Social Learning Theory
- Created by: r
- Created on: 11-09-14 18:47
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- Social Learning Theory
- AO1
- Bandura believed that aggression could not be explained using the traditional learning theory.
- SLT suggest that we learn by observing others
- Observation
- Children primarily learn their aggressive responses through observation - watching the behavior of the role model them imitating it.
- Skinner's Operant conditioning theory claimed that learning takes place through direct reinforcement, Bandura suggested that the children learn just by observing the models.
- Vicarious Learning
- Children also observe and learn about the consequences of aggressive behavior by watching others being reinforced or punished.
- Children witness many examples of aggressive behavior at home and at school as well as in films and T.V.
- By observing the consequences of aggressive behavior, a child gradually learns what is considered appropriate and what isnt
- Thus the children learn the behaviors (through observations) and they learn whether and when such behaviors are worth repeating (through vicarious learning)
- Mental Representation
- Bandura (1986) claimed in order for social learning to take place, the child must form mental representations of the events in their social environment.
- The child must also represent possible rewards and punishments for their aggressive behavior in terms of expediencies of future outcomes.
- When appropriate opportunities arise in the future, the child will display the learned behavior as long as the rewards is greater than the punishment
- Production of behavior
- Maintainence through direct experience
- If a child is rewarded for a behavior, he or she is likely to repeat the same action in similar situations in the future.
- A child who has a history of successfully bullying other children will therefore come to attach considerable value to aggression.
- Self - Efficacy Expectancies
- Children develop confidence in their ability to carry out the necessary aggressive action.
- Children who haven't has a successful history/ weren't very good at displaying aggressive behavior have less confidence.
- Those children with less confidence (lower sense of self - efficacy) in their ability to use aggression successfully to resolve conflicts may turn to other means.
- Maintainence through direct experience
- Bandura believed that aggression could not be explained using the traditional learning theory.
- AO2
- Research Support
- The Role Of Punishment
- Bandura (1965) repeated The Bobo Doll Experiment but now, after exposure to the model, offered rewards to all the children imitating the models aggressive behavior.
- In this case all three groups performed a similar number of imitative acts.
- This shows that learning does take place regardless of reinforcements BUT the production of the behaviors is related to selective reinforcements.
- Applicability To Adults
- Phillips (1986) found that daily homicide rates in the US almost always increased in the week following a major boxing match.
- This suggest that the viewers were imitating the behavior witnessed and that social learning is evident in adults as well as children.
- The Role Of Punishment
- Strengths
- The Role of Vicarous Learning
- It can explain aggressive behavior in the absence of direct reinforcement.
- Although participants behaved more aggressively after observing an aggressive model, at no point were the children rewarded for any action
- Individual Differences In Aggressive Behavior
- It can explain differences in aggressive and non-aggressive behavior both between and within individuals.
- The Role of Vicarous Learning
- Cultural Differences
- SLT can be used to explain cultural differences.
- Among the !Kung San of the Kalahari Desert, aggression is comparatively rare.
- This is because of child rearing practices, when the children argue, they just separate them and distract them.
- They also do not reward or reinforce them and aggression is devalued by the society as a whole.
- Research Support
- IDA
- Ethical issues make it hard to test SLT experimentally.
- Exposing children to aggressive behavior with the knowledge that they may reproduce it raises ethical issues.
- It is exposing the children to physical and psychological harm.
- As a result, experimental studies such as The Bobo Doll study would no longer be allowed to take place.
- This means that it is difficult to test the experimental hypotheses about aggressive behavior, consequently difficult to establish the scientific credibility of the theory.
- AO1
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