Social learning theory

• A01

  - people learn through observation and imitating others

  - learning occurs directly/indirectly through classical or operant conditioning

  - vicarious reinforcement, the learner observes a behaviour but also observes the consequence

  - focusses on how mediational (cognitive processes can influence behaviour)
• Mediational process:


  Cognitive factors (i.e. thinking) that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.
• 4 mediational processes

  Attention : noticing a behaviour

  Retention: how well a behavior is remembered

  Reproduction: ability to perform behaviour

  Motivation : motivated to imitate a behaviour
• Vicarious reinforcement


  Learning that occurs by observing the reinforcement or punishment of another person.
• Imitation


  copying the behavior of another person
• Modelling:


  - From the observer's perspective, modelling is imitating the behaviour of a role model.

  
  

  - From the role model's perspective, modelling is the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer.
• Identification:


  When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model.
• Bandura's study: (BOBO DOLL STUDY)


  Study A:

  - He recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave in an aggressive way towards a Bobo Doll. The adult hit the doll with a hammer and abuse at it.

  
  

  - When these children were later observed playing with various toys, including a bobo doll, they behaved much more aggressively towards the doll and the other toys than those who had observed a non-aggressive adult

  
  

  Study B:

  - Bandura and Walters showed videos to children where an adult behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll.

  
  

  -One group of children saw the adult praised for their behaviour and another group saw the adult punished for their behaviour the final group saw the aggression without any consequence .

  
  

  When given their own Bobo doll to play with the first group showed much more aggression followed by the third group and then the second
• A03: strength (cognitive factors)

  P- a strength of the SLT approach is that it recognises the importance of cognition in learning

  
  

  E-neither classical nor operant conditioning can offer an adequate account of learning on their own

  
  

  E-Humans and animals store information when it is appropriate to perform certain actions. As Bandura observed: by observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed and on later occasions, this is coded as a guide to action

  
  

  L- this provides that SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of mediational processes
• A03: weakness (reductionist- heavily focussed on cognitive factors)


  P-a weakness is SLT is criticised for making too little reference to the influence of biological factors on social learning

  
  

  E- although Bandura claimed natural biological differences in environment influenced our learning potential he thought that learning itself was determined by the environment

  
  

  C- however, recent research suggests that observational learning may be the result of mirror neurons in the brain, which allows us to emphasise with and imitate others

  
  

  L- this indicates that biological influences on social learning were under-emphasised in SLT
• A03: weakness (CONTRIVED LAB STUDIES)

  P- a limitation of SLT is that the evidence on which it is based was gathered through the lab studies

  
  

  E- lab studies are often criticised for their contrived nature where participants may respond to demand characteristics

  
  

  E- it has been suggested that, in relation to the bobo research , because the main purpose of the doll is to strike it, the children behaved in a way that they thought was expected

  
  

  L- this suggests that the research may tell us a little about how children actually learn aggression in real life
• A03: real life application


  P- One strength is that SLT principles have been applied to a range of a real-world behaviours

  
  

  E- SLT theory has the advantage of being able to explain cultural differences in behaviour

  
  

  E- SLT principles, such as modelling an imitation and reinforcement, can account for how children learn from their environment including the media and this can explain how cultural norms are transmitted though particular societies

  
  

  L- this has proved useful in understanding a range of behaviours , such as how children come to understand their gender role . This in turn increases the value of the approach as it can account for real world behaviour
• A03: weakness (reciprocal determinism)

  P- one limitation is that bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism in the sense that we are not merely influenced by our internal environment but out external environment

  
  

  E- but we also exert an influence upon it, though the behaviours we choose to perform

  
  

  E- this element of choice suggests that there is some free will in the way we behave

  
  

  L- this contrasts with the behaviour approach which denies the possibility of free will