Social Learning Theory Flashcards
Assumptions of SLT
- People learn through observation & Imitation of others
- Learning occurs directly, through classical and operant conditioning, but also indirectly
- Agree with behaviourists that behaviour is learned from experience
What is vicarious reinforcement?
- Indirect learning that occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour
- The learner may imitate this behaviour
- In general, imitations only occur if the behaviour is seen to be rewarded (reinforced) rather than punished
- Learners observe behaviour but also most importantly observe the consequences of a behaviour
What study was done on vicarious reinforcement?
Bandura’s et al - controlled experiment
AIM: To investigate if social behaviours can be acquired by observation and imitation
Study A: Bandura
- recorded the behaviour of young children who watched an adult behave in an aggressive way towards a Bobo doll
- The adult hit the doll with a hammer and shouted at it
Results:
- When these children were later observed playing with various toys, including the Bobo doll
- They behaved more aggressively towards the doll and the other toys rather than those who had observed a non-aggressive adult
Study B: Bandura & Walters
- Showed videos to children where an adult behaved aggressively towards the Bobo doll.
- First group of children saw the adult get praised for their behaviour
- Second group saw the adult punished for their aggression towards to doll, by being told off
- Third group (control group) saw the aggression without any consequences
Results:
- When children were given their own Bobo doll to play with 1st group showed much more aggression, followed by the 3rd group, and then the 2nd
What are mediational processes?
Cognitive factors (e.g. thinking) that influence learning and come between stimulus and response.
What does SLT focus on?
How mental (cognitive) factors are involved in learning
What do mental factors do?
Mediate (intervene) in the learning process to determine whether a new response is acquired
What are the 4 mediational processes?
- Attention (the extent to which we notice certain behaviours)
- Retention (how well the behaviour is remembered)
- Motor reproduction (the ability of the observer to perform the behaviour)
- Motivation (the will to perform the behaviour, which is often determined by whether the behaviour was rewarded or punished)
What is identification?
When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like the role model
What is modelling from an observer’s perspective?
Imitating the behaviours of a role model
What is modelling from a role model’s perspective?
The precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer
How does a person become a role model?
If they are seen to possess similar characteristics to the observer and/or are attractive and have high status
Strengths of SLT
Cognitive factors:
- it recognises the importance of cognitive factors in learning
- Neither classical or operant conditioning can offer an adequate account of learning on their own
- Humans and animals store info about the behaviour of others and make judgements about when it is appropriate to perform certain actions
- Suggests that SLT provides a more comprehensive explanation of human learning by recognising the role of mediational processes
Real-world application
- SLT principles have been applied to a range of real-world behaviours
- Can explain cultural differences in behaviour
- SLT principles (modelling, imitation, reinforcement) can account for how children learn from others around them, including the media
- Can explain how cultural norms are transmitted through particular societies
- Proved useful in understanding a range of behaviours (e.g. children understanding their gender role)
- Increases the value of the approach as it can account for real-world behaviour
Limitations of SLT
Little reference to the influence of biological factors:
- CA for cognitive factors
- although bandura claimed natural biological differences influenced our learning potential, he thought that learning itself was determined by the environment
- recent research suggest that observational learning may be the result of mirror neurons in the brain, which allow us to empathise with and imitate others
- Suggests that biological influences on social learning were under emphasised in SLT
Contrived lab studies:
- Evidence was gathered through lab studies
- many of bandura’s ideas were developed through observation of young children’s behaviour in the lab
- lab studies are often criticised for their contrived nature where participants may respond to demand characteristics
- Suggested that in relation to the Bobo doll research, that because the main purpose of the doll is to strike it, the children were simply behaving in a way that they thought was expected
- Suggests that research may tell us little about how children actually learn aggression in everyday life
