SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

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SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY
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ALBERT BANDURA
What people think, believe and feel affects how
they behave. The natural and extrinsic effects of
their actions, in turn, partly determine their
thought patterns and affective reactions.
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SKINNER Environmental Determinism BANDURA Reci
procal Determinism
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Some Basic Premises of Social Learning Theory

• The primary focus is on learning that occurs
  within a social context
• Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not
  entirely responsible for learning.
• Cognitive processes play a crucial role in
  learning.
• People can learn through observation
• Learning can occur without a change in behavior.

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RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM
Human development reflects an interaction among
an active (thinking) person, behavior, and the
environment. A person is not solely shaped by
the environment. The links among these are
BIDIRECTIONAL. Any one can influence the other.
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PERSON
BEHAVIOR
ENVIRONMENT
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OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

• Modeling ( including one trial learning)
• Vicarious Learning (reinforcement and punishment)

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Modeling Learning through observation. The
importance of Modeling is that it teaches new
behaviors. Vicarious experience. Peoples
abilities and belief in their ability are
influenced by watching others succeed or
fail. This makes Banduras theory more efficient
than Skinners.
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SELF-EFFICACY
Children's feelings about their abilities are a
better predictor of success than are their actual
abilities.
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PROBLEMS
1. The circularity of the term reinforcement is
even worse for Bandura than it is for
Skinner. You can never know how the observer is
reacting to what s/he sees. What is a
reinforcement for the person with whom you are
directly acting may be a punishment to the
observer.
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2. When naturally occurring behaviors are
reinforced, they tend to be extinguished if
reinforcement is withdrawn. (They stop being
natural.) Skinner has no reason to reinforce
desired behaviors that are already occurring.
Bandura would say it is a good idea because it
might vicariously reinforce other people.
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BANDURAS ASSUMPTIONS

• Are people active or passive?
• ACTIVE??????
• What is the relationship between learning and
  development?
• WE DEVELOP BY LEARNING. LEARNING
  EXPLAINS DEVELOPMENT.
• How do people change?
• REINFORCEMENTS AND PUNISHMENTS (direct and
  vicarious) CHANGE BEHAVIOR. MODELING
• What motivates people?
• REINFORCEMENTS AND PUNISHMENTS. MOTIVATION IS
  EXTERNAL. OR IS IT? WHAT ABOUT OUR INTERNAL
  THOUGHTS?

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• How important is behavior?
• VERY IMPORTANT! BANDURA EMPHASIZES MODIFYING
  BEHAVIOR, MODELING BEHAVIOR, AND EVALUATING
  STUDENTS IN TERMS OF IDENTIFIABLE BEHAVIORS.
• How important is thinking?
• THINKING IS ALSO VERY IMPORTANT! THOUGHTS
  STRONGLY INFLUENCE BEHAVIOR. MEMORIES AND
  EMOTIONS THAT ARE THE RESULT OF PAST EXPERIENCES
  ARE A CRUCIAL COMPONENT OF THE BEHAVIORS A PERSON
  DISPLAYS IN A GIVEN SITUATION.

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7. How important are emotions (attitudes)? UNLIKE
BEHAVIORISTS, BANDURA PUTS A GREAT DEAL OF
EMPHASIS UPON EMOTIONS. THIS IS MOST CLEARLY SEEN
IN THE IMPORTANCE HE PLACES ON SELF-EFFICACY AS A
FUNDAMENTAL DETERMINANT OF LEARNING. For other
social learning theorists perhaps even more
so Learned helplessness Locus of control
internal vs. external
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MODELING
The process of learning by watching and repeating
a behavior. This explains the learning of
complex behavior in one or a few trials. This
process implies cognition since we must remember
what we saw and then repeat it.
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Four Conditions for Effective Modeling to Occur

• Attention The observer must attend to the
  relevant characteristics of the model.
• Retention The observer must encode verbal and/or
  visual representations of the model.
• Motor Reproduction The observer must be
  physically able to reproduce the behavior of the
  model.
• Motivation The observer must want to perform the
  observed behavior.

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Types of Models

• Live A real person in the presence of the
  observer
• Symbolic An image of a real person (TV, movies,
  etc) or character (Superman, Harry Potter, etc)
  (Bobo doll experiments)
• Verbal Written instructions or descriptions of
  how to act

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Characteristics of Effective Models

• Competence An effective model is perceived by
  the observer to be competent in that which he/she
  is modeling and is.
• Prestige and Power The observer needs to
  perceive these characteristics in the model.
• Gender-Appropriate behavior
• Relevance Behaviors to be reproduced by the
  observer need to have some functional value.
• Identification with the Model Observer views the
  model as being similar to her/himself in a
  relevant way.

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VICARIOUS REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT
The learner watches the consequences of behaviors
engaged in by others. This influences her/his
behavior in the future. The person can decide to
act or NOT to act based upon observing others. A
persons belief in her/his ability can also be
influenced by watching others succeed or fail.
THUS.
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1. Clearly, cognitive processes are implied since
we remember what we saw and decide how to act in
the same situation in the future. We also draw
conclusions about our own abilities by watching
others. 2. Behavior is NOT the same as learning
since, based upon what he/she has observed, the
person can decide NOT to engage in a certain
behavior or not to try to learn in the future.