Social Learning Theory

• • Pioneered by Bandura in 1960s  
  • Agreed with behavioural 
  • Difference is that he thinks people learn through the observation and imitation of role models through 
  • Vicarious reinforcement and mediational processes 
• Vicarious reinforcement 

  • Imitate behaviour if that behaviour is seen to be rewarded 
  • Or choosing not to by observing the consequence of that behaviour 
  • We want to be copy the rewarded behaviour in the anticipation of a reward for ourselves 
• Identification

  • Likely to choose who we imitate 
  • Role models
  • Similar characteristics (age, sex, interests..) 
  • High status 
  • Attractive 
  • Charismatic 
  • For children: parents or older siblings (same sex) 
  • Role models do not need to be present in the room 
• Mediational processes

  1. Attention - to what extent was the behaviour noticed 
  2. Retention - how well was the behaviour remembered 
  3. Motor reproduction - how able the observer is to recreate the behaviour 
  4. Motivation - the will to carry out the observed behaviour, normally determined if role model was punished or not 
• Bobo doll study (Bandura et al. 1961)

  • Recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave in an aggressive way towards a bobo doll 
  • Children who observed an aggressive adult were more likely to reproduce this behaviour and be aggressive to the bobo doll 
• + the recognition of cognitive factors in learning

  • Neither classical or operant offer an adequate explanation of learning by themselves 
  • Humans and animals rely on the behaviour of others to make judgements about their own actions and when it's appropriate to perform them. 
  • Learning would be dangerous and laborious if we only relied on the effects of our own actions to inform us of what to do

  SLT provides a more comprehensive account of human learning 
• -- ignoring biological factors 

  • States that learning itself was determined by the environment 
  • Recent research suggests that observational learning could be the result of mirror neurons 
  • They allow us to empathise and imitate 

  Suggests that biological factors are under-emphasised
• -- evidence behind SLT comes from experiment in lab on young children 

  • Bobo doll = artificial 
  • Could be demand characteristics

  Means that such research may tell us very little about how children and adults learn in everyday life