Social learning theory

• What is the social learning theory?

  The social learning theory suggests that people learn through observing and imitating the behavior of others, as well as through the consequences of their own actions.
• What is vicarious learning ?

  • watching other people’s behaviour be rewarded or punished

  • if we watch someone’s behaviour and they are rewarded then we learn to repeat this behaviour

  • if we watch someone’s behaviour and they are punished than we learn to not repeat it
• what did Bandura believe ?

  • Bandura believed that in order for imitation to occur than we must make a mental representation (memory) of the behaviour and any anticipated rewards/ punishments

  • if an opportunity to display the behaviour arises we will only Imitate the behaviour of the expectation of reward is greater than the expectation of punishment

  • he called this the meditational process
• What is a live model ?

  • someone who we come into direct contact with
• What is a symbolic model ?

  Someone portrayed in the media for example a tv character
• Who was Albert Bandura ?

  • 1960s Bandura develops the social learning theory which emphasised the role of observing others and cognitive factors in learning

  • this brings together cognitive and behaviourist ideas
• What is the Mediational process 


  This

  
• What happened

  Bandura divided 66 nursery school children into three groups and they were all shown a video where an adult model kicked a doll

  • group 1 watched the adult model being rewarded for kicking the doll

  • group 2 children saw a second adult tell the adult off for the aggressive behaviour

  • group 3 saw neither reward nor punishment

  The results showed that group 1 were the most aggressive and group 2 being the least aggressive

  the results showed those in group 2 chose not to act aggressively as when group 1 were rewarded then they started to act aggressively
• Strength of the social learning theory

  The social learning theory has scientific credibility because it uses the experimental method to examine observable behavior in highly controlled laboratory conditions. This means that psychologists can establish cause and effect and the studies can be easily replicated
• Advantage of social learning theory

  Social learning theory can be used to explain cultural differences in behaviour, for example why some cultures show more aggression than others
• Disadvantage of social learning theory

  Social learning theory doesn't take into account the influence of biological factors on behaviour, for example the role of seritonin on depression and the role of testosterone on aggression. It may be that many of the aggressive boys in Bandura's research had high levels of testosterone leading to their more violent behaviour towards the Bobo doll
• Disadvantage of social learning theory

  The Bobo doll study's ecological validity can be questioned as the aggression observed in a controlled lab setting may not directly translate to real-world scenarios such as imitating televised violence in schools