Describe and evaluate one social psychological theory of aggression.

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26th September 2003

Describe and evaluate one social psychological theory of aggression.

There are many different social psychological theories of aggression, one of which is the social learning theory.

The social learning theory is based around observation suggesting that as well as learning by direct reinforcement and punishment which is the classic learning theory people can also learn by indirect or vicarious reinforcement which is seeing someone else reinforced or punished for a certain behaviour. This does not mean that the behaviour is copied immediately but can happen some time later. This suggests that the cognitive process is involved in the social learning of the behaviour as this is represented internally.

The main study surrounding the social learning theory was that by Bandura. The study was called The Social Learning of Aggression and involved a Bobo doll. In this study a group of children observed an adult being aggressive towards a Bobo doll, in the second group the children saw the adult being rewarded by another adult for the behaviour and in the third group the children saw the adult being punished for the same behaviour. Bandura found that the children who saw the model rewarded,