social learning theory Flashcards
what two approaches come under learning theories
social learning theory and the behaviourist approach
which approach was more dominant in the 1940s and 50s
Behaviourism
what are the assumptions of social learning theory
- behaviour is learned from experience
- humans learn via observation and imitation of other people
what did Albert Bandura argue
some behaviours are too complex to simply be explained through the stimulus and response associations of classical conditioning and the reward and punishment of operant conditioning
what did Albert Bandura agree but also disagree about behaviourism
on the influence of the environment on learning however he argued that much of our learning can happen indirectly through the observation of other people
what did Bandura want to explore
how children learn aggression and violent behaviour and what factors led them to behave that way
what did the Bandura Bobo Doll experiment involve (1961)
- 72 children from a local nursery school
- Aged between 3-5.5 years old.
- 36 girls and 36 boys
- divided into 3 groups for different conditions of the study
how many conditions were there
3
how many children (and boys/girls) were in each condition
- condition 1 = 24 children (12 boys/girls)
- condition 2 = 24 children (12 boys/girls)
- condition 3 = 24 children (12 boys/girls)
what experimental design is used in both studies
Matched Pairs Design as each child was rated by their nursery teachers in terms of how aggressive their behaviours typically was and then matched with a child of similiar aggression
why are matched pairs designs good
they are a great way to control the extraneous variable known as participant variables
what happened in the first bobo doll experiment (1961)
the child was shown to one area of a room by the experimenter where there was a small table and different toys and activities for them to play with - tasks they were used to from primary school.
once the child was settled into the activity, the adult model was then brought into the room in the opposite corner where there was a range of different toys that included a bobo doll, a mullet and a toy set for each condition.
half of the children observed a model of the same sex while the other half observed a model of the opposite sex
what was condition 1
observing the aggressive adult model
- in this condition the adult model behaved in aggressive ways (they tipped it over, punching it repeatedly in the nose, picked up the mallet and hit it in the head, then tossed it in the air and kicked it) they were also verbally aggressive
- the adult behaved this way for 10 minutes
what was condition 2
observing non aggressive adult model.
- the adult played with the toys but demonstrated none of the aggressive behaviours in condition 1
- they did this for 10 minutes
what was condition 3
- this was the control group
they did not observe an adult model so they went straight to the 2nd room to play with the toys
what happened after observing the adult model
the children in conditions 1 and 2 went straight to the waiting room where there were highly attractive toys
what did the children experience in the waiting room
a mild aggression arousal
what is a mild aggression arousal
the adult did something that will provoke some level of aggression in the children
what did the experimenter do to give the children mild aggression arousals
the experimenter explained to each child that the toys in the new room were for them to play with. when the child became involved with the toys the experimenter told them that they were “the best toys and she did not let just anyone play with them” and said they were “reserved toys for the other children”
what happened after the mild aggression arousal
the experimenter took them to the 2nd room and told the children they could play with any toys in that room. the children were left to play with the other toys for 20 minutes and their behaviour was carefully observed through a one way mirror
what happened in condition 1 (1961)
the child did exactly what they saw the model do. they imitated the many aggressive behaviours they observed the adult model fo but they also carried out other aggressive behaviours they hadnt seen the model do
what happened in conditions 2&3 (1961)
rarely to no aggression
what did the experiment in 1961 about children’s learning
it shows how influential observing an adult model’s behaviour is on the children’s learning
why does the 1961 raise serious concerns
it raises concerns about the implications for what children pick up from watching aggressive behaviours
why did the sex of the adult model play an important role
male participants exhibited more physical and verbal aggression and engaged in signficantly more aggressive gun play following the exposure to the male model than the female children
what was the aim of the bobo doll experiment (1963)
they wanted to investigate to which extent aggression observed on film would be imitated
how many conditions were there in the experiment (1963)
4
what was condition 1 (1963)
the real life aggressive model (same as before)
what was condition 2 (1963)
film of aggressive model (same as before but they observed the adult on film)
what was condition 3 (1963)
cartoon film of aggression (the cat carried out the aggressive behaviour)
what did the children in these conditions do (1963)
they went to the waiting room like the original study where they were experienced a mild aggression arousal before being taken to the 2nd room
what was condition 4 (1963)
this was kept as a control. there was no exposure to aggressive models so they went straight the 2nd room immediately
what happened in the 2nd room (1963)
they had toys and the behaviour was observed through the one way mirror. they played for 20 minutes and their aggressive behaviour was recorded
what was the mean number of aggressive behaviours in each condition (1963)
1 - 83
2- 92
3- 99
4- 54
what do these numbers show about children and aggression (1963)
shows when children are exposed to aggressive models, it increases the probability that they will respond aggressively when another occasion arises that instigates it. Not only in real life but also in film (human/cartoon)
is there a difference between showing human film and a cartoon film of aggression
there is no difference statistically speaking. if a child observes aggressive behaviour, it has the same influence. however, it confirmed the extent to which the medium of television can have on shaping learning of behaviour
what role did the sex of the model play (1963)
an important role as boys became more violent after watching the male model than the female. it proves the significance of same sex models in learning of observed behaviours
what was different about the bobo doll experiment in 1965
each child was taken to a room with a TV which lasted 5 minutes. it was of an adult behaving aggressively
how many versions of the tv program were there
3
what was the same and different about conditions 1 and 2 (1965)
in condition 1, the model was rewarded for their aggressive behaviour but in condition 2 the model was punished and told off for being aggressive.
both children in those conditions went to the surprise room
what happened in condition 3 (1965)
they watched the same video with no reward or punishment
what were the results of the experiment in 1965
children in reward and control conditions imitated more aggressive actions than children who saw the adult punished.
why didnt the children imitate any aggressive behaviours even though they all watched the same video (1965)
even though they had learnt behaviour through observing the behaviour in both the reward and the punishment conditions, they did not imitate the behaviour if they expected to recieve punishment
what did the results of the bobo doll experiment in 1965 demonstrate
the significant influence of observing the consequences of certain behaviours in others
what is imitation
copying the behaviours of others. in Bandura’s study an e.g of this is when children were copying the behaviours of the adult
what is modelling
demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer
what is identification
when an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like them.
when are children more likely to identify with others
if the model is of
- the same sex
- similiar age or older
- higher status or authority
- friendly and likeable
why do children identify with role models
there is a quality in the model that the child would like to posess which motivates them to identify with them. for e.g. Bandura observed that boys who observed a female model were more likely to sit on the bobo doll without punching it compared to boys who viewed a male model
what is vicarious reinforcement
reinforcement which is not directly experienced by us but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced or punished for a certain behaviour. it makes a distinction between direct and indirect learning
what are mediational cognitive processes
cognitive factors or thoughts that influence learning that come between stimulus and response.
these are a contribution of Bandura which moves him away from external environmental factors of behaviourism and puts social learning theory more towards cognitive psychology.
what are the types of mediational cognitive processes
- attention
- retention
- reproduction
- motivation
what is attention
how much we pay attention to or take notice of the observed behaviour
what is retention
how well he hold what we have observed in our mind (how well we remember it)
what is reproduction
factors that affect your ability to reproduce the behaviour ourselves
what is motivation
whether we want to reproduce the behaviour we have observed (potential rewards and punishments)
give an example of where someone would be using the MCP
if someone is playing a song on a guitar
- attention
you pay close attention to where they are holding the guitar and where they place their fingers on the string
- reproduction
you pull out your guitar, dust it down, give it a go yourself
- retention
remembering how they were holding it and where they placed their fingers
- motivation
you’d love to be able to play your favourite song for yourself
what does Bandura say about mediational processes
- they occur between stimulus and response
- he sees people as being more active and involved in the learning process
- this contrasts with behaviourisms passive stimulus and response. he argues that we can think about our behaviours and weigh up the consequences
how does media impact behaviour according to SLT
people pay attention to certain characters in video games or on television and retain what behaviours they see and try to reproduce those behaviours. people are more likely to imitate behaviour of social media influencers
can social learning theory be applied to promote behaviours like helping and cooperation
children can learn positive behaviour from observing other models. if the models recieve positive reinforcement for being helpful, the observer will imitate the behaviour so they can also earn the reward
how does slt contribute to the transmission of cultural norms and values
by interacting with the cultural environment, individuals can observe how people perform certain cultural traditions and rituals and can therefore imitate and learn behaviours that define their culture
what ethical implications arise from the application of slt, particularly in the context of media influence and the promotion of negative behaviours
there are some television programmes and video games that indirecly encourage negative behaviour. for e.g. violent video games and negative tv shows are often lauded even though they promote negative behaviour
which bandura bobo doll experiment supported observational learning
(1961)
children observed an adult model behave aggressively then went on to imitate that behaviour themselves
which bandura bobo doll experiment supported observational learning via film
(1963)
children imitated the aggression they had seen in adults but also the aggressive behaviour on a film and with a cartoon character
which bandura bobo doll experiment supported vicarious reinforcement
(1965)
children were more likely to imitate aggression when they saw aggressive behaviour be rewarded or left unpunished compared to when they saw it punished
what is one strength of Bandura’s study
the quality of Bandura’s research methods to study human behaviour
- a highly controlled lab based observational study
- high control of variables to enable cause and effect to be establised
- did a matched pairs design (matching the children in each condition in terms of their typical level of aggression to prevent any individual differences in the children’s aggression being an extraneous variable that affected the results
how would the childrens aggression have been an extraneous variable rather than the dependant variable
if the cause of aggression was because of the child’s natural aggressive tendencies rather than it being because of them observing aggressive behaviour
why was the Bandura study seen as reliable
when using the observational research method, more than observer commented on the child’s behaviour. this is so the reliability of an observer’s judgement can be checked with another. the level of agreement between the two observers was a correlation coefficient of 0.89 (strong positive correlation) this strengthened Bandura’s findings
what is one criticism of Bandura’s study
the sampling - bandura used young aged children (3-5.5 yrs old)
it could be argued that children at that younger age are more likely to imitate adult behaviour and as children go older, there will be less imitation because they want to be more independant and go their own way.
therefore slt may not be generalisable to the wider population
why were the tasks that Bandura gave to the children seen as artificial
the situation Bandura created with the child and the adult was arguably unlike real life because there was no interaction between the child and adult.
the bobo doll was a toy many of the children had never played with before and would have been of greater interest to the children particularly as it would bounce back up after being hit
what follow up study did Cumberbatch do
he showed how the bobo doll itself influence aggressive behaviours
the children who had played with the bobo doll before were 5x less violent than those who had never played with the doll before
how do the bobo doll studies lack ecological validity
the novelty of playing with the bobo doll may have influenced the level of aggression shown by the children
how can social learning theory be applied to real life
the power and influence of role mdoels on behaviour particularly if the observers can identify with the model can greatly increase behaviour being imitated.
- can be done for advertising and public health campaigns
slt has made a significant contribution to our understanding of human behaviour because of how it can be used for the public good through the targeted encouragement of positive behaviours relating to health
compare slt to behaviourism
slt offers a better explanation of human behaviour than behaviourism. neither classical nor operant conditioning offer an adequate account of learning on their own because they neglected the role of cognitive factors in learning.
what is considered to be an important part of learning
storing information in our memory about the behaviours of others. we use this to make judgements about certain actions
what is the SR equation for behaviourism and what is it seen as
stimulus ——-> response
seen as passive
what is the SR equation for slt and what is it seen as
stimulus —> mediational cognitive processes —> response
seen as active
what did Bandura argue about cognitive factors in learning
we can think about our behaviours and weigh up the consequences of them before responding. slt therefore provides a more comprehensive explanation of human behaviour. it is seen as the bridge between behaviourism and cognitive approach
compare the research methods used in slt and behaviourism
slt uses humans
behaviourism uses animals. this is criticised in terms of how generalisable the findings from animals can be applied to humans
slt doesnt study animals because of cognitive processes involved in human behaviour. the research is therefore more generalised
what is the difference between nature and nurture
nature - “behaviour is the result of innate biological processes”
nurture - “behaviour is the result of learning from the environment”
how does social learning theory overemphasise nurture and lack emphasis in nature
it is criticised for being exclusively nurture and research points to how nature and nurture usually interact together
slt fails to discuss the importance of biological factors in human behaviour
for e.g in aggression slt says this is learnt through observation of role models behaving aggressively. however biological factors such as different levels of testosterone have been associated with different levels of aggression
