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IN CONTEXT
APPROACH
Social learning theoryBEFORE
1938 B.F. Skinner proposes
the behaviorist notion of
operant conditioning, which
explores positive and negative
reinforcements in learning.1939 US psychologist John
Dollard argues that aggression
is always a consequence of
frustration, and that frustration
always leads to aggression.AFTER
1966 American pychologist
Leonard Berkowitz claims
environmental cues, such
as those associated with
aggressive behavior, must
be present for aggression to
follow anger.1977 US psychologist Robert A.
Baron suggests that Bandura’s
experiment implies that violence
in the media contributes to
violence in society.ALBERT BANDURA
We are surrounded
by people talking and
acting in different ways.Most human
behavior is
learned through
modeling.observing others, is at the heart of
social learning theory. This theory
suggests that learning is achieved
by mentally rehearsing and then
imitating the observed actions of
other people, who serve as models
of appropriate or acceptable
behavior. Bandura argued that
“most human behavior is learned
through modeling.”
Bandura noted four conditions
that are necessary for a person to
successfully model the behavior
of another: attention, retention,
reproduction, and motivation.
Learning requires that the learner
is paying attention to the behavior
in the first place, that he remembers
what he saw or heard, that he is
actually able to physically reproduce
the behavior, and that he has a
good motive or reason to reproduce
it, such as the expectation of reward.
Although the concept of reward
is part of his social learning theory,
Bandura’s move away from
behaviorism is evident in his
radical, anti-behaviorist ideas about
the relationship between
a person’s environment and his or
her behavior. According to
behaviorism, environmental
circumstances entirely determineI
n the 1940s and 1950s, learning
was understood primarily in
behaviorist terms, with B.F.
Skinner’s theory of operant
conditioning—in which learning is
wholly determined by rewards and
punishments—dominating the
field. From this context emerged
Albert Bandura’s interest in studying
childhood aggression—an area he
felt was too complex to explain in
terms of operant conditioning—as
a learned behavior.
Bandura’s hypothesis was that
children learn aggression through
observing and imitating the violent
acts of adults—particularly family
members. He believed that the key
to the problem lies at the intersection
of Skinner’s operant conditioning
and Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
of identification, which explores how
people assimilate the characteristics
of others into their own personalities.
Bandura’s work culminated in his
famous Bobo doll experiment, and
his hugely influential 1977 treatise
Social Learning Theory.Social learning theory
Bandura’s belief that people learn
not through reinforcement (rewards
and punishments), but throughWe notice and
remember these
observed actions......which we then
mentally rehearse......and, if motivated,
physically reproduce
ourselves.