Social Learning Theory in Psychological Theories
Social learning theory is a psychological theory that explains how people learn from observing and imitating others. It was developed by Albert Bandura and his colleagues in the 1960s and 1970s, based on their experiments with children and adults. Social learning theory proposes that people can acquire new behaviors, attitudes, and skills through vicarious reinforcement, self-efficacy, and reciprocal determinism.
Vicarious reinforcement is the process of learning from the consequences of others’ actions. For example, a child may learn to avoid touching a hot stove after seeing another child get burned. Vicarious reinforcement can be positive or negative, depending on whether the observed behavior is rewarded or punished.
Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s ability to perform a task or achieve a goal. For example, a student may have high self-efficacy in math if he or she believes that he or she can solve math problems successfully. Self-efficacy can influence one’s motivation, effort, persistence, and performance.
Reciprocal determinism is the interaction between one’s behavior, environment, and personal factors. For example, a person’s behavior may affect his or her environment, which in turn may affect his or her behavior, and so on. Reciprocal determinism implies that people are not passive recipients of environmental influences, but active agents who can shape their own outcomes.
Social learning theory has many applications in various fields, such as education, health, criminology, and media. For instance, social learning theory can help teachers design effective instructional strategies that incorporate modeling, feedback, and goal setting. Social learning theory can also help health professionals promote healthy behaviors and prevent risky ones by using social media, peer education, and self-regulation techniques. Social learning theory can also help criminologists understand the causes and prevention of criminal behavior by examining the role of family, peers, media, and society.
Social learning theory is one of the most influential and widely used psychological theories in the modern world. It has contributed to the advancement of knowledge and practice in many domains of human activity. It has also inspired further research and development of related theories, such as social cognitive theory, observational learning theory, and social identity theory.
Works Cited
Bandura, Albert. “Social Learning Theory.” Prentice-Hall, 1977.
McLeod, Saul. “Bandura – Social Learning Theory.” Simply Psychology, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online. https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html
Ormrod, Jeanne E. “Human Learning.” Pearson Education, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online.
