Social Learning Theory

• Imitation

  • The copying of behaviour of others, especially a role model
• Identification

  • A social process whereby we associate ourselves with and so want to be like them
  • This is more likely when we see ourselves as similar and/or the other person is of high status
• Modelling

  • The demonstration of a behaviour by a model that may be imitated by a learner/observer
• Classical conditioning

  • Learning through association
  • Occurs when stimuli are presented together
• Operant conditioning

  • Learning through consequences
  • Reinforcement increases the likelihood of repeating a behaviour, whereas punishment decreases the likelihood of repeating it
• Vicarious reinforcement

  • A form of indirect learning where we are more likely to perform a behaviour if we have seen others rewarded for doing it
• Mediational processes

  • Cognitive factors that influence learning, including attention, retention, motor reproduction ability and motivation
  • These occur between observation of a stimulus and our response
• Procedure of Bobo Doll Study

  • tested 36 girls and 36 boys aged 3-6
  • Pre-tested them by observing the children in the nursery and judging their aggressive behaviour
  • tested the inter-rater reliability of the observers
  • lab experiment with an independent groups design
  • aggressive model shown to 24 children
  • non-aggressive model shown to 24 children
  • no model shown to 24 childre
  • the children were then put in a room for 20 mins and their behaviour was observed through a one way mirror
• Findings and conclusions of Bobo doll study

  • children who observed the aggressive model made significantly more aggressive responses than those who were in non-aggressive or control groups
  • boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls
• Causes of behaviour

  • behaviour is learned directly (classical conditioning or operant conditioning) or indirectly (socially)
  • information processing mediated between stimulus and response and decisions are made about whether to imitate
  • attention
  • retention
  • reproduction
  • motivation
• free will?

  • the individual is not a passive receiver of learning as cognition, behaviour and environment all influence one another
• Real life application

  • has application to real life
  • understanding modelling and identification has improved the success of campaigns that target health behaviours
  • Andsager et al (2006)- similarity to a model improved ant-alcohol campaigns
• Reductionist

  • not a complete explanation
  • ignores the role of biology, which is a key determinant of many behaviours
  • however, it does consider both environmental and cognitive factors so it is less simplistic than many other approaches
• Scientific

  • many ideas were developed through lab settings
  • participants are more likely to respond to demand characteristics
  • the children were more likely to behave in the way they thought was expected, not how they learn aggression in everyday life