4.1.6 social learning theory Flashcards
Who came up with the social learning theory
Bandura 1977 agreed with the behaviourist learning theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning however he added two important ideas
Mediating processes occur between stimuli and responses and behaviour is learned from the environment through observational learning. He claims people learn through observations and invitations and that learning can occur directly through conditioning or indirectly
AO1 BANDURA
in 1961 Bandura conducted an experiment examining the process by which new forms of behaviour like aggression alert. The initial study, was called the Bobo doll experiment. The experiment revealed that children imitate the aggressive behaviour of adults. He also conducted a number of follow-up studies during the 1960s which examined her witnessing a third-party being rewarded/punished for behaving in a particular manner, can influence a bystanders own actions. He concluded that vicarious reinforcement, as well as direct rewards and punishments, can impact on an observers behaviour. It combines the concepts of identification from the psychodynamic approach and reinforcement from the learning approach.
tendency to observe and imitate people we Identify with the models, learn new behaviours via the process of modelling and are more likely to imitate models who are seen to be rewarded; vicarious reinforcement
Describe the Bobo doll Experiment 1961
Bandura devised an experiment in which participants would observe an adult behaving in a violent manner towards a Bobo doll toy. This took place in stanford University And the participants were children attending the nursery. One group was in a room with an adult hitting a Bobo doll aggressively and they were later given the opportunity to play with dolls for themselves.
What was the 1961 Bobo doll experiment findings
Bandura found that this group are more likely to act aggressively towards it and these findings indicate that learning takes place not only when individuals are rewarded/punished for their own behaviour, but also when they observe another person exhibiting violent behaviour (observational learning)
What happened in the 1963 second Bobo doll experiment
instead of observing an adult violent behaviour firsthand, they watched a video of the Bobo doll being struck. They also found the same results that participants were more likely to be aggressive compare to the control group And this indicates that in direct exposure to violent behaviour through film may also lead to imitation
What happened in the 1965 third Bobo doll experiment
Bandura tested whether the types of reinforcements would influence the behaviour of an observer who witnessed a third-party being rewarded or punished. he found that the kids who watch the video in which positive reinforcements were given, were more likely to subsequently behave violently themselves
Vicarious reinforcement suggest that learning takes place not just a direct observation also media
What is social learning theory 1977
Social learning theory states that things take place within the organism that mediate between stimulus and response. The persons internal, mental processes will affect their behaviour. Social learning theory attempts to explain the effects of social interactions on learning. Bandura argues that through observational learning, an individual may imitate the behaviour of others and if seen a person being rewarded or punished, their behaviour will also be influenced
What are the four steps in which observational learning takes place
The behaviour must be modelled which means it must be carried out by a role model
The observer must identify with a role model through gender or appearance
The behaviour must be observed through the four factors (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation)
And the behaviour is imitated
What are the four factors in terms of observation
Attention-paying attention to the model is a condition for learning,
retention-remembering what the model did,
reproduction - imitate behaviour and the capability to imitate behaviour,
motivation-motivated to imitate
What is vicarious reinforcement
It is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else been reinforced for a behaviour and this is a key factor in invitation
Vicarious punishment definition
Vicarious punishment refers to a decrease in the frequency of certain behaviours as a result of seeing people punished
What is vicarious extinction
A form of modelling in which previous reinforce behaviour is eliminated
What is the modelling effect
The experimenter influences participants without them knowing
what is the eliciting effect
they do not exactly copy the behaviour But they do imitate it in a related way
Evaluate social learning theory
Support-it takes thought processes into account and is not as reductionist as others, it also takes into account cognition and provides a more comprehensive explanation of learning
Limitation-it cannot account for how we develop a wide range of behaviour including thoughts and feelings, just because we have had experience of violence, does not mean we have to reproduce it and therefore it is reductionist as we don’t have to copy the model
Limitation-reactive aggression is harder to explain with social learning theory, when aggression is carried out as a reaction to external stimulus like jealousy, it may be better explained by frustration.
Support-series of studies have been carried out that support his initial findings and this increases the validity
Limitation-social learning theory has an emphasis on nurture and not nature and therefore there’s limits and underestimate how complex human behaviour is
support-there is also support from other research eg phillips 1968 found that daily homicide rates in the US almost always increased in the week following a boxing match. This has high ecological validity and also shows that social learning theory is applicable to adults and not just kids
limitation-exposing children to aggressive behaviour is not ethical also it is not known if the children were deconditioned
