Social Learning Theory Flashcards
How does social learning theory explain human behaviour?
You learn through observation: paying attention to the behaviour; identifying yourself with the people you admire and look up to; you reproduce the behaviour by copying and repeating what the model has done; you are motivated to repeat the behaviour extrinsically or intrinsically
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Occurs when role models are seen to be gaining the reward desired by the individual so the individual repeats the behaviour e.g. celebrities getting praise for their looks so individual copies their fashion
How does Bandura 1961 support social learning theory?
Shows that children do copy aggression when aggression is modelled in real life so indicates we do in fact learn behaviour like aggression through observing, meaning it is a credible explanation of behaviour
What is a weakness of social learning theory regarding reductionism?
Ignores hormonal imbalances as a reason of human behaviour which is an issue as biological theories may account for human behaviour that has not been learnt through observation (e.g. excessive amount of testosterone causing aggression) so social learning theory is not a complete explanation of human behaviour
How is social learning theory useful to society?
Introduction of age restrictions and watershed as we know young children copy role models so we can restrict how much violence they see on television
How does Bandura conflict social learning theory regarding the setting?
Lab experiment so results about learnt behaviours through observation are not applicable to real life so it is not credible to explain social learning theory as Bandura’s study was used to create the basis of social learning theory
How is social learning theory empirical and objective?
Measures the behaviour directly (e.g. how many times the person repeats a certain behaviour can be measured) so we can see that observation and imitation is a credible way to explain how people learn behaviour
How is social learning theory deterministic?
Discounts free-will having anything to do with human behaviour
