BASIC

SOCIAL
LEARNING
CONCEPTS
ALBERT BANDURA
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
“Monkey See, Monkey Do”

Social learning is about learning through observation and

imitation. An observer learns new behaviour by watching
and imitating another person (role model). This process of
watching and imitating is called the modelling.
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
The 2 Key Assumptions:

• Behaviour is learned from the environment

and therefore genetics are not regarded as
having any influence on behaviour.

• Behaviour is learned from observing others

and the reinforcement or punishment that
they receive.
ALBERT BANDURA

-Born on Dec. 4, 1925

-Canadian American
-An influential social cognitive psychologists best
known for his “SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY”. The
concept of self-efficacy, observational learning and
Bobo Doll Studies.
-According to him all behaviours are learned
through conditioning and cognitive theories, which
take into account psychological influences such as
attention and memory.
 Therefore vicarious reinforcement
is watching a role model being
rewarded/punished (which helps us
decide if we want to imitate the
behaviour)

He is a learning theorist but

The individual then can
not strictly a behaviourist as
decide whether to
he considers the thought
perform the behaviour
processes that underlie
themselves.
behaviour.
Albert Bandura

He argues that reinforcers and His theory challenges Skinner’s

punishments of others inform idea that reward/punishment
an individual of the will automatically prompt/stop
consequences of a behaviour. a behaviour.
CORE CONCEPTS:

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
People can learn through OBSERVATION

INTRINSIC REINFORCEMENT
Internal mental states are essential part of the process

THE MODELLING PROCESS

Learning does not necessarily lead to behavioral change.
BOBO Doll Experiment
Aim: to test whether social behaviours (i.e. aggression) can be acquired by
observation and imitation

A lab experiment was used and there were 3 different conditions.

Non-Aggressive
Aggressive Condition Control Condition
Condition
children watched the role
the role model ignore the
model physically and
doll and played with other there was no model.
verbally abuse the Bobo
toys in the room
doll.
BOBO Doll Experiment
Method:

All children were then put into a room

which contained some aggressive toys and
some non-aggressive toys. The non-
aggressive toys included a tea set,
crayons, three bears and plastic farm
animals. The aggressive toys included a
mallet and peg board, dart guns, and a 3
foot Bobo doll.

The child was in the room for 20 minutes

and their behaviour was observed and
rated though a one-way mirror.
Observations were made at 5-second
intervals therefore giving 240 response
units for each child.
BOBO Doll Experiment
RESULTS

• Children who observed the aggressive model

made far more imitative aggressive responses
than those who were in the non-aggressive or
control groups.

• The girls in the aggressive model condition also

showed more physical aggressive responses if
the model was male, but more verbal aggressive
responses if the model was female.

• Boys were more likely to imitate same-sex

models than girls.
A. OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
A method of learning consists of observing and modelling another individual’s
behavior, attitudes or emotional experiences.

involves an actual individual

Live Model demonstrating or acting out a behavior

Verbal involves descriptions and explanations

Instructional of a behavior
Model
involves real or fictional
characteristics displaying
Symbolic Model behaviors in books, films,
television programs or online
media
B. INTRINSIC REINFORCEMENT
-is a form of internal rewards such as pride, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.
B. INTRINSIC REINFORCEMENT

Intrinsic Motivation engages in a behaviour because it is personally rewarding not for

an external award.
C. THE MODELLING PROCESS
Learning occurs through: Often an individual is influenced by
another because they are in some way
• Observation similar to them or wish to be like
them. There are many factors which
• Imitation influence the choice of a model
including; gender, ethnicity, higher
• modelling status, greater expertise,
attractiveness etc.
Not all observed are effectively
learned.
Factors involving both the model and
the learner can play a role in whether
social learning is successful.

We do not automatically observe the behaviour of a model and imitate it. There is
thought prior to imitation and Bandura (1977) called these the 4 mediational processes.
 Key Factors to Success
The following steps are involved in the observational and modelling process:

Motor
Attention Retention Reproduction Motivation

(Stimuli/Focus) (Rehearse/Encode) (Practice/ (Reward/ Reinforce)

The behaviour may be Feedback)
For a behaviour to The will or
imitated it has to noticed, but it is not The motivation to
grab our attention. always remembered. This physical perform the
We observe many prevents imitation. We ability of the behaviour. This is
behaviours on a must form a memory of observer to often determined
daily basis and the behaviour in order for imitate the by whether the
many of these are it to be performed later behaviour. behaviour was
not noticed. on by the observer. rewarded or
punished.
ATTENTION RETENTION REPRODUCTION MOTIVATION
3 Forms of Reinforcement
DIRECT VICARIOUS SELF
REINFORCEMENT
Direct Reinforcement REINFORCEMENT REINFORCEMENT

Occurs when an
The observer anticipates The individuals strive to
individual watches a
receiving a reward for meet pesonal standards
model perform, imitates
behaving in a given way and does not depend on
that behavior and is
because someone else or care about the
reinforced or punished by
has been so rewarded reaction of others
some individual
How the environment reinforces and
punishes modeling:
People are often reinforced for modeling the behavior of others. Bandura suggested that the
environment laso reinforces modeling. This is in several possible ways:
1. The observer is reinforced by the model.
2. The observer is reinforced by a third person. The observer might be modeling the actions
of someone else.
3. The imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences. Many behaviors that we
learn from others produce satisfying ore reinforcing results.
4. Consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observers behavior vicariously. This is
known as vicarious reinforcement. This is where the model reinforced for a response and
then the observer shows an increase in the same response.
T
hank
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