Social Learning Approach

1] Human learning of behaviour takes place in a social context & needs to take account of the importance of other people in the learning process.
2] The most important way in which we learn is from our observations of people & the rewards/punishments given for certain behaviour.
3] Other people act as 'models' for the observer & characteristics of the model influence whether or not the behaviour is imitated by the observer
4] Observing behaviour doesn't mean performance of that behaviour as social conditions have to be right for the learned behaviour to be performed.
5] Language & other forms of symbolism allow people to turn experience into conscious thought, reflect & plan future behaviour.
Bandura (1991) claims that because of our ability to be reflective & have self-consciousness we are able to decide what behaviour to perform.
1. The terms 'belief', 'anticipation', 'goals', 'plan' & 'desired outcomes' emphasise the central role of conscious cognitions in human behaviour.
  1. Bandura therefore takes account of the person's social environment, cognition & actual behaviour performed.
    1. Bandura named the interaction of these three factors reciprocal determinism.
      1. Behaviour
        Internal or cognitive factors (beliefs, thoughts, expections
        External or situation factors (rewards, punishments)
      2. Each influences the other in determining the actual behaviour.
      3. While he used the word determinism, he believes that people are able to exercise a degree of free will in deciding how to behave.
        He called this personal agency. This is the basic belief we have that we are able to change things & make life better for ourselves.
        The term collective agency is where a group with shared interests can come together with the object of changing all their lives for the better.
The SL approach is the dominant approach to human learning since it takes account of the role of cognitive processes to explain why we behave as we do
1. STRENGTHS
  1. TSL places cognitions & thought processes at the centre of learning.
    1. Bandura recognised that neither classical conditioning nor operant conditioning could adequately account for learning in humans,
  2. Employs carefully controlled scientific experiments to investigate observational learning & imitation of behaviour of a model.
  3. Concept of self-efficacy has been widely adopted by psychologists & is used in many applied areas such as health & sport psychology.
    1. Therapeutic techniques have been developed to raise levels of self-efficacy in people who lack confidence to behave in certain ways.
  4. Regards human behaviour as complex but rational, & able to be explained and understood. There are no hidden unconscious conflicts like psychodynamics.
  5. Bandura adopts a compromise position with respect to free will & determinism.
    1. People are ration & capable of some degree of free choice; at the same time they are controlled to some extent by environmental forces.
      1. Therefore people are seen to be responsible for their own behaviour.
2. WEAKNESSES
  1. Does not pay much attention to the role of biology and heredity in human behaviour, particularly with aggressive behaviour e.g. testosterone.
  2. Doesn't deal very fully with aspects of human development, particularly child development. e.g. hormones & influence on behaviour & maturation.
  3. Does not deal with internal mental conflicts that people have and regularly experience.
    1. This contrasts to the psychodynamic approach which places both conscious & unconscious mental conficts at the heart of its theories.
  4. Some of the early experiments investigating aggression in children would be deemed unethical. It's very doubtful the BPS would permit such studies now
MEDIATIONAL PROCESSES IN LEARNING, MOTIVATION & PERFORMANCE.
1. A person may learn a behaviour but not perform or enact the behaviour unless the appropriate social situation comes along.
  1. The main determinant of whether a behaviour is performed depends on the perceived rewards/punishments for the person in a specific social situation.
    1. The person has to believe that the performance of the learned behaviour will lead to desired outcomes & be rewarded (reciprocal determinism).
      1. Bandura's concept of self-efficacy develops these ideas more fully:
        "people's belief about their capabilites to exercise control over events which affect their lives."
        It is about how you perceive yourself & the confidence you have that you can behave in certain ways to achieve goals & desired outcomes.
        He suggested that self-efficacy develops & changes over the lifespan of an individual.
        Evidence showing that it is related to: achieving weight loss through dieting, getting high grades, job satisfaction, coping with trauma & sports.
        He found that people with high levels of self-efficacy:
        Set themselves challenging goals & high standards, are adventurous, overcome setbacks & are less likely to suffer from anxiety or depressive disorders
        FACTOR: performance accomplishments. DESCRIPTION: past experiences of success. LEVEL OF SELF-EFFICACY: high.
        FACTOR: vicarious experience. DESCRIPTION: seeing other people being successful. LEVEL OF SELF-EFFICACY: high.
        FACTOR: verbal persuasion. DESCRIPTION: other people telling us we cannot do something. LEVEL OF SELF-EFFICACY: low.
        FACTOR: emotion arousal. DESCRIPTION: very high level of anxiety. LEVEL OF SELF-EFFICACY: low.
        Level of self efficacy is a product of past experience, comparison of self with performance of others & social influence (other's telling us we can)
        Self-efficacy has been applied to the areas of personality differences, health psychology, performance at sport etc.
From the bobo doll experiment he drew the conclusion that learning takes place from watching other people & that behaviour results from imitation.
1. Bandura (1977) regarded observational learning to be a 4 stage process.
  1. STAGE 1: attentional process: model features. Observer motivation.
    1. STAGE 2: retention processes: behaviour encoded using language or imagery.
      1. STAGE 3: motor reproduction processes: ability of the observer to perform the behaviour.
        STAGE 4: motivational processes: rewards and punishments determine if behaviour is performed.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING & VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT
1. Observing how other people behave in specific social situations & learning behaviour in this way is called observational learning.
2. Vicarious reinforcement is when an observer perceives another person being rewarded or reinforced for performing a behaviour.
  1. There are a number of cognitive processes taking place here:
    1. observer's perception that the model is getting a reward, observer remembering the social situation, the expectation of being rewarded if imitated
      1. & also the observer values the reward gained by the model & wishes to recieve that type of reward themselves.
3. There's also such thing as vicarious punishment where the likelihood of the behaviour of the model is reduced.
Bandura identified 3 main characteristics of the model which have an influence on the observer:
1. 1] The more similar the model is seen to be by the observer, the higher the likelihood that the observer will imitate the behaviour e.g. age, sex
2. 2] Simple and easy-to-imitate behaviour is more likely to be copied by the observer. Complex is less likely to be copied.
3. 3] Aggressive and antisocial behaviour is more likely to be imitated by the observer than non-aggressive.
4. A person with a high level of self-efficacy are confident that they can imitate behaviour in appropriate social situations.
  1. They're also more confident about imitating complex behaviours. The reverse is the case for people with low self-efficacy.
5. Imitation of behaviour is an active process as it requires higher cognitions such as consciousness & perception.
  1. The term fore-thought is used as people anticipate reinforcements for behaving in a certain way. This anticipation of reward also motivates the person

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Social Learning Approach

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	Created by framingsammie about 11 years ago