Running head: SOCIAL LEARNING 1
Social Learning Theory
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SOCIAL LEARNING 2
Social Learning Theory
Background
The theory of social learning is significantly undergirded upon the premise that learning
takes place within distinct social context. Along this chain of thought, the postulation is that
people learn through observing other peoples’ actions as well as the outcomes thereof. One of the
major proponents of the social learning theory is Albert Bandura (1977), whose work has been
applauded to remark immense contribution in the theory of social learning and its related aspects.
According to Albert Bandura (1977), social learning entails a continuous reciprocal interaction
between; cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.
Besides, Albert Bandura also opined that the theory of social learning encompasses two
main aspects; cognitive and behavioral philosophies. In this regard, cognitive aspect entails a
situation whereby mediating processes occurs between various stimuli and responses. On the
other hand, the behavioral philosophy holds that people learn and subsequently embrace
behaviors from their surrounding environment through the concept of observational learning.
Moreover, the theory of social learning is as well premised on the postulation that human beings
have the ability to control their behaviors through the process of self regulation (Bandura, 1991).
In Bandura’s opinion, self-regulation encompasses three distinct three stages, beginning
from self-observation, self-judgment, and lastly, self-response (Bandura, 1991). Self-observation
refers to the situation when people abide by their behaviors without any external influence. Self-
judgment, however, refers to a situation where an individual compares his/her observations
against the background of underlying norms advanced by the society. Self-response on the other
hand refers to whereby individuals either positively or negatively reward themselves, based on
the performance of their observations (Bandura, 1991).
SOCIAL LEARNING 3
Important to reckon, the theory of social learning is aimed at the evaluating the learning
which transcends within distinct social context. This way, individuals gain certain behaviors as a
net effect of the observation they make within their neighborhoods. Deriving from this,
Bandura’s theory of social learning put forth four main elements critical in justifying the learning
process. These include; attention; retention; motor reproduction; and motivation, as succinctly
explained in the subsequent paragraphs (Bandura, 1977).
At the very beginning of social learning is the aspect of attention. Under this crucial
element of social learning, individuals first need to pay attention to the influential models within
their environments. This encompasses being attentive to both the behavior and the resultant
effect. The rationale behind this element is that attention is an indispensable prerequisite in
attracting imitation. Illustratively, while children observe myriad behaviors within the society on
a daily basis, they nonetheless only imitate such behaviors which draw their attention. Therefore,
the lower the level of attention, the less likely that such behavior will be imitated (Allen &
Santrock, 1993).
Retention basically revolves around how probable the behaviour learnt is to be
remembered. Essentially therefore, wherein the behavior is retained, it is more likely that
individuals are going to imitate it. This requirement mandates individuals to create memory of
the behaviour to enable them play it at a subsequent time. Indeed this requirement is further
buttressed by the finding that most of the learned behaviours are not always immediate but
instead takes time to be imitated by the observer (Allen & Santrock, 1993).
The third element in behavioral learning is reproduction, otherwise known as motor
replication. This critical element basically focuses on the observer’s ability to imitate the
behaviour learnt through observation. Thus, while individuals may make observations and so
SOCIAL LEARNING 4
wish to imitate the same, this may nonetheless be thwarted by their mental and physical
inabilities. Consequently therefore, following the observation and retention of the behavior,
concerned individuals must possess the physical capacity to model the behavior (Allen &
Santrock, 1993).
The final step in the social learning theory is the aspect of motivation. Hereunder, the
observer will undoubtedly evaluate the rewards and punishments that come with particular
behaviors. Where the rewards tend to be more in respect of certain behaviour, people are more
likely to be motivated to learn the same (Allen & Santrock, 1993).
In the Bobo doll experiment, Bandura used all the above four components of social
learning. According to Bandura, aggression was the result of three aspects; the first being that
observers developed aggressive patterns of behavior. The second aspect is what compelled
