Social Learning Approach

• Behaviour is learned from our environment, so genetics is not an influence on behaviour
• Behaviour is learned from observing others and the reinforcement or punishment they receive
• Imitation is more likely to occur if we identify with the model
• There are cognitive factors (mediational processes) involved in this form of learning, which separates it from the behaviourist approach
• Social learning


  Also referred to as modelling
• Models


  Individuals that are observed
• Influential models


  • Parents
  • Characters or celebrities on TV
  • Friends
  • Teachers
• Models provide examples of behaviour to observe and imitate, e.g. masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social etc.
• Observational learning


  1. Observe and pay attention to models

  2. Code their behaviour in memory

  3. Imitate the behaviour at a later time
• Vicarious reinforcement


  The observer will take account of what the consequences of the behaviour were for the model when deciding whether or not to imitate their actions
• Identification


  The observer is more likely to imitate a model with whom they identify (aspire to be like)
• The observer is more likely to attend to and imitate those people he or she perceives as similar to him or herself
• Mediational processes


  Mental (cognitive) factors involved in learning
• Mediational processes


  1. Attention

  2. Retention

  3. Reproduction

  4. Motivation
• Observational learning could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work
• Individuals do not automatically observe the behaviour of a model and imitate it. There is some thought prior to imitation and this is called mediational processes
• Social Learning Theory (SLT)


  • The 'bridge' between traditional learning theory (the behaviourist approach) and the cognitive approach
  • Focuses on how mental (cognitive) factors are involved in learning
• Unlike Skinner, Bandura believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behaviour and its consequences
• The discovery of mirror neurons has lent biological support to the theory of social learning
• Recent discovery of "mirror neurons" in primates may constitute a neurological basis for imitation
• These are neurons that fire both if the animal does something itself, and if it observes the action being done by another
• We are programmed to imitate
• Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment

  1. Children aged 3 to 6 years old observed an adult model behaving in either an aggressive or non-aggressive way towards a bobo doll for 10 minutes

  2. Children were then allowed to play with toys, including a bobo doll