SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

• How does learning occur according to SLT?

  indirectly through observation and imitation of others behaviour
• what is vicarious reinforcement?

  learning related to consequences of behaviour, if they see someone being rewarded then they are more likely to copy the behaviour
• what are the four mediational processes?

  attention

  retention

  motor reproduction

  motivation
• what is attention?

  whether the behaviour is noticed
• what is retention?

  whether behaviour is remembered
• what is motor reproduction?

  being able to do the behaviour
• what’s is motivation?

  the will to perform the behaviour
• who are people more likely to imitate the behaviour of?

  role models, those with whom they identify
• how did Bandura investigate SLT?

  children watched either an adult behaving aggressively towards a Bobo doll or an adult behaving calmly towards a Bobo doll
• what were the findings of Banduras experiment?

  the children who had seen aggression were much more aggressive to their own doll
• what was the procedure of Bandura and Walters experiment?

  children either saw an adult who was rewarded, punished or no consequence for their behaviour
• what were the findings of Bandura and Walters experiment?

  the children who saw aggression rewarded were much more aggressive
• what was the conclusion of both Banduras experiments?

  children are likely to imitate acts of violence if they observe these in an adult role model

  modelling aggressive behaviour is more likely if it is seen to be rewarded
• strengths of SLT?

  emphasises importance of cognitive factors - behaviourism can’t offer an account of learning because they don’t use cognitive factors, SLT provides a more complete explanation

  Real world application - SLT can account to how children learn from those around them, how cultural norms are transmitted. increases value of SLT
• limitation of SLT?

  relies too heavily on evidence from controlled lab studies - demand characteristics in Banduras experiment, the children may have behaved how they thought was expected

  Ignores biological factors - boys were always more aggressive, this can only be explained in terms of biology
• How does SLT expand on behaviourism?

  it acknowledges some cognitive processes
• How does SLT say we learn?

  through modeling
• what is modelling?

  the observation of other people and then the imitation of the observed behavoiur