Social Learning Theory
Observation
Children watch what other people do; what they say and they pay attention to how other people respond to what is said or done.
Because of this observation, the child may then copy the behaviour.
Models
A model is anyone whose behaviour is observed.
The people who are likely to be models are:
- Similar to the child - so the child is likely to imitate the behaviour of someone who is the same sex.
- Of a higher status - e.g. a parent or teacher, pop star, sports star.
- Rewarded (reinforced) - if the child sees that the model’s behaviour leads to a reward (reinforced), this is called vicarious reinforcement because the child is indirectly reinforced.
Imitation
Imitation involves copying a specific behaviour from a model. It is often described as ‘a short cut to learning’, because it does not rely on trial and error learning or behaviour shaping.
Reinforcement
The child is more likely to repeat the behaviour if they are rewarded for doing so. e.g. when a boy imitates a pop star and gets admiration from his friends, this is reinforcement and he is likely to repeat the performance again.
However, he will not do this at home if his parents disapprove of this behaviour because their disapproval is a punishment.
Bandura’s research on aggression |
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Bandura and Walters (1963)
Nursery school children watched a real-life or a filmed model who was either a child or an adult performing aggressive actions towards a bobo doll. The children were left alone with the toys, their behaviour with the bobo doll was observed. Bandura and Walters found that the children imitated the model's behaviour exactly. A control group showed fewer aggressive acts towards the doll and very few of these were identical to those of the adults.
Summary of the findings
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High levels of aggression were found in participants were found in participants who had seen a model of the same sex.
- Boys performed more acts of aggression than girls.
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The role of media in aggression
Bandura’s research showed that children can learn new ways of being aggressive from observing models. This raises the question of what role the media might play in encouraging aggression.
Williams et al (1986)
| Three Canadian towns were compared to discover whether television had an influence on their levels of aggression. At the start of the study, one town ‘Notel’ had no television; another town ‘Unitel’ had one channel and a third had ‘Multitel’ had several channels. A year later Notel had one channel, Unitel had two channels.
The researcher measured the children’s level of aggression before additional channels were received and again one year afterwards. The results showed that aggression (verbal and physical) increased after Notel children began watching TV, and this was true for both boys and girls. Williams also found a positive correlation between the amount of time a child watched TV and the amount of aggression he or she showed.
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Evaluation
- A correlation does not mean that time watching TV causes aggression, or that aggression makes children watch TV more, only that these two variables are related.
- The children in all three towns showed similar levels of aggression when the study started, despite different experiences of TV. It could be that the Notel children’s aggression levels began to fall after the researchers left.
Biological Explanations
Charles Whitman shot his mother, his wife and then more than a dozen students in the University of Texas in 1966.
Exercise
Questions
- Use psychological theories to explain the children’s behaviour.
- What theory would you say that the parent who is quoted is suggesting is responsible for the children’s behaviour
- Can you think of any other explanations for the children’s behaviour?
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