ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL

LEARNING THEORY
WHAT IS SOCIAL
LEARNING THEORY?

• Social learning theory focuses on

the learning that occurs within a
social context.

• We learn not only how to perform

a behavior but also what will
happen to us in a specific situation
if we do perform it.
ALBERT BANDURA
• Leading proponent of social
learning theory.
• He believes that people learn
behaviors through the
observation of other, then
impersonate what they have
observed.
 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL LEARNING
THEORY
1. People learn by observing the behavior of others and the outcomes of those behaviors.
2. Learning can occur without a change in behavior.
3. Cognition plays a role in learning. Over the last 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 effects on the behaviors the
people exhibit.
4. Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between behaviorists and
cognitive of learning theories.
 HOW ENVIRONMENT REINFORCES AND
PUNISHES MODELS

• People are often reinforced for modeling the

behavior of others. Bandura suggested that the
environment also reinforced the modeling. This is
in several possible ways:
 DIRECT
REINFORCEMENT

Occurs when an individual

watches a model perform,
imitates that behavior and
is reinforced or punished
by some individual.
REINFORCED BY A THIRD
PERSON
• the observer might be modeling the actions
of someone else.
SELF- REINFORCEMENT

The individuals strives to

meet personal standards
and does not depend on or
care about the reaction of
others.
 VICARIOUS
REINFORCEMENT

Reinforcement is a way to
recognize and reward desirable
behavior in hopes that it will
continue. Now let's put the two
together: vicarious
reinforcement is our tendency to
repeat or duplicate behaviors for
which others are being rewarded.
 TYPES OF OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
EFFECTS
• INHIBITION - to learn not to do something that we already know how to do because a
model being observed refrains from behaving in that way or does something different
from what is intended to be done.
• DISINHIBITION - to learn to exhibit a behavior that is usually disapproved of by most
people because a model does the same without being punished.
• FACILITATION – to be prompted to do something that is not ordinarily done because
of insufficient motivation.
• OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING – to learn a new behavior pattern by watching and
imitating the performance of someone else.
 CONDITIONS OF OBSERVATIONAL
LEARNING
• Attention- Mental focus or
concentration Willingness of the
child to observe and mimic the
behavior of a model.

• Retention-To encode the behavior in

the memory/ Ability to store
information
 CONDITIONS OF OBSERVATIONAL
LEARNING
• Motor reproduction-To
actually perform the behavior
observed.

• Motivation- that drives one

to act.
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL
LEARNING THEORY
• Students often learn a great deal simply by observing other people.
• Describing the consequences of behavior can effectively increase the appropriate
behaviors and decrease inappropriate ones.
• 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.
• Teachers and parents must model appropriate behaviors and take care that they do not
model inappropriate behaviors.