Social Learning Theory

Like the behaviourist approach - Social Learning Theory is also a learning approach.


Bandura agreed with the behaviourists that people learn through experience, however he suggested that they may learn in other ways - through observation an imitation of others (socially).


Vicarious Reinforcement

Vicarious reinforcement occurs when an individual observes the behaviour of others who are deemed to be successful. The person/learner may then try to imitate this behaviour but only does so if there is a reward attached to the consequences rather than a punishment.



Identification

People are more likely to imitate a person they identify with. This is often a role model and this process of imitating a role model is called modelling. 

A person may look up to a role model like a famous singer, musician, sportsperson, a charismatic person, a family member or high status person in the community or media.

Children often imitate their parents or older siblings.



Do you have any role models?






Mediational Processes

For learning and imitation to take place it must go through a mediational process.

These processes take into account some cognitive processes.

Bandura identified 4 mediational processes that are essential for learning from models;

1. Attention - was the behaviour noticed

2. Retention- how well was the behaviour remembered

3. Motor Reproduction - the ability of the learner to reproduce/perform the behaviour

4. Motivation - the will to carry out the observed behaviour - this usually determined by whether it was punished or not


The first 2 relate to the learning go a behaviour and the last 2 relate to the performance of behaviour.


Bobo Doll Experiment 

Bandura developed his Social Learning Theory from the Bobo Doll experiments where child watched an adult acting aggressively towards a bobo doll. These children then went on the imitate this behaviour and also act aggressively toward the bobo doll.

It is an important piece of research that you need to be aware of and is a topic that could that could come up in your exam in relation to research and social learning theory.












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