psyc

hlot

ron.

org.

uk

What does this advert suggest about children’s behaviour?

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ron.

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Today’s session

You will learn how to... You will learn about...

Describe and apply psychological approaches & theoriesConsider the relationship between an approach and its methodsCompare and distinguish between approaches

Social learning theoryResearch by Bandura (1965)

psyc

hlot

ron.

org.

uk

Behaviourism

S R

Behaviourists aren’t interested in what happens in between S and R. They

don’t think you need to know.

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ron.

org.

uk

Social learning theory

S RO

Social Learning Theorists say that things take place within the organism that mediate between S and R.

You do need to know about the person’s mental processes.

psyc

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ron.

org.

uk

Social learning theory

• Agrees with behaviourist learning theories– Classical conditioning– Operant conditioning

• Adds two important ideas:– Mediating processes between stimuli & responses– Observational learning

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Bandura’s SLT research

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• What did the children need to do in order to reproduce the behaviour later?

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Social learning theory

Attention

Encoding

Imitation

Motivation

A person pays attention to someone else’s behaviour

They memorise the behaviour they have observed

They practice the behaviour themselves

Given a reason, they may use it

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ron.

org.

uk

Social learning theory

• Observation• Model & modelling• Imitation• Reinforcement & punishment• Vicarious reinforcement & punishment

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ron.

org.

uk

Bandura (1965)

Aims and conclusionsExternal validityInternal validityEthical issues

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Mediating factors

• What is the observer paying attention to?• How effectively have they encoded the

behaviour?• How able are they to reproduce the

behaviour?• Do they have the motivation to perform the

behaviour?