Social Learning Theory (SLT)
This theory was developed by Bandura and says that learning occurs through observation, imitation and modelling. According to Bandura people learn through watching others ‘monkey see, monkey do’ this is called observational learning.
This occurs in a number of stages:
The behaviour is modelled by a role model. Characteristics of a role model are often that they are the same sex as the observer, have higher
status to the observer and are older than the observer.
The observer identifies with the role model and sees the behaviour the role model is doing (observation)
The observer retains the information they saw, and then imitation occurs. This is where the observer copies the behaviour they have seen – this may depend on an individual’s abilities in doing the behaviour.
Imitation may also be affected by motivation – if a reward has been witnessed after the modelling it is more likely the behaviour will be repeated.
Vicarious reinforcement is when individuals learn by watching the consequences of others e.g. a child is misbehaving and sees other children who are behaving getting sweets, they will then copy this behaviour so they too can get the reward.
There are 4 aspects to vicarious reinforcement
Modelling effect: observer carriers out a behaviour they would not have done before seeing it modelled
Eliciting effect: the observer copies the behaviour but slightly differently
Disinhibiting effect: someone carries out a behaviour they would not normally do after seeing someone else do it with no negative
consequences
Inhibitory effect: someone does not do a behaviour because they see a role model being punished for the behaviour
Strengths
+ Great deal of strong experimental evidence - Bandura’s bobo doll study found children imitate same sex role models +
+ Practical applications e.g. introducing positive role models; having age restrictions on video games and films so children are not exposed to undesirable behaviour
Weaknesses
- Lack of validity – behaviour may have been learnt but not exhibited immediately. Lab studies only show what happens within a limit time, so it may appear behaviour has/has not been learnt yet it may be displayed later.
- Studies often carried out on animals, difficult to generalise to humans
This theory was developed by Bandura and says that learning occurs through observation, imitation and modelling. According to Bandura people learn through watching others ‘monkey see, monkey do’ this is called observational learning.
This occurs in a number of stages:
The behaviour is modelled by a role model. Characteristics of a role model are often that they are the same sex as the observer, have higher
status to the observer and are older than the observer.
The observer identifies with the role model and sees the behaviour the role model is doing (observation)
The observer retains the information they saw, and then imitation occurs. This is where the observer copies the behaviour they have seen – this may depend on an individual’s abilities in doing the behaviour.
Imitation may also be affected by motivation – if a reward has been witnessed after the modelling it is more likely the behaviour will be repeated.
Vicarious reinforcement is when individuals learn by watching the consequences of others e.g. a child is misbehaving and sees other children who are behaving getting sweets, they will then copy this behaviour so they too can get the reward.
There are 4 aspects to vicarious reinforcement
Modelling effect: observer carriers out a behaviour they would not have done before seeing it modelled
Eliciting effect: the observer copies the behaviour but slightly differently
Disinhibiting effect: someone carries out a behaviour they would not normally do after seeing someone else do it with no negative
consequences
Inhibitory effect: someone does not do a behaviour because they see a role model being punished for the behaviour
Strengths
+ Great deal of strong experimental evidence - Bandura’s bobo doll study found children imitate same sex role models +
+ Practical applications e.g. introducing positive role models; having age restrictions on video games and films so children are not exposed to undesirable behaviour
Weaknesses
- Lack of validity – behaviour may have been learnt but not exhibited immediately. Lab studies only show what happens within a limit time, so it may appear behaviour has/has not been learnt yet it may be displayed later.
- Studies often carried out on animals, difficult to generalise to humans