Social Learning Theory

Question 1

Mental representation

Answer 1

For social learning to take place, mental representations are required. The child must imagine possible rewards and punishments for their aggressive behaviour in terms of expectancies of future outcomes. If opportunities for aggressive behaviour arise in the future, the child will display the learned behaviour as long as the expectation of reward outweighs any possible expectation of punishment.

Question 2

Production of behaviour

Answer 2

An individual who is rewarded for their behaviour is likely to repeat that action in similar situations in the future. A child who has a history of successfully bullying children learns that aggression towards other children is likely to produce rewards.

Question 3

Observation

Answer 3

We learn aggressive behaviour through observation and imitation. People learn aggressive behaviour and its consequences through vicarious reinforcement where people see others being rewarded or punished for their aggressive behaviour. By observing the consequences of aggressive behaviour they learn when it is and isn’t appropriate. Bandura found that children who observed a model behaving aggressively showed more aggression in their own play.