social learning theory - bandura

• proposed that all criminality is caused by observing criminality in other people and imitating it.
• found that children will imiate aggressive behaviour when they observe it in others and even more so when they see each other being rewarded for it.
• vicarious reinforcement -> watching some be rewarded for something, learing from role models.
• strengths:

  • first theory to suggest that learning did not need to involve direct experience. Proposed criminality and other behaviours can be learned indirectly from watching other people commit crime and observing their rewards and punishments.
• strengths:

  • research by Bandura supports. Children aged 2-6 years watched a film of an adult punching and shuting at a Bobo Doll. Children who observed the adult being rewarded with sweets were more likely to perform the aggressive behaviour themselves later, than children who observed the adult being punished. This supports the idea that behaviour can be learned through indirectly observing other people
• weakness:

  • there are anomlies that cannot be explained in this theory. Some people who observe crime, such as domestic abuse, do not imitate it. Some people who commit crimes, such as tax evasion, may never have obserbed it in others.