Learning Content: SLT (AJW) 2016

Evaluate Bandura’s (1977) Social Learning Theory (8)

Essay fragment

One strength of social learning theory is there is a good deal of scientific evidence to support the theory.

For example, Bandura claims that new behaviours can be learnt in the absence of reinforcement and says that much of human learning occurs through observation and imitation.

This is supported by his 1961 study where he found that 3-6 year old nursery school children who had observed an adult model behaving aggressively towards a 5ft BoBo doll were more likely to demonstrate the same strings of behaviour (e.g. sitting on the BoBo, repeatedly punching him on the nose whilst shouting phrases such as “sock him in nose”) when later left in a room with a similar 3ft Bobo doll than those children who were part of a control who had not witnessed these acts of aggression.

This is important because the children would have been very unlikely to have enacted these specific sequences of behaviour had they not previously observed them and suggesting that observational learning had taken place.

This is strong support for the theory as the study had good reliability due its heavily standardised procedure (e.g. rooms was laid out in same ways every time with exact same toys in same places and the actor has a carefully choreographed set of aggressive behaviours which they must enact three times in 10 minutes). Furthermore, inter-rater reliability was achieved for the majority of the sample as there were two observers watching from behind the one-way mirror. The many controlled variables and use of quantitative data with a well operationalised observation schedule mean that the procedure and way of coding and analysing the data was replicable and this is important because it shows that data is reliable.

Bandura (1977) also claims that we don’t just imitate everything that we see, but instead we have a tendency to

Learning Content: SLT (AJW) 2016

identify with people we see as similar to ourselves or that we perceive as attractive or powerful, and once identification has happened the process of modelling begins.The idea of identification is supported by the fact that in his 1961 study children were more likely to imitate the same –sex model.This said, there is evidence to suggest that social learning theory does not always explain behaviour very successfully, for example in a study by Charlton et al the pro and anti-social behaviour of school children in the playground was observed before and after the introduction of Western TV channels on the remote island of St Helena. It has been predicted that the children would show more anti-social behaviour once they had been exposed to aggression in the Western TV programmes. However, the children’s anti-social behaviour did not increase, in fact there was a slight increase in pro-social behaviours.On the one hand, this evidence seems to go against Bandura’s ideas however, it could also be interpreted that these children did not “identify” with the people in the television programme as they were not from the same cultural background and embodied values that were dissimilar to the children’s own, thus behaviour was not modelled due to the absence of identification.Likewise as Bandura himself indicates if aggression is not approved of by parents then observed aggression is less likely to be enacted.Bandura also argues that observational learning involves the ability to pay close attention to the model or focus on their behaviour and then being able to retain or hold in memory a representation of the series of actions that have been performed. Bandura says that these behaviour will only be enacted by the learner if they are able to physically able to reproduce the behaviour, e.g. they have the strength or dexterity, and if they are motivated to repeat the behaviour, e.g. we anticipate that behaving in this way will bring about the approval of others. He says we are more likely to imitate a behaviour if the model was seen to be rewarded for that behaviour (vicarious reinforcement) and less likely to repeat behaviours when a model has seen to be punished for that behaviour (vicarious punishment).This feature of the theory is supported by his research in 1965 where he found that children were more likely to imitate the aggressive acts towards the BoBo doll when the model was been rewarded with chocolate, popcorn and 7Up and called a “super champion” than when the model had been punished by being told off “you leave that clown alone and spanked with a

Learning Content: SLT (AJW) 2016

rolled up newspaper. However, it is also interesting to note that when there was no punishment as in the control condition the children imitated the aggressive acts that they had seen and this shows support for what Bandura called the disinhibiting effect. He also noted in his studies that the children in the aggressive model conditions often showed many acts of non-imitative aggression, which supports his idea of the eliciting effect.

Although, the evidence from the BoBo dolls studies seems fairly compelling in many ways, there are a variety of methodological and ethical issues which call the theory into question and suggest that perhaps it is not so well supported as it first appeared. For example, the validity of the findings is questionable as these were laboratory experiments and it is possible that the children who behaved aggressively towards the BoBo doll in the confines of the laboratory, may not have acted aggressively towards another child in a real world setting such as the playground as Charlton demonstrated. Also the children in the studies were all from one specific area near to Stanford University and were probably all from fairly affluent American homes suggesting the theory may not explain how behaviour is learnt by children or indeed adults from other cultural backgrounds.

This said, it can still be argued that Social learning Theory has contributed massively to society as it drawn attention to the possible issues surrounding media violence in terms of imitative aggression and the need for tighter restrictions on what children are allowed to watch on TV however it has also led to development of the Sabido technique for example, where telenovelas have been used to model positive social behaviour in countries such as Mexico, in order to address health and social problems such as safe sex and workplace bullying.

In conclusion, Bandura social learning theory has made an immeasurable impact due to its positive applications to society and ability to actively do something to effect change relating to big issues such as population growth and climate change however the original evidence base upon which it was founded could be said to be somewhat flawed as it only concentrated or the behaviour of very young children and the contrived conditions of the laboratory may have led to demand characteristics and problems therefor with validity.

Learning Content: SLT (AJW) 2016