Social Learning theory

• What is the social learning theory?

  a way of explaining that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement, combining learning theory with the role of cognitive factors
• Who developed the social learning theory?

  Bandura
• What did Bandura believe?

  • he said we learn through conditioning but his theory focuses on moral and social behaviour
  • he believed not all behaviour is conditioned because some behaviours appeared without it
  • we learn from observing others
• What are the four main steps to social learning?

  1. a behaviour is modelled
  2. the observer identifies with the model
  3. the behaviour is observed and noted
  4. the behaviour is imitated
• What is a good case study to back up social learning?

  James Bulger = his killers Thompson and Venables (both 10 years old) kidnapped James from a shopping centre, threw paint on him, hit him with bricks, killed him and put his body on railway tracks to make it look like an accident. In their trial it was suggested they learnt these actions from somewhere else from exposure to inappropriate material of which they copied
• What is the problem with social learning theory?

  • even though we see a behaviour doesn't mean we will imitate it
  • a behaviour can be learned but not necessarily performed
  • we also may not copy a behaviour if we view the consequences of it being negative
• What is vicarious reinforcement?

  learning that occurs indirectly through others being reinforced
• What conditions are needed for modelling to be effective?

  1. attention = must pay attention to the model
  2. retention = must remember the behaviour
  3. motor reproduction = must be able to replicate
  4. motivation = must want to demonstrate the behaviour learned
• What is self efficacy?

  believing you are capable of executing those behaviours successfully
• What was Bandura's aim of his experiment and how did he set this up?

  aim = to see whether children would imitate a behaviour even if its not rewarded

  • all participants were children aged between 3-5, there were 36 male and female
  • split into 8 groups, 24 children were kept as a control group
  • children's behaviour was researched beforehand to make sure there was a variety of children in each group
• What was the procedure of Bandura's experiment?

  1. the children in groups were given an aggressive or non-aggressive model, one at a time they were taken to a corner of a room and asked to draw
  2. the model was placed elsewhere in the room with a table, chair, tinker toy, mallet and bobo doll, the experimenter said the child had no access to the models area
  3. the aggressive model would act violent with the bobo doll using their items saying things like 'hit him down'. The non-aggressive model just played with the toys
• What were the controls of Bandura's experiment?

  • children were matched based on pre-existing aggressiveness which was rated by a teacher and experimenter
  • same toys in each room
  • models had standardised behaviours
• What were the results of Bandura's experiment?

  • the aggressive model had greater impact on boys than girls, especially when viewing a same sex model
  • children showed more direct imitation with an aggressive model than those with the non-aggressive one
  • male model had more influence than female model
• What differed in the control group to the normal ones in Bandura's experiment?

  normal groups = they saw the models getting punished or rewarded, imitation was more likely is they were rewarded

  control group = no one was rewarded or punished
• What was the conclusion of the control group in Bandura's experiment?

  • not all behaviour is shaped by reward/punishment, some is learned by observation
  • seeing aggressive behaviour may weaken the tendency to avoid behaviours particularly if those behaviours are performed by adults and watched by children (role models)
  • study was valuable as it didn't involve reinforcement of modelled behaviour yet it was still imitated
• What is reciprocal determinism?

  we are not just influenced by our external environment but also we exert an influence upon it through behaviours we choose to perform
• What are demand characteristics?

  cue from the researcher which could reveal the purpose of the research
• What are the strengths of social learning theory?

  • controls - makes it valid
  • clear practical application, we can apply it to real life
  • it can be repeated, high reliability
• What are the limitations of the social learning theory?

  • gender differences are clear, may be biological
  • unethical