Social Learning Theories

How it happened

• Behaviourists: everything is really just conditioning, we're just machiiiines
• Bandura: nuh uh
• and thus social learning theory was born

Limitation of Behaviourism

• Bandura: all y'all fools forgot somethin
• Behaviourists: wut
• Bandura: we like... think and stuff
• Social Learning Theory takes into account mental events

Individual differences

• Bandura: so if your personality is just a bunch of learned habits
• Behaviourists: yeah
• Bandura: then like individual diffs??? Like wouldn't siblings basically be like the same??? But they're not???
• Behaviourists: o shit
• people have different cognitive processes, which cause differences in behaviour

Triadic reciprocal determination

• ha say that five times fast
• actually do it might help you remember
• Personal differences, behaviour, and environment ALL influence each other.
• so you have some control over your environment, just like the environment has control over you :D
• psychological processes & environment interact -> PERSONALITY

Symbolic thinking

• you ever think about doing something and then you're like... wait mom would actually kill me, so you don't do it?
• you're thinking SYMBOLICALLY (you're making mental representations of your behaviour & the consequences, by imagining them)
• this helps you predict consequences, and change your behaviour to keep yourself out of trouble

Observational learning

• aka vicarious experience
• watch & repeat
• but you don't mimic everything you see, right? only if:
• you're not really confident about what to do
• the person doing it is like you, or seems better than you
• the person doing it gets something good out of it

Gergely, Bekkering & Kiraly (2002)

• 14 month olds watch a model turn on the light with his forehead
• if the model's hands were bound (COULDN'T use his hands even if he wanted to) -> only 21% of infants mimic him (by using their forehead)
• if the model's hands WEREN'T bound (he could use his hands but he CHOSE not to) -> 69% of infants mimic

Self-efficacy beliefs

• LOW: I can't do it
• HIGH: yes i can fuck you
• (it's more specific to like a task/domain rather than a general attitude)

Low efficacy beliefs

• when things get hard, they'll give up or stop putting in effort
• when they fail, they'll blame it on their inadequacy
• they focus more on how much they suck than how to do the task (self-diagnostic focus)
• stress & depression

High efficacy beliefs

• seek challenges, don't see them as threat
• focus on how to do the task (task-diagnostic focus)
• when they fail, they figure they didn't try hard enough
• less stress & depression

Locus of control (Julian Rotter)

• so if self-efficacy is task-specific (and it is), locus of control is general
• your perception of control
• INTERNAL: you control things via your own behaviour
• EXTERNAL: you're at the mercy of a higher power, luck, other other people

Learning locus of control

• your locus of control is determined by your learning experiences (no shit)
• things you've done/how you've done them (performance accomplishment)
• vicarious experiences
• verbal persuasion (people telling you)
• emotional arousal (idk tbh)