SLT Flashcards
Bandura’s Bobo doll research provided evidence for social learning
E – In his first study, Bandura found that children who watched a video of an adult model aggressively attacking a doll were more likely to attack the doll than children who had watched the adult interact peacefully with the doll.
E – This provided evidence of social learning, as the children imitated the modelled behaviour they observed. This supports Bandura’s claim that we can learn by observing others (a type of indirect reinforcement), rather than only learning through the direct reinforcement that behaviourists argued explained all learning. In a follow-up study, Bandura found children were more likely to imitate the aggressive modelled behaviour if the model was seen to be praised for their behaviour rather than receiving no praise. Even less imitation occurred when the model was told off for their behaviour. This provides support for Bandura’s concept of vicarious reinforcement, as their observation of the consequences of a modelled behaviour indirectly reinforced their own behaviour, making it more or less likely depending on whether the consequence was good or bad. Bandura would explain this with reference to the mediational process of motivation, with positive vicarious reinforcement increasing motivation to imitate and negative vicarious reinforcement reducing motivation. In a final study, Bandura found that the children were also more likely to imitate the modelled behaviour if the model in question matched their gender. This provides support for the importance of Bandura’s concept of identification. As his theory predicted, when the gender of the child matched that of the model, they were able to identify with the model more, and this increased the likelihood they would imitate the model. This could be explained with reference to the mediational process of attention, as we attend more to the actions of models who we identify with.
L – Therefore, Bandura’s research provides strong support for many of the concepts within his account of social learning.
Bandura’s supporting research for social learning theory has issues with its ecological validity
E – Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research findings can be generalised to real-world contexts.
E – One issue with Bandura’s study is it was conducted in a lab, which is an artificial setting. A second issue relates to the task the participants completed. Being asked to watch a staged video of an adult attack a doll before then being invited to then play with this doll is very artificial. It’s therefore questionable whether the behaviour of the children within this artificial situation could be generalised to children outside, in real-world situations and settings.
L – Therefore, it’s arguable that because Bandura’s research demonstrated social learning within an artificial situation, this may not tell us about how social learning occurs in the real world.
strength of SLT is that it contributed to the cognitive revolution
E – The cognitive revolution was a ‘paradigm shift’*, in which psychologists began to reject the assumptions of behaviourism and instead move towards a cognitive approach to psychology.
E – SLT played an important role in this cognitive revolution as Bandura’s concept of mediational processes challenged the assumption that behaviour could be explained without reference to the mind – as behaviourists had argued. Instead, he persuasively argued that people do not mindlessly imitate whatever is in their environment. He persuaded psychologists that the mind mediates between what we observe and what we do, and without taking account of this we cannot explain behaviour. However, despite showing that we need to consider the role of mediational processes when explaining behaviour, Bandura’s SLT failed to explain exactly how these processes works I.e., what’s happening in someone’s mind when they do or don’t pay attention.
L – Therefore, a strength of SLT is that it illustrated the limitations of behaviourism and contributed to a new and better type of cognitive psychology, although this contribution was limited as SLT failed to show how the mind mediates between the environment and behaviour.
Bandura’s research for social learning theory has issues with demand characteristics.
E – Demand characteristics occur when clues in the study allow participants to guess the aim and alter their behaviour, either trying to please of frustrate the researcher’s aim.
E – Bandura’s study was vulnerable to demand characteristics for two reasons. Firstly, the obviously staged nature of the task provided clear clues to participants about what the researcher was interested in seeing. Secondly, Bandura’s use of child participants compounded this issue, as children are usually especially eager to please, and so are therefore more susceptible to demand characteristics than adults. Therefore, their willingness to attack the doll may simply being a product of their expectations that this is what Bandura wanted. It is therefore questionable whether Bandura’s ideas are internally valid.
L – Therefore, bandura’s research may appear to provide evidence of social learning, but it may instead only provide evidence that children will attempt to behave as they think adults want them to behave.
