One of the primary strengths of social learning theory is
its flexibility in explaining the differences in a person’s behavior or learning
, i.e., when there is a change in a person’s environment, the person’s behavior may change.
Pros:
Provides insight into how people learn from others and provides ideas for including effective elements into your scenarios
. Cons: Not a model for how everyone might behave, more of a guide that can predict behaviour.
Unlike stage models of child development, social learning theory doesn’t hinge upon a distinct progression of learning and growth that is chronological or age dependent. The view of this theory as neglecting to consider the child’s development, across all of the domains, is a
potential weakness
.
What are the weaknesses of learning theories?
Weakness –
the learner may find themselves in a situation where the stimulus for the correct response does not occur, therefore the learner cannot respond
. – A worker who has been conditioned to respond to a certain cue at work stops production when an anomaly occurs because they do not understand the system.
– Albert Bandura As the creator of the concept of social learning theory, Bandura proposes five essential steps in order for the learning to take place:
observation, attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation
.
The most common (and pervasive) examples of social learning situations are
television commercials
. Commercials suggest that drinking a certain beverage or using a particular hair shampoo will make us popular and win the admiration of attractive people.
Social Learning Theory was founded by Albert Bandura (1977), which is the idea that people learn from each other. This is done through ‘
imitation, observation and modelling
. ‘ The importance of social learning theory is analysed by Bandura, looking at how children learn from watching those around them.
- Increased engagement across disengaged learners.
- Students developing self organisation skills.
- Encouraged collaboration.
- Developing skills that can be used in the workforce.
Social learning theory is
a useful tool for social workers to employ when assessing and assisting clients
. This theory can often help identify and treat the identifiable cause of certain behaviors.
- Step 1: Attention. The behavior of the model must grab the learner’s attention for them to notice the behavior and to implement observational learning. …
- Step 2: Retention. …
- Step 3: Reproduction. …
- Step 4: Motivation.
What was Bandura’s theory?
Albert Bandura’s
social learning theory
(SLT) suggests that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating the behavior of others. … The SLT states that in response to observation, imitation, and modeling, learning can occur even without changing behavior (Bandura, 1965).
What did Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment prove?
Bobo doll experiment, groundbreaking study on aggression led by psychologist Albert Bandura that demonstrated
that children are able to learn through the observation of adult behaviour
.
What are the 3 key concepts of Albert Bandura?
Bandura asserts that most human behavior is learned through
observation, imitation, and modeling
.
Social learning theory suggests
that social behavior is learned by observing and imitating the behavior of others
. Psychologist Albert Bandura developed the social learning theory as an alternative to the earlier work of fellow psychologist B.F. Skinner, known for his influence on behaviorism.
- Attention. Children can’t learn if they aren’t focused on the task. …
- Retention. People learn by internalizing information. …
- Reproduction. We reproduce our previously learned behavior or knowledge when it’s required. …
- Motivation.
Social learning theory can be used
to encourage and teach desirable behaviours in the classroom through the use of positive reinforcement and rewards
. For example, a student who is praised for raising their hand to speak will more than likely repeat that behaviour.
