Approaches: Social Learning Theory Flashcards
What’s the key assumption of social learning theory?
That learning occurs indirectly, and is related to consequences of behaviour and Meditational Cognitive processes play a role.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Children observe a role models behaviour and imitate it. Before imitation they weigh up the consequences (negative and positive) of the behaviour.
- behaviour that produces more positive reinforcement will be imitated
Why is identification important?
Because children are more likely to imitate the behaviour of people they identify with (are similar to themselves) - also people they may see as role models
— e.g. parents, siblings, friends, etc.
What are the cognitive mediating processes?
- Attention - whether a behaviour is noticed
- retention - whether the behaviour is remembered
- Motor reproduction - being able to perform the behaviour
- motivation - the will to do the behaviour
What was Banduras study?
Children aged 3-5 saw an adult behave aggressively towards a large inflatable doll (bobo doll). They had a chance to play with many different toys, including the bobo doll, and observers watched their behaviours.
What was Banduras results?
One of the findings was that the children showed significantly more imitation of of a same sex model, and boys performed more acts of aggression than girls.
What was one of Banduras variations of the original study?
Divided ptps into 3 groups, each seeing different consequences after the model demonstrated aggression.
Results:
- seeing model punished resulted in lowest levels of imitative behaviour (example of vicarious reinforcement)
- highest levels in aggression were produced in children who saw the model praised
- children seeing no consequences for the model also showed high levels of aggression.
What were the conclusions for Banduras research?
That all children had learned the behaviour, but they were more likely to imitate same sex behaviour of reinforced models
What’s some evaluation for social learning theory?
+ emphasised the importance of cognitive factors in learning - neither operant/classical conditioning can give an adequate amount of learning on their own. Humans and animals store info about the behaviour of others and use this to make judgements about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions.
+ can account for cultural differences
+ less deterministic
+ evidence based approach
- relies too heavily on evidence form controlled lab studies - which can often be criticised for artificial nature where ptps may respond with demand characteristics.
- underestimated the influence of biological factors
