SLT

• Bandura agreed with behaviourist principles (i.e. that behaviour is learnt through experience) but argued that these principles are better applied to a social context
• Social learning theory


  Suggests that learning occurs both directly, through classical and operant conditioning, and indirectly, through vicarious reinforcement
• Stages of social learning theory

  • Observer identifies with a desirable role model
  • Role model displays a specific behaviour
  • Observer imitates the behaviour
  • Likelihood of imitation increases if role model is vicariously reinforced
• Role model


  A person with whom the observer identifies, usually attractive, high social status, similar age and gender
• Identification


  The process by which an observer relates to/associates themselves with a role model and aspires to become more like that role model
• Vicarious reinforcement


  A type of indirect learning which occurs when an observer sees their role model being rewarded for displaying a certain behaviour
• Mediational processes


  • Attention
  • Retention
  • Motor reproduction
  • Motivation
• Bandura's Bobo Doll study found that children who'd observed an aggressive role model behaved more aggressively themselves towards the Bobo doll compared to the non-aggressive role model control group
• Bandura's study ignored the finding that boys exhibited more imitative aggression than girls, which may be explained by biological factors like testosterone levels
• Bandura's study may lack internal validity due to demand characteristics, as the Bobo doll is specifically designed to be hit
• Social learning theory


  • Recognises the role of mediational processes as the conscious and cognitive insight that humans have into their behaviour, making it a better explanation of human behaviour compared to behaviourism
• Bandura's study may lack internal validity, due to not entirely investigating the effect of aggressive role models because the Bobo doll is specifically designed to be hit
• The study may also lack mundane realism because it may not represent or measure how children would be aggressive in day-to-day situations, perhaps towards objects or people that are not meant to be struck
• Participants may have deliberately acted more aggressively towards the doll in order to please the experimenter (the 'Please-U effect')
• Human cognitive and decision-making processes

  • They may be considered as more complex than that of animals
  • Social Learning Theory has the advantage, over behaviourism, that it recognises the role of mediational processes as the conscious and cognitive insight that humans have into their behaviour