Our Workplace

Students Don’t Have to Learn the Hard Way

Research in Social Psychology has firmly established that most social skills can be and are learned “vicariously.” In other words, social skills don’t have to be learned the hard way, through trial and error. We can also learn by watching the social mistakes of others. We can learn what’s acceptable behavior and what is not by observing the consequences of someone else’s social behavior. We learn what is appropriate social behavior by observing what behavior beings a reward. We learn what is inappropriate social behavior by observing what social behaviors bring punishment.

We developed the VideoModeling social learning system to enable “vicarious” social skill training to occur “on demand” within a classroom setting.

Developed by James Stanfield Ed.D., “VideoModeling” refers to the use of professional actors to “model” appropriate and inappropriate responses to common interpersonal, social and work situations. The performances of the VideoModels, as well as, the positive or negative reactions of supporting players are highly scripted and edited to promote “vicarious” social skill learning to occur. The research-based, “VideoModeling” has become the cornerstone of social skills instruction in thousands of schools worldwide.