social learning theory Flashcards
Banduras study weakness - ignores biological differences between boys and girls
*bandura ignored biological differences between boys and girls
*bandura found that boys imitated much more imitative agression more agressive gun play and more non imitative gun play
*this may be explained by boys having more testosterone which has been linked to increased agressiveness
Why does banduras study not show long term effects ?
The demonstrations are measured almost immediately. With such snap shot studies, we cannot discover if such a single exposure can have long-term effects.
it doesnt show if learning through modelling affects behaviour in the long term
Cumberrbatchs criticism of bandura
Cumberbatch (1990) found that children who had not played with a Bobo Doll before were five times as likely to imitate the aggressive behaviour than those who were familiar with it; he claims that the novelty value of the doll makes it more likely that children will imitate the behaviour.
Why does bandura lack ecological validity?
*The situation involves the child and an adult model, which is a very limited social situation and there is no interaction between the child and the model at any point
*the model and the child are strangers. This, of course, is quite unlike ‘normal’ modelling, which often takes place within the family.
*it doesnt represent how children would be agressive in day to day situations
*ps may have delibirately acted more aggressively towards the doll to please the experimenter - demand characteristics
What are the limitations of banduras study?
lack ecological validity
cumberbatch
long term effects not shown
Why is bandura replicable
lab experiment - standardised procedures and instructions were used
The study can easily be replicated by following the same standardised procedures
Why does bandura have high internal validity?
lab experiment
high control over extrenous variables
e.g:
gender of model
time children observed model for
behaviour of model
Why can banduras study show cause and effect?
It can be demonstrated that the model did have an effect on behaviour because all other variables other than the independent variable ( type of role model) was controlled
What are the strengths of bandura?
replicable
high internal validity
cause and effect can be shown
What are the practical applications of slt?
SLT promoted positive role models for children and has been applied in the media through age ratings for films and games
it is useful for understanding how cultural norms may be transmitted through particular societies and so its useful in explaining a range of different behaviours
Why is it a weakness that SLT involves cognitions ?
A deeper problem with SLT is that is involves bringing in cognitions -
thought processes, which are unobservable.
The old Behaviourist school of psychology only studied observable behaviour and focussed on Classical and Operant Conditioning.
By including cognitions, Bandura is moving SLT away from behaviourism and into a less scientific, more subjective territory.
Why does social learning theory lack generalisability ?
*Much of the research into SLT is carried out on children or animals.
*This is because it is difficult to put adult humans into controlled situations with realistic role models.
*There may be a problem generalising findings from children or animals to adult humans.
*They may not be representative samples.
However,monkeys and chimpanzeesare quite closeto humansin evolutionary terms so you would expect them to learn in similar ways.
*children also have enough similarity to adults in the way they learn to make this research credible.
What are the weaknesses of social learning theory ?
Lacks generalisability - can’t apply to humans
Involves bringing in cognitions
What does slt explain that behaviourism can’t ?
The greatest strength of SLT is that it explains things that Behaviourism cannot.
Behaviourism focussed on Classical and Operant Conditioning.
This struggled to explain how humans learn complex behaviour so quickly.
SLT proposes that huge “chunks” of behaviour can be learned “in one go” through observation and imitation.
Cook and mineka - monkeys and observational learning
Observational learning has also been noticed in animals like monkeys.
Cook & Mineka (1990) had monkeys watch a video of another monkey reacting with fear to a snake.
When the observer-monkeys had a chance to get food, they would not if it involved approaching a snake or a snake-like object (toy snakes).
