Social learning

Social learning

1. It assumes that we learn through watching others

2. vicarious reinforcement

   • Is reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour
   • Only works with reinforcement, not punishment

3. Mediational processes

   • 1. Attention- the extent to which we notice certain behaviours
   • 2. Retention- how well the behaviour is remebered
   • 3. Motor reproduction- the ability of the observer to perform the behaviour
   • 4. Motivation- the will to perform the behaviour

4. Bandura's bobo doll experiement studys the effect of social learning theory on children

5. Weaknesses

   • It relies on evidence from lab experiments from which is ow in ecological validity
   • It underestimates the influence of biological factors, e.g. Bandura makes little reference to biological factors in his study

6. Strengths

   • It includes the cognitive approach, e.g. mediational factors