The Social Learning Evaluation

The Social Learning Evaluation

1. Strength

   • Explains the neglect of thinking processes
     • It can explain a range of processes that behaviourism has difficulties with especially behaviours that emerge without the person that produces them being directly conditioned. It has contributed to our understanding of processes like aggression and gender development and has formed the basis of treatments for problems like phobias. (Model based therapies)

2. Weakness

   • Can't account for environmental factors
     • It doesn't take into account individual differences between gender, sex and behaviour that reflect genetic ways in which social learning theory takes no account.

3. Strength and weakness

   • Reliability however relies on research
     • It is reliable and allows a cause and effect to be drawn,however this does raise the criticism that it relies heavily on research conducted in rather artificial settings, for example critics argue in Bandura's studies there were significant influence of demand characteristics.