SLT Flashcards
Who proposed SLT?
Bandura
How does learning occur in SLT?
Through imitation and observation of behaviour performed by role models
What does someone need to do for learning to take place?
Model the desired behaviour or attitude
What are mediational processes?
attention, retention, reproduction, motivation
What is identification?
imitating the qualities and characteristics of your role model so you become more like that person.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
When you learn behaviour by seeing another person being rewarded or punished
Does SLT focus on nature or nurture?
Nurture
What other approach is SLT linked to?
Behavioural
What type of research method is linked with SLT?
Lab Experiment
What was the name of the key research in the SLT approach?
The Bobo Doll Experiment
Bobo doll experiment Method
- 72 children
- 24 watched aggressive model
- 24 non aggressive model
- 24 nothing
- each child separately taken into room for 20mins
- aggressive and non aggressive toys (tea set, crayons) ( Mallet, dart guns, hobo doll)
Results of the bobo doll experiment
- children who observed aggressive model made far more imitative responses than those who watched other model
- girls showed more physical aggression if model was male but verbal if female
- boys more likely to imitate same sex models than girls
- boys imitated more physical aggression than girls
- little difference in verbal aggression between genders
conclusions of the bobo doll experiment
Children learn social behaviour such as aggression through the process of observational learning
strength of the bobo doll experiment
- allowed control of variables
- can be replicated (reliable)
Weaknesses of the bobo doll experiment
Not ecologically valid (model and child are strangers but modelling occurs e.g. within family)
- unethical (long term damage)
Pneumonic of evaluation of SLT
CODA
SLT AO3: Credibility
- lots of research support from Bandura (bobo doll experiment)
- Cook & Mineka (1990)
SLT AO3: Objections
- Most of the research is carried out on children or animals so its hard to generalize the findings to adults
-Nonetheless, monkeys and chimpanzees are quite close to humans in evolutionary terms so you would expect them to learn in similar ways.
SLT AO3: Differences
SLT is quite different from Operant and Classical Conditioning. For one thing, it includes cognitions as well as behaviours. SLT explains a child learning to talk by watching and imitating adults, whereas conditioning suggests the child needs to have each word or phrase rewarded with praise or attention; SLT seems more realistic, because children learn to speak quickly and their parents don’t pay attention to everything they say.
However, Operant Conditioning and SLT overlap in vicarious learning. This is where a person sees a role model being reinforced for their behaviour; you are MUCH more likely to imitate behaviour you see being reinforced. This combines observational learning (SLT) and reinforcement (Operant Conditioning).
Similarly, association and reinforcement may explain why a person continues with a behaviour after they have imitated it once. For example, a girl might imitate her mother’s fear of spiders and upset herself; she then comes to associate the Neutral Stimulus (a spider) with her own distress, so that it becomes a Conditioned Stimulus. This is how phobias are maintained, even if you only get exposed to a role model once.
