Social Learning Theory

• Social learning theory suggests that individuals learn by observing and imitating others.
• In social learning theory, a person identifies with a role model who models a particular behaviour, a process known as modelling.
• Observation in social learning theory involves the person observing the behaviour through attention and retention.
• Imitation in social learning theory involves the person copying the behaviour of the role model.
• Reproduction capacity to reproduce behaviour is a factor in social learning theory.
• Motivation, or vicarious conditioning, is also a factor in social learning theory.
• Vicarious reinforcement in social learning theory is the process of seeing others be rewarded for behaviour.
• Evaluation in social learning theory involves strength of research evidence support.
• Bandura's studies show that children would imitate an aggressive model who demonstrated aggression against an inflatable doll, especially if the model was the same sex and they were rewarded for doing so.
• Nicol & Pope showed chickens would selectively imitate high status, same-sex models in pecking a pad for food.
• Evidence in social learning theory is important because it supports Bandura's claims that behaviour can be acquired by observation and imitation and that the likelihood of imitation is affected by vicarious reinforcement and the characteristics of the model.
• There is evidence that genetic factors are important as well as environmental influences.
• Kendler et al. (2015) showed that identical twins are more similar in their levels of aggression than non-identical twins.
• This strongly suggests that individual differences in social behaviour like aggressiveness are genetically influenced and not simply a product of different experiences of modelling.
• Social learning theory is not a complete explanation for the acquisition of behaviour.