Social Learning Theory

What are the basic ideas of SLT and who created it?

• SLT: Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded

• Bandura (1986) believed new patterns of behaviour could be acquired not only through direct experience, but also by observing one’s own behaviour and the behaviour of others

• Unlike operant conditioning, where the role of reinforcement is to strengthen a response by providing immediate consequences, he believed it could also serve an informative function for the individual

• During the course of learning, people not only perform responses but also observe consequences of their own and others behaviour, and on the basis of this they develop a hypothesis about the types of behaviour most likely to succeed in a given situation

• These hypotheses then serve as guides for their future behaviour

Explain modelling as an element of SLT

• A form of learning where individuals learn a particular behaviour by observing another individual performing that behaviour

• For SLT to happen, someone must ‘model’ the attitude/behaviour to be learned - individuals who do this are models

• Live model: Parent, teacher, member of peer group

• Symbolic model: Someone portrayed in media eg. TV character

• Models provide examples of behaviour that can be observed by the individual and later reproduced by them (imitation)

Explain imitation as an element of SLT

• The action of using someone or something as a model and copying their behaviour

• Some learning done through reinforcement, but majority is acquired through imitation of attitudes/behaviour modelled by parents/SOs

• Unlike the relatively slow learning of conditioning, when a model is provided whole patterns of behaviour can be rapidly acquired

• Key determinants of whether a behaviour is imitated:

  • Characteristics of model

  • The observer’s perceived ability to perform that behaviour

  • The observed consequences of the behaviour

Explain identification as an element of SLT

• ‘A form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude/behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person of group’ - refers to identification mentioned in terms of conformity. The term is used differently here, but both definitions stress either a desire to be part of, or a recognition of a similarity between, the individual and others

• Refers to the extent to which an individual relates to a model and feels similar to them

• In order to identify with the model, the observer must feel that they are similar enough to them that they would be likely to experience the same outcomes in that situation

• Research (eg. Shutts et al., 2010) suggests children are more likely to identify with, and preferentially learn from, models similar to them, particularly same-sex models

• Identification with model = more likely to imitate their behaviour, so SLT is more likely to be effective

Explain vicarious reinforcement as an element of SLT

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

• Bandura and Walter’s (1963) noted children who observed the model get rewarded for aggressive behaviour were much more likely to imitate that behaviour, compared with those who observed a model punished for the same behaviour

• Individuals learn the likely consequences of an action, and adjust their subsequent behaviour accordingly

• Suggests individuals do not need to experience rewards and punishments directly to learn, and can instead observe the consequences experienced by a model and judge the likelihood of experiencing these outcomes themselves

Explain the role of mediational processes (cognitive factors) within SLT

• Refer to the internal mental processes that exist between environmental stimuli and the response made by an individual to those stimuli

• SLT puts great emphasis on this compared to other learning approaches

• Bandura (1986) claimed that, for SLT to take place, the observer must form mental representations of the behaviour displayed by the model and the probable consequences of that behaviour in terms of expectancies of future outcomes

• When appropriate opportunities arise in the future, the individual may display the learned behaviour, provided that the expectation of positive consequences is greater than the expectation of negative consequences

Explain the aim and procedure of Bandura et al.’s key study (1961)

• Aim: To investigate whether children learn aggressive behaviours through observing adults, and whether gender impacts imitation

• Children observed aggressive or non-aggressive adult models and were then tested for imitative learning in the absence of the model

• ½ exposed to adults acting aggressively with a life sized Bobo doll, ½ exposed to non aggressive model

• Aggressive model: Distinctive physically aggressive acts towards doll eg. Striking with a mallet, + verbal aggression eg. ‘POW’

• Following exposure to the model, the children were frustrated by being shown attractive toys which they were not allowed to play with (to induce a standardised level of aggression and build frustration)

• They were then taken into a room where, among other toys, there was a Bobo doll

Explain the findings and conclusions of Bandura et al.’s key study (1961)

• Children who observed the aggressive model reproduced a good deal of physically and verbally aggressive behaviour resembling that of the model

• Children who observed the non-aggressive model exhibited virtually no aggression towards the Bobo doll

• 1/3 of children exposed to aggressive model repeated the model’s verbal responses, while non of the children who observed the non-aggressive model made verbally aggressive remarks

• In a follow up study, Bandura and Walter’s found that children who saw the model being rewarded for aggressive acts were more likely to show a high level of aggression in their own play

• Conclusion: Children can learn aggressive behaviour by simply watching others, emphasising the importance of role models in shaping behaviour

Explain this evaluation point: SLT has useful application

• Its principles have been usefully applied to increase our understanding of many areas of human behaviour, including criminal behaviour

• Akers (1998) suggests that the probability of someone engaging in such behaviour increases when they’re exposed to models who commit crimes, identify with these models and develop the expectation of positive consequences for their own criminal behaviour

• Ulrich (2003) supports the importance of SLT in this process in a review of the literature, finding the strongest cause of violent behaviour in adolescence to be association with delinquent peer groups, where violence was both modelled and rewarded

Explain this evaluation point: Research support for identification