Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

One of the central tenants of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, which is also called Social Cognitive Theory, is that “aggression in children is influenced by the reinforcement of family members, the media, and the environment” (Bandura, 1975, pp. 206-208). Evans (1989) suggested that the basis for Bandura’s theories came from work completed by researchers Miller and Dollard (1941) who suggested that human development is actively influenced by “response consequences” (Evans, 1989, p. 4), but regardless of the impetus for Bandura’s work, he is most known for his work regarding aggression in children. This paper will focus on why the principles of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory will benefit leaders in school environments as they

Today violence has become an every day experience in life. Playing video games or turning on the television, and flipping through the channels at random, you will most likely stumble upon various forms of violence. Does it desensitize or help us tolerate violence? And the most controversial issue, does it cause violence?

Observational learning and cognitive variables help explain human behavior and can be utilized in a wide variety of areas. The Social Learning Theory (SLT) suggests that individuals learn a considerable amount of their behavior by observation and imitation of others (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk 2017. It can be used to produce distinct interventions and treatments for those in need. A review of a variety of studies in aggression, stalking, business, and simulations investigate distinct ways to make use of the many components of the SLT. It was concluded that the SLT is diverse, it allows the creation of different treatments that help individuals in numerous areas.

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).

Albert Bandura (1977), the originator of social learning theory, focused his research on the process of how people learn through observation. Social Learning stems from a cognitive and behavioral theory model. This is demonstrated through the well-known Bobo Doll experiment. The experiment entailed a child observing an adult being aggressive towards the Bobo Doll (Pavlov et al., 1961). The results indicated that children imitated the observed behaviors of being aggressive towards the doll (Pavlov et al., 1961).

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.

Albert Bandura was born in Canada on December 4th, 1925 and he was known for pioneering the research on how environmental variable influences how people relate to each other. His Social Cognitive Theory pioneered learned behavior (Pajares, 2001)

Albert Bandura, a 20th century American pszchologist, proposed a very important and probably the most influential theory of development and learning. He believed that: “Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions

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).

Annie, a fifth-grade student in Mr. Keller's class, is being quiet and sullen for the fifth day in a row. "I just can't do this writing stuff," she finally says in an appeal to Mr. Keller. "I'm not a good student. Give me P.E. or art over this stuff any day!" If we apply Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory in her comment "I just can't do this writing stuff" how does Bandura's theory help us to understand Annie? According, the Social Cognitive Theory of Albert Bandura which combines both behavioral and cognitive philosophies to form his theory of modeling, or observational learning states that human personality is an interaction between the environment and a person's psychological processes. With this interaction humans are able to

Teachers have been influenced greatly in their classes by Bandura’s theories in order to meet the needs of various different learning styles. As an educator I have observed some teachers who use a teaching format that does not include students in observational learning and they tend to be less motivated than those students who learn by the observational models. My paper will discuss Bandura’s biography, observational learning models, and self-efficacy in learning.

I believe that intrinsic factors play an equal role in the outcome of both the interest profiler and work value assessment results. Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory influenced my idea of this possibility. I learned from him that intrinsic and external factors play an important role in shaping an individual. Bandura identifies that our environment alone does not produce causation, but instead personal factors we experience is what has a significant affect on it (Bandura, 1999). Personal factors are unique to us and are correlated to age, gender, race, and even religious beliefs. The way we act, think, and respond is created by a combination of both intrinsic and external forces. It is these forces that guide our decision-making process that helps create our personality and interest. Bandura refers to the combination of environment, intrinsic, and external factors as multicausality (Bandura, 1999). As I looked more closely at how each individual intrinsic factor affects our personality, I found a study conducted by researchers with Michigan State University that further identified how age specifically influences our personality traits. The researchers found that there is a slight change of personality from emerging adulthood to adulthood. (Hopwood, et al. 2011). Which added to a past study conducted by Erick Erickson. Erickson identified a shift of values through his research on the generativity-versus-stagnation stage. He stated that our career interest will shift

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

Based on Bandura’s social learning theory, human development is continuous. This concludes that people are constantly changing, developing, gathering skills, watching and performing. Using Ben as an example, he gradually learned certain things in the ESL classroom. As I previously mentioned, writing was very difficult for him upon arriving to the U.S. Ben first learned how to hold a pencil properly, overserving from others and pictures that we provided to him, then he learned how to write his ABC’s, next he learned how to spell his name, and lastly proceeded to form words and write out short paragraphs independently. This demonstrates a smooth process, which Ben had to perform before attempting to write short papers in class.