SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY (SLT)

• SLT 


  suggests that aggression is learned through a mixture of indirect and direct reinforcement.
• Indirect reinforcement 


  involves people learning aggression through observing and imitating role models. The child is then more likely to imitate a behaviour in the future if they see a role model being rewarded for showing that behaviour(vicarious reinforcement), whilst less likely to carry out the behaviour if the role model is punished for it (vicarious punishment).
• Direct reinforcement 


  where a person is more likely to repeat the behaviour in the future if they are rewarded when they carry it out(reinforcement) whilst less likely to carry it out if it leads to negative outcome(punishment).
• The theory also states that in order to repeat behaviour at a later time, we need to have an internal representation of it in our heads. 
• COGNITIVE CONDITIONS 


  ATTENTION = noticing aggressive beh

  RETENTION = remembering beh

  REPRODUCTION = repeats

  MOTIVATION = imitate if they think the beh is rewarding
• SELF EFFICACY 


  the extent to which we believe our actions will achieve a desired goal.
• (+) SLT 


  PERRY ET AL =

  They found that children who were described as highly aggressive by their peers also reported having greater confidence in their ability to use aggression to resolve conflicts than did children who were rated as less aggressive by their peers.  This suggests that as a child’s confidence (self-efficacy) grows, they learn that aggression can bring rewards and therefore they will continue to be aggressive in the future.
• (+) SLT 


  PHILIPS ET AL (STUDY) =

   found that daily homicide rates in the USA were significantly higher after watching a boxing match. This suggests that the observers were imitating the aggressive behaviour that they had seen of the boxer as it was reinforced positively; the reward of winning outweighed the punishment. Hence direct support is provided for SLT in real life situations.
• (-) SLT 


  CHARLTON ET AL =

  They researched children in St Helena after television was introduced and found that there were no incidents of increased aggression in children and playground behaviour. 
• (-) SLT 


  Ignores nature = underestimates bio factors.

  BANDURA recognised the role of biology (aggressive urge is instinctive). there are powerful established genetic, evolutionary, neural and hormonal influences on aggression that SLT barely acknowledges. = SLT is an incomplete explanation of agg because it underplays the role of biological factors.