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Vicarious Learning In Children: Observational Study

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Observational learning in children may contribute to the development of social anxiety. Askew, C., Hagel, A., & Morgan, J. (2015) were interested in studying the effect of vicarious (observational) learning in children between the ages of 8 to 11 years old. According to Askew et al., (2015) social anxiety is related to fear beliefs and emotional stroop bias. Askew et al., (2015) studied the effect of observing a social performance situation with a negative outcome on children’s fearful-related beliefs and cognitive processing. Individuals who hear of others experiencing an embarrassing situation might eventually learn to respond to negative outcomes such as fear, and avoidance of the situation. The purpose of this paper is to increase the knowledge …show more content…

Classical conditioning is a process of a previous stimulus that does not elicit a certain response is associated with a second stimulus that does: as a result, the first neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response. Indirect (vicarious learning or information) learning process is associated with an indirect process, without an individual directly experiencing trauma themselves. For example, fear can be socially transmitted through observing other people responding fearfully to a particular stimulus or via negative information from others. An individual who hears of others experiencing an embarrassing social situation might eventually learn to avoid such situations despite the absence of the event. It is surprising that recent studies have shown that adults with social anxiety disorder report more experiences of childhood teasing than adults with either panic disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder. (McCabe, R. E., Miller, J. L., Laugesen, N., Antony, M. M., & Young, L., …show more content…

One of the methods the researchers used is the PAPA assessment. This test can be used for a wide range of disorders. It included, interviews over the telephone with children at age 3 with the supervision of the parents. Furthermore, the PAPA assessment was used to measure children at age 6 with the supervision of the parents. The second measurement that the researchers used was the K-SADS. This test can be used to assess a range of psychopathology in children and adolescents. At the age-9 assessment, 26 children met criteria for a new anxiety disorder. Another way that the researchers measured the results was with the CBCL. This test can be used to assess anxiety disorders. CBCL consisted of 6 items that are rated for the past 6 months on a scale (0=not true; 2= very or often true). The last way that the researchers measured the children’s results was with the SCID. This test can be used to assess lifetime maternal anxiety. (Meyer et al.,

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