social learning theory

assumptions of social learning theory

• SLT was proposed by Bandura 91972) as a more nuanced explanation of behaviourism

• SLT takes the core principle of behaviourism - people are shaped by their environment - and refines it to include the mechanisms of how people learn from others

• SLT posits the idea that children learn via:

  • Observation of role models, particularly parents but also other significant people such as teachers, older siblings, celebrities

    • Role models tend to be older, influential figures who have high status or possess qualities the child aspires to

  • Imitation of the behaviours observed from role models

  • Social contexts i.e., learning, is not innate but is absorbed via the child’s environment such as home, school, peer groups

imitation & identification

• The concept behind SLT:

  • The child observes the behaviour of a role model

  • If the behaviour observed frequently, the child imitates that behaviour

  • The imitated behaviour is performed in different contexts e.g:

    • A child observes domestic violence at home and goes on to imitate this sort of behaviour at school (bullying)

  • It is more likely that a child will imitate the behaviour of role models with whom they identify with or have similar characteristics to them

vicarious reinforcement

• Reinforcement plays a role in SLT but it tends to indirect, vicarious reinforcement rather than direct reinforcement e.g:

  • The child observes a specific behaviour from a role model e.g. an aggressive parent

  • The child sees that the aggressive parent is rewarded e.g. they have power over the other parent

  • The aggressive parent experiences positive direct reinforcement e.g. they got what they wanted, they feel good

  • The child identifies with the aggressive parent and internalises what they have just seen e.g. ‘I want to feel like that’

  • Vicarious reinforcement has taken place

    • The child has observed the reward gained by the aggressive parent and is motivated to behave similarly to gain such a reward for themselves

    • The child may then go on to behave aggressively towards other children, especially those who appear to be vulnerable

• Vicarious reinforcement highlights the more sophisticated nature of SLT compared to behaviourism, as it involves a degree of cognition

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

mediational processes

• The cognitive element of SLT can be summed up via the mediational processes involved:

  • Attention-retention-reproduction-motivation (ARRM)

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

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

    • Reproduction - imitating the behaviour, reproducing key features of it

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

• Attention and retention refer to the learning of the behaviour

• Reproduction and motivation refer to the performance of that behaviour

• Learning and performance of the 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

strengths of slt

• SLT provides a more ‘rounded’ explanation of how the environment shapes behaviour than that offered by behaviourism

  • This means that SLT is less reductionist than behaviourism

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

• SLT has good application to the use of token economies in prison or health settings

  • The prisoner/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

weaknesses of slt

• SLT cannot account for behaviours which are observed frequently and are not imitated

  • This means that SLT can offer only a limited explanation of behaviour as it does not acknowledge the role of individual differences as a factor

• Research into SLT tends to consist of lab experiments

  • This is a limitation as SLT is an explanation of behaviour within social contexts

  • The controlled conditions of a lab experiment cannot hope to replicate real life thus, such research lacks ecological validity

bandura overview

• Bandura (1961) set up the following study to investigate social learning theory (SLT) in terms of whether children would imitate an aggressive role model

• Aims:

  • To investigate the effect of observed aggression on children's behaviour 

  • To investigate the effect of same-sex modelling on children's aggressive behaviour

bandura (1961) procedure

• 72 participants took part in the study

  • 36 girls 

  • 36 boys

  • Aged between 37-69 months 

  • The children were taken from the Stanford University nursery

  • Bandura asked the nursery staff to rate each child's aggression before the experiment

  • Bandura used the nursery staff's aggression ratings to devise a matched pairs experimental design so that each condition of the independent variable would comprise an equal balance of aggressive children e.g.

    • a high-aggression child in one condition would be matched with a high-aggression child in another condition

    • An adult male or female model was observed per condition (the models were not known to the children) with a large inflatable doll named Bobo

    • There were three conditions of the independent variable:

      • Aggressive model – The model behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll, using pre-determined, standardised behaviours e.g. hitting Bobo with a toy hammer

      • Non‐aggressive model – The model behaved in a non-aggressive way

      • Control group - No model was present

      • There was an equal number of times in which a same-sex model or opposite-sex model was used per condition

      • Each child observed the behaviour of the model for 10 minutes (aggressive or non-aggressive depending on the condition)

      • After this period of observation, each child was taken down a corridor and to another room

      • Each child was told that they could not play with the toys in the new room as they were being saved for other children (the aggression arousal phase, to ensure a baseline across conditions)

      • Each child was then taken to a room containing a Bobo Doll, aggressive toys such as a mallet and a dart gun and non-aggressive toys such as farm toys and crayons

      • The participants were observed  in the Bobo Doll room using a one-way mirror for a duration of 20 minutes

bandura (1961) findings

• Children who had observed aggressive behaviour were more likely to be aggressive towards the Bobo doll

• Boys were more physically aggressive

• Girls were more verbally aggressive

• Children were more likely to imitate the behaviour of the same-sex role model 

• Conclusion:

  • Aggression can be learned via the mechanisms of SLT

  • Imitation of aggression can occur after only a single exposure to the aggressive act

  • Aggression may be observed in one setting and imitated in a different setting

strengths of bandura’s research

• Bandura used a well-controlled, standardised procedure across several phases

  • This means that the study could be replicated easily

  • Repeated replication of a study means that the results can be checked for consistency across time and using different samples

  • The above observations mean that the study has good reliability

  • The results of Bandura's study fuelled much debate as to children's exposure to the depiction of violence on television

    • This means that his study has good external validityas it can be applied to settings and behaviours beyond the experimental space itself

weaknesses of bandura’s research

• Children do not 'learn' aggression in lab conditions; real-life violence is generally observed in familiar settings involving familiar adults

  • This makes Bandura's study less ecologically validthan research conducted in the field would be

  • There are numerous ethical issues with this study

    • Asking nursery workers to rate children's aggression is intrusive and may have encouraged bias

    • Some of the children were exposed to an aggressive adult which may have alarmed and distressed them

    • The aggression arousal phase may have upset the children

    • The children in the aggressive condition may have gone on to use similar aggression outside of the experiment