Social Learning Approach

• Who proposed the social learning theory?


  Albert Bandura
• We learn through ___________

  Observation and imitation
• Role model


  The person who performs the behaviour
• Modelling


  Demonstrating the role model's behaviour
• Mediational processes

  Requirements for observational learning to occur:

  - attention

  - retention

  - reproduction

  - motivation
• What behaviour did Bandura use in his studies?

  Aggression
• Bandura - participants

  - 36 boys and 36 girls from Stanford University nursery , ages 3-5

  - the children were pre-tested for aggression
• Room 1


  - the model

  - individually, a child was asked to sit at a table and draw a picture

  - there was also a bobo doll in the room
• Room 2


  - the attractive toys

  - the experimenter said the child could not play with these toys as they were 'reserved for other children
• Room 3

  - test for imitation

  - the room contained aggressive and non-aggressive toys
• The aggressive model


  - this model would come in the be aggressive towards the bobo doll

  - they would perform actions that people wouldn't generally do with a bobo doll such as hitting it with a mallet
• The non-aggressive model


  The model would come in and play quietly with the toys and ignore the bobo doll
• Control condition

  The children would play alone for 10 minutes and didn't see a model
• Gender

  Some children saw a same sex model and some saw an opposite sex model, to see if they would be influenced more by people of the same gender
• Findings

  - children in the aggressive model condition showed more imitative aggression than the other 2 groups

  - boys showed more aggression when the model was male

  - girls showed more physical aggression when the model was male but more verbal aggression when the model was female
• Vicarious reinforcement

  The reaction the model received affected how likely the child was to imitate the behaviour

  - punished - less likely

  - rewarded - more likely
• Identification

  - people are more likely to imitate people with similar characteristics to them

  - they are also more likely to imitate those who are more attractive and higher in status
• Strengths of the social learning approach

  - shows the importance of other people in shaping our behaviour

  - research evidence to support

  - real world applications such as advertisements
• Weaknesses of the social learning approach

  - some research lacks ecological validity

  - doesn't establish cause and effect