Approaches: Social Learning Theory

Question 1

What Is Social Learning Theory?

Answer 1

• A way of explaining behaviour that includes both direct and indirect reinforcement.

Question 2

What Is Imitation?

Answer 2

• Copying the behaviour of others.

Question 3

What Is A Role Model?

Answer 3

• When an observer associated themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model, identifies with the role model.

Question 4

What Is Modelling?

Answer 4

• Imitating the behaviour of role model or modelling the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that might be imitated by an observer.

Question 5

What Is Mediational Processes?

Answer 5

• Cognitive factors eg thinking that influences learning and come between a stimulus and response.

Question 6

What Is Attention?

Answer 6

• The extent to which we notice certain behaviours.

Question 7

What Is Retention?

Answer 7

• How well a behaviour is observed.

Question 8

What Is Motor Response?

Answer 8

• The ability of the observer to perform a behaviour.

Question 9

What Is Motivation?

Answer 9

• The will to perform a behaviour, which is often determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished.

Question 10

What Is Vicarious Reinforcement?

Answer 10

• Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour.

Question 11

Social Learning Theory Assumptions.

Answer 11

• Behaviour is learned from the environment.

- Behaviour can be learnt directly through classical and operant conditioning and indirectly through observing others.

Question 12

SLT Summary.

Answer 12

• Must be a role model for observer to watch.
• RM provides examples of behaviour that can be observed and later reproduced through imitation.
• Imitation is dependant on that the model receives. If a model experiences positive reinforcement an observer is more likely to imitate the behaviour in order to be rewarded. If a model experiences punishment an observer is less likely to imitate the behaviour because they do not want to be punished.
• This is known as vicarious reinforcement (not experienced directly by the individual themselves.
• Internal mediational process is important which bridges the gap between learning and cognitive theories.

Question 13

Describe The Mediational Process

Answer 13

Observer must:

1) Pay attention to the behaviour.
2) They must retain (remember) the behaviour.
3) The behaviour must be able to reproduce by the observer.
4) They must be motivated to perform the behaviour which is based on vicarious reinforcement.

Question 14

Bandura’s Study On Social Learning Theory.

Answer 14

Aim: To demonstrate that aggression can be learned through modelling.

Procedure: 72 children aged 3-6 were put into 3 groups for 10 minutes. In all groups there were equal number of girls and boys. Half saw male models and half saw female models.
Aggressive Model - played in a room while an adult hit and shouted at a ‘Bobo Doll.’
Non-Aggressive Model - played in a room while an adult played quietly with a construction set.
Control - did not see a model.
Later the children were observed while they spent 20 minutes alone in a room with a range of aggressive and non-aggressive toys including the Bobo Doll.

Findings: Children who saw aggressive model produced more aggressive acts than those in either groups. Boys imitated same sex models more than girls. Girls imitated more physical aggression if they saw male models and more verbal aggression if they saw female models.

Conclusion: Aggression can be learned through modelling.

Question 15

Strength: Evaluation - Comprehensive Explanation.

Answer 15

• SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning.
• This is because it recognises the role of mediational processes.
• Earlier learning theories such as behaviourism were criticised for failing to acknowledge the role of these processes, particularly in human learning.
• SLT therefore provides a less reductionists view of behaviour.

Question 16

Strength - Evaluation: Cultural Differences Explained.

Answer 16

• This approach can help to explain cultural differences in behaviour.
• For example, it can explain how children understand their gender roles and how it differs between countries such as in Africa males take in roles like looking after children and ensuring the home runs effectively, these roles would be viewed as feminine by many British individuals.
• Social learning principles can account for how others learn from individuals around them, as well as the media which can explain how cultural norms are transmitted through societies.
• This approach is therefore useful in explaining a range of behaviours.

Question 17

Weakness: Evaluation - Relies On Lab Studies.

Answer 17

• There is an over-reliance on lab studies to provide support for this approach.
• In Bandura’s experiments the children were observed in a control setting so they may have been responding to demand characteristics; the purpose of Bobo doll is to strike it so it bounces back.
• The children may have been doing what they believed was expected.
• Their research tells us little about how children learn aggression in everyday life which limits the applicability of this approach.

Question 18

Limitation: Evaluation - Ignores Biological Factors.

Answer 18

• This approach underestimates the influences of biological factors on learning.
• A consistent findings in the Bandura’s research was that boys were more aggressive than girls regardless of the specifics of the experimental design.
• This could be explained by hormonal factors such as higher levels of testosterone in boys which are not accounted for in SLT.
• This reduces the validity of the research which in turn limits the evidence supporting the approach.

Question 19

Strength: Evaluation - Less Deterministic.

Answer 19

• Social learning theory us less deterministic than behaviourist approach.
• Skinner and the behaviourists rejected the notion of free will claiming instead that all behaviour is controlled by external factors within the environment. Whereas, the emphasis Bandura placed on mediational processes in learning shows that we can store, plan and make judgements about when to produce particular behaviours that we have observed.
• This suggests that we play a much more active role in our own learning than behaviourism would suggest.