Social learning theory

• what do social leaning theorists agree with

  behaviourism principles
• what do Social leaning theorists argue?

  they argued understanding human behaviour requires recognising learning as a cognitive process which happens in a social context.
• what does observing others serve as?

  a template for our actions
• what is vicarious reinforcement?

  When we see someone rewarded for a behaviour, we are more likely to mimic it
• what is vicarious punishment?

  witnessing someone punished for an action makes us less likely to adopt that behaviour
• what is modelling

  individuals we observe and emulate are referred to as models
• what are the two types of models

  1. live models
  2. symbolic models
• what are examples of live models?

  1. friends
  2. parents
  3. family members
• what are examples of symbolic models?


  1. Characters from movies and books
• what is identification?

  when we are more like to imitate models with similar characteristics e.g. gender and age or people perceived to be attractive or high status
• what did slt argue that human behaviour couldn’t be fully understood without?

  including the role of cognitive processes that happen between stimuli and responses.
• what are the mediational processes?

  1. Attention
  2. retention
  3. reproduction
  4. motivation
• when must the mediational processes occur?

  they must happen between observing a model perform a behaviour (stimuli) and imitating that behaviour (response)
• what is attention?

  in order to learn from a model, individuals must pay attention to the model by focusing on specific behaviours.
• what is retention?

  The ability to remember the observed behaviours. This involves encoding the observed behaviour into memory so it can be retrieved later.
• What is reproduction?

  The individuals belief in their ability to replicate the behaviour that the model demonstrated. This depends on the individuals physical capabilities as well as the remembered details of the behaviour.
• what is motivation?

  the willingness to perform the behaviour, which is influenced by the expected outcomes, e.g. rewards or punishments, based on observing the consequences of behaviour in others.
• what do the mediational processes explain?

  Why individuals don’t automatically mimic every behaviour they observ. If any of these four processes are missing, then beh won’t be imitate.