Week 6 - Perspectives on social learning theory (part 1) Flashcards
What are the assumptions of social learning theory?
1) Behaviour is learnt from experience, meaning biology plays a negligible role in explaining behaviour
2) Learning occurs through direct reinforcement (classical and operant conditioning) and indirect reinforcement (observing the reward or punishment of the behaviour)
3) Social learning relies on internal mental processes as well as experience from the environment
What is social learning?
This occurs when through observing others, we learn to imitate (or avoid) their behaviour
It is a type of indirect reinforcement as unlike direct reinforcement, the learner is not directly affected by their environment
What is a model?
For social learning to occur, someone (the model) needs to carry out a behaviour (the modelled behaviour)
What is identification?
A person is more likely to pay attention to and then imitate behaviour modelled by a model who they view as a role model (someone who they see as similar to them or of higher status)
What are the 4 mediational processes?
- Attention
- Retention
- Motor reproduction
- Motivation
What are mediational processes?
For social learning to occur, a number of cognitive processes must occur. These mediate between the environment and our behaviour.
What is attention?
A person must first attend to the behaviour occurring. If they don’t pay attention, imitation will not occur
What is retention?
Next, the person must retain the modelled behaviour in their mind so they can then imitate it
What is motor reproduction?
Next, a person needs to decide if they are physically capable of reproducing the modelled behaviour. If it looks too difficult, they will decide not to imitate it
What is motivation?
Finally, a person must desire to reproduce the modelled behaviour. For this to happen, the perceived rewards must outweigh the costs.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
This occurs when we observe the consequences of a modelled behaviour. If a person observes a modelled behaviour being rewarded, their motivation to imitate it will increase; and if they observe a behaviour being punished, they will be motivated not to imitate it
What was Bandura’s research?
Bo Bo Doll experiment
What are the factors that affect aggression through TV?
1) Age - children in middle childhood exhibit stronger relationship
2) Time spent watching TV - Is related to aggressive behaviour regardless of content. Boys who watched the most television at the age of 8 were most likely to have had a criminal conviction by age 30
3) Identification with the TV characters - Positive correlation, especially for boys in a cross-cultural study in Austria, Finland, Poland, Israel, and the US
4) Portrayal of violence - Perpetrator is rewarder; justified; real life; similar to viewer; not disgusting; no critical commentary; not interrupted by humour
What are the factors that influence observational learning?
1) Characteristics of the model - People are more likely to imitate someone they are similar to
2) Attributes of the observer - People lacking self-esteem or competency are likely to imitate a model
3) Perceived rewards - People are more likely to perform activities they perceive as leading to positive results
What did Thorndike do?
He tried to test social learning theory but with cats observing cats trying to escape a bog but it didn’t show social learning
