Learning approaches: Social learning thoery

Who was the social learning theory proposed by?

Bandura (1972) - he proposed a more nuanced explanation of behaviourism

What principles does the SLT have?

It takes the core principle of behaviourism - people are shaped by their environment - and refines it to include the mechanisms of how people (particularly children) learnt from others

What are the key concepts in the SLT ?

• Imitation

• Modelling

• Identification

• Vicarious reinforcement

VIMI

What traits do role models tend to have?

• they tend to be older

• influential figured

• have a high status 

• propose qualities the child aspires to e.g being good at netball

What is imitation?

copying of behaviour

• the imitated behaviour is performed in different contexts e.g a child observed domestic violence at home and goes on to imitate this sort of behaviour at school

What is identification?

An individual is influenced by another (a model) who they wish to be like - they ‘identify’ with them.

• it is more likely that a child will imitate the behaviour of a role model whom they identify with or have similar characteristics to , e.g same - sex parent or sibling or an attractive celerity 

What is vicarious reinforcement?

This indirect reinforcement.

• the observer sees someone else (the role model) receiving reinforcement

• people are required to process what they have seen and imagine themselves gaining a similar reward for the specific behaviour 

What are meditational processes?

the cognitive element of SLT can be summed up via the meditational process involved: 

• Attention - noticing the behaviour, and being aware of it

• Retention - remembering the behaviour and the mechanisms involved in it

• Reproducing - imitating the behaviour, reproducing key features if it

• Motivation - the desire to perform the behaviour, the need to be rewarded for the behaviour

ARRM

Learning and performance of behaviour are not required to occur at the same time e.g aggression observed in one setting may not be performed until some time later and in a different setting.

What do attention and retention refer to?

Attention and retention refer to the learning of behaviour

What do meditation and reproduction refer to?

Reproduction and motivation refer to the performance of behaviour

What are the strengths of the social learning theory?

-Provides a more ‘rounded’ explanation of how the environment shapes behaviour than that offered by behaviourism (OC & CC)

• this means SLT is less reductionist than behaviourism 

• this means that SLT is also less deterministic than behaviourism, as meditational processes imply that the individual has some choice over the behaviour

-SLT have food application to use the token economies in prisons or health settings

• The prison/ patient is rewarded for ‘good’ behaviour with tokens

• observation of fellow prisoners/ patients receiving rewards encourages good behaviour from others, thus the theory has good external validity