Explain Social Cognitive Theory, making use of one study.

Social Cognitive Theory

• Social cognitive theory is proposed by Bandura → the theory states that humans do not need to experience things personally to learn them because behaviours can be learnt by observational learning from models

Observational Learning

• A learner can watch another person carry out behaviour and learn to either imitate or avoid that behaviour depending on whether the model is rewarded or punished

4 conditions are required for obervational learning

• Attention, retention, motivation and potential 

• Firstly, the observer needs to pay attention to the behaviour and its consequences 

  • When a learner observes the model receiving a reward for a behaviour, the learner will be motivated to imitate it as if they had been rewarded themselves 

• Following the observation, it is also important that the observer retain and remember the behaviour 

• Finally, the observer needs to have the desire and motivation to imitate the behaviour based on the outcome expectancy. 

• In addition, individuals must have a feeling of self-efficacy, that is the belief in one’s ability and potential to succeed in replicating the model’s behaviour

• There are other factors that might also affect whether we imitate a model such as whether the model is a member of our in-group, the likeability of the model and the consistency of the behaviour 

bandura

• Aim 

  • Bandura aimed to investigate whether aggressive behaviour, can be acquired by children through observation and imitation 

• Procedure 

  • Researchers gathered 36 boys and 36 girls age ranging from 3-6 

  • The children’s aggression levels were measured and were then split into groups by matched pairs design to ensure that the level of pre-existing aggression levels was distributed equally 

  • Each child was tested individually 

  • They were shown either a male or female aggressive model → being aggressive to a bobo doll, verbally and physically hitting the doll 

  • a male or female non-aggressive model or nothing, which is the control condition 

  • The children were then brought to another room full of toys but were told they could not play with them → it caused mild aggression arousal → make sure everyone is frustrated, which acts as a control for initial agression level 

  • The child was then given a bobo doll, their aggression levels to the dolls were recorded 

Results

• The researcher found that children who saw the aggressive model made the most aggressive acts, followed by the control and the children who saw the non-aggressive model showed the least aggressive behaviours 

• Boys made more aggressive acts than girls 

• Boys tended to imitate both physical and verbal aggression of the model regardless of model’s gender 

• Girls tended to imitate only the verbal aggression of the male model but both physical and verbal aggression of the female model

Conclusion

It was concluded that social behaviour can be acquired and imitated through observing a model’s behaviour.

Link

• The study supports the theory as children that were shown aggressive models imitated the behaviour of aggression through observational learning.

The fact that girls imitated both verbal and physical aggression of female models also indicates how other factors such as whether the model belongs to our in-group also play a role in the effectivenes of such form of learning.