social-psychological explanations of aggression: social learning theory

Question 1

Bandura acknowledged that aggression can be learned directly- explain how

Answer 1

operant conditioning involving predominantly positive reinforcement- e.g. a child who snatches a toy off another child brings rewards i.e. direct positive reinforcement making it more likely the child will do this again in a similar situation

Question 2

despite Bandura acknowledging that aggression can be learned directly, most aggressive behaviour is learned through

Answer 2

observation and vicarious reinforcement= he argued that an indirect mechanisms (observational learning) accounts for social learning of most aggressive behaviours

Question 3

explain how indirect observational learning accounts for social learning of most aggressive behavious

Answer 3

• through observing models (such as parents,siblings or peers) a child works out how an aggressive behaviour is performed, but they also have to observe the consequences of the models’ behaviour in order to act aggressively themselves
• if the models’ aggressive behaviour is rewarded or not punished, then the child learns that aggression can be effective in getting what they want = VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT and makes it more likely the child will imitate the model’s aggressive behaviour

Question 4

there is a parallel form of indirect learning called vicarious punishment- what is this?

Answer 4

if a model’s use of aggression to achieve a goal is punished, an observing child is less likely to imitate that specific behaviour

Question 5

what are the 4 cognitive conditions required for observational learning to take place?

Answer 5

• attention (observer must pay attention to model’s aggressive actions)
• retention (observer has to remember model’s behaviour)
• reproduction (observer has to transform mental representation of the aggressive behaviour into a physical one)
• motivation (the observer needs a reason to imitate the behaviour; this depends on their expectations that behaving aggressively in a specific way in a specific situation will be rewarding

Question 6

explain how self-efficacy increases each time aggression brings rewards

Answer 6

• self-efficacy is the extent to which we believe our actions will achieve a desired goal- a child’s confidence in their ability to be aggressive grows as they learn that aggression can bring rewards
• a child who regularly hits other children to get hold of a toy learns they have the motor skills necessary to do so and this ability comes easy to them
• the child’s sense of self-efficacy develops with each successful outcome as he/she is confident that due to their aggression in the past,it will continue to do so in the future

Question 7

who conducted a key study into social learning of aggression in children?

Answer 7

Bandura et al

Question 8

explain Bandura et al’s procedure

Answer 8

• young children individually observed an adult model attacking an inflatable plastic toy called a ‘Bobo doll’
• the aggressive behaviours included kicking, hitting, hitting with a mallet which were accompanied by verbal outbursts
• there followed a short period which the children were not allowed to play with some attractive toys creating a degree of frustration
• they were then taken to another room where there was a Bobo doll and some other toys, including the ones the adult model
• also another group of children who had observed an adult interacting non-violently with the doll (control group)

Question 9

what were Bandura et al’s findings?

Answer 9

• without being told to do so, many of these children imitated the physical and verbal behaviour they had observed by the model
• the closeness of imitation was remarkable in some cases, often a direct copy of the use of specific objects and verbal phrases
• in control group, behaviour towards the Bobo doll by these children was almost non-existent

Question 10

what are the evaluation points for social learning theory (SLT) explanation?

Answer 10

• it cannot explain all forms of aggression
• a strength is that SLT highlights the benefits of non-aggressive models
• useful real-life applications
• SLT has difficulty accounting for cultural differences in aggression

Question 11

explain how SLT cannot explain all forms of aggression

Answer 11

• there are 2 broad categories of aggression recognised by researchers: reactive (‘hot-blooded,angry) and proactive (‘cold-blooded’, calculated)
• children who are experienced in using proactive aggression have high levels of self-efficiacy; this type of behaviour is well explained by SLT
• however reactively aggressive children tend to be hostile and do not use aggression to achieve anything except retribution in the heat of the moment
• this behaviour is less explicable from a social learning perspective, and may be better explained by an alternative such as negative effect theory

Question 12

explain how a strength is that SLT highlights the benefits of non-aggressive models

Answer 12

• people are not passive recipients of reinforcement- they shape their own behaviour by choosing situations which reward aggression
• one way to reduce aggression is by encouraging aggressive children to form friendships with children, and adults, who do not habitually behave aggressively
• providing children with opportunities to model non-aggressive behaviour is a practical benefit of understanding aggression as a social learning process, leading to a reduction in violence and the social costs that go with it

Question 13

explain how there is useful real-life applications of SLT

Answer 13

• media portrayals of aggressive behaviour can be powerful influences on a child’s acquisition of aggression
• this is especially true if a character e.g. in a soap opera is rewarded for being aggressive
• therefore vicarious reinforcement experienced by children observing aggression by media characters may be just as influential in encouraging imitation as it is in real life
• this increases SLT’s validity as this real-life application confirms the relevance of social learning concepts to aggressive behaviour

Question 14

explain how SLT has difficulty accounting for cultural differences in aggression

Answer 14

• different cultures have different norms about which behaviours should be reinforced
• in some cultures e.g. Kung San of Kalahari desert, reinforcement of children’s aggression is unlikely because social norms do not encourage it and parents tend not to use it
• this means models of aggression are unavailable for children to observe so vicarious reinforcement is rare
• despite this, the people of Kung San do display aggressive behaviour
• the fact that people do behave aggressively in Kung San society suggests there is more to aggression that SLT- perhaps it is instinctive and therefore a biological explanation would be more appropriate to explain this particular cultural finding