Albert Bandura – Social Learning Theory

Social Learning Theory is also called observational learning. This learning is proving that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction or direct Albert Bandura says that people learn from 3 different strategies and they are; Observation, Imitation and modelling; a saying for this is ‘monkey see, monkey do’ because ‘children see’ and ‘children do’. This saying explains everything in 4 simple words. Bandura’s social learning theory explains human behaviour in cognitive, behavioural and environmental influences. Everyone and everything around us has an impact on how we all behave. Bandura particularly focused on how aggression progresses in children. Bandura says that childrens behaviour is influenced and learned by observing whats going on around them in the environment that they are in. Children also observe the way people behave around others and are influenced by them in good ways and bad ways, this is shown by the bobo doll experiment. Children are especially influenced by the role models in this society, at first they will observe everything they do such as their behaviour and further down the line they will start to copy what they do and reinact it themselves. Sometimes this could be a good thing sometime this could be a bad thing. He also looks at how we are affected by the rewards and punishments that we experience every day. Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.
Bobo Doll study - Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961)

In 1961, psychologist, Albert Bandura set up an experiment to see if social behaviours such as aggression could be picked up by observation and imitation; he tested 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery