Slt

• Key assumptions


  • Behaviour is learnt from experience / social environment
  • We learn through observations and imitation of others
  • Learning occurs directly (through classical conditioning and operant conditioning) but also indirectly, vicariously
• Parents


  • Show a range of behaviours, such as cuddling, which the child copies/imitates
• Parents


  • Teach children to copy affection
• Lab study


  1. Child observes an adult role model act either aggressively or calmly with toys

  2. Take child to a room full of toys, told they are not allowed to touch (to prime aggression)

  3. Child placed in a room - can play
• All children in both conditions imitated what they had observed
• Imitated verbal and physical aggression
• Strengths of the study

  • Lab experiment - controlled, internal validity-controlled observation - can establish cause + effect
  • Random allocation - minimises individual differences
  • Standardised procedure -highly controlled -easy to repeat consistently
• Limitations of the study

  • Lacks ecological validity
  • Ethical issues: upsetting the children deliberately in room 2, making them aggressive
  • May display demand characteristics - lab
• The study helped us discover a lot about our behaviour
• Observational learning


  • Children observe and learn from role models (e.g. at home, school, media)
  • They learn which behaviours are worth repeating
  • They have a mental representation of events they observe, and can anticipate reward and punishment
• Modelling


  • Someone must perform the behaviour for it to be modelled (live model or symbolic model)
  • Determinants include characteristics of the model, self-efficacy of the observer, and observed consequences of the behaviour
• Factors affecting imitation


  • Children are more likely to imitate same-age, likeable, and high-status models of the same sex
• Vicarious reinforcement


  • Learning that is not a result of direct reinforcement of behaviour, but through observing someone else being reinforced for that behaviour
• Cognitive element of observational learning


  • Involves paying attention, being motivated to learn, retaining recall of observed behaviour, and being capable of reproducing the behaviour
• Observational learning fails to look at how biological factors can lead to people imitating their role in terms of criminality
• If bio mother had a criminal record, 50% of the adoptive children also had one by 18, compared to only 5% of adopted who didn't have a mother who had a criminal record
• The adoption study takes away environmental influences from bio mother