Social Learning Theory

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Describe and discuss atleast two features of the social learning theory (10)

Social learning theory looks at the social factors and mental processing in human learning. Like behaviourism, it accepts that humans can learn by classical and operant conditioning, but SLT emphasises that humans learn a lot by observation, and imitation of role models. For example, someone must pay attention and perceive what their role model does, think about the purpose of the behaviour they observe, and remember it to accurately reproduce it later.

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Albert Bandura believed we can learn simply by observing models in the environment and that rewards and punishments are not essential for learning. He looked at the cognitive processes involved in learning e.g. memory and thinking is essential for learning. We can also learn by imitating and copying behaviour. We copy models. We identify with someone we like to be which results in copying and imitating their behaviour. This can be a result of direct or indirect reinforcement. Observational learning has four conditions for effecting modelling to occur. The mediating cognitive factors are attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation.

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