The Learning Approach: Social Learning Theory

The Learning Approach: Social Learning Theory

1. ASSUMPTIONS

   • combines principles from both the behaviourist and cognitive approach
   • concerned with human behaviour rather than animal
   • people are active manipulators of their own environment
     • they are not passive receivers of experience
   • learning occurs through observation of role models
   • observational learning can take place without reinforcement
   • reinforcement may be direct or indirect
     • vicarious reinforcement
   • processes occurring between stimulus and response
     • cognitive processes
       • memory
     • mediational processes
   • much of human behaviour is learned in interpersonal situations

2. STRENGTHS

   • based on lab experiments
     • scientific
     • reliable
   • less deterministic and reductionist than other approaches
   • explains the learning of complex behaviours
     • eg. aggression

3. WEAKNESSES

   • ignores the role of biology
     • 'all behaviour is learned'
   • lacks ecological validity
     • lab experiments are artificial
   • concentrates mostly on external behaviour

4. ALBERT BANDURA

   • proposed SLT as a development of the behaviourist approach
   • classical and operant conditioning cannot account for all human processes

5. CASE STUDIES

   • the bobo doll experiment
     • process
       • 3-5 year olds
         • observed an adult beat the bobo doll
         • observed an adult not beating the bobo doll
     • results
       • children who observed an adult beating the bobo doll imitated that behaviour
         • more so if same sex
       • children who observed an adult not beating the bobo doll imitated that behaviour
     • conclusion
       • mediating cognitive factors must be intervening between observation and behaviour
         • thinking
         • ie. there is something in between stimulus and response
     • lab experiment
   • 1960's
   • Albert Bandura

6. SLT forms a bridge between behaviourism and cognitive

   • behaviourism
     • emphasis on learning
     • importance of environmental influece
   • cognitive
     • there are internal mental processes

7. MODELS

   • live model
     • people who are presented in our environment
       • teachers
   • symbolic model
     • people who are presented in the media
       • celebrities

8. MODELLING

   • for modelling to occur there must be:
     • attention
       • noticing the behaviour
     • retention
       • remembering the info
     • motor reproduction
       • it has to be physically possible
     • motivation
       • they has to be a reason to want to copy the role model

9. ON GOING DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIOUR

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