Bandura- Social Learning Theory

• Social learning theory emerged in the 1970s as a product of a mix of behaviourism and cognitive psychology, it combines the ideas that observational learning and direct conditioning are both important in understanding human behaviour​ however it must take place in a social context.
• The psychologist Albert Bandura (1977) argues that we learn much of our behaviour – including aggressive behaviour – by imitating other people. For this reason, his approach is known as observational or social learning theory.
• Bandura calls the people that we imitate 'models' because we model our behaviour on how we see them behaving. however, we don't copy just anybody's behaviour. For example, we are more likely to imitate the model's behaviour if they are of a higher status than us and even then, whether we imitate their behaviour mainly depends on the consequences of that behaviour, we are more likely to imitate it than if we see them being punished for it.
• COPYCAT CRIMES

  
  

  A copycat crime is a criminal act that is modeled after or inspired by a previous crime. It notably occurs after exposure to media content depicting said crimes, and/or a live criminal model.​

  According to Surette (1990), copycat crime is a social phenomenon that persists and is prevalent enough to have an impact on the whole criminal landscape, primarily by influencing criminal tactics as opposed to criminal motive or the emergence of criminal traits.
• SLT also includes the notion of motivation, by which there are particular aspects which encourage the models’ behaviour to be viewed as desirable:​

  • External reinforcement (from the environment)​
  • Vicarious reinforcement (from observing others)​
  • Self-reinforcement (as a result of taking pleasure or pride from one’s own actions)​
• BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT

  -24 children (3-6yr olds) were placed into a room with a violent role model

  -24 children were placed into a room with a non-violent role model

  -24 children were placed into a room with no role model
• BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT

  The children exposed to the violent role model showed more aggressive behaviour than those who were not.
• BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT

  The girls in the aggressive model condition also showed more physically aggressive responses if the model was male, but more verbally aggressive responses if the model was female.

  However, the exception to this general pattern was the observation of how often they punched Bobo, and in this case the effects of gender were reversed.
• BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT

  Boys were more likely to imitate same-sex models than girls. The evidence for girls imitating same-sex models is not strong.

  
  

  ​Boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than girls. There was little difference in verbal aggression between boys and girls.​
• BOBO DOLL EXPERIMENT


  The Bobo Doll Experiment demonstrated that children are able to learn social behavior such as aggression through the process of observation learning, through watching the behavior of another person. Therefore, these findings support Bandura’s (1977) Social Learning Theory.​
• What are the 4 reasons for violence and aggression?

  Provocation- an arousal event

  Learned aggressive skills.

  Expected success and rewards

  Pro-violent values
• COLUMBINE SCHOOL MASSACRE

  -school shooting and attempted bombing (April 20th, 1999) in Colorado.

  -17 yr old students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and 1 teacher.

  -Both avid fans of German band KMFDM and lyrics were posted on Harris' website and date of massacre (April 20th) was album adios release date and birthday of Adolf Hitler. Harris noted this.
• Strengths of Bandura's social learning theory


  -Takes account of our social nature- we learn from others' experiences

  -The study shows the importance of role models when learning deviant behaviour.
• Weaknesses of Bandura's social learning theory

  -Based on lab studies so it lacks validity

  -Not all observed behaviour is easily imitated (we may see criminals rewarded but lack the skills to copy)

  -ignores the free will of humans (too deterministic)