Approaches in Psychology - Social Learning Theory Flashcards
Identify 4 Evaluation Points for the Behaviourist approach including at least 1 strength and 1 limitation?
1) Credits the importance of cognitive factors in learning. COUNTERPOINT - too little reference to biology.
2) Lab study - demand characteristics aim of bobo doll is to strike it.
3) Real life application - understanding cultural differences and marketing.
4) Reciprocal determinism
Expand on 1) Credits the importance of cognitive factors in learning. COUNTERPOINT - too little reference to biology.
A strength of the social learning theory is that it acknowledges the cognitive processes involved during learning. Unlike operant and classical conditioning the theory states that humans store information about others and then make decisions about when to reproduce these behaviours. Addressing the cognitive processes required to make these decisions are what makes the Social learning theory a more comprehensive explanation for learning in comparison to the explanation suggested by behaviourists strengthening the theory. Despite this the SLT can still be said to criticised by underrepresenting the influence of biological aspects that influence learning. For example recent research found that observational learning can be a result of mirror neurones - (a brain cell that reacts both when a particular action is performed and observed.) This means that despite explaining cognitive processes involved in learning the Social Learning Theory still omits other important factors that can change how we think of learnt behaviour and therefore weakens the theory.
Expand on “2) Lab study - demand characteristics aim of bobo doll is to strike it.”
A limitation of the social learning theory is that it is based around the findings of Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment which was a lab study. A common issue with observational laboratory studies is that findings are usually contrived due to participants quickly developing demand characteristics. With Bandura’s study they were assessing aggression within children after observing a model interacting with bobo doll however the main purpose of the doll during this time was to strike it. This means that it can be argued that the children behaved in the way that hey thought they were expected to behave in rather than how they would behave during learning through observation and imitation. This reduces the validity of Bandura’s findings and as the Social Learning Theory was based largely around these findings this weakens the theory.
Expand on 3) Real life application - understanding cultural differences and marketing.
A strength of the Social Learning Theory is that its principles have many useful applications in the real world. For example marketing agencies will use the principles of the Social Learning Theory to create advertisements that will boost sales of their product or service by hiring a model that people will relate to, identify with or look up to, a great example of this is the influencing industry. There is also supporting evidence of the impact of identification on increasing desired behaviour, Fox and Bailenson found that humans were more likely to imitate a virtual human being that resembled them.
Expand on “4) Reciprocal determinism”
Another strength is that unlike the behaviourist approach, Bandura emphasised reciprocal determinism – the idea that we are influenced by our environment, but we also exert an influence upon it through the behaviours we choose to perform. This element of choice suggests there is some free will in the way we behave, and is consistent with the fact that Bandura recognises the influence of cognitive variables on social learning. In this sense, we are able to store a particular behaviour we have seen and choose the most appropriate time to reproduce it. In behaviourism, the learning and performance of behaviour come together, there is no element of choice.
This is a more realistic and flexible position than is suggested by the behaviourist approach as it recognises the role we play in shaping our own environment.
