1.7: Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory
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Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura (1925-2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist and professor of social science in psychology at Stanford University. He was a leading contributor to the field of education, in particular, social learning theory. He expanded the concept of social learning theory which became known as social cognitive theory. This particular type of learning happens when someone observes another person engaged in a certain behavior witness the outcome of that behavior, they tend to remember their observations and use this information to guide their own subsequent behaviors. In other words, when someone doesn't know what to do, they look to someone else and learn by modeling or copying their behavior.
Examples:
- A kindergartner on their first day of school might eagerly look at how others are acting and try to act the same way to fit in more quickly.
- Adolescents struggling with their identity rely heavily on their peers actions and use them to guide their own behaviors in order to fit in.
- Adults will do things because they’ve seen it pay off for someone else.
These actions are referred to as vicarious learning or vicarious reinforcement.
Bandura's social cognitive theories have been applied to education, mainly focusing on
- self-efficacy - the belief in one's capacity to act in such a way as to achieve goals);
- self-regulation - the ability to monitor and regulate actions toward a goal
- observational learning - learning by observing the behavior of others
Badura's key research findings showed that models are an important means for learning new behaviors.
Our Environment Creates Us, and We Create our Environment
Bandura also suggests that there is interplay between the environment and the individual. We are not just the product of our surroundings, rather we influence our surroundings. Parents not only influence their child’s environment, perhaps intentionally using reinforcement, etc., but children influence parents as well. Parents may respond differently with their first child than with their fourth. Perhaps they try to be the perfect parents with their firstborn, but by the time their last child comes along they have very different expectations both of themselves and their child.
Source
- Exploring Behavior, Developmental Theories. Lifespan Development. Lumen Learning. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.