Social Learning & Obesity (DP IB Psychology): Revision Note

Social learning theory (SLT)

• SLT was proposed by Albert Bandura (1972) as a development of behaviourism

• Behaviourism states people are shaped by their environment; SLT refines this by explaining how people (especially children) learn from others

Key principles of SLT

• Observation

  • Children learn by observing role models (e.g., parents, teachers, older siblings, and celebrities)

  • Role models usually have status, influence, or qualities the child admires (e.g., being skilled at football)

• Imitation

  • Behaviours seen in role models are imitated, especially if these behaviours are rewarding or admirable

• Social contexts

  • Learning occurs through the environment (e.g., home, school, peer groups)

• Vicarious reinforcement

  • Indirect reinforcement: observing someone else being rewarded for a behaviour increases the likelihood of imitation

    • E.g., seeing a sibling praised for tidying their room motivates another child to do the same, as they wish to be rewarded in the same way

Mediational processes (ARRM)

• SLT highlights the importance of cognitive processes between stimulus and response

• ARRM explains the stages:

  • Attention – noticing the behaviour

  • Retention – remembering how the behaviour was carried out

  • Reproduction – imitating the behaviour when able

  • Motivation – the desire to perform the behaviour (often due to expected reward)

• Attention and retention are involved in the learning of behaviour

• Reproduction and motivation are involved in the performance of behaviour

• Learning and performance do not need to occur at the same time

  • E.g., aggression observed at school might not be reproduced until later at home

Social learning & obesity

• According to SLT, people learn by observing and imitating role models

• In the context of obesity, friendship groups can act as role models:

  • Friends often share similar appearances, habits, and interests

  • Groups develop norms (e.g., food choices, activity levels) which members follow to feel included.

• This can lead to the spread of obesity within social networks.

Research support for social learning & obesity

Christakis & Fowler (2007)

Aim: 

• To investigate how obesity spreads through social networks such as friends, siblings, and spouses

Participants: 

• 12,067 people from the Framingham Heart Study (assessed between 1971 and 2003)

Procedure:

• Participants' BMI was measured

• Statistical models examined whether obesity in one person was linked to obesity in their:

  • friends

  • siblings

  • spouse

  • neighbours

Results: 

• If a friend was obese, a person’s risk of obesity increased by 57%

• If a sibling was obese, the risk increased by 40%

• If a spouse was obese, the risk increased by 37%

• The strongest effect was between female same-sex friends

Conclusion: 

• Obesity can spread through social bonds, particularly in close female friendship groups

Evaluation of social learning & obesity

Strengths

• SLT offers a more rounded explanation than behaviourism, as it considers role models, social context, and mediational processes (choice)

  • It is less deterministic than behaviourism, as individuals have some control over whether to imitate observed behaviours

• Useful for public health campaigns, which could target group norms and learned behaviours (e.g., promoting healthy eating within friendship groups)

Limitations

• SLT cannot explain why not all observed behaviours are imitated (e.g., friends with different BMIs in the same group)

• Obesity is complex, as it is multifactorial

  • Biological, genetic, and socioeconomic factors also play a role, so SLT alone cannot fully explain obesity

Link to concepts

Perspective

• As highlighted above, obesity cannot be explained via a simple social learning model of behaviour as it may have a biological basis (e.g., hormonal dysfunction)

• Obesity could result from negative self-schemas resulting in overeating for comfort

• There is the added influence of social media pressure to look a certain way, which could give rise to cognitive dissonance

  • E.g., ‘I’m supposed to have a tiny waist and a thigh gap but that’s an impossible goal’

    • This could again result in comfort-eating as a form of self-medication

Bias

• With a large sample and data collected over decades (as in the study above), it is inevitable that bias will intrude upon the validity and reliability of the findings

  • E.g., how exact and consistent were the measures? Was BMI measured in the same way per participant? Were records kept properly? What about sampling bias (the data is from one hospital only)?