Rahim learnt helping from his parents by observing them help others.…

Read the text carefully and answer the questions:

Rahim is a 25 - year old young man. His parents are very popular among the residents of the colony in which they live because they are gentle, soft spoken and always ready to help anyone facing problems.

Rahim's parents are religious by nature and think that helping people selflessly is part of religious value. They have taught Rahim about the importance of helping behaviour right from the childhood.

One day when Rahim was going to his office by his car, he noticed a middle aged person had been hit by a vehicle and was bleeding. Rahim stopped his car and went upto the injured person to help. Soon few more people gathered there and started discussing what to do. However, no one took any initiative in helping the injured person as each thought that it is not her/his responsibility to help. Later Rahim came to know that this man was hit by the driver of a car with an intention to rob him. The car driver was also found to be an alcoholic who often drank excessively.

Rahim learnt helping from his parents by observing them help others. Which principle of learning is involved in this situation?

Answer & explanation

Correct answer: option 2

The correct answer is Option (2) → Modelling

Option (1) Classical conditioning — Incorrect. Classical conditioning is learning by temporal association, in which two events repeatedly occur close together in time; in this way a student may come to like a subject because the subject gets linked with a teacher she/he likes. Rahim did not learn helping by such a pairing of events but by watching his parents.

Option (2) Modelling — Correct. In modelling we learn by observing others being rewarded or punished for showing a behaviour of a particular kind; children form a respectful attitude towards elders by observing that their parents respect elders and are appreciated for it. Rahim watched his parents help others, saw them liked by everyone in the colony, and learnt helping from them.

Option (3) Operant conditioning — Incorrect. In operant conditioning a behaviour followed by a reward is repeated, so a person learns from the rewards or punishments that follow her/his own behaviour. The passage does not say that Rahim was rewarded for helping; he learnt it by observing his parents.

Option (4) Schedule of reinforcement — Incorrect. A schedule of reinforcement is the plan by which a reward is given in operant conditioning, for example after every correct response or only after some of them. It is a detail of learning by reward, not a way of learning by watching others.

NCERT (2025-26): “Attitude Formation … The processes and conditions of learning may be different, resulting in varying attitudes among people.…

…Learning attitudes by association : You might have seen that students often develop a liking for a particular subject because of the teacher. This is because they see many positive qualities in that teacher; these positive qualities get linked to the subject that s/he teaches, and ultimately get expressed in the form of liking for the subject. In other words, a positive attitude towards the subject is learned through the positive association between a teacher and a student.
Learning attitudes by being rewarded or punished : If an individual is praised for showing a particular attitude, chances are high that s/he will develop that attitude further. For example, if a teenager does yogasanas regularly, and gets the honour of being ‘Miss Good Health’ in her school, she may develop a positive attitude towards yoga and health in general. Similarly, if a child constantly falls ill because s/he eats junk food instead of proper meals, then the child is likely to develop a negative attitude towards junk food, and also a positive attitude towards eating healthy food.
Learning attitudes through modelling (observing others) : Often it is not through association, or through reward and punishment, that we learn attitudes. Instead, we learn them by observing others being rewarded or punished for expressing thoughts, or showing behaviour of a particular kind towards the attitude object. For example, children may form a respectful attitude towards elders, by observing that their parents show respect for elders, and are appreciated for it.…”