Bandura

Bandura

1. Social learning theory/social cognitive theory

   • Social learning theory suggests that children learn through conditioning and by observing others. This is sometimes referred to as observational learning
     • One feature of observational learning is that it is spontaneous; children will learn through watching other rather than being shown or taught to do something

2. Bandura's bobo doll experiment

   • Showed that children can learn behaviour by watching adults
   • He showed a film to three groups of children. the film showed an adult in a room with a bobo doll. Each group saw a different variation of the behaviour of the adult
     • Group A saw the adult acting aggressively towards the doll
     • Group B saw the adult being aggressive towards the doll but at the end of he film the adult was rewarded with sweets and lemonade by another adult
     • Group C saw the adult being aggressive towards the doll but at the end of he film another adult appeared and told off the adult
     • At the end of the film each child took turn in the play room which had a variety of toys including the bobo doll. Children in group C were least aggressive towards the doll but there was little difference between group A and B
       • This suggested that children were less influenced by the reward that had been offered to the adult than they were by the behaviour of the adult they observed

3. Social cognitive theory

   • Children do not learn everything that is modelled so it is clear that certain elements must be present
     • Bandura suggests that there are several conditions that are required in order for children to be able to learn from watching others
       • Attention
         • Children need to be interested enough to pay attention and to notice what the adult or other children are doing. They have to focus on the right elements and avoid distraction or anything irrelevant
           • For example; an adult may stop and blow their nose whilst logging onto the computer, but the blowing of the nose is irrelevant to the process. Being able to filter out the irrelevant and focus attention is a skill that develops over time
       • Encoding and retrieving information
         • In order for us to learn, information has to be encoded into the long-term memory so that it can be retrieved. The processes that allow us to encode and retrieve memories are still developing during childhood. Situations that are very complex to understand are, therefore more difficult for children to learn from
       • Opportunity to reproduce actions
         • Children also need to be in the position where they can replicate what they have seen. For instance, a child sees an adult tidying away toys - but they need an opportunity to join in
       • Physical skill
         • A sufficient level of physical skill might also be necessary
           • For example; a two-year-old child may see an adult cut a piece of paper along a line, but the child's fine motor skills may not have developed sufficiently to allow them to learn from this
       • Motivation
         • Children need to be interested and motivated to try out what they have learned. They may also have seen that an action results in a reinforcer, such as admiration from others
           • For example a six-year-old child may notice during a PE lesson that other children laugh at a boy who makes silly sounds and be motivated to try this out in order to provoke a similar response