Negative Modeling: What Is It And How Does It Work?
Children learn by observing the behavior of others, especially their parents. People carry out certain actions and those who observe them can introduce them into their repertoire of behaviors (modeling). Here we are going to focus on explaining what negative modeling is and how it works.
The problem is that not all the actions that people take are good or correct. When unwanted behaviors or behaviors are imitated, negative modeling is taking place, which we will explain in greater detail below. Keep reading to know more!
What is negative modeling?
Albert Bandura, in his theory of social learning, states that negative modeling refers to the imitation of inappropriate actions or behaviors that a person has and that keeps him from being an exemplary individual. These behaviors usually involve harm towards others or oneself, but that the person or child imitates thinking that they will bring some benefit.
According to Bandura, people’s behavior was the result of having observed it in others and introduced into the behavioral repertoire of each one through modeling. Children observe the behaviors of others, especially those of their parents and use them as a guide to compose their behavioral repertoire.
The influence that the behavior of others has on the little ones will depend, above all, on the status they attribute or their degree of kinship. That is why, for children, their parents are their reference.
Some examples of negative modeling
As we have seen in the previous lines, negative modeling involves imitating unwanted behaviors that involve harm, both to other people and to those who perform them. Imitation is an adaptive capacity; Through it, we observe patterns and incorporate them into our repertoire because we believe that they carry some benefit for us.
Sometimes you fall for actions that are not appropriate and that can be detrimental in the long run. Here the most affected are children and adolescents, since they are in sensitive learning periods and can learn inappropriate behaviors. They still can’t tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Let’s see some examples of negative modeling.
Violence at home
Violence in the home, unfortunately, is something that happens frequently, whether it is abuse between parents or children. This violence will contribute to the child having a negative modeling of these violent behaviors.
As a child this may not be appreciated, but when that little one grows up, he can become an adult who commits the same aggressions that he saw at home with his parents and imitates those aggressive behaviors that he saw in his family environment.
Violent training
We all know that the media has a great influence on our thoughts, actions and attitudes. On television there are certain series and movies in which the use of alcohol or drugs, fights, etc. is encouraged. This has a great influence, especially in children and adolescents, who see how their favorite characters do certain things that make them look “ cool”.
It is important that we control the viewing of this type of content on television because it can even lead to children assaulting others at school or behaving inappropriately with parents. By this we do not mean that everything that is seen on television is bad or negative, but that it is the responsibility of parents to control what type of content their children watch.
Plagiarism
This behavior is something that is spreading more and more in our society. It is inappropriate behavior and, if discovered, can be very damaging to the plagiarist. If these behaviors are favored by observing that important people have plagiarized master’s or thesis works and have not received the relevant legal consequences, this type of behavior is encouraged.
But it must be made clear that plagiarism is neither correct nor legal. A person who with his effort has managed to carry out a job, does not deserve that another copy what he has cost so much effort.
Racism and xenophobia
Adults may, at times, make racist comments or have behaviors that reveal that they are not comfortable with a certain race or ethnicity. This behavior, observed by a child, can make them think the same and, in addition, believe that those comments they hear are true, so that their behavior towards a certain group of people of another race is inappropriate.
The child will not only make comments that they have heard from their parents or close adults, but they will also end up having the discriminatory thoughts that they have observed in their parents.
As far as negative modeling is concerned …
We have already seen what negative modeling is and also how it works. Children imitate both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors and it is precisely with the latter that this type of modeling occurs.
We have been able to see some examples of negative modeling and therefore we have to observe our behaviors and see which of them may be harming our children more than benefiting them.
Remember that the greatest influence on a child is that of his parents ; their behavior is seen as a good thing that, if they imitate, it will be fine. We have to be very careful with this so that our children are good citizens of this society.
