models.
Bandura conducted a lot of laboratory and field research on childhood and youth aggressiveness. Children were shown films in which different patterns of adult behavior (aggressive and non-aggressive) were presented, which had different consequences (reward or punishment). The film showed, for example, how an adult aggressively handles toys. After watching the film, the children were left alone to play with toys similar to those they saw in the film. As a result, aggressive behavior in children who watched the film was greater and manifested itself more often than in children who did not watch the film. If in the film the aggressive behavior of adults was rewarded, the aggressive behavior of children increased. In another group of children who watched a film where aggressive behavior from adults was punished, it decreased.
While a number of American scientists view Bandura's theory of social learning as a concept consisting of “clever hypotheses about the process of socialization,” other researchers note that the mechanism of imitation is insufficient to explain the emergence of many behavioral acts. It’s difficult to learn how to ride a bike just by watching a bike ride; you need practice.
Taking these objections into account, A. Bandura includes four intermediate processes in the “stimulus-response” diagram to explain how imitation of a model leads to the formation of a new behavioral act in the subject.

The child's attention to the action of the model. Requirements for the model are clarity, distinguishability, affective richness, and functional significance. The observer must have an appropriate level of sensory capabilities.
Memory that stores information about the influences of the model.
Motor skills that allow you to reproduce what the observer perceives.
Motivation that determines the child’s desire to accomplish what he sees.

Thus, Bandura recognizes the role of cognitive processes in the development and regulation of behavior based on imitation. This is a marked departure from Miller and Dollard's original position, which conceptualized imitation as modeling based on perceptions of the model's actions and expected reinforcement.

Representatives of the third generation of American social learning theory pay attention to special attention analysis of family structure and other social institutions How the most important factors development of child behavior. One of the interesting directions in the study of these factors was developed by W. Bronfenbrenner.
In American psychology, writes Bronfenbrenner, there is the concept of “age segregation”, which characterizes the changes occurring in recent years in the lives of children and the younger generation. Age segregation manifests itself in the inability of young people to find a place in society. At the same time, a person feels disconnected from the people and affairs around him and even hostile towards them: he wants to do his own business, but often does not know exactly what business it is and how to do it. When the young man finds him, practical work does not bring satisfaction and interest in it quickly fades away. This fact of isolation of young people from other people and the real matter in American psychology is called alienation.
American researchers are looking for the roots of alienation in the features modern family. W. Bronfenbrenner pays special attention to the fact that most mothers work. It is also characteristic that the number of other adult family members who could take on the responsibilities of raising a child while mothers work drops sharply. The number of divorces is growing, and, consequently, the number of children being raised without a father. Naturally, the material standard of living in these families is low. However, it is not only poor families who have to deal with psychological stress and setbacks. W. Bronfenbrenner writes that in the homes of wealthier families “there may be no rats, but they also have to participate in the rat struggle for existence.”

So, family breakdown, territorial separation of residential and business areas in cities, frequent moves from one place of residence to another, interrupting neighboring and family ties, flow television programs, the working mother, and other manifestations of “social progress,” according to Bronfenbrenner, reduce the opportunities and needs for meaningful communication between children and older people and create very difficult conditions for women. He also draws attention to the fact that the growing number of divorces is accompanied by a new phenomenon in America: the reluctance of either parent to take care of the child.
All these and many others, even more unfavorable conditions cannot but affect the mental development of the child, which leads to alienation, the reasons for which are the disorganization of the family. However, Bronfenbrenner believes that disorganizing forces initially arise not in the family itself, but in the way of life of the entire society and in the objective circumstances that families face. If these circumstances and this way of life are detrimental to the relationship of trust and emotional security in relationships between family members, if these circumstances prevent parents from caring for their children, raising them and giving them joy, if the responsibilities of a parent do not meet with support and recognition in the outside world, and if family time is detrimental to one's career, personal satisfaction, and mental peace, that's when people especially suffer. mental development child. The initial symptoms of this appear in the emotional and motivational sphere: hostility, indifference, irresponsibility and inability to do things that require diligence and persistence. In more severe cases, the consequences also manifest themselves in a deterioration in the ability to think, operate with concepts and numbers, even at the most basic level.

Brief overview different approaches to understanding the social development of a child shows that American psychology is the psychology of learning. The prefix “on” contains makes a lot of sense. Learning is a spontaneous process. Development is considered by American psychologists as a process of quantitative accumulation of skills, connections, and adaptations.
Z. Freud had a strong influence on American psychology. This is why the concept of social learning was able to emerge. As we have already seen, in modern American psychology the role of society in the development of a child is given enormous importance. Already A. Gesell recognized the primary sociality of the child. However, he considered this primary sociality purely biologically, in terms of devices organism to the social environment.
The social life of a child is considered by modern American scientists, following Gesell, in the same way as the behavior of young animals - from the standpoint of adaptation to the environment. Also L.S. Vygotsky drew attention to the fact that in American psychology, human social life is completely derived from the concept of biological evolution, and the transfer of the evolutionary principle to the study of ontogenesis reveals “wholly and without a trace the nature of the social formation of personality.” This reduction of the social to the biological interaction of organisms is unacceptable. “Here the biologism of American psychology reaches its apogee. Here he celebrates his highest triumphs, winning his final victory: revealing the social as a simple variety of the biological,” wrote L.S. Vygotsky in 1932. More than half a century has passed, and this assessment by L.S. Vygotsky has not lost its significance.
The theory of social learning is based on the “stimulus-response” scheme and the teachings of Freud. American scientists took from Freud his social core: the relationship between the “I” and society. Freud and behaviorism intersect not in the problem of sexuality, not in the problem of instinct, but in emphasizing the role of the social in the development of the child. However, the social is understood as one of the forms of stimulation that causes behavior, as one of the forms of reinforcement that supports it.
The concept of social learning shows how a child adapts to modern world how he learns the habits and norms of modern society. A child enters society like a “rat into a maze,” and an adult must guide him through this maze so that as a result he becomes like an adult. The child is seen as a being alien to society. But this is fundamentally wrong: a child is a part of society, and its most important part; a human society without children is a dying society.
How does the child interact with society? How does he live in it?
In social learning theory, the initial antagonism between child and society is borrowed from Freudianism. This leads to the biologization of the social, so the entire development process is reduced to a selection process, a learning process.

The evolution of social learning theory (quoted by R. Caris)

1900 - 1938	1938 - 1960	1960 - 1970	1970 - present vr.
Predecessors	First generation	Second generation	Third generation
Psychoanalysis	Social learning	Social learning and personality development	Interactional analysis
Z. Freud	R. Sears J. Whiting N. Miller J. Dollard J. Rogger	A. Bandura R. Walters	G. Petterson A. Yarrow R. Bell V. Hartup
Learning theory	Operant conditioning	Behavior Analysis	Social-congenital analysis
I. P. Pavlov E. Toridike J. Watson K. Hull E. Tolman	B. Skinner	S. Bijou J. Gewirtz	V. Michel E. Maccoby J. Aronfried
Cognitive theories	Social structures environment
J. Baldwin J. Piaget	H. Rausch R. Park J. Bronferbrenner
Field theory
K. Levin
Cairns R. B. Social development - San Francisco - 1979

Scheme of the main directions in the study of social development (quoted by R. Caris)

Social learning	Cognitive development	Ethology and sociology	Genetic psychoanalysis	Genetic psychology
Main tasks	Teaching social behavior	Cognitive control of social behavior	Evolution of social behavior	Development of behavioral pathology	The relationship between biology and behavior
Major populations	Normal children of preschool and school age	From babies to teenagers Adults	Invertebrates and vertebrates	Children Patients	Mammals (non-humans and birds)
Methods	Short-term behavioral experiments	Interview Verbal assessments	Natural observation Supervised observation	Observation Clinical study	Physiological and behavioral experiments
Basic Concepts	Imitation Social reinforcement	Stages concept Self-development	Innate control Video typical patterns	Programmed Attachment Deprivation Anxiety	Bidirectional organization Reciprocal control

Behaviorism – (founders are Tolman and Hull) direction of Western psychology, which orients the researcher to study not the actual social consciousness of people, but various forms of their behavior, understood as a set of reactions of the human body to stimuli from the external environment.

1. Departure from classical behaviorism...

In American psychology, it is believed that social learning theories are the most significant direction in the study of child development.

Social learning theory examines not only “how” socialization occurs, but also “why” it occurs. Particular attention is paid to the satisfaction of the biological needs of the child by the mother, reinforcement of social behavior, imitation of the behavior of strong personalities and similar influences of the external environment.

Several generations of scientists have been working in the field of social learning. The evolution of social learning theory is presented in Table. 4. This direction is characterized by the desire to synthesize different approaches in the study of social development. From the table 5 clearly shows that this direction, as it developed in the USA, was a movement towards the awareness of a general theory, and not a separate field of knowledge.

Let us briefly consider the contributions made to the concept of social learning by representatives of the first, second, and third generations of American scientists.

N. Miller and J. Dollard were the first to build a bridge between behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory. Following Z. Freud, they considered clinical material as a rich source of data; in their opinion, a psychopathological personality differs only quantitatively, and not qualitatively, from a normal person. Therefore, the study of neurotic behavior sheds light on universal principles of behavior that are more difficult to identify in normal people. In addition, neurotics are usually observed by psychologists for a long time, and this provides valuable material for long-term and dynamic changes in behavior under the influence of social correction.

On the other hand, Miller and Dollard, experimental psychologists skilled in precise laboratory methods, also turned to the mechanisms of behavior of animals studied through experiments.

<Таблица 4. Эволюция теории социального научения (цит. по Р. Кэрнсу)>

<Таблица 5. Схема основных направлений в изучении социального развития (пит. по Р. Кэрнсу)>

Transforming Freudian ideas, Miller and Dollard replace the pleasure principle with the principle of reinforcement. They define reinforcement as something that increases the tendency to repeat a previously occurring response. From their point of view, reinforcement is the reduction, removal of impulse or, using Freud's term, drive. Learning, according to Miller and Dollard, is the strengthening of the connection between a key stimulus and the response that it causes due to reinforcement. If there is no corresponding reaction in the repertoire of human or animal behavior, then it can be acquired by observing the behavior of the model. Attaching great importance to the mechanism of learning through trial and error, Miller and Dollard draw attention to the possibility of using imitation to reduce the number of trials and errors and to get closer to the correct answer through observing the behavior of others.

Miller and Dollard draw on Freud's theory of childhood trauma. They view childhood as a period of transient neurosis, and the small child as disoriented, deceived, disinhibited, and incapable of higher mental processes. From their point of view, a happy child is a myth. Hence, the task of parents is to socialize their children, to prepare them for life in society. Miller and Dollard share A. Adler’s idea that the mother, who gives the child the first example of human relationships, plays a decisive role in socialization. In this process, in their opinion, the four most important life situations can serve as a source of conflict. This is feeding, toilet training, sexual identification, manifestation of aggressiveness in the child. Early conflicts are non-verbalized and therefore unconscious. To realize them, according to Miller and Dollard, it is necessary to use Freud's therapeutic technique 3. “Without understanding the past, it is impossible to change the future,” wrote Miller and Dollard

2. Education and development.

Sears introduced the dyadic principle of studying child development: since it occurs within a dyadic unit of behavior, adaptive behavior and its reinforcement in an individual should be studied taking into account the behavior of the other, the partner.

Considering psychoanalytic concepts (suppression, regression, projection, sublimation, etc.) in the context of learning theory, Sears focuses on the influence of parents on the development of the child. In his opinion, the practice of child upbringing determines the nature of child development. Based on his research, he advocates parental education: every parent will naturally raise their children better if they know more; What matters is how and to what extent parents understand parenting practices.

Sears identifies three phases of child development:

Ø phase of rudimentary behavior - based on innate needs and learning in early infancy, in the first months of life;

Ø phase of secondary socialization systems - based on learning within the family (the main phase of socialization);

Ø phase of secondary motivational systems - based on learning outside the family (extends beyond early childhood and is associated with entering school).

According to Sears, the newborn is in a state of autism, his behavior does not correspond to the social world. But already the child’s first innate needs, his internal motivations, serve as a source of learning. The first attempts to extinguish internal tension constitute the first learning experience. This period of rudimentary antisocial behavior precedes socialization.

Gradually, the baby begins to understand that the extinction of internal tension, for example, the reduction of pain, is associated with his actions, and the “crying-chest” connection leads to the satisfaction of hunger. His actions become part of a sequence of goal-directed behavior. Each new action that leads to the extinction of tension will be repeated again and built into a chain of goal-directed behavior when tension increases. Need satisfaction constitutes a positive experience for the infant.

Reinforcement comes from the mother. The child adapts his behavior so as to evoke constant attention from her. In this way, the child learns to evoke reciprocal behavior from the mother. He is forced to choose the answers that the people around him expect from him. Through trial and error, he manipulates this environment "in pursuit" of a satisfying answer, while his environment offers him the opportunity to choose from various options satisfying his impulses. In these dyadic relationships, the child learns to control the situation and is constantly under control. The child early develops the technique of cooperation with those who care for him. From this moment socialization begins.

Each child has a repertoire of actions that are necessarily replaced during development. Successful development is characterized by a decrease in autism and actions aimed only at satisfying innate needs, and an increase in dyadic social behavior.

How do new motivational systems arise? Under what conditions? How and what environmental factors influence children's learning? What is the result of learning?

According to Sears, the central component of learning is dependence. Reinforcement in dyadic systems always depends on contacts with others; it is already present in the earliest contacts between the child and mother, when the child, through trial and error, learns to satisfy his organic needs with the help of his mother. Dyadic relationships foster the child's dependence on the mother and reinforce it. Between four and twelve months of age, dependence is established, and with it the dyadic system is established. Both child and mother have their own repertoire of meaningful actions that serve to stimulate mutual responses consistent with their own expectations. At first, the child shows his dependence passively, then he can actively support it (external signs of behavior and more active love). Child dependence, from Sears's point of view, is a strong need that cannot be ignored. Psychoanalysis shows that psychological dependence on the mother arises very early. Physically, the child depends on her from birth, that is, his life depends on her care. Psychological dependence appears after a few months. after birth and persists to some extent into adulthood. But the peak of addiction occurs in early childhood

Psychological dependence manifests itself in searches attention - child asks the adult to pay attention to him, to look at what he is doing, he wants to be close to the adult, sit on his lap, etc. Dependence manifests itself in the fact that the child is afraid to be left alone. He learns to behave in ways that will attract the attention of his parents. Here Sears argues like a behaviorist: by showing attention to a child, we reinforce him, and this can be used to teach him something. How is addiction formed from a behavioral point of view?9 To do this, it is necessary to comply with two laws, the law of association and the law of reinforcement. Reinforcement of addictive behavior is the receipt of attention. Association is the presence of the mother and the comfort of the child, hence only the presence of the mother creates comfort for the child. The child often stops crying as soon as he sees mother before she can do anything for him to satisfy his organic need. When a child is scared, only the mother's approach calms him down. On the other hand, the absence of a mother means a lack of comfort. The absence of a mother is a stimulus for anxiety and fear. This is also taken into account in raising a child. The significance of maternal approach or withdrawal gives the mother an effective tool for instilling in the child the necessary rules of social life. But as soon as dependence appears, it must be limited. The child must learn to be independent. Parents often choose the strategy of ignoring. For example, if a child is crying, then parents in some cases try not to pay attention to it. But there may be other strategies that help a child learn to behave in ways that will gain the attention of an adult. Lack of reinforcement of addiction can lead to aggressive behavior. Sears considers addiction as a complex motivational system that is not innate, but is formed during life

Under what circumstances does a child develop dependent behavior? The usual behavior of a mother caring for a child provides him with objects that the child can manipulate; reinforcing influences from the mother give these reactions a stable form of dependent behavior. For its part, the child has operant reactions from the very beginning. The first such reactions are limited to sucking or palpating movements of the mouth, grasping and squeezing reflexes, postures that allow an adult to pick up the child and move him.

The mother's operant behavior is very complex because it is aimed at achieving many goals associated with caring for the child - feeding, bathing, lubrication, warming, etc. It also includes numerous actions that please the mother, such as cuddling the baby, caressing, listening to the baby, perceiving its smell and even taste, feeling the touch of the baby’s hands and lips

Unfortunately, it doesn't exist detailed description behavior even for a single mother-child pair, there are no clear ideas about individual or cultural differences in such actions, Sears notes, although it is an area of almost infinite variety. But since the mother’s behavior is always determined by the conscious or unconscious goals of her actions, this multiplicity is channeled into controlled systems that have a formative influence on the baby’s behavior. His own repertoire of actions increases as her behavior “matures” and as some of his movements are reinforced and others do not receive reinforcements. As a result of such mutually satisfying interactions, secondary reinforcers and reinforcing stimuli arise for both members of the couple. This is conversation, stroking, the mother’s smile when feeding and the baby’s responses.

A second consequence of mother-child interaction is the development of social expectations in both members of the pair. Everyone learns to respond to the posture, smile and other actions of the second member of the pair with reactions that correspond to the expectation of subsequent events.

The child's expectations are an indirect internal reaction to signals emanating from the mother; they are essential for changing his reactions, turning them into purposeful units of activity. If the mother does not perform the action expected of her by the child from her own repertoire, the baby becomes frustrated and expresses dissatisfaction by crying or worrying, or some other way of behavior, which he had previously learned in relation to circumstances of frustration. For example, if a mother performs all the actions that usually end with inserting a nipple into the baby’s mouth, but then, at some critical moment, begins to hesitate and interrupts the flow of her actions, the baby reacts with an angry cry.

The development of mutual expectations fuses mother and infant into a single dyad, a unit that functions effectively only as long as both members perform their habitual roles in accordance with the expectation. As a result of this infant experience, the child learns to “ask” the mother for appropriate reciprocal behavior. Signs of behavior, movements expressing a request constitute dependent actions, the frequency and intensity of which. the degree of dependence can be determined.

According to Sears, there must be a definite, predictable relationship between parental care practices. for the child and dependent behavior in children.

The social environment in which a child is born influences his development. The concept of “social environment” includes: the gender of the child, his position in the family, the happiness of his mother, social. family position, level of education, etc. The mother sees her child through the prism of her ideas about raising children. She treats the child differently depending on his gender. In the early development of a child, the mother’s personality is revealed, her ability to love and regulate all the “dos and don’ts.” The mother's abilities are connected with her own self-esteem, her assessment of her father, and her attitude towards her own life. High scores on each of these factors correlate with high enthusiasm and warmth towards the child. Finally, social status mothers, her upbringing, and belonging to a certain culture predetermine the practice of education. The likelihood of a child's healthy development is higher if the mother is happy with her position in life. Thus, the first phase of child development connects the newborn's biological heredity with his social heritage. This phase introduces the infant to the environment and forms the basis for expanding his interaction with the outside world.

The second phase of child development lasts from the second half of the second year of life until entering school. As before, primary needs remain the motive of the child’s behavior, however, they are gradually restructured and turn into secondary motivations. The mother continues to be the primary reinforcer early in this phase. She observes the child's behavior that needs to be changed, and she also helps to learn patterns of more mature forms of behavior. It must instill in the child a desire to behave like an adult and to socialize.

On this basis, the child develops incentives to acquire social behavior. The child realizes that his personal well-being depends on his willingness to behave as others expect of him; therefore, his actions gradually become self-motivated: the child strives to master actions that bring satisfaction to him and satisfy his parents.

As the child gets older, the mother begins to see emotional dependency as a behavior that needs to change (usually coinciding with the birth of a new child or returning to work). The child’s dependence in the relationship with his mother is modified: signs of love and attention become less demanding, more subtle and consistent with the behavior of an adult. Other people enter a child's life. Gradually he begins to understand that there is nothing that can be his sole monopoly; now he must compete with other people to achieve his goals, compete for his mother's attention; now the means become as important to him as the goal itself.

Liberation from dependence in a child begins with weaning, teaching neatness, and instilling sexual modesty. The tendency of parents to put pressure on the child in these areas of life, according to Sears, leads to the feminization of both boys and girls; tolerance, on the contrary, contributes to the formation of masculine character traits in both boys and girls. Proper upbringing presupposes a golden mean.

In the third year of a child’s life, identification with his parents appears. The child loves his mother and is emotionally dependent on her. When his mother is not with him, he reproduces a sequence of actions similar to what would have happened if his mother had been with him. He does this to gain the satisfaction he associates with his mother's presence, Sears said. The child's own activity extinguishes the need and reduces the frustration caused by the absence of the mother. In this way he identifies himself with his mother. This leads the child to the ability to act “like others.”

Unlike earlier forms of learning, identification is not built on the basis of trial and error, but arises from role-playing. It reproduces dependent behavior in the absence of parents. Thus, dependence is a fundamental source of identification as a process that occurs without parental training. Summarizing the results of his research, Sears identified five forms of addictive behavior. They are all the product of different childhood experiences.

Sears made an attempt to identify a correlation between forms of dependent behavior and the child care practices of his parents - mother and father. Using a specially developed questionnaire, a study of attitudes towards different manifestations child from mothers and fathers. This material was supplemented with indicators identified in observations of real interaction between mother and child in a pre-organized situation. The mother was instructed on simple tasks to perform during the observation. After this, the couple was left alone, and observers recorded the behavior of both mother and child through the Gesell mirror.

Studies have shown that neither the amount of reinforcement, nor the duration of breastfeeding, nor feeding by the hour, nor the difficulties of weaning, nor other features of feeding practices have a significant impact on the manifestations of dependent behavior in children. preschool age. The most significant factor for the formation of dependent behavior is not oral reinforcement, but the participation of each parent in caring for the child.

1. “Seeking negative, negative, attention”: seeking attention through arguing, breaking up relationships, disobedience or so-called oppositional behavior (resistance to instructions, rules, order and demands by ignoring, refusing or opposing behavior). This form of addiction is a direct consequence low requirements and insufficient restrictions in relation to the child, that is, weak upbringing on the part of the mother and - especially in relation to the girl - strong participation in the upbringing of the father.

Sears notes that this behavior has features of aggressiveness, but it manifests itself mainly in search of attention to oneself. Conditions for the emergence of this form of behavior: cessation of attention to the child on the part of the mother (“busy mother” as opposed to “attentive mother”); weakness of restrictive requirements absence of requirements for the implementation of mature forms of behavior These are general conditions for both boys and girls. But there are also conditions of care that are different for different genders.

For girls, the father's position and behavior are important. He is an important person in the girl's life. Sears repeatedly emphasizes that negative attention seeking is associated with a father's higher share of child care, a mother's lower share of child care, the severity of separation from the father, and the extent to which he encourages the daughter's dependence. The lack of restrictive requirements for the child (as, indeed, for the mother) also has an impact.

Other important paternal behavior patterns that influence girls' negative attention seeking behavior, according to Sears, include: rare use ridicule, rare use of good behavior models, high degree of satisfaction with the child’s socialization, high empathy for the child’s feelings. A high negative correlation of this behavior with the father's assessment of the mother was found. The father took a large part in caring for the child from the very beginning because he does not trust the mother.

Sears writes, "It looks as if these little girls, seeking negative attention, were " daddy's daughters": they have formed a strong attachment to their fathers and separation from him causes them to develop manifestations of aggressive type of dependence." These are masculinized girls, and masculinization is determined by the participation of the father in caring for them.

For boys, the picture is less clear: there is also an impact of parental permissiveness, as well as longer breastfeeding and abrupt weaning. The latter means there is early pressure to socialize quickly, Sears said. As for boys who are characterized by this form of dependent behavior, there is a weak disposition of the father; the father does not expect masculine behavior from the boy and does not reinforce it. It looks as if the fathers of these boys neglect their sons, and do not condone them out of love, like the fathers of girls.

2. "Continuous confirmation seeking": apologizing, asking for over-promises, or seeking protection, comfort, consolation, help or guidance. This form of dependent behavior is directly related to high demands for achievement on the part of both parents.

Sears again finds stark differences in the background experiences of girls and boys.

For girls, the father again turns out to be a bright figure. In addition, it acts as a rather strong sexual irritant for a little girl. He freely shows himself to the child, gives him information on gender issues - these are signals that arouse sexual impulses in the girl. According to Sears, a child's sexual arousal under the influence of his opposite-sex parent contributes to feelings of insecurity in the child's relationship with the same-sex parent. This is the same situation of jealousy that Freud described as the Oedipus complex.

On this basis, a number of consequences arise, one of which is the search for approval. On the same basis, inattention to the mother arises, even if the girl is at arm's length from her.

In considering the behavior of the mother in this form of dependent behavior, Sears notes that the mother is not a dummy to idly wait to see what degree of hostility her daughter might develop towards her. She can have an additional effect on the child's emotions, she behaves in a way that causes insecurity in her daughter. She sets high standards of achievement for the child, is persistent in demanding independence, does little to encourage the child’s achievements and mature forms of his behavior, uses moral teaching, shows consistency in her educational policy and, when interacting with the child, encourages the latter’s dependence. “She is not so much demanding as persuading, but the high standards she has in mind dictate that her love for her child must be met only when certain conditions are met,” Sears writes.

The father is not only a sexual object for a little girl. He is seen by her as the source of strength in her family, he believes it is important to teach her the difference between right and wrong, and he also sets high standards for achievement.

For boys, the features of previous experience are similar in one respect and strikingly different in another. A mother whose son seeks approval is cold, makes restrictive demands, and has high anxiety regarding gender issues and aggressiveness. She constantly monitors the child, but does not necessarily make a constructive effort to exercise him; in her interaction with the child, she does not insist on his independence and does not encourage the latter, but she does not encourage dependence either.

The result is an image of a rather ineffective mother, which is reinforced by the father's low assessment of the mother and his desire to interact with the child.

Boys have no trace of the Oedipus complex. On the contrary, the search for approval is a product of the mother's constant coldness of restrictive demands, even neglect in the sense that neither the child's independence nor his dependence are encouraged.

3. “Search for positive attention”: the search for praise, the desire to join the group, thanks to the attractiveness of cooperative activity, or, conversely, the desire to leave the group, to interrupt this activity. This is a more “mature” form of dependent behavior, it includes efforts aimed at obtaining approval from the people around her. As for the conditions of the previous upbringing of the child, here again the mother’s tolerance towards her daughter’s behavior is revealed. The mother encourages her daughter’s dependence and believes that she is like her. She expresses affection for her daughter, but the father does the same. Tolerance regarding gender does not extend to aggression, since both parents are very strict in this matter.