Social Learning Theory Albert Bandura

Learning Outcomes To describe Social Learning Theory and the stages involved.

Children see, children do hw hw

What is it? What assumptions do social learning theorist make? Social learning theorists share many assumptions with behaviourists, particularly the belief that people are shaped in fundamental ways by their environment through learning processes. Social learning theorists also acknowledge that classical and operant conditioning are an important influence on human behaviour. However, they add to these learning processes a third: observational learning. They believe people learn by observing others and therefore that other people (the social environment) are particularly important as an influence on behaviour. With the emphasis on observational learning comes a belief that it is impossible to explain human behaviour without considering the role of internal, mental processes in human behaviour, something that behaviourists reject.

It has been estimated that a child entering secondary school will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 other violent acts on TV. Eron (1995)

Behaviourism SR Behaviourists aren’t interested in what happens in between S and R. They don’t think you need to know.

Social learning theory SRO Social Learning Theorists say that things take place within the organism that mediate between S and R. You do need to know about the person’s mental processes.

Social learning theory Agrees with behaviourist learning theories – Classical conditioning – Operant conditioning Adds two important ideas: – Mediating processes between stimuli & responses – Observational learning

Social Learning Theory Key Terms Observational Learning Vicarious (Indirect) Reinforcement Vicarious (Indirect) Punishment Model Imitation Mental Representation (Cognition)

The important processes to remember… Acquisition of behaviour… Performing the behaviour…

Identification… …not all behaviour is imitated. There needs to be some quality or characteristic in the role model that a person wants to imitate. Individuals tend to identify with same- sex role models Bussey & Bandura, 1984). Rab C Nesbitt…that’s a lovely string vest… Sportacus from Lazy Town…encouraging children to exercise and eat ‘sports candy…! Who makes the better role model? Who would your role models be?

Role model behaviour is then… …reproduced, copied or imitated I want to be like Mummy I want to catch the bad guys Not all behaviour is imitated. There needs to be something about the model that a person wants to copy. There also needs to be: Self-efficacy Reinforcement

The behaviour needs to produce positive outcomes… Unlikely to reproduce a behaviour where the role-model has a negative experience (Vicarious); Or where the person imitating the behaviour is punished (Direct). There also needs to be the belief that the person is capable of imitating the behaviour (self-efficacy) & that they identify with the role model.

Four Conditions to Social Learning Attention: the behaviour needs to be modelled by someone that one wants to imitate. Retention: the modelled behaviour needs to be remembered. Reproduction: try out the behaviour. Need to believe that you are capable of copying the behaviour. Motivation: there needs to be a reason to repeat the behaviour, either because it is someone that you admire or because the modelled behaviour was rewarded in some way.

Mediating factors What is the observer paying attention to? How effectively have they encoded the behaviour? How able are they to reproduce the behaviour? Do they have the motivation to perform the behaviour?

Model Characteristics Age Gender Status

Recap of the 4 stages + vicarious

5 stages of learning by observation 1.Modelling Behaviour is modelled by a role model E.g. sports person, actor, parent, peer Who is your role model? SLT  someone who is similar to you  Someone who you think is important/prestigious

2. Identification The observer identifies with the role model, i.e. notices the similarities between them 3. Observation The behaviour that the role model demonstrates is observed and stored in memory

4. Imitation The observer imitates the role model’s behaviour *learning by observation* – The observer has learned to produce certain behaviours by observing another person

5. Vicarious reinforcement Vicarious = indirect Observing how much and what type of reinforcement the role model receives for their behaviour Affects whether the observer will adopt behaviours Much positive vicarious reinforcement  observer repeats behaviour Vicarious punishment  observer does not repeat behaviour

Social learning theory and gender development L.O. To understand how gender develops in terms of social learning theory.

According to SLT... Gender is learned by observing and imitating others; At birth, girls & boys are psychologically the same; Gender differences are learned through the differences in the ways boys & girls are treated.

What did other research find…? Idle et al(1993)… Fagot (1985)… McGhee and Frueh (1980)… Eccles (1987)… Pfost & Fiore (1990)… Lots of TV = strong gender stereotypes. Okay for men to have feminine roles but not for women to take masculine roles. Fathers want their sons to play with masculine toys, mothers don’t worry about it so much. Teachers praise boys for being clever & girls for being tidy. Peers more critical of boys being feminine than girls being masculine.

The important processes to remember… Acquisition of behaviour… Performing the behaviour…

Gender is developed by…. Identifying with people who model gender behaviour. What does this mean if you have a mum who works and a dad who stays at home?

Identification… …not all behaviour is imitated. There needs to be some quality or characteristic in the role model that a person wants to imitate. Individuals tend to identify with same-sex role models Bussey & Bandura, 1984). Rab C Nesbitt…that’s a lovely string vest… Sportacus from Lazy Town…encouraging children to exercise and eat ‘sports candy…! Who makes the better role model? Who would your role models be?

Role model behaviour is then… …reproduced, copied or imitated I want to be like Mummy I want to catch the bad guys Not all behaviour is imitated. There needs to be something about the model that a person wants to copy. There also needs to be: Self-efficacy Reinforcement

The behaviour needs to produce positive outcomes… Unlikely to reproduce a behaviour where the role-model has a negative experience (Vicarious); Or where the person imitating the behaviour is punished (Direct). There also needs to be the belief that the person is capable of imitating the behaviour (self-efficacy) & that they identify with the role model.

If a behaviour is repeated often enough it becomes…. ….internalised. It becomes part of the individuals identity. Gender identity is not simply one behaviour but a mixture of all the modelled behaviour that one has been exposed to & and that have been imitated and reinforced. Remember that SLT sees our social learning as an ongoing process. Experience changes the behaviour that one chooses to display. This is why gender is seen as a social construct. We are not born with it, we do not learn it once and then stick to it but modify our behaviour depending on our age, social situation etc. This would explain why, as society has changed the acceptable gender roles within society have also changed e.g. women becoming more assertive, men becoming more caring/nurturing

Social learning & gender Attention Encoding ImitationMotivation Child attends to a gender role model They learn gender- relevant behaviour They practice the behaviour themselves They may imitate if reinforcement is available

Social learning & gender Where will the child find suitable people to act as gender role models? What types of vicarious reinforcement and punishment may motivate the child (not) to imitate?

Gender role models Parents/carers Siblings Peers TV, films, magazines, Internet Educational materials

Behaviour is observed Behaviour is imitated Behaviour is reinforced Behaviour is repeated Behaviour is internalised Ongoing development of gender behaviour Behaviour is displayed by role model considered to be worth imitating – identification There needs to be self- efficacy – the behaviour can be imitated If the behaviour is punished it won’t be reinforced Provided the outcomes are positive Becomes part of the persons repertoire of behaviours