Flashcards
Social Learning Theory
Flashcards do conjunto (50)
- 1What did Bandura and Walters (1963) believe?Aggression could not be explained using the traditional learning theory where only direct experience was seen as responsible for the acquisition of new behaviours.
- 2What does the Social learning theory (SLT) suggest?We also learn by observing others. We learn the specifics of aggressive behaviour (e.g. the form it takes, how often it is enacted, the situations that produce it and the targets towards which it is directed).
- 3What is this not to suggest?That biological factors are ignored.
- 4What does a person's biological make-up create?The potential for aggression and it is the actual expression of aggression that is learned.
- 5How do children primarily learn their aggressive behaviour?Through observation - watching the behaviour of role models and then imitating the behaviour.
- 6What does Skinner's operant conditioning theory claim?Learning takes place through direct reinforcement.
- 7Whereas what does Bandura suggest?Children can learn JUST by observing role models with whom they identify.
- 8What do children also observe and learn about?The consequences of aggressive behaviour by watching others either being reinforced of punished.
- 9What is this called?Indirect or vicarious reinforcement
- 10Where do children witness examples of aggressive behaviour?At home, at school, on the tv and in films.
- 11What does a child learn by observing the consequences of aggressive behaviour for those who use it?What is considered appropriate (and effective) conduct in the world around them.
- 12Thus what do they learn?The behaviours (through observation) and they also learn whether and when such behaviours are worth repeating (through vicarious reinforcement).
- 13What did Bandura (1986) claim?In order for social learning to take place, the child must form mental representations of events in their social environment.
- 14What must the child also do?Represent possible rewards and punishments for their aggressive behaviour in terms of expectancies of future outcomes.
- 15What will the child do when appropriate opportunities arise in the future?Display the learned behaviour as long as the expectation of reward is greater than the expectation of punishment.
- 16Production of behaviour comes from maintenance through direct experience. What will happen if a child is rewarded (gets what he wants or praised by others)?They are more likely to repeat the same action in similar situations in the future.
- 17What will a child who has a history of successfully bullying other children come to do?Attach considerable value to aggression.
- 18In addition to forming expectancies of the likely outcomes of their aggression, what have children also developed?Confidence in their ability to carry out necessary aggressive actions.
- 19What do children who have not been very good at carrying out aggressive actions in the past have?Have less confidence (lower sense of self-efficacy) in their ability to use aggression successfully resolve conflicts, and therefore may turn to other means.
- 20Where did research support for the predictions of the SLT come from?A series of studies by Bandura et al.
- 21What did the first experiment (1961) involve?Children observing aggressive and non-aggressive adult models and then being tested for imitative learning in the absence of the model.
- 22Who were the participants?Male and female children ages 3-5.
- 23What was the first step in the experiment?Half were exposed to adult models acting aggressively with a life-sized inflatable Bobo doll and half were exposed to models that were non-aggressive towards the doll.
- 24What did the aggressive model display?Distinctive physically aggressive acts towards to the doll e.g. striking it on the head with the mallet and kicking it about the room, accompanied by verbal aggression such as 'POW'.
- 25What happened following the exposure to the model?Children were frustrated by being shown attractive toys which they were not allowed to play with.
- 26Where were they then taken?To a room where among toys there was a Bobo doll.
- 27What did the children in the aggressive condition do?Reproduced a great deal of physically and verbally aggressive behaviour resembling that of the model.
- 28What did children in the non-aggressive condition do?They displayed virtually no aggression towards the doll.
- 29What did approximately one third of the children in the aggressive condition do?Repeat the model's verbal responses whilst none of the non-aggressive group made such remarks.
- 30Was there a gender difference in the imitation of aggressive behaviour?Boys reproduced more imitative physical aggression than girls but they did not differ in their imitation of verbal aggression.
- 31Although this study tells us that children do acquire aggressive responses as a result of watching others, what does it not tell us?Why children would be motivated to perform the same behaviours in the absence of the model.
- 32What did Bandura and Walters' find in a later study (1963)?Children who saw the model being rewarded for aggressive behaviour showed a high level of aggression in their own play. Those who saw the model punished showed low level of aggression while those in the no reward/punishment control group were somewhere in between these levels.
- 33What did Bandura call this type of learning?Vicarious learning as the children were learning about the likely consequences of actions and then adjusting their subsequent behaviour accordingly.
- 34Is there a validity issue with Bandura's studies?Demand characteristics - it is possible that the children know what is expected of them.
- 35What does Noble (1975) report that supports this validity issue?One child arriving at the lab said 'Look mummy, there's the doll we have to hit.'
- 36Is there ecological validity?The studies focus on aggression towards a doll (that can't hit back) as opposed to humans (who tend to hit back).
- 37What did Bandura do in response to this criticism?A film of a young women beating up a live clown. When the children went into the other room, there was a live clown. They proceeded to punch, kick and hit him with hammers and so on.
- 38What is research support for the role of punishment? Did the children in group 2 of Bandura's study show low levels of aggression because the punishment prevented learning or did the punishment prevent performance of behaviour?Bandura (1965) repeated the study but now after exposure to the model, offered rewards to all the children performing the model's aggressive behaviours.
- 39In this case, what happened?All three groups performed a similar number of imitative acts.
- 40What does this show?Learning takes place regardless of reinforcements but that production of behaviours is related to selective reinforcements.
- 41The studies have applied to children but does SLT explain adult behaviour as well?Phillips (1986) found that faily homicide rates in the US almost always increased in the week following a major boxing match.
- 42What does this suggest?Viewers were imitating behaviour they watched and that social learning is evident in adults as well as children.
- 43What is a major strength of the SLT?Unlike the operant conditioning theory, it can explain aggressive behaviour in the absence of direct reinforcement. Although Bandura's participants were behaved more aggressively after observing an aggressive model, at no point were they directly rewarded for any action. Consequently the concept of vicarious learning is necessary to explain these findings.
- 44What is a second strength of this theory?It can explain differences in aggressive and non-aggressive behaviour both between and within individuals.
- 45What does the 'culture of violence' theory (Wolfgang and Ferracuti, 1967) propose?In large societies, some subcultures develop norms that sanction violence to a greater degree than the dominant culture.
- 46What may some cultures emphasise and model?Non-aggressive behaviour, producing individuals that show low levels of aggression.
- 47Among the !Kung San of the Kalahari Desert, aggression is rare, why is this the case?Child rearing practices. When two children argue or fight, parents neither reward nor punish them, but physically separate them and try to distract their attention onto other things. Secondly parents don't use physical punishment and aggressive postures are no used by adults and devalued by society as a whole. The absence of direct reinforcement and aggressive models means there is little opportunity or motivation for !Kung San children to acquire aggressive behaviours.
- 48What can differences within individuals be related to?Selective reinforcement and context-dependent learning. People respond differently in different situations because they have observed that aggression is rewarded in some situations and not others i.e. they learn behaviours that are appropriate to particular contexts.
- 49Are there ethical issues?Exposing children to aggressive behaviour with the knowledge that they may reproduce it in their own behaviour raises ethical issues concerning the need to protect participants from physical and psychological harm.
- 50What does that mean as a result of these ethical issues?Experiments such as the Bobo doll study are no longer allowed to be carried out. Meaning that it is different to test experimental hypotheses about the social learning of aggressive behaviour and consequently difficult to establish the scientific credibility of the theory by this means.
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