Theorist -Albert Bandura

The Social Learning Theory

Margaret Delores Isom

November 30, 1998

Abstract

The social learning theory is the behavior theory most relevant to criminology. Albert Bandura believed that aggression is learned through a process called behavior modeling. He believed that individuals do not actually inherit violent tendencies, but they modeled them after three principles (Bandura, 1976: p.204). Albert Bandura argued that individuals, especially children learn aggressive reponses from observing others, either personally or through the media and environment. He stated that many individuals believed that aggression will produce reinforcements. These reinforcements can formulate into reduction of tension, gaining financial rewards, or gaining the praise of others, or building self-esteem (Siegel, 1992: p.171). In the Bobo doll experiment, the children imitated the aggression of the adults because of the rewarded gained. Albert Bandura was interested in child development. If aggression was diagnosed early in children, Bandura believe that children would reframe from being adult criminals. "Albert Bandura argued that aggression in children is influenced by the reinforcement of family members, the media, and the environment"(Bandura, 1976: pp. 206-208).

Biographical  Information

Albert Bandura was born in Mundare, Canada in 1925. He was raised in a small farming community in Canada. Bandura received his B.A. degree from the University of the British Columbia in 1949. In 1952, he obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. During his studying at the University Iowa, he developed the social learning theory. While studying at the University of Iowa, Bandura believed that psychologists should "conceptualize clinical phenomena in ways that

would make them amenable to experimental tests"(Evans, 1976: p.243). Bandura believed that psychological research should be conducted in a laboratory to control factors that determined behavior. In 1953, Albert Bandura accepted a position as a psychology professor at the University of Stanford and he is currently employed there today.

Albert Bandura has achieved many honors and awards from fellow psychologists. In 1972, he received a distinguished achievement award from the American Psychological Association and a Scientist Award from the California State Psychological Association. In 1974, Bandura was elected the president of the American Psychological Association. In 1977, he was known as the Father of the Cognitive Theory. In 1980, he was also elected the president of the Western Psychological Association. In 1989, he was also employed to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (Hilgard, 1989: pp.11).

During his lifetime, he has written several books and articles that have been widely used in psychological research. In 1959, Bandura wrote his first book in collaboration with Richard Walters called "Adolescent Aggression." In 1973, he wrote Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis. Four years later, he published one his most prominent books called the "Social Learning Theory." These books and articles are the most relevant psychological research in determining aggression and deviance. In 1941, Dollard and Miller published the book "Social Learning and Imitation. Albert Bandura stated that this book was one of the contributions to development of his modeling theory (Evans, 1989: p4). " I was attracted to Miller and Dollard’s work on the assumption that human development requires a much more powerful mode of transmitting competencies than does trail and error (Evans, 1989: p4). The Social Learning and Imitation theory suggested that people obtain competencies and new modes of behavior through response consequences. (Miller & Dollard, 1941: pp.26-42)

Albert Bandura believed aggression reinforced by family members was the most prominent source of behavior modeling. He reports that children use the same aggressive tactics that their parents illustrate when dealing with others (Bandura, 1976: p.206). While studying at Iowa, Bandura became strongly interested in aggression in children (Bandura, 1977). In order to control aggression, Bandura stated that the problem should be diagnosed and treated during one’s childhood. "We should not be subjecting people to treatments and then, some years later, trying to figure out what effects they have. We should test treatments before we embark on widespread applications (Evans,1989: p3.)." Children learn to act aggressive when they model their behavior after violent acts of adults, especially family members. For example, the boy who witness his father repeatedly strike his

mother will more than likely become an abusive parent and husband (Siegel, 1992: p. 170)

Albert Bandura is most famous for the Bobo doll experiment. Albert Bandura believed that aggression must explain three aspects: First, how aggressive patterns of behavior are developed; second, what provokes people to behave aggressively, and third, what determines whether they are going to continue to resort to an aggressive behavior pattern on future occasions (Evans, 1989: p.22). In this experiment, he had children witness a model aggressively attacking a plastic clown called the Bobo doll. There children would watch a video where a model would aggressively hit a doll and " ‘...the model pummels it on the head with a mallet, hurls it down, sits on it and punches it on the nose repeatedly, kick it across the room, flings it in the air, and bombards it with balls...’(Bandura, 1973: p.72). After the video, the children were placed in a room with attractive toys, but they could not touch them. The process of retention had occurred. Therefore, the children became angry and frustrated. Then the children were led to another room where there were identical toys used in the Bobo video. The motivation phase was in occurrence. Bandura and many other researchers founded that 88% of the children imitated the aggressive behavior. Eight months later, 40% of the same children reproduce the violent behavior observed in the Bobo doll experiment http://www.mhcollegeco/socscienc/comm/bandur-s.mhtml

.

Observational learning is also known as imitation or modeling. In this process, learning occurs when individuals observes and imitate others’ behavior. There are four component processes influenced by the observer’s behavior following exposure to models. These components include: attention; retention; motor reproduction; and motivation (Bandura, 1977: pp.24-28).

Attention is the first component of observational learning. Individuals cannot learn much by observation unless they perceive and attend to the significant features of the modeled behavior. For example, children must attend to what the aggressor is doing and saying in order to reproduce the model’s behavior (Allen & Santrock,1993: p.139) In the Bobo doll experiment, the children witnessed the Bobo doll being verbally and/or physically abused by live models and filmed models.

Retention is the next component. In order to reproduce the modeled behavior, the individuals must code the information into long-term memory. Therefore, the information will be retrieval. For example, a simple verbal description of what the model performed would be a known as retention (Allen & Santrock, 1993: p139). Memory is an important cognitive process that helps the observer code and retrieve information. In the Bobo doll experiment, the children imitated the aggression they witnessed in the video. They aggressively hit the Bobo doll because it was coded and store in their memory.

Motor reproduction is another process in observational learning. The observer must be able to reproduce the model’s behavior. The observer must learn and posses the physical capabilities of the modeled behavior. An example of motor reproduction would to be able to learn how to ski or ride a bike. Once a behavior is learned through attention and retention, the observer must posses the physically capabilities to produce the aggressive act. The children had the physically capabilities of hitting and pummeling the doll to the ground.

The final process in observational learning is motivation or reinforcements. In this process, the observer expects to receive positive reinforcements for the modeled behavior. In the Bobo doll experiment, the children witnessed the adults being rewarded for their aggression. Therefore, they performed the same act to achieve the rewards. For example, most children witnessed violence on television being rewarded by the media. Historically, bank robbers were heroes. Many people were highly upset about the death of Bonnie and Clyde. When individuals, especially children witness this type of media, they attend, code, retrieve, posses the motor capabilities and perform the modeled behavior because of the positive reinforcement determined by the media (Bootzin, Bowers, Crocker, 1991: 201-202). The Bobo doll experiment helped Bandura to theorized that "As children continue to age, the experience still

effected their personality, turning them into violent adults http://www.mhcollegeco/socscienc/comm/bandur-s.mhtml

Environmental experiences is a second influence of the social learning of violence in children. Albert Bandura reported that individuals that live in high crime rates areas are more likely to act violently than those who dwell in low-crime areas (Bandura, 1976: p.207). This assumption is similar to Shaw and McKay’s theory of social disorganization. They believed that a neighborhood surrounded by culture conflict, decay and insufficient social organizations was a major cause of criminality (Bartollas, 1990: pp.145).

Albert Bandura believed television was a source of behavior modeling. Today, films and television shows illustrate violence graphically. Violence is often expressed as an acceptable behavior, especially for heroes who have never be punished. Since aggression is a prominent feature of many shows, children who have a high degree of exposure to the media may exhibit a relatively high incidence of hostility themselves in imitation of the aggression they have witnessed (Berkowitz, 1962: pp. 247). For example, David Phillips reported homicide rates increase tremendously after a heavy weight championship fight (Cloward & Ohlin, 1960). There have been a number of deaths linked to violence on television. For example, John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagen after he watched the movie "Taxi Driver" fifteen times. In the movie "Born Innocent," a girl was raped with a bottle by four other girls. In 1974, a similar incident happened to a California’s girl. The girls who raped her testified in court that they had witness the same scene in "Born Innocent." In addition, Ronald Zamora brutally killed an elderly woman and pleaded the insanity defense. His attorney argued that Zamora’s was addicted to the violence on television. As a result, he could not differentiate between reality and fantasy. However, Zamora was founded guilty because the jury did not believe his defense (Siegel, 1992: p.172).

Contemporary Views

Today, many social learning theorists have indicated that crime is a product of learning the values and aggressive behaviors linked with criminality. Sutherland developed the differential association theory that suggests that individuals learn criminal behavior while in their adolescence from family members and peers (Sutherland, 1939, pp25). In "Deviant Behavior: A Social Learning Approach," Akers believed individuals learned aggressive acts through operant condition (Akers, 1977). In this process, the aggression was acquired after through direct conditioning and modeling others’ actions. He believed that positive rewards and the avoidance of punishment reinforced aggression (Akers, 1977). William Benson found that adolescents that watched excessive amounts of television during their childhood became adult criminals. They committed crimes,

such as rape and assault, "at a rate 49% higher than teenage boys who had watched below average quantities of television violence (Centerwall, 1993: pp.70-71) Also, Bandura’s theory has made the public and political affairs realize that violence does cause aggression in children. He has spoken at a number of political conferences concerning the Bobo doll experiment and the effects television has on children. Several political candidates have indicated that violence on television does cause aggression. President Clinton has implemented policies that would deter violence on television.

Criticisms

The social learning theory advocates that individuals, especially children, imitate or copy modeled behavior from personally observing others, the environment, and the mass media. Biological theorists argue that the social learning theory completely ignores individuals biological state. Also, they state that the social learning theory rejects the differences of individuals due to genetic, brain, and learning differences (Jeffery, 1985: p.238). For example, if a person witnessed a hanging or a violent murder, he or she might respond in many different ways. "Biological theorists believed that the responses would be normal and come from the autonomic nervous system. In the autonomic nervous system, the heart rate, increase blood pressure, nausea, and fainting would be normal symptoms of the responses that individuals might expressed in this particular situation. Therefore, the symptoms and behavior are not learned, but partially inherited. In addition, the social learning theory rejects the classical and operant conditioning processes. The biological preparedness of the individual to learn as well as the role of the brain in processing information from the social environment, are critical to learning theory, but they are ignored by the social learning theory. Social reinforcement is conditioned reinforcement based on the relationship of the conditioned stimulus to an unconditioned stimulus" (Jeffery, 1985: p.239).

In the Bobo doll experiment, critics have argued that the children were manipulated into responded to the aggressive movie. The children were teased and became frustrated because they could not touch the toys. Many critics believed the experiment conducted was unethical and morally wrong because the children were trained to be aggressive. "How many more of the experiments finding a link between violence on television and aggressive behavior have ethical problems? It is not surprising that the children had long-term

implications because of the methods imposed in this experiment"(Worthman and Loftus, p.45)

There have been many debates over whether or not violence on television causes aggressive behavior in children. Many studies have indicated that television does not lead to aggressive behavior. For instances, psychologists have found that some cartoons are very violent and cause children to illustrate aggressive behavior. However, the general public believes that children view cartoons such as Elmer Fudd shooting the rabbit as funny and humorous. It is the parents’ responsibility to inform their children that the cartoons are not real.

Feshbach and R.D. Singer believed that television actually decreases the amount of aggression in children (Feshbach: 1971). They conducted a study within a six-week study on juvenile boys who regularly watched television violence compared to juvenile boys who were exposed to non-violent shows. After the six-week period, Feshback and R.D. Singer found out that the juvenile boys that viewed the non-violent shows were more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior than the juvenile boys that witnessed the violent shows. "The study show that the violence on television allows the viewer to relate with the characters involved in the violent act (Feshback & Singer, 1971: p.247). In doing so, the viewer is able to release all aggressive thoughts and feelings through relation, causing them to be less aggressive than they would have been without watching the violent television. This theory that viewing violence on television leads to a decrease in aggression is called the Catharsis effect (Gerbner,G., Gross,L., Melody,W.H., pg.40).

Cooke believed that individuals tend to support the theory that television violence causes aggression because the public needs to justify the aggression they see in others. He also believed television was a form of education and positive role models. "If violence in television causes people to be more aggressive, than shouldn’t the good-hearted qualities in television cause its audience to be kinder to others (Cooke,1993, p.L19)? Therefore, television can serve as deterrence if individuals focus on the positive qualities. Despite these criticisms, Albert Bandura’ s Social Learning Theory has maintained an important place in the study of aggression and criminal behavior. In order to control aggression, he believed family members and the mass media should provide positive role models for their children and the general public (Bandura, 1976).

Social Learning Theory (Bandura) Summary: Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation.

Originator: Albert Bandura

Key Terms: Modeling, reciprocal determinism

Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

People learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. “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). Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.

Necessary conditions for effective modeling:

1. Attention — various factors increase or decrease the amount of attention paid. Includes distinctiveness, affective valence, prevalence, complexity, functional value. One’s characteristics (e.g. sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement) affect attention.

2. Retention — remembering what you paid attention to. Includes symbolic coding, mental images, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal

3. Reproduction — reproducing the image. Including physical capabilities, and self-observation of reproduction.

4. Motivation — having a good reason to imitate. Includes motives such as past (i.e. traditional behaviorism), promised (imagined incentives) and vicarious (seeing and recalling the reinforced model)

Bandura believed in “reciprocal determinism”, that is, the world and a person’s behavior cause each other, while behaviorism essentially states that one’s environment causes one’s behavior, Bandura, who was studying adolescent aggression, found this too simplistic, and so in addition he suggested that behavior causes environment as well. Later, Bandura soon considered personality as an interaction between three components: the environment, behavior, and one’s psychological processes (one’s ability to entertain images in minds and language).

Social learning theory has sometimes been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation. The theory is related to Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory and Lave’s Situated Learning, which also emphasize the importance of social learning.

Social Learning Theory

Of the many cues that influence behavior, at any point in time, none is more common than the actions of others. (Bandura, 1986, p.206)

Based on a belief that important psychological processes and issues had not been completely dealt with by earlier theorists, Bandura & Walters (1963) began to present another view, originally referred to as observational learning. This theory discussed the human learning that takes place as individuals abstract information from observing the behavior of others, abstracting information from these observations, make decisions about which of these behaviors to adopt, and later perform the selected behaviors. The theory lists several social cognitive factors that influence learning such as the capacity to use symbols and engage in firm and intentional actions. Through the use of symbols, an individual can translate observations into internal models that can guide future actions and can be used to test out possible courses of action before actual performance.

As Bandura began to build his theory of social learning, he identified three areas of weakness in Behaviorism. These were (1) the limited range of the behaviors possible for research in a laboratory type setting (2) the fact that these theories were unable to account for the acquisition of new responses to situations and (3) that it dealt with only one type of learning, direct learning, where the learner performs a response and experiences the consequences. Bandura referred to this type learning as instantaneous matching Bandura went on to discuss indirect learning, referred to as delayed matching where the learner observes reinforced behavior and then later enacts the same type behavior.

Bandura bases his theory on the acquisition of complex behaviors on a triangular diagram illustrating the interactive effect of various factors. These three factors are behavior (B), the environment (E), and the internal events that influences perceptions and actions (P). The relationship between these three factors is known as reciprocal determinism.

A major difference between Bandura's social-cognitive theory of learning and earlier theories is his definition of learning. He noted that persons acquire internal codes of behavior that they may or may not act upon later. Therefore, he divided learning and performance as two separate events. Learning was the acquisition on the internal symbolic representations in the form of fverbal or visual codes, which could serve as guidelines for future behavior. These memory codes of observed behaviors are referred to as representational systems and divided into two types of systems, visual (imarginal) and verbal-conceptual. The first is concerned with abstractions of distinctive features of events instead of just mental copies, the second would be the verbal form of details for a particular procedure.

The modeled behavior serves to convey information to the observer in one of three different ways. One is by serving as a social prompt to initiate similar behavior in others. The second is by acting to strengthen or weaken the exiting restraints of the learner against performance of particular behaviors. The third influence is to transmit new patterns of behavior.

Bandura describes three types of modeling stimuli, which are live models, symbolic models, and verbal descriptions or instructions. Of these three, in American society , the greatest range of exposure is in the form of symbolic models through mass media.

The characteristics of models is an important factor in determining the degree to which the attention is paid to the model by the learner. The response of the learner to the modeling behavior is largely determined by three sets of factors. These are the particular attributes of the model, such as relevance and credibility for the observer; the prestige of the model, and the satisfaction already present in the situation where the behavior is being modeled. A second determinant of the models success is the nature of the observer. Those who lack self esteem and self confidence are more prone to adopt the behavior of models.

Bandura identified three types of reinforcers of behavior. These were direct reinforcement, vicarious reinforcement, and self reinforcement. Direct reinforcement would be directly experienced by the learner. Vicarious reinforcement would be observed to be consequences of the behavior of the model. Self reinforcement would be feelings of satisfaction or displeasure for behavior gauged by personal performance standards.

An important point in the social cognitive theory is that the learners behavior is guided by cognitive processes rather than formed or shaped by reinforced practice. Four component parts are responsible for the learning and performance acquisition. These are:

I. Attentional processes

Observer characteristics o

o perceptual /cognitive capacities o

o arousal level o

o past performance Event characteristics

o

o relevance o

o affective valence o

o complexity o

o functional value o

o model's characteristics o

o intrinsic rewards

II. Retentional processes

Observer characteristics o

o cognitive skills

Event characteristics o

o cognitive organization o

o cognitive rehearsal

III. Motor reproduction processes Observer characteristics

o

o physical capabilities o

o subskill mastery Event characteristics

o

o selection & organization of responses o

o feedback

IV. Motivational processes Observer characteristics

o

o incentive preference o

o social bias o

o internal standards Event characteristics

o

o external reinforcement o

o self-reinforcement o

o vivacious reinforcement

In Bandura's later work he introduces two other aspects to his Social Learning Theory. These are his work on the self regulatory system and self efficacy. In the area of self regulatory system/self evaluative behaviors he said that this system is based upon cognitive subprocesses that:

perceive, evaluate and

regulate behavior.

These processes are based upon the standards for one's behavior and capabilities of cognitive structures that provide referents for behavior and its outcomes. These standards are based upon one's:

self observation, self judgment self response self evaluations

The third area of Dr. Bandura's work deals with the area of ones perception of one's self efficacy in dealing with a situation. Perceived self efficacy is the belief that one can execute behavior to produce outcome. It influences behavior in three ways:

choice of behavior quality of individual performance persistence

Dr. Bandura's definition of aptitude, itself, illustrates the importance he places on self-efficacy in his learning theory. He says that the concept of ability is not a fixed attribute in our repertoire, rather it is a generative capability which cognitive, motivational, emotional and behavioral skills must be organized and effectively orchestrated to serve diverse purposes

Self efficacy-activated processes are based on four areas:

cognitive motivtional emotional selective

People with weak belief in their self efficacy

shy away from difficult tasks (personal threats) have low aspirations and weak commitment to the goals they choose maintain a self diagnostic focus (rather than how to perform) dwell on personal deficiencies, obstacles & adverse outcomes attribute failures to deficient capabilities slacken their efforts or give up quickly in face of difficulty slow to recover their sense of efficacy after failures or setbacks prone to stress & depression

People with strong belief in their efficacy

set challenging goals & sustain strong commitments to their goals approach difficult tasks as challenges rather than as threats maintain a task diagnostic focus attribute failures to insufficient effort heighten effort in face of difficulties

quickly recover their sense of efficacy after failure or setback display low vulnerability to stress & depression

Perceived self efficacy is visible in schools as it sets up a cue in the intellectual process:

student beliefs in their own self efficacy individual teachers perceived self efficacy in their ability to perform effectively

with their difficult students staffs perceived efficacy that their schools can perform

The sources of perceived self efficacy are:

performance / accomplishments vicarious experience social persuasion physiological state

The 3 types of cognitive motivators around which theories have been built:

cognized goals outcome expectancies retrospective reasoning about perceived causes of success & failure

Albert Bandura was born in the province of Alberta, Canada, and received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa, focusing on social learning theories in his studies with Kenneth Spence and Robert Sears. Graduating in 1952, Bandura completed a one-year internship at the Wichita Guidance Center before accepting an appointment to the department of psychology at Stanford University, where he has remained throughout his career. In opposition to more radical behaviorists, Bandura considers cognitive factors as causal agents in human behavior. His area of research, social cognitive theory, is concerned with the interaction between cognition, behavior, and the environment.

Much of Bandura's work has focused on the acquisition and modification of personality traits in children, particularly as they are affected by observational learning, or modeling, which, he argues, plays a highly significant role in the determination of subsequent behavior. While it is common knowledge that children learn by imitating others, little formal research was done on this subject before Neal Miller and John Dollard published Social Learning and Imitation in 1941. Bandura has been the single figure most responsible for building a solid empirical foundation for the concept of learning through modeling, or imitation. His work, focusing particularly on the nature of aggression, suggests that modeling plays a highly significant role in determining thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Bandura claims that practically anything that can be learned by direct experience can also be learned by modeling. Moreover, learning by modeling will occur although neither the observer nor the model is rewarded for performing a particular action, in contrast to the behaviorist learning methods of Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner, with their focus on learning through conditioning and reinforcement. However, it has been demonstrated that punishment and reward can have an effect on the modeling situation. A child will more readily imitate a model who is being rewarded for an act than one who is being punished. Thus, the child can learn without actually being rewarded or punished himself—a concept known as vicarious learning. Similarly, Bandura has shown that when a model is exposed to stimuli intended to have a conditioning effect, a person who simply observes this process, even without participating in it directly, will tend to become conditioned by the stimuli as well.

Based on his research, Bandura has developed modeling as a therapeutic device. The patient is encouraged to modify his or her behavior by identifying with and imitating the behavior of the therapist. Although modeling was first studied in relation to children, it has been found to be effective in treating phobias in adults as well. The patient watches a model in contact with a feared object, at first under relatively non-threatening conditions. The patient is encouraged to perform the same actions as the model, and the situation is gradually made more threatening until the patient is able to confront the feared object or experience on his or her own.

Bandura has also focused on the human capacity for symbolization, which can be considered a type of inverse modeling. Using their symbolic capacities, people construct internal models of the world which provide an arena for planning, problem-solving, and reflection and can even facilitate communication with others. Another area of social cognition theory explored by Bandura is self-regulatory activity, or the ways in which internal standards affect motivation and actions. He has studied the effects of beliefs people have about themselves on their thoughts, choices, motivation levels,

perseverance, and susceptibility to stress and depression. Bandura is the author of many books, including Adolescent Aggression (1959), Social Learning and Personality (1963), Principles of Behavior Modification (1969), Aggression (1973), Social Learning Theory (1977), and Social Foundations of Thought and Action (1985).