Social psychological explanations of human aggression: Social Learning Theory Flashcards
What is social learning theory?
Learning by observation and imitation of a role model who has been identified with this occurs via vicarious reinforcement
What does Bandura (1965) claim?
Claims that aggressive behaviour is learned either through direct experience of indirect experience
What is learning by indirect experience?
This occurs when a child observes a role model (siblings, parents, peers and celebrities) behaving in a particular way and achieving certain consequences, and they then copy that same behaviour. This child is said to be imitating the behaviour of the role model as they have formed a mental representation that if they produce the same behaviour, they will receive the same reward that they observed the role model receiving. This is known as vicarious learning/ reinforcement or, as the theory suggests, social learning. Social learning is more likely to occur if the individual identifies with the role model; in other words, they are more likely to copy the role model’s aggressive behaviour if they see themselves as similar to the role model in terms of age, gender, race, and/or attitudes. They are also more likely to copy the role model if they see them as being in a position of power or status and therefore look up to/admire them (eg. parents, celebrities)
What are Bandura’s four mediational processes?
Attention
Retention
Production
Motivation
What is attention as a mediational process?
the aggressive model has to be attended to for the behaviour to then be imitated
What is retention as a mediational process?
the aggressive behaviour is remembered and placed in the LTM so it can be retrieved
What is production as a mediational process?
the observer has to be able to replicate (copy) the aggressive behaviour. This involves the individual mentally assessing his/her ability to do so.
What is motivation as a mediational process?
the observer must want to imitate the aggressive behaviour (usually because of reward observed)
What is self-efficacy?
the extent to which we believe our actions will achieve the desired goal.
How does a child’s confidence in their ability to be an aggressive increase?
It increases as they learn that aggression can bring rewards
What does Bandura say about the role of biology?
He doesn’t ignore it and instead, he stated that we are born with the biological potential to be aggressive but we learn to express aggression through interaction with the environment.
Support for SLT as a social psychological explanation of aggression.
There is evidence to support SLT as a social psychological explanation of aggression. Bandura et al (1961) found that children exposed to aggressive models were more aggressive when interacting with a doll and imitated the models’ exact behaviour (eg. hitting with a mallet) compared to those not exposed. This suggests that aggressive behaviour had been observed and retained and imitated as they identified with the model. Consequently, this supporting research evidence increases the validity of the SLT as a social psychological explanation of aggressive behaviour.
