Describe and evaluate the social learning theory approach in psychology.
The social learning theory approach argues that it is the mediational processes which lie between the stimulus and response, influence our behaviour and the way we act. This is when we witness a certain action and then thought processes occur, this is where we consider how we behave. For example, a child may be watching the tweenies’ and witness reinforcement for good behaviour, they then would like the same reinforcement and therefore imitate this good behaviour.
Another assumption of the social learning theory is that learning can occur by observation of others, such as role models. Social learning psychologists argue that we are more likely to imitate people who are similar to us, people in high status and people who are of the same gender and are warm, supportive people. An example, many young boys may imitate David Beckham by playing football and dressing the way he does, this is because of his high status.
The social learning theory also believes can be a result of direct reinforcement and indirect of various reinforcement. An example of this is a child observing another child being rewarded for a behaviour and then decides to imitate this behaviour. Indirect reinforcement is when a child in the audience watches a child receive a medal for winning in a match the child in the audience watches this and wants to do the same. ‘modelling’ is when someone is modelling out behaviour with no intention. This may be something simple such as a mother washing the dishes and her daughter watching this. The daughter has therefore learnt the behaviour and the mother is seen as the ‘model’.
Research evidence for this was done by a psychologist called Bandura in 1961. he involved children and adults in his experiment. He experimented how the behaviour of adults can influence that of a child. He showed this by putting children, one at a time, into a room with an adult, this adult then acted aggressively towards a bobo doll. He then put a group of children, one by one, into a room with an adult that acted lovingly towards the bobo doll. Later the children were all asked to play in the room, one at a time, the children that had witnessed the aggression towards the bobo doll imitated this behaviour and were aggressive with the toys and shouted. Whereas the children who had witnessed the loving adult imitated this behaviour and were kind and caring towards the bobo doll.
The social learning theory is good as it uses experiments and non-experimented methods. Bandura controlled the variables, such as the toys, the length of time that the children spent with the adults. This controlled experiment allows us to see that the behaviour which was modelled was imitated by each child.
However, it does not focus on the biological factors, some children may have gentic pre-disposition to aggressive behaviour which could be a major factor in whether or not they show aggression towards others. Nevertheless, applications of the social learning theory have been applied in many different areas of psychology and so it is obviously a popular theory which many believe is right.