Approaches - Social Learning Theory

Question 1

What are the 2 assumptions of social learning theory?

Answer 1

• agrees with the behaviourist learning theories but argues that mediating processes occur between stimuli and responses
• cognitive process are essential for learning to take place

Question 2

What are the 4 mediating processes?

Answer 2

Attention: the individual will observe a model’s behaviour
Retention: individuals must remember the behaviour that they have observed
Reproduction: the individual have the ability to replicate the observed behaviour
Motivation: individual will consider the rewards and punishments that follow behaviour.

Question 3

What is the Bobo doll study?

Answer 3

Aim: to investigate if social behaviours can be acquired through observation and imitation.

Procedure:
- children observed an aggressive or non-aggressive model and were then tested for imitative learning in the absence of the model
- children were then taken to a room with attractive toys and told not to play with them
- children were then taken individually to a room containing a Bobo doll, and aggressive and non-aggressive toys.
Results: the children who had observed the aggressive model were more aggressive than the children who had observed the non-aggressive model. The boys imitated more physically aggressive acts than the girls.

Question 4

What is identification?

Answer 4

Associating yourself with someone else and unconsciously trying to pattern and your behaviour with theirs.