AO3

• Social learning theory is supported by research Bandura et al. (1961) and Bandura and Walters (1963) however these were laboratory experiments and the task did not reflect the way the participants behave in their normal life.
• SLT sees all behaviours as environmentally determined, but some behaviours (such as innate phobias not resulting from personal experience) may be better explained by biological explanations.
• At this young age parents would guide children's’ understanding of the situation and moderate their behavior this was not the case in the studies as the children were on their own. The children were aggressive towards a doll which they know does not feel pain and cannot retaliate; their behavior might be different towards another child.

  Furthermore the children were in an unfamiliar environment they might have thought that they were expected to behave like the model (demand characteristics).
• The theory does not explain why the boys imitated the physical aggressive behavior more than the girls. Other factors must be involved such as biological factors like testosterone.
• It is a more complete explanation of human behavior than conditioning as it takes into account cognitive factors in learning. However it does not take into account free will and moral values.
• Free will/Determinism - Softer determinism of the social learning approach theory as it recognises an element of choice as to whether we imitate a behavior or not.
• Reductionism/Holism - The behaviorist approach and social learning are reductionist; they isolate parts of complex behaviors to study. The behaviorists take the view that all behavior, no matter how complex, can be broken down into the fundamental processes of conditioning.