Effective Social Learning Theories

Albert Bandura is one of the pioneers in the study of human development. His biographical background lays a good foundation for the basis of his work as a psychologist. His social cognitive theory will be examined in detail to highlight the effect that environment has on behavior. There are four basic features to the theory introduced by Bandura that will be discussed; (1) observational learning, (2) self-regulation, (3) self-efficacy, and (4) reciprocal determinism. All four features combined will prove to offer a keen insight into the environmental aspect of our behavior.

Noteworthy due mostly to the work of Albert Bandura, social learning theory attempts to explain behavior through the interaction of three variables: the environment, the behavior, and psychological processes. With his model, Bandura stepped away from strict behaviorism and opened the doors for the cognitivist movement. His premise is that human behavior and learning is influenced by a complex network of observations made about the behaviors, beliefs, and emotional responses of those in our

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory describes the process through which people acquire new info, forms of behavior, or attitudes from others firsthand or vicariously. The likelihood of a behavior presenting itself will rely on the amount of reinforcement it receives and the value that the individual associates to it. While some behavior may be rewarded, others may produce unfavorable responses. An individual will learn from the consequences of these actions and when a similar situation arises, they will alter their behavior according to what was most successful in the past.

Social learning theory, developed by Bandura, discusses how people learn from one another through observation, modeling, and imitation bridging an individual’s attention, memory and motivation. Social learning theory identifies the importance of cognition, observable behavior, individual self-efficacy, and the extent of how the events surrounding an individual affect them; their locus of control. Social learning theory also looks at individual problem behavior being influenced by positive or negative reinforcement (Ashford & LeCroy, 2012).

The social cognitive theory was developed by Albert Bandura. According to Schunk (2016), Bandura developed the theory of observational learning to show how to acquire and perform diverse skills, behaviors, and strategies (p.118). Principles of the social cognitive theory are used to learn cognitive, motor,

Albert Bandura a Canadian psychologist that was curious to know whether or not humans learn through the actions of others (Berk, 2013, p.14). The social learning theory brings up the question whether, playing violent video games or watching violent films can provoke being violent. Charles Darwin a British naturalist observed an endless change among animal species and plants. He noticed, it’s impossible for an animal to be completely identical as another animal of the same species. Darwin found that early prenatal development is similar in various species, while other scientists doubted Darwin’s theory. This led to a trend focusing on child studies. Stanley Hall and Arnold Gesell both American psychologists, described development as a maturational process. A genetically destined series of events that unravels automatically, like a flower. This led to the normative approach, in that measures of behavior are derived from a sample of people and calculated to generalize a representation in development (Berk, 2013, p.11). Research later sought to figure out individualistic development rather than the general population. Sigmund Freud a Viennese physician constructed the psychosexual theory. It focuses on how parents control their child’s sexual and aggressive drives in their first few years, which is crucial for healthy personality development. The theory has three parts of the personality, id,ego and superego that combine during five stages. Erik Erikson improved Freud’s idea, in

The Social Learning Theory explains how “violence is learned in the same way that anything else is learned; the process is no different”. This theory examines the ways in which people learn to behave aggressively or violently. Modeling, reinforcing, and imitating the behavior as well as the attitudes are ways in which people learn to act violently. Research show that they tend to act so when they are being rewarded for it, when they observe it, is victimized by it, and when they don’t develop strong enough connections with others. Burgess and Akers go into further detail about this by exploring the exposure to violent media, while Sutherland’s “Differential Association Theory” compares the pro-violence against the pro-social values.

In this essay, I will try to evaluate Social learning theory as originated by Albert Bandura. I am going to use three pieces of evidence, in a form of case studies, which have been done previously to support or contradict Bandura’s theory. I will demonstrate my knowledge of these studies throughout their analysis, trying to highlight their strengths and limitations.

Akers and Sellers (2013) has stated that social learning theory is an expanded theory of differential association processes and improves it with differential reinforcement and other principles of the behavior theory. They added classical conditioning (the sharpening of involuntary reflex behavior); discriminative stimuli (internal stimuli that lead to signals for behavior); schedules of reinforcement (rewards and punishment ratio following behavioral feedback); and other theories of behavior (Akers & Sellers, 2013).

Albert Bandura is one of the most well-known figures of Psychology. Bandura provided theories that gave insight on the fundamentals of human behavior and the mental process (Ortiz, 2015). He has had and continues to have a large impact on personality theory and therapy. Bandura is recognized for his unique behaviorist-like style that appeals to many individuals and practitioners. Other theorists respect Bandura for his action orientated and problem solving characteristics that led him to his contributes of social cognitive theory and the bobo doll experiment. Albert Bandura continues to be identified to be a part of the most influential psychologists of all time and is responsible to the education of many practitioners today.

Social learning theory asserts 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 reinforcement. Famously adopted by Albert Bandura and his colleagues at Stanford University in the 1960’s, the development of social learning theory was revolved around a four step model. These four models included attention (the individual subject must attend to the media as well as witness aggressive behavior), retention (the subject must have the ability to retain the behavior seen in order to replicate for later retrieval), motor reproduction (the subject must be able to perform said behavior), and motivation (there

Albert Bandura (1977), a psychologist, proposed social learning theory to integrate the behaviorism with the cognitive theory to explain why people behave in a certain way, irrespective of the type of environment they are in. Bandura tried to integrate the behavior, cognition, and the environment to postulate the social learning theory. Many academicians have seen Bandura as the neo-behaviorist theorist (positivist) despite the fact that he believed in self-help, self-regulation, and self-reflection. Albert Bandura goes beyond the behaviorist tradition of reward and punishment of behavioral reinforcement. He said that people learn not only by direct experiences, but also by vicarious learning (by observing), symbolic functioning (learning through conceptualization), and self-regulatory process (learning through self-direction such as rewarding oneself for certain behaviors), which is absent in ANT. He believed, unlike the network theorists, that most external influences affect behavior through the intermediary cognitive process. Social learning theory is helpful in understanding childhood development and human behavior in the cyber environment and “sociotechnical” environment of ANT and human ghosting. Social learning theory can also help in understanding impacts of technological developments on human beings. People learn from each other how to behave in a new environment. Social learning theory explains many childhood social, moral, and cognitive

In spite of the success of social learning theory, there are reasons for arguing that Bandura's approach is limited and that aggressive

Albert Bandura is considered the developer of social learning theory, which is also known as social cognitive theory (Corey, 2013; Feist et al., 2013; Thoma et al., 2015). Badura’s theory, while based upon the principles of behaviorism, departs from the traditional behavioral model and leaves room for the exploration of unobservable mental states and their influence on behavior (Corey, 2013; Thoma et al., 2015). Social Cognitive theory bases its theory of learning on two types of learning processes: observational learning and enactive learning (Feist et al., 2013). In contrast to Skinner’s belief that reinforcement is required for learning, Bandura believes that learning is possible simply by observing the behavior of others; while reinforcement facilitates learning, it is not a necessary requirement (Feist et al., 2013). Enactive learning is learning through direct experience, and is similar to the concept of operant conditioning; people determine appropriate behaviors by evaluating their behavior and the potential consequences thereof (Feist et al., 2013). Where behavioral theory adopts the ABC approach to behavior, social cognitive theory uses a BPE approach known as Triadic Reciprocal Causation. In TRC, BPE stands for behavior, person variables, and environment (Feist et al., 2013). Within the TRC, the term person encompasses many variables including memory, judging, anticipation, gender, social position, physical attributes, and planning; the belief is that

“Self belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self disbelief assuredly spawns failure” (Bandura, 1997). Albert Bandura was affectionately described as the "jovial genius" by one of his former students for his wisdom, humility, and wonderful sense of humor. Albert Bandura believed that social learning formed the basis for personality development (Bandura, 1977). Bandura’s theory is perceived to be an “internal reward”, such examples include “pride, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment” (Social Learning Theory: Understanding Bandura's Theory of Learning, n.d.). It is evident that internal thoughts and cognitions help connect learning theories with cognitive developmental theories. Bandura suggested that his concept surrounding the social learning theory could be considered a “social cognitive theory” (Social Learning Theory: Understanding Bandura's Theory of Learning, n.d.).