Individualistic theories Bandura Flashcards
What is social learning theory?
-Behavior is learnes theough observation
How do they assume children learn criminal behavior?
Offending is a set of behaviors that is learned the same way (through observation and imitation)
What is observational learning?
Imitating or rejecting certain behaviors based on the consequences they see for adults
What was the bobo doll experiment?
Made children watch a film were adults would hit the bobo doll
Children were then placed in a room with a bobo doll
Results of the bobo doll experiment
Children saw the adults as a model and imitated the behavior they observed ( being violdent to the doll)
Strengths of social learning theory
-Uses scientific metnods and is based on experiments not correlation. This is a strength as they can establish a cause and effect
-Reliable as they highly controlled the variables. This is a strength as the study can be replicated to gain accuracy and validity
-Practical application
Weaknesses of social learning theory
-Ethical issues as children were exposed to aggressive behaviors. This is a weakness as it could impact their future behavior and leave them with psychological issues
-lacks validity as some children may have never played with a bobo doll before. This is a weakness as children who had not played with one were five times more likely go copy the behavior
-low ecological validity as it was done in a lab and not a natural environment. This is a weakness as children may have shown demand characteristics therefore it may not help true to real life environments
