SLT

• Social Learning Theory (SLT)


  A theory proposed by Albert Bandura in the early 60s that sees behaviour as being learned through experience of the environment
• Observation


  Most behaviour is learned through observation of the behaviour of others
• Internal mental processes


  • Mediates between environmental stimuli and the response
• Mediational processes


  • Attention
  • Retention
  • Reproduction
  • Motivation
• Attention


  Noticing the behaviour being performed by another person
• Retention


  Remembering the behaviour
• Reproduction


  The ability of the observer to reproduce the behaviour
• Motivation


  The will to perform the behaviour
• Identification


  When an observer is influenced by some quality of the person they observe to imitate their actions
• People are far more likely to pay attention to other people with whom they identify
• Vicarious reinforcement


  When the observer feels rewarded by seeing the role model being rewarded for their behaviour
• Difference between SLT and operant conditioning

  • In operant conditioning, the reward is delivered directly to the individual performing the behaviour; in SLT, the reward is delivered to the individual we are observing
• A behaviour will be reproduced if the observer is motivated to do so and is able to do so
• If the behaviour is very difficult, it may not be imitated at all or a simpler version of the behaviour could be reproduced
• Modelling


  Imitating the behaviour of a specific person or role model
• Modelling has two possible meanings: imitating the observer's behaviour or the role model's behaviour
• Bandura’s 1961 “Bobo doll” study formed the foundation of social learning theory
• Bandura demonstrated that watching violence caused children to imitate the violence they had observed
• Bandura’s study aimed to investigate whether exposure to real life aggressive behaviour increases aggression in children
• Bandura’s study was an experiment, with data being collected by observation
• The child first observed an adult role model interacting aggressively with an inflatable Bobo doll
• Bandura found that children exposed to the aggressive role model displayed significantly more aggressive behaviour than those exposed to a non-aggressive role model
• Watching an aggressive role model had a greater effect on boys than on girls, particularly when the role model was the same sex
• A child exposed to an aggressive role model is likely to display aggression and to imitate aggressive acts
• The effect was stronger after watching the same sex role model
• Boys are more aggressive than girls overall
• This study shows that not all behaviour is shaped by reward and punishment; some behaviour is learned through observation
• Bandura found that level of imitation of violent behaviour observed on television to be significant
• SLT can explain behaviour where there has been no direct reinforcement
• The increase in anorexia nervosa (AN) in women in the Western world has been attributed to the prevalence of extreme thinness in the modelling world
• SLT underestimates the role of biological factors, such as hormones
• SLT cannot explain behaviour where there is no apparent role model in the person’s life to imitate