Learning Approach: Social Learning Theory

Question 1

What are the approach’s main assumptions?

Answer 1

• Social Learning Theory is concerned with how people learn when they observe others.
• It can be seen as the bridge between the Behaviourist approach and the Cognitive approach.
• Like the Behaviourist approach, it emphasises the importance of environment and reinforcement in learning, but like the Cognitive approach, it acknowledges the important role that mental processes play in interpreting the environment and planning new actions even though it does not study them in detail.

Question 2

Key features of Social Learning Theory

Answer 2

• Human learning is explained through observational learning or modelling, which involves identification, imitation and reinforcement.
• Mediating cognitive factors play an important role in observational learning. These include attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.
• In vicarious reinforcement, reproduction of behaviour can be motivated when learners observe role models receiving reinforcement.
• The majority of Social Learning Theory research involves laboratory experiments in which quantifiable behaviour is observed.

Question 3

Observational learning

Answer 3

• Bandura is the Father of Social Learning Theory. He believes that the most important process in learning for humans is observational learning.
• The key steps in observational learning are identification, imitation and reinforcement, but everything begins with a role model demonstrating a particular behaviour.

Question 4

1) Modelling

Answer 4

When a person performs a behaviour and is seen by another person, they are modelling that behaviour for them. If the person who is observing the behaviour judges that the other person should be their role model, they identify with them.

Question 5

2) Identification

Answer 5

Identification involves associating with the qualities, characteristics and views of specific role models who possess qualities that individuals would like for themselves. When a learner identifies with a role model, they will remember their behaviour and add it to the repertoire of actions they can produce and may imitate.

Question 6

3) Imitation

Answer 6

Imitation is copying or reproducing behaviour that has been learned through observation. When they do this, learners make a judgement about whether it is the right situation in which to reproduce it and whether they are likely to be successful in performing the action. They are also actively testing whether they should reproduce the behaviour again by evaluating the reinforcement they receive.

Question 7

4) Reinforcement

Answer 7

Reinforcement refers to the consequence of the action for the learner, in general desirable consequences will lead to a behaviour being reproduced. If a behaviour is reinforced sufficiently, it becomes internalised. Internalised actions do not require more reinforcement; they are a relatively fixed part of the learner’s behaviour - their identity - and they will go on to model them for other learners.

Question 8

Mediational factors

Answer 8

• Mediating cognitive factors are internal mental processes that lie between the stimulus and response.
• In Social Learning Theory, these are the factors that affect whether learners identify with models, imitate them and how they respond to reinforcement.
• Bandura refers to attention factors, retention factors, reproduction factors and motivation factors.
• It can be ARRM or ARMR (motivation and then reproduction).

Question 9

1) Attention

Answer 9

Factors that influence whether a learner pays attention to a role mode. These may include the learner’s interpretation of the role model’s power, attractiveness and similarity.

Question 10

2) Retention

Answer 10

Factors that influence whether a learner identifies with a role model and remembers the behaviours their role model produces. These include the appropriateness of the behaviour to the role model.

Question 11

3) Reproduction

Answer 11

Factors that influence whether a learner believes they should imitate the behaviour they have acquired. These includes physical ability, but also the learner’s self esteem and self-efficacy.

Question 12

4) Motivation

Answer 12

Factors that influence how a learner responds to reinforcement. These can include responses to past experience and expectations about future benefits.

Question 13

Bandura’s research - Vicarious reinforcement

Answer 13

Vicarious reinforcement involves learning through observations of the consequences of actions for other people. When a learner observes someone they identify with and the role model receives reinforcement, the learner is motivated to imitate the behaviour as if they had been reinforced themselves.

Question 14

Vicarious reinforcement is demonstrated in Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963) - Aim

Answer 14

To test the effect of vicarious conditioning on observational learning of aggression.

Question 15

Vicarious reinforcement is demonstrated in Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963) - Method

Answer 15

Children aged 2.5-6 years watched a film of an adult punching and shouting at a Bobo doll. There were 3 experimental groups:
1) (Reinforcement) the model was rewarded with sweets.
2) (Punishment) the model was punished with ‘‘don’t do it again’’.
3) (Control) the film ended after the model was aggressive.
4) The children were left in the room with the Bobo doll.

Question 16

Vicarious reinforcement is demonstrated in Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963) - Findings

Answer 16

Both boys and girls produced more aggressive acts after watching the film where the model was rewarded. Boys generally performed more aggressive acts than girls; but the difference was most noticeable after the punishment condition.

Question 17

Vicarious reinforcement is demonstrated in Bandura, Ross & Ross (1963) - Conclusion

Answer 17

Vicarious reinforcement of a model has an effect on the production of behaviour by observers. The difference between boys and girls shows that the effect is mediated by cognitive factors.

Question 18

Vicarious reinforcement

Answer 18

Reinforcement is always interpreted through mediating cognitive factors, because of this, it can lead to counter-intuitive effects.

For example, reinforcement might make a behaviour less likely to be reproduced if the learner does not value it. This is especially obvious in vicarious reinforcement, where a learner who sees a role model punished may remember the behaviour because their attention was drawn to it.
Even though they may not reproduce it in the same situation, they may imitate it in other situations to find out where it is appropriate.

Question 19

Difference between Behaviourism and SLT

Answer 19

Social Learning Theory recognises that the learner plays an active role in their learning. They choose who to attend to, choose which behaviour to remember, choose when and where to reproduce the behaviours and finally choose how to respond to the consequences of their behaviour. In contrast, Behaviourism assumes that the learner simply responds passively to its environment.

Question 20

Differences between Behaviourism and SLT

Answer 20

Social Learning Theory recognises a difference between acquisition and performance of behaviour. It is possible to observe a behaviour, remember and add it to you repertoire, but never produce it. In contrast, Behaviourism argues that performance and learning are the same thing and a behaviour has only been learned if it is used.

Question 21

Difference between Behaviourism and SLT

Answer 21

Social Learning Theory recognises that behaviours can become fixed. Bandura calls these fixed behaviours ‘internalised’ - if they have been imitated and reinforced enough. In contrast, if Behaviourism were correct, our behaviour would constantly change in response to new reinforcement.

Question 22

Difference between Behaviourism and SLT

Answer 22

Social Learning Theory recognises that reinforcement is an indirect process. This is most obvious in vicarious reinforcement where the learner is motivated by reinforcement of their models as if they were being reinforced themselves, but even reinforcement they receive themselves is less direct than in Behaviourism because it is mediated by cognitive factors. What is reinforcing to one person may not be reinforcing to another.

Question 23

Similarity and Difference between Behaviourism and SLT

Answer 23

Social Learning Theory research only involves measurement of observable behaviour. The majority is done in controlled laboratory experiments, but unlike Behaviourism its participants are almost always humans and its experimental findings are supported by natural observations.

Question 24

Strength

Answer 24

• Emphasises importance of cognitive factors.
• Behaviourism can’t fully explain all behaviour and learning on their own as they do not consider cognitive factors. They do not include them.
• We store info about the behaviour of others and we use this later to make decisions about when it is right to do a certain action/behaviour.
• SLT recognises the role of mediational processes. Therefore as SLT considers what traditional behaviourism argues as well as including cognitive factors - it is a more complete explanation.

Question 25

Strength

Answer 25

• The approach is less deterministic than behaviourism.
• Bandura emphasised reciprocal determination in the sense that we are not merely influenced by our external environment.
• But we also exert an influence upon it through the behaviour we choose to perform.
• This suggests there is some free will in the way we behave.

Question 26

Strength

Answer 26

• The approach can explain cultural differences in behaviour.
• Social learning principles can account for how children learn from other individuals around them, as well as through the media.
• This can explain how cultural norms are transmitted through particular societies.
• Proved useful in understanding a range of behaviours such as how children come to understand their gender role.

Question 27

Weakness

Answer 27

• The approach relies on lab evidence.
• Many of Bandura’s ideas were developed through observation in young children’s behaviours in lab settings.
• Lab studies are often criticised for their contrived nature where participants may respond to demand characteristics.
• In relation to the Bobo doll, the main purpose of the doll is to strike it and the children were behaving in a way they thought was expected. Thus this research tells us little about how children learn aggression.
• Less internal validity.

Question 28

Weakness

Answer 28

• The approach underestimates the influence of biology.
• Bandura makes little reference to the impact of biological factors on social learning.
• In the Bobo doll experiment, boys were reportedly more aggressive than girls regardless of the specifics pf the experimental conditions.
• Hormonal factors such as testosterone levels (which is linked with aggression) play a role.
• This important influence on behaviour is not accounted for in the social learning theory.