Albert Bandura Social Learning Theory Essay

Albert Bandura Social Learning Theory Essay

Social Learning Theory Essay: Introduction

Bandura’s social learning theory argues that gaining knowledge that results in behavior change is attained through observation, imitation, and modeling. Besides, the theory postulates that the learning process is achieved through role imitations, attitudes, and anticipated outcomes (Bandura, 1977). In other words, individual learning abilities are enhanced through simulations, scrutiny, and role enhancements. Through observation, individuals can easily create a new behavior, which informs future actions. Generally, the theory explains human behavior concerning incessant interactive reciprocation between ecological, cognitive, and conductive influences. Bandura social learning theory has often been perceived as a conduit between cognitive and behaviorist theories. The reason is that it contains the attributes of both cognitive and behaviorist theories, including increased awareness, recollection, and impetus. The theoretical perspective of Bandura has been widely applied in various fields ranging from psychology to medicine, particularly in explaining children’s cognitive developments and changes in behavior patterns.

Bandura Social Learning Theory: Explanations

According to the theory, learning would be impossible if individuals were left to depend wholly on the impacts of their personal actions (Bandura, 1977). Essentially, the behaviors of an individual cannot be influenced fully by the result of their personal actions. However, individual behaviors are impacted through the process of modeling. In other words, from the observations, individuals can easily come up with an idea of how new behaviors are performed, which informs future actions (Bandura, 1977).

Bandura’s social learning theory is a highly recognized learning and development theory. The reason is that the theory is based on the traditional concepts of learning and development theories while holding the most divergent and provable ideas. In addition to the traditional concepts, Bandura added the social element where the idea of learning through observation is propagated. Bandura argued that gaining new knowledge of information and a resultant change in behaviors are attained through modeling. The modeling process is similar to observational learning, which can be applied to account for several behaviors in individuals (Bandura, 1977).

The Notions of Basic Social Learning

Three basic ideas form the core of Bandura’s social learning theory. First is the notion of observational learning. Essentially, the idea of observational learning argues that people can gain knowledge by imitating others. The second notion is that an individual’s cognitive or mental state is a critical part of the whole process. The final concept is the fact that not all things observed and learned result in behavioral transformation (Bandura, 1977).

Bandura Social Learning Theory: Observational Learning

From various experiments, Bandura showed that children tend to learn and imitate other people’s behaviors, particularly significant others. In most cases, children imitate the behaviors they have observed from their adult role models (Bandura, 1977). The observations of Bandura in most of his studies explain the role modeling process in behavior patterns where people tend to imitate the conduct of their significant others. In most behavioral theories, role models are typically termed significant others. The actions of role models majorly influence individuals’ behaviors. According to the social learning theory, new behaviors are learned through observations and imitating the actions of significant others (Bandura, 1977). Through observations, children can understand how new behaviors are performed. For instance, belligerent children have been found to imitate the aggressive actions of their parents. Essentially, such children tend to imitate the hostile actions of their parents, which they had observed in the past. However, learning through observation is not only attained through live models but also through verbal and symbolic models (Bandura, 1977).

Based on the notion, the theory acknowledged three basic learning process models ranging from live to symbolic models. Bandura argued that the live model entails activities that an individual really confirms. The verbal instructional model gives rationalizations and descriptions for a particular behavior (Bandura, 1977). In the symbolic model, the behaviors are portrayed through illusory characters. Symbolic modeling is quite common in the current media, including online, television, and social networking. Learning behaviors through symbolic modeling has become common in the current social system and is influenced by t