Social Learning Theory

Social Learning Theory

1. Albert Bandura

   • Psychology degree in 1949
     • University of British Columbia
   • Small Canadian town
     • December 4th 1925
       • He is now 89 years old
   • 1952 he got his Ph.D. in clinical psychology
   • 1952 began teaching at Stanford University

2. What is the approach ?

   • The importance of observational learning
   • The importance of imitation
   • The importance of Modeling
   • Children learn from watching their surrounding so are heavily influenced by parents and other adults in their life.

3. Basic social learning concepts

   • Observational learning
     • In his famous bobo doll experiment we see that children learn and imitate behaviour they have observed in other people
     • Basic models of observation
       • A live model, an actual individual demonstrating or acting out a behaviour
       • A verbal model, which involves discriptions and explanations of a behaviour
       • A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters disblaying behaviours in books, film, t.v. programs or online media
   • Mental states are important to learning
     • Intrinsic Reinforcement
   • Learning does not necessarily lead to a change in behaviour