Social Learning Theory

from notes on Ormond's Human Learning

[ref: Ormrod, J.E. (1999). Human learning (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-
Hall.]

Social learning theory focuses on the learning that occurs within a social
context. It considers that people learn from one another, including such concepts
as observational learning, imitation, and modeling. Among others Albert
Bandura is considered the leading proponent of this theory.

General principles of social learning theory

follows:
1. People can learn by observing the behavior is of others and the outcomes of
those behaviors.

2. Learning can occur without a change in behavior. Behaviorists say that

learning has to be represented by a permanent change in behavior, in contrast
social learning theorists say that because people can learn through observation
alone, their learning may not necessarily be shown in their performance.
Learning may or may not result in a behavior change.

3. Cognition plays a role in learning. Over the last 30 years social learning theory
has become increasingly cognitive in its interpretation of human learning.
Awareness and expectations of future reinforcements or punishments can have a
major effect on the behaviors that people exhibit.

4. Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between

behaviorist learning theories and cognitive learning theories.

How the environment reinforces and punishes modeling:

People are often reinforced for modeling the behavior of others. Bandura
suggested that the environment also reinforces modeling. This is in several
possible ways:

1, The observer is reinforced by the model. For example a student who changes
dress to fit in with a certain group of students has a strong likelihood of being
accepted and thus reinforced by that group.

2. The observer is reinforced by a third person. The observer might be modeling

the actions of someone else, for example, an outstanding class leader or student.
The teacher notices this and compliments and praises the observer for modeling
such behavior thus reinforcing that behavior.

3. The imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences. Many

behaviors that we learn from others produce satisfying or reinforcing results.
For example, a student in my multimedia class could observe how the extra work
a classmate does is fun. This student in turn would do the same extra work and
also receive enjoyment.

4. Consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observers behavior

vicariously. This is known as vicarious reinforcement. This is where in the
model is reinforced for a response and then the observer shows an increase
in that same response. Bandura illustrated this by having students watch a film of
a model hitting a inflated clown doll. One group of children saw the model
being praised for such action. Without being reinforced, the group of children
began to also hit the doll .

Contemporary social learning perspective of reinforcement and

punishment:

1. Contemporary theory proposes that both reinforcement and punishment have

indirect effects on learning. They are not the sole or main cause.

2. Reinforcement and punishment influence the extent to which an individual

exhibits a behavior that has been learned.

3. The expectation of reinforcement influences cognitive processes that

promote learning. Therefore attention pays a critical role in learning. And
attention is influenced by the expectation of reinforcement. An example would be,
where the teacher tells a group of students that what they will study next is not
on the test. Students will not pay attention, because they do not expect to know
the information for a test.

Cognitive factors in social learning:

Social learning theory has cognitive factors as well as behaviorist factors

(actually operant factors).

1. Learning without performance: Bandura makes a distinction between learning

through observation and the actual imitation of what has been learned.

2. Cognitive processing during learning: Social learning theorists contend that

attention is a critical factor in learning.

3. Expectations: As a result of being reinforced, people form expectations about

the consequences that future behaviors are likely to bring. They expect certain
behaviors to bring reinforcements and others to bring punishment. The learner
needs to be aware however, of the response reinforcements and response
punishment. Reinforcement increases a response only when the learner is aware
of that connection.

4. Reciprocal causation: Bandura proposed that behavior can influence both the
environment and the person. In fact each of these three variables, the person,
the behavior, and the environment can have an influence on each other.

5. Modeling: There are different types of models. There is the live model, and
actual person demonstrating the behavior. There can also be a symbolic model,
which can be a person or action portrayed in some other medium, , such as
television, videotape, computer programs.

Behaviors that can be learned through modeling:

Many behaviors can be learned, at least partly, through modeling. Examples
that can be cited are, students can watch parents read, students can watch the
demonstrations of mathematics problems, or seen someone acting bravely and
a fearful situation. Aggression can be learned through models. Much research
indicate that children become more aggressive when they observed aggressive
or violent models. Moral thinking and moral behavior are influenced by
observation and modeling. This includes moral judgments regarding right and
wrong which can in part, develop through modeling.

Conditions necessary for effective modeling to occur:

Bandura mentions four conditions that are necessary before an individual can
successfully model the behavior of someone else:

1. Attention: the person must first pay attention to the model.

2. Retention: the observer must be able to remember the behavior that has been
observed. One way of increasing this is using the technique of rehearsal.

3. Motor reproduction: the third condition is the ability to replicate the behavior
that the model has just demonstrated. This means that the observer has to be
able to replicate the action, which could be a problem with a learner who is not
ready developmentally to replicate the action. For example, little children have
difficulty doing complex physical motion.

4. Motivation: the final necessary ingredient for modeling to occur is motivation,

learners must want to demonstrate what they have learned. Remember that
since these four conditions vary among individuals, different people will
reproduce the same behavior differently.
Effects of modeling on behavior:

Modeling teaches new behaviors.

Modeling influences the frequency of previously learned behaviors.

Modeling may encourage previously forbidden behaviors.

Modeling increases the frequency of similar behaviors. For example a student

might see a friend excel in basketball and he tries to excel in football because he
is not tall enough for basketball.

Self efficacy:

People are more likely to engage in certain behaviors when they believe they
are capable of executing those behaviors successfully. This means that they
will have high self-efficacy. In layman's terms self-efficacy could be looked as self
confidence towards learning.

How self-efficacy affects behavior:

Joy of activities: individuals typically choose activities they feel they will be
successful in doing.

Effort and persistence: individuals will tend to put more effort end activities and
behaviors they consider to be successful in achieving.

Learning and achievement: students with high self-efficacy tend to be better

students and achieve more.

Factors in the development of self efficacy:

In general students typically have a good sense of what they can and cannot do,
therefore they have fairly accurate opinions about their own self-efficacy. In my
multimedia program, the challenge is to increase student self-efficacy. There
are many factors which affect self efficacy. Some of these factors can be;
previous successes and failures, messages received from others, and successes
and failures of others. Note example of ACS and Cliff & Vanessa.

Self regulation:

Self-regulation has come to be more emphasized in social learning theory. Self-

regulation is when the individual has his own ideas about what is appropriate or
inappropriate behavior and chooses actions accordingly. There are several
aspects of self regulation:

Setting standards and goals

Self observation

Self judge

Self reaction

Promoting self-regulation can be an important technique. This is usually done by

teaching the individual to reward himself after doing the needed behavior. For
example, a graduate student will tell himself to complete a certain chapter before
taking a break and relaxing.

Self instructions:

An effective strategy is to teach learners to give themselves instructions that

guide their behavior. There are five steps to achieve this goal:

Cognitive modeling:

Overt external guidance

Overt self guidance

Faded, overt self guidance

covert self instruction

Self monitoring and self reinforcement:

These are two ways that people can control their own behavior. First they monitor
and observe their own behavior, sometimes even scoring behavior. Secondly,
people are also able to change their behavior by reinforcing themselves, by
giving are withholding reinforcement.

Educational implications of social learning theory:

Social learning theory has numerous implications for classroom use.

1. Students often learn a great deal simply by observing other people.

2. Describing the consequences of behavior is can effectively increase the
appropriate behaviors and decrease inappropriate ones. This can involve
discussing with learners about the rewards and consequences of various
behaviors.

3. Modeling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviors.

Instead of using shaping, which is operant conditioning, modeling can provide a
faster, more efficient means for teaching new behavior. To promote effective
modeling a teacher must make sure that the four essential conditions exist;
attention, retention , motor reproduction, and motivation.

4. Teachers and parents must model appropriate behaviors and take care that
they do not model inappropriate behaviors.

5. Teachers should expose students to a variety of other models. This

technique is especially important to break down traditional stereotypes.

6. Students must believe that they are capable of accomplishing school tasks.
Thus it is very important to develop a sense of self-efficacy for students.
Teachers can promote such self-efficacy by having students receive confidence-
building messages, watch others be successful, and experience success on their
own. .

7. Teachers should help students set realistic expectations for their academic
accomplishments. In general in my class that means making sure that
expectations are not set too low. I want to realistically challenge my students.
However, sometimes the task is beyond a student's ability, example would be the
cancer group.

8. Self-regulation techniques provide an effective method for improving student

behavior

Second search
 ALBERT BANDURA
1925 - present

Dr. C. George Boeree

Biography

Albert Bandura was born December 4, 1925, in the small town of Mundare in northern
Alberta, Canada. He was educated in a small elementary school and high school in one,
with minimal resources, yet a remarkable success rate. After high school, he worked for
one summer filling holes on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon.

He received his bachelors degree in Psychology from the

University of British Columbia in 1949. He went on to the
University of Iowa, where he received his Ph.D. in 1952. It was
there that he came under the influence of the behaviorist tradition
and learning theory.

While at Iowa, he met Virginia Varns, an instructor in the nursing

school. They married and later had two daughters. After
graduating, he took a postdoctoral position at the Wichita
Guidance Center in Wichita, Kansas.

In 1953, he started teaching at Stanford University. While there,

he collaborated with his first graduate student, Richard Walters,
resulting in their first book, Adolescent Aggression, in 1959.

Bandura was president of the APA in 1973, and received the APA’s Award for
Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 1980. He continues to work at Stanford to this
day.

Theory

Behaviorism, with its emphasis on experimental methods, focuses on variables we can

observe, measure, and manipulate, and avoids whatever is subjective, internal, and
unavailable -- i.e. mental. In the experimental method, the standard procedure is to
manipulate one variable, and then measure its effects on another. All this boils down to a
theory of personality that says that one’s environment causes one’s behavior.

Bandura found this a bit too simplistic for the phenomena he was observing -- aggression
in adolescents -- and so decided to add a little something to the formula: He suggested
that environment causes behavior, true; but behavior causes environment as well. He
labeled this concept reciprocal determinism: The world and a person’s behavior cause
each other.

Later, he went a step further. He began to look at personality as an interaction among

three “things:” the environment, behavior, and the person’s psychological processes.
These psychological processes consist of our ability to entertain images in our minds, and
language. At the point where he introduces imagery, in particular, he ceases to be a strict
behaviorist, and begins to join the ranks of the cognitivists. In fact, he is often considered
a “father” of the cognitivist movement!

Adding imagery and language to the mix allows Bandura to theorize much more
effectively than someone like, say, B. F. Skinner, about two things that many people
would consider the “strong suit” of the human species: observational learning (modeling)
and self-regulation.

Observational learning, or modeling

Of the hundreds of studies Bandura was responsible for, one group stands out above the
others -- the bobo doll studies. He made of film of one of his students, a young woman,
essentially beating up a bobo doll. In case you don’t know, a bobo doll is an inflatable,
egg-shape balloon creature with a weight in the bottom that makes it bob back up when
you knock him down. Nowadays, it might have Darth Vader painted on it, but back then
it was simply “Bobo” the clown.

The woman punched the clown, shouting “sockeroo!” She kicked it, sat on it, hit with a
little hammer, and so on, shouting various aggressive phrases. Bandura showed his film
to groups of kindergartners who, as you might predict, liked it a lot. They then were let
out to play. In the play room, of course, were several observers with pens and clipboards
in hand, a brand new bobo doll, and a few little hammers.

And you might predict as well what the observers recorded: A lot of little kids beating
the daylights out of the bobo doll. They punched it and shouted “sockeroo,” kicked it, sat
on it, hit it with the little hammers, and so on. In other words, they imitated the young
lady in the film, and quite precisely at that.

This might seem like a real nothing of an experiment at first, but consider: These
children changed their behavior without first being rewarded for approximations to that
behavior! And while that may not seem extraordinary to the average parent, teacher, or
casual observer of children, it didn’t fit so well with standard behavioristic learning
theory. He called the phenomenon observational learning or modeling, and his theory is
usually called social learning theory.

Bandura did a large number of variations on the study: The model was rewarded or
punished in a variety of ways, the kids were rewarded for their imitations, the model was
changed to be less attractive or less prestigious, and so on. Responding to criticism that
bobo dolls were supposed to be hit, he even did a film of the young woman beating up a
live clown. When the children went into the other room, what should they find there but
-- the live clown! They proceeded to punch him, kick him, hit him with little hammers,
and so on.

All these variations allowed Bandura to establish that there were certain steps involved in
the modeling process:

1. Attention. If you are going to learn anything, you have to be paying attention.
Likewise, anything that puts a damper on attention is going to decrease learning,
including observational learning. If, for example, you are sleepy, groggy, drugged, sick,
nervous, or “hyper,” you will learn less well. Likewise, if you are being distracted by
competing stimuli.

Some of the things that influence attention involve characteristics of the model. If the
model is colorful and dramatic, for example, we pay more attention. If the model is
attractive, or prestigious, or appears to be particularly competent, you will pay more
attention. And if the model seems more like yourself, you pay more attention. These
kinds of variables directed Bandura towards an examination of television and its effects
on kids!

2. Retention. Second, you must be able to retain -- remember -- what you have paid
attention to. This is where imagery and language come in: we store what we have seen
the model doing in the form of mental images or verbal descriptions. When so stored,
you can later “bring up” the image or description, so that you can reproduce it with your
own behavior.

3. Reproduction. At this point, you’re just sitting there daydreaming. You have to
translate the images or descriptions into actual behavior. So you have to have the ability
to reproduce the behavior in the first place. I can watch Olympic ice skaters all day long,
yet not be able to reproduce their jumps, because I can’t ice skate at all! On the other
hand, if I could skate, my performance would in fact improve if I watch skaters who are
better than I am.

Another important tidbit about reproduction is that our ability to imitate improves with
practice at the behaviors involved. And one more tidbit: Our abilities improve even
when we just imagine ourselves performing! Many athletes, for example, imagine their
performance in their mind’s eye prior to actually performing.
4. Motivation. And yet, with all this, you’re still not going to do anything unless you are
motivated to imitate, i.e. until you have some reason for doing it. Bandura mentions a
number of motives:

a. past reinforcement, ala traditional behaviorism.

b. promised reinforcements (incentives) that we can imagine.
c. vicarious reinforcement -- seeing and recalling the model being reinforced.

Notice that these are, traditionally, considered to be the things that “cause” learning.
Bandura is saying that they don’t so much cause learning as cause us to demonstrate what
we have learned. That is, he sees them as motives.

Of course, the negative motivations are there as well, giving you reasons not to imitate
someone:

d. past punishment.
e. promised punishment (threats).
d. vicarious punishment.

Like most traditional behaviorists, Bandura says that punishment in whatever form does
not work as well as reinforcement and, in fact, has a tendency to “backfire” on us.

Self-regulation

Self-regulation -- controlling our own behavior -- is the other “workhorse” of human

personality. Here Bandura suggests three steps:

1. Self-observation. We look at ourselves, our behavior, and keep tabs on it.

2. Judgment. We compare what we see with a standard. For example, we can compare
our performance with traditional standards, such as “rules of etiquette.” Or we can create
arbitrary ones, like “I’ll read a book a week.” Or we can compete with others, or with
ourselves.

3. Self-response. If you did well in comparison with your standard, you give yourself
rewarding self-responses. If you did poorly, you give yourself punishing self-responses.
These self-responses can range from the obvious (treating yourself to a sundae or
working late) to the more covert (feelings of pride or shame).

A very important concept in psychology that can be understood well with self-regulation
is self-concept (better known as self-esteem). If, over the years, you find yourself
meeting your standards and life loaded with self-praise and self-reward, you will have a
pleasant self-concept (high self-esteem). If, on the other hand, you find yourself forever
failing to meet your standards and punishing yourself, you will have a poor self-concept
(low self-esteem).
Recall that behaviorists generally view reinforcement as effective, and punishment as
fraught with problems. The same goes for self-punishment. Bandura sees three likely
results of excessive self-punishment:

a. compensation -- a superiority complex, for example, and delusions of grandeur.

b. inactivity -- apathy, boredom, depression.
c. escape -- drugs and alcohol, television fantasies, or even the ultimate escape, suicide.

These have some resemblance to the unhealthy personalities Adler and Horney talk
about: an aggressive type, a compliant type, and an avoidant type respectively.

Bandura’s recommendations to those who suffer from poor self-concepts come straight
from the three steps of self-regulation:

1. Regarding self-observation -- know thyself! Make sure you have an accurate picture
of your behavior.

2. Regarding standards -- make sure your standards aren’t set too high. Don’t set
yourself up for failure! Standards that are too low, on the other hand, are meaningless.

3. Regarding self-response -- use self-rewards, not self-punishments. Celebrate your

victories, don’t dwell on your failures.

Therapy

Self-control therapy

The ideas behind self-regulation have been incorporated into a therapy technique called
self-control therapy. It has been quite successful with relatively simple problems of
habit, such as smoking, overeating, and study habits.

1. Behavioral charts. Self-observation requires that you keep close tabs on your
behavior, both before you begin changes and after. This can involve something as simple
as counting how many cigarettes you smoke in a day to complex behavioral diaries.
With the diary approach, you keep track of the details, the when and where of your habit.
This lets you get a grip on what kinds of cues are associated with the habit: Do you
smoke more after meals, with coffee, with certain friends, in certain locations...?

2. Environmental planning. Taking your lead from your behavioral charts and diaries,
you can begin to alter your environment. For example, you can remove or avoid some of
those cues that lead to your bad behaviors: Put away the ashtrays, drink tea instead of
coffee, divorce that smoking partner.... You can find the time and place best suited for the
good alternative behaviors: When and where do you find you study best? And so on.
3. Self-contracts. Finally, you arrange to reward yourself when you adhere to your plan,
and possibly punish yourself when you do not. These contracts should be written down
and witnessed (by your therapist, for example), and the details should be spelled out very
explicitly: “I will go out to dinner on Saturday night if I smoke fewer cigarettes this
week than last week. I will do paperwork instead if I do not.”

You may involve other people and have them control your rewards and punishments, if
you aren’t strict enough with yourself. Beware, however: This can be murder on your
relationships, as you bite their heads off for trying to do what you told them to do!

Modeling therapy

The therapy Bandura is most famous for, however, is modeling therapy. The theory is
that, if you can get someone with a psychological disorder to observe someone dealing
with the same issues in a more productive fashion, the first person will learn by modeling
the second.

Bandura’s original research on this involved herpephobics -- people with a neurotic fear
of snakes. The client would be lead to a window looking in on a lab room. In that room
is nothing but a chair, a table, a cage on the table with a locked latch, and a snake clearly
visible in the cage. The client then watches another person -- an actor -- go through a
slow and painful approach to the snake. He acts terrified at first, but shakes himself out
of it, tells himself to relax and breathe normally and take one step at a time towards the
snake. He may stop in the middle, retreat in panic, and start all over. Ultimately, he gets
to the point where he opens the cage, removes the snake, sits down on the chair, and
drapes it over his neck, all the while giving himself calming instructions.

After the client has seen all this (no doubt with his mouth hanging open the whole time),
he is invited to try it himself. Mind you, he knows that the other person is an actor --
there is no deception involved here, only modeling! And yet, many clients -- lifelong
phobics -- can go through the entire routine first time around, even after only one viewing
of the actor! This is a powerful therapy.

One drawback to the therapy is that it isn’t easy to get the rooms, the snakes, the actors,
etc., together. So Bandura and his students have tested versions of the therapy using
recordings of actors and even just imagining the process under the therapist’s direction.
These methods work nearly as well.

Discussion

Albert Bandura has had an enormous impact on personality theory and therapy. His
straightforward, behaviorist-like style makes good sense to most people. His action-
oriented, problem-solving approach likewise appeals to those who want to get things
done, rather than philosophize about ids, archetypes, actualization, freedom, and all the
many other mentalistic constructs personologists tend to dwell on.

Among academic psychologists, research is crucial, and behaviorism has been the
preferred approach. Since the late 1960’s, behaviorism has given way to the “cognitive
revolution,” of which Bandura is considered a part. Cognitive psychology retains the
experimentally-oriented flavor of behaviorism, without artificially restraining the
researcher to external behaviors, when the mental life of clients and subjects is so
obviously important.

This is a powerful movement, and the contributors include some of the most important
people in psychology today: Julian Rotter, Walter Mischel, Michael Mahoney, and David
Meichenbaum spring to my mind. Also involved are such theorists of therapy as Aaron
Beck (cognitive therapy) and Albert Ellis (rational emotive therapy). The followers of
George Kelly also find themselves in this camp. And the many people working on
personality trait research -- such as Buss and Plomin (temperament theory) and McCrae
and Costa (five factor theory) -- are essentially “cognitive behaviorists” like Bandura.

My gut feeling is that the field of competitors in personality theory will eventually boil
down to the cognitivists on the one side and existentialists on the other. Stay tuned!

Readings

The place to go for Bandura’s theory is Social Foundations of Thought and Action
(1986). If it’s a little too dense for you, you might want to try his earlier Social Learning
Theory(1977), or even Social Learning and Personality Development (1963), which he
wrote with Walters. If aggression is what you’re interested in, try Aggression: A Social
Learning Analysis (1973).

Copyright 1998, 2006 C. George Boeree