Social learning theory

1. Social Learning Theory and
Reciprocal determinism
by Albert Bandura

2. Biography of
Albert Bandura
• Born on December 4, 1925
• Only boy in a family of five older sisters.
• Encouraged by his sisters to be independent.
• After graduating from high school, he spent a
summer in the Yukon working on the Alaska
Highway. This experience brought him into contact
with a variety of fellow workers, which several of
them manifested various degrees of psyhopathology
• His decision to become a psychologist was quite
accidental.
• Completed his master’s degree in 1951 and a PhD
in Clinical Psychology in 1952 at University of Iowa.
• Most of his early publications were in clinical
psychology, dealing primarily with psychotherapy
and the Rorschach test.
• Currently, he holds the David Starr Jordan
Professorship of Social Science in Psychology at
Stanford University.

3. Social Learning Theory
• Defined as a process in which individuals
observe behavior of others and its
consequences and modify their own
behavior accordingly.

4. Three core concepts of Social Learning
Theory
• People can learn through observation.
• Mental states are important to learning.
• Learning does not necessarily lead to a
change in behavior.

5. Observational Learning
• Observation allows people to learn without
performing any behavior
• Learning through observing the behavior of
other people
• Although reinforcement facilitates learning,
Bandura says that it is not a necessary condition
for it.
• Observational learning is much more efficient
than learning through direct experience.

6. Modeling
• Core of observational learning.
• Involves cognitive processes and is not simply mimicry
or imitation.
• Involves symbolically representing information and
storing it for use at a future time.
• People are more likely to model high status,
competent and powerful individuals.
• People who lack status, skill or power are most likely
to model.
• The consequences of the behavior being modeled
may have an effect on the observer. The greater the
value and observer places on behavior, the more likely
the observer will acquire that behavior.

7. The Bobo Doll Experiment
• Bandura demonstrated that young children would imitate the
violent and aggressive actions of an adult model.
• In the experiment, children observed a film in which an adult
repeatedly hit a large, inflatable balloon doll.
• After viewing the film clip, children were allowed to play in a
room with a real Bobo doll just like the one they saw in the
film.
• Bandura found was that children were more likely to imitate
the adult's violent actions when the adult either received no
consequences or when the adult was actually rewarded for
their violent actions.
• Children who saw film clips in which the adult was punished
for this aggressive behavior were less likely to repeat the
behaviors later on.

8. Criticisms of the Bobo Doll Experiment
• Because the experiment took place in a lab setting, some critics
suggest that results observed in this type of location may not be
indicative of what takes place in the real world.
• The study might suffer from selection bias. All participants were
drawn from a narrow pool of students who share the same racial
and socioeconomic background. This makes it difficult to generalize
the results to a larger, more diverse population.
• Acting violently toward a doll is a lot different that displaying
aggression or violence against another human being in a real world
setting.
• Some critics argue that the study itself is unethical. By manipulating
the children into behaving aggressively, they argue, the
experimenters were essentially teaching the children to be
aggressive.

9. Process Governing Observational
Learning
•ATTENTION- One can’t learn unless he pays reasonable
close attention to what is happening around him.
•RETENTION- One must not only attend to the observed
behavior but also remember it at some later time.
•BEHAVIORAL REPRODUCTION- One must be capable
of doing the act.
•MOTIVATION- People are most likely to imitate those that
they see are rewarded for their behavior and those whom
they like to have similarities with or value more.

10. Enactive Learning
• Every response a person makes is followed by
some consequences.
• Bandura believes that complex human behavior
can be learned when people think about and
evaluate the consequences of their behaviors.
• Response consequences inform us of the effects
of our actions.
• Consequences of our responses motivate our
anticipatory behavior.
• Consequences of responses serve to reinforce
behavior.

11. Reciprocal Determinism

12. Reciprocal Determinism
• Human action is a result of an interaction among
three variables- environment, behavior and
person.
• Although cognition can have a strong causal
effect on both environment and behavior, it is not
an autonomous entity, independent of those two
variables.
• Bandura uses the term “reciprocal” to indicate
triadic interaction of forces. The three reciprocal
factors do not need to be equal strength or to
make equal contributions.

13. Strengths and Weaknesses
• Strengths:
► Change in environment, change in the child
► Different ways of learning
• Weaknesses:
► What about accountability?
► Ignoring stages of child development