Albert Bandura's social learning theory and the Bobo doll experiment

Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura and His Theory of Early Child Development

Social Learning Theory Overview

Albert Bandura developed the social learning theory of early childhood development in the 1970s. The social learning theory of Bandura emphasizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others and Bandura (1977) was cited as stating at the time that (Instructional Design, N.d.):

"earning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action (Bandura, 1977)."

This idea is largely consistent with the behaviorist approach such as theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning proposed by psychologists such as Piaget and Skinner. However, Bandura was able to contribute to this approach by adding two important ideas that helps to explain the source of where the actual behavior originates. These ideas are that (McLeod, 2011):

1. Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses.

2. Behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.

Thus, the specific behaviors that could be observed by an individual were posited by this theory to be learned through observation of others, such as friends, family, community members, or even from television, etc.

This theory was also supported by one of the more famous experiments in the development of contemporary psychology known as the Bobo doll experiment that was conducted in 1961. Bandura, Ross and Ross (1961) tested 36 boys and 36 girls from the Stanford University Nursery School aged between 3 to 6 years' old to help determine how these children's level of aggression could be influenced through the observation of another child who was acting aggressively towards a doll that was referred to as the "Bobo" doll (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961). The overall findings of the study indicated that children who observed the aggressive model made far more imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-aggressive or control groups; other interesting results also included findings such as that girls in the aggressive model condition also showed more physical aggressive responses if the model was male, but more verbal aggressive responses if the model was female (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961).

The overall principles that were constructed with the insights gained through studies like this, and related efforts, propose that at least some portion of learning comes from observing others performing some activity. More specifically, this theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, an environmental influence and the component processes underlying observational learning are (Bandura, 1977):

(1) Attention, including modeled events (distinctiveness, affective valence, complexity, prevalence, functional value) and observer characteristics (sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement),

(2) Retention, including symbolic coding, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal),

(3) Motor Reproduction, including physical capabilities, self-observation of reproduction, accuracy of feedback, and (4) Motivation, including external, vicarious and self-reinforcement.

Furthermore, it also interesting to note that the individual does not necessarily have to display the behavior themselves to have learned it. For instance, the behavior is stored in the mind and may or may not be replicated, although there is a higher likelihood for the behavior to be replicated.

Implications in Practice

In a classroom setting, a teacher can utilize many of the insights that Bandura and the model of social learning to help children, who often have different preferences and dispositions towards learning new materials, by offering them other options for classroom instruction. For example, there are three different ways in which teachers could model behaviors to allow their students to more options to learn new things. One method is to use a live model to demonstrate some behavior so that the children can learn this behavior observationally. There are many different ways in which such behaviors could be displayed, such as by the teacher modeling them, asking students to take turns acting out various scripts, or even bringing in an outsider to perform the behaviors for the class.