Social Learning Theory Flashcards
Define identification
A form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude/ behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person/group
Define imitation
Action of using someone/something as a model and copying their behaviour
Define mediational processes
Internal mental processes that exist between the environmental stimuli and the response made by an individual to those stimuli
Define the Social Learning theory
Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded
Define vicarious reinforcement
Learning through observing others being rewarded for a certain behaviour
Define modelling, and give an example of a live and symbolic model
Form of learning where individuals learn a behaviour by observing someone else perform it
Live: parent
Symbolic: celebrity
State 3 assumptions of the Social Learning theory
-People and animals operate differently
-Research conducted in a controlled lab
-Humans imitate the behaviour of role models
-Learning is separate to performance
-Stimulus, mediational processes, response
What is Albert Bandura believe?
New patterns of behaviour could be acquired not only through direct experience, but also by observing one’s own behaviour and others behaviours - on the basis of feedback, hypotheses are developed about the types of behaviour likely to succeed
In order for social learning to take place, what did Bandura claim had to happen?
The observer must form mental representations of the behaviour displayed and the probable consequences of the behaviour is terms of expectancies of future outcomes (mediational processes)
What did Bandura note from the study?
Children who observed aggressive behaviour were much more likely to imitate that behaviour than children who had observed a model punished for the same behaviour
Explain Bandura’s study, research method and experimental design
Lab experiment, matched pairs design - 1/2 of a group of children where exposed to adult models interacting aggressively with life sized dolls. The other 1/2 of the children were exposed to non-aggressive adults
What was found from Bandura’s study?
-Children who observed the aggressive model reproduced the same aggressive behaviour to the life sized doll
-Children who observed the non-aggressive model exhibited no aggression towards the doll
What are 2 potential problems of Bandura’s study?
1) Critics argue, delinquency may not be social learning due to deviant role models but the possession of deviant attitudes prior to contact with peers
2) Socials Learning theorists would emphasise the importance of gender specific modelling
