Application of Social Learning Theory (DP IB Psychology): Revision Note

Application of social learning theory

• Social learning theory (SLT) is based on the idea that humans learn behaviours from others within social contexts

• Behaviour is shaped by role models whose actions may be imitated if those behaviours are perceived to be rewarded

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

• The following study demonstrates that by participating in language (talking, listening, singing, reading, writing) with people from their own culture (via the mechanisms of SLT), children thrive across all aspects of their development

Research support for application of social learning theory

Ochs (1982)

Aim:

• To investigate the role of SLT in language acquisition

Participants:

• 23 children under the age of 6 from the island of Samoa (a Polynesian country located about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand)

Procedure:

• A longitudinal case study conducted over a period of 10 months

• The children were observed every five weeks across the 10-month period

Results:

• Language is led by a caregiver, usually an older sibling

• Language learning is dominated by cultural forces such as:

  • decentering: this involves shifting the centre of attention away from the self when communicating/delivering a message, i.e., considering the other person

  • lack of expansion by caregivers: expansion involves taking the words a child says and repeating them, while adding more to what they have said, e.g., 'You see a bird; yes, it's a blue and yellow bird, isn't it?'

  • elicited imitation: this is when a child listens to and then repeats a word/phrase/sentence

• Much of the children's learning happens via observation so that enculturation and language occur synchronously

• The children's language acquisition is dependent on and highly influenced by their family's and their community's culture

• Samoan parents do not engage in a lot of communication with their children

  • Children are assumed to lack the tools necessary to communicate with adults

  • Children are assumed to have little control over themselves and their actions

  • The first utterances that Samoan babies make are not viewed as signs that language is developing but simply as arbitrary sounds

Conclusion:

• SLT plays a key role in language acquisition in Samoan families

• There are key markers that determine how language is learned by Samoan children

Evaluation of social learning theory

Strengths

• SLT provides a more 'rounded' explanation of how the environment shapes behaviour than that offered by behaviourism

  • This means that SLT is less reductionist than behaviourism

  • This means that SLT is also less deterministic than behaviourism, as mediational processes imply that the individual has some choice over their behaviour

• SLT has good application to learning within families and cultures (see the above study)

  • This means that it could be used to inform parenting classes and to understand how other cultures may differ in terms of language development

Limitations

• SLT cannot account for behaviours which are observed frequently and are not imitated

  • E.g., a child may use a strong local accent but have parents who use a neutral accent with no regional inflections

• Research into SLT largely consists of lab experiments

  • This is a limitation, as SLT is an explanation of behaviour within social contexts

  • The controlled conditions of a lab experiment cannot hope to replicate real life; thus, such research lacks ecological validity

Link to concepts

Change

• Ochs' study used a longitudinal design, which means that she was able to track progress and change over time rather than obtaining a brief sample of behaviour as happens with snapshot studies

  • An advantage of longitudinal design is that the researcher can become close to the participants, which helps them to gain a better insight and understanding of their culture and community

  • A disadvantage is that they may become too close to the participants and thus lose their objectivity

Measurement

• Naturalistic observation is a good way of ensuring ecological validity, as no artificial tasks or materials are brought to the research process

• Some participants may experience the observer effect but with longitudinal design, what tends to happen is that the participants get used to the researcher being there so they tend to relax more than they would in a one-off snapshot study