Frames
frames - principles of organization which govern events – at least social ones – and our subjective involvement in them which people share (Goffman 1986:10-11)
The term frame is used to refer to messages defining intentions of communication in the sense that a picture frame delimits the picture within it and distinguishes the picture from the surrounding wall. Accordingly Tannen (1984:23) defines "frame" as "a superordinate message about how the com- munication is intended."
The notion of frames goes back to Bateson (1972) who identified three different levels of communication:
(1) the denotative level (i.e. referential level) (2) the metalinguistic level (i.e. the purpose of communication is to talk about language) and (3) the meta-communicative level (i.e. communication concerning the relationship between the speakers).
On the meta-communicative level people send intentionally or unintentionally a message that tells the intention of the communication. For example when one says "I hate you" on the denotative level s/he may send signals telling that the communication is intended to be "joking."
Observational Learning
"Learning by watching is called observational learning."
"Theory of mind enables people to infer the goals of another person. This is important for observational learning. It helps the observer figure out which parts of a behavior to imitate and how to make useful variations. "
"Observing other people receive positive reinforcement for a behavior is called vicarious reward because people vicariously project into the positive reinforcement."