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Social Learning Theory

Alexis Kortan

Educational Psychology

April 10, 2017

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura once said, “In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to

struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” There are

many other things we need other than self-efficacy, including vicarious learning and role models.

Albert Banderas Social Learning theory is best known as the “bridge between behaviorist and

cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation” (Davey,

2015).

Bandura was born in Alberta, Canada and was the youngest with five sisters. He attended

the University of British Columbia where he received his bachelor degree in Phycology in 1949.

He then attended the University of Iowa and received his PH. D in 1952. Albert is best known

for his Social Learning Theory. That theory is known as the “bridge between behaviorist and

cognitive learning theories” (Davey, 2015).

Pavlov main theory is classic conditioning. “The behaviorist theory is performed by Ivan

Pavlov in the 1890” (McLeod, 2013). Pavlov performed a salivation test on dogs. Pavlov entered

with food causing the dog to salivate; therefore, every time Pavlov entered the room the dog

would salivate, even when there was no food. B.F. Skinner main theory is operant conditioning

he “believed that humans learn the same way the rats and pigeons in his experiment learn to

press the leaver for food” (McLeod, 2015). Where Bandura’s theory states that children learn
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best through observation of models.

We all have someone we look up to whether it is our parents, teachers, famous people or

the old couple next door. Whoever that person may be there is something they do or have done

that made them your role model. Some role models are picked because the amount of money the

person makes, power, kind gestures or gender role. Most of our models have a positive effect on

us, but what would happen if our model acted in negative ways? Bandura decided to test his

theory of social learning to investigate this question.

In Bandura’s Social Modeling experiment, he used seventy-two children from a nursery

school. He mainly focused on the twenty-four (twelve boys and twelve girls) children placed in

the aggressive role model group.

During Stage 1: Modeling those twenty-four children watched a male or female model

acting aggressive towards the Bobo doll, while the other forty-eight children did not witness the

aggressive behavior. “The models used a hammer in some cases”, sitting on Bobo, punching

“and others threw the doll in the air and shouted ‘Pow, Boom’” (McLeod, 2014).

In Stage 2: Aggression Arousal all the groups, including control group, were subjected to

mild aggression arousal. Then each child was individually taken into a room with many toys, but

no Bobo doll yet.

Finally, during Stage 3: Test for Delayed Imitation, the child is then placed in a room

with aggressive toys including a mallet and dart guns and some non-aggressive toys including

crayons and bears. The three-foot Bobo doll was then placed in the room with the children for

twenty minutes. It was found that the “Children who observed the aggressive model made far

more imitative aggressive responses than those in the non-aggressive control group” (McLeod,

2014).
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That experiment was conducted to prove Banduras suggestion that there are four mental

processes including attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. The first step is attention,

meaning that if a student has their hand raised it will catch the teacher’s attention. For retention,

the teacher needs to remember that the student had their hand up. During the third step:

reproduction, the teacher can say, “thank you for raising your hand and waiting so patiently”.

Therefore, hoping that it motivates that student and his/her classmates to do the same thing.

The child who raised their hand in the previous story had good self-regulation. That

student observed their own behavior, judging against their own standards, and reinforcing or

punishing one’s self. If a different student raised their hand that could be vicarious learning,

because they observed the student that raised their hand was rewarded. Vicarious learning can be

from observing other people being rewarded or punished.

There are three different processes of vicarious learning including facilitation, inhibition

and disinhibition modeling. The teacher would be the facilitator who engages and helps other

understand the material. Inhibition is restricting oneself from what they know is wrong or saw

another student get in trouble for doing it. For example, a student is shouting out answers instead

of raising their hand. That student then gets in trouble for shouting out answers. Therefore, other

students observed that student get in trouble and are not likely to shout out answers. If one of

those students decided to yell out answers that would-be disinhibition, because they had the lack

of restraint.

As a future teacher, model positive behaviors to help students understand how to be

respectful adults is an important skill. Vicarious learn will play a humungous part in classroom

management; for example, if a student drops his pencil bag and everything falls out and another

student helps pick up the items, telling a student what they did was an outstanding act of
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kindness will encourage them to repeat the same action in the future. Parents also play a big role

in how their children act. For example, parents should pay attention to the games their children

are playing and the television shows they are watching due to the language and violence.
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Work Cited

"Albert Bandura Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

Davey K., "Social Learning Theory (Bandura)," in Learning Theories, June 19,

2015, https://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-bandura.html.

McLeod, S. A. (2014). Bobo Doll Experiment. Retrieved from

www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html

McLeod, S. A. (2015). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved from

www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

McLeod, S. A. (2013). Pavlov's Dogs. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html