LT social learning theory (Bandura) Flashcards
Who proposed this social learning theory?
Bandura
What is the key idea about this?
The key idea is that we learn much of our behaviour through observing and imitating other people
What are role models?
Bandura states that we have models, whose behaviour we imitate . This is likely to be someone of a higher status to us. It could be a parent. Whether someone imitates depending on the consequences of that behaviour
What was Banduras study?
4-5 year olds
They were in 3 groups and shown versions of a film, with an adult model being verbally aggressive to a bobo doll.
Group 1: saw the film where a reward was given to the adult
Group 2: the model was punished and told off
Group 3: control group, the model was neither rewarded or punished
What were Banduras results?
Group 1 imitated the aggressive behaviour towards the bobo doll because it was rewarded.
Group 2 didn’t imitate it hardly, as they were punished
Group 3 did imitate it, however they did so less
Strength: what does Banduras study suggest about the importance of role models?
It shows that children who observe aggressive behaviour getting rewarded, imitate that behaviour. Therefore the importance of role models is clearly shown and proven, helping to understand deviant behaviour
Strength: Banduras study has been replicated, why is this good?
The study has been replicated with changes and other environments and similar results have been found. This is a good thing because it’s reliable and has consistency.
Weakness: why is it bad that this study was set up in a Lab?
Laboratories are artificial settings, and finding might not be valid for real life, this is a lack of ecological validity. The participants might guess the aim of the study more in a fake setting, creating possible demand characteristics.
Weakness: this theory ignores people’s free will
Some people may commit crime due to choice, and not anything they’ve learnt or copied off other people.
