The Learning Approach - Social Learning Theory Flashcards
What is social learning theory?
Learning through observing others and imitating behaviours that are rewarded.
What is imitation?
The action of using someone or something as a model and copying that behaviour.
What is identification?
When an observer associates themselves with a role model and wants to be like that role model.
What is modelling?
From the observers perspective modelling is imitation the behaviour of a role model. From the role model’s perspective, modelling is the precise demonstration of a specific behaviour that may be imitated by an observer.
What is vicarious reinforcement?
Reinforcement which is not directly experienced but occurs through observing someone else being reinforced for a behaviour. This is a key factor in imitation.
What are mediational processes?
Cognitive factors (internal mental processes) that influence learning and lie between stimulus and response.
What are the key assumptions of the approach?
- we learn through observing other people (observational learning)
- SLT believes that learning occurs directly, through classical and operant conditioning but also indirectly (vicarious conditioning)
- we observe role models and imitate their behaviour (modelling)
- mediating cognitive factors lie between stimulus and response (ARRM)
- only study human learning rather than animal learning
- believe in using scientific, lab based experiments to study behaviour in an objective way
Whose behaviour are we more likely to imitate?
Those who we see as role models.
What is identification?
Identification is a form of attachment that is made to another person (the model) who has qualities that are seen as rewarding and we wish to acquire.
What is modelling?
Modelling refers to the process of copying the behaviours of the chosen person/people. This model acts as an example and models the behaviour.
Give the two types of models that we identify with and imitate
- live models - parents, teachers, friends
* symbolic models - anyone in the media
What factors may influence whether a person is likely to be selected as a model and imitated?
- age (similar to our own)
- popularity
- similarity
- attractiveness
- gender
What is the key difference of social learning theory from behaviourism?
The idea that mental processes (mediating cognitive factors) are involved in learning.
These processes lie between stimulus and response and allow us to be able to think about what we are going to do before we do it.
Do behaviourists believe that mediating cognitive factors lie between the stimulus and response?
No
Bandura identified 4 meditational processes in learning, what were they?
- Attention
- Retention
- Motor reproduction
- Motivation
Define the 4 mediational processes
- attention - in order to learn a behaviour we must first notice pay attention/notice the models behaviour.
- retention - the individual encodes and remembers what they have observed.
- motor reproduction - the observer must know they have the ability to perform the behaviour (self-efficacy = the strength of your belief in your own ability).
- motivation - the individual seeks to demonstrate the behaviour that have observed. Imitation is more likely if the behaviour is reinforced. This can be directly or indirectly (vicarious).
What do ‘attention’ and ‘retention’ in the mediational processes relate to in terms of behaviour?
They relate to the learning of behaviour
What do ‘motor reproduction’ and ‘motivation’ in the mediational processes relate to in terms of behaviour?
They relate to the performance of behaviour
How does the timing of the learning and performance differ to traditional behaviourism?
Unlike traditional behaviourism, the learning and performance need not occur together. Observed behaviours may be stored by the observer and reproduced at a later time.
Describe vicarious reinforcement
This is the reinforcement that the observer sees the model receiving, so they do not receive the reward themselves directly but see someone else receive it. Reinforcements such as rewards make behaviour more likely to happen again. With vicarious reinforcement the person learns by observing the consequences of another person’s behaviour, and when the opportunity to perform the learnt behaviour occurs the behaviour will be modelled.
How do social learning theorists study human behaviour?
Social learning theory shares with behaviourism a commitment to the scientific method and has mostly employed the laboratory experiment to investigate observational learning.
A distinguishing feature of the approach is that much of the research has been on people rather than animals. Also a lot of research focuses on aggression in people, especially how children learn to be aggressive.
What study researched observational or imitative learning in children?
Bandura’s Bobo doll study
Describe the method and findings of Bandura’s experiment
Group A. Children were put into a room, one at a time, with an adult who behaved in an aggressive way towards a bobo doll. The adult hit the doll with a hammer and shouted abuse at it.
Group B. One at a time children were put into a room where an adult behaved in a subdued non-aggressive way towards the doll.
Each child was then put into a playroom which contained toys including a bobo doll and a hammer. The researchers recorded the number of aggressive behaviours each child made toward the doll.
The results were that more aggressive acts were recorded for the children who had observed an adult behave aggressively than children who had not. Boys were generally more aggressive than girls.
We can conclude that exposure to a model behaving aggressively results in observational learning and aggressive behaviour.
What are the most commonly used research methods used by social learning theorists?
Laboratory experiments
