AQA A-Level Psychology Approaches – 16 mark essays
Outline and evaluate Social Learning Theory
AO1 – outline:
Social learning theory provides a more comprehensive explanation for human behaviour than the
traditional behaviourist approaches because it takes into account the importance of mediational
processes. These are cognitive factors that come between stimulus and response, and include:
attention, retention, motivation and motor reproduction. Because social learning theory therefore
recognises the importance of human thought and motivation in our behaviour, it is a much less
limited explanation.
Social learning theory, as a learning approach, is aligned with the behaviourist principle that we le arn
from our environment and through reinforcement and punishment. However, it builds on these
principles by suggesting that we can also learn through observation of others and then imitating
their behaviour (or not) based on its social reception. Social learning theory diverges from the
behaviourist approach when it suggests that there are four mediational processes, which mediate
between stimulus and response: attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation. These are
private operations of the mind, which behaviourists would have discarded because they could not be
directly observed and measured. Social Learning Theory was pioneered by Albert Bandura, who also
conceptualised and carried out the Bobo Doll study in 1961. A group of 72 children betwee n 3 and 5
years old (36 males and 36 females) were split into three conditions. One condition watched an
adult interacting aggressively with a Bobo Doll, another watched an adult playing neutrally with the
doll and a control group did not see a Bobo Doll at all. The children were then allowed to go into the
room with the doll and play how they wished with it. It is worth noting that a baseline aggression
test had been carried out before the actual study and so children were allocated their group based
on a matched pairs design. Bandura found that the children who had observed an aggressive adult
responded violently to the Bobo Doll, whereas those in the control or neutral group did not.
Furthermore, aggression was heightened when the child had observed an adult of their own gender
prior to playing with the doll themselves. This provides evidence for identification, when we
associate ourselves with a role model based on characteristics that they have that we either possess,
or would like to possess. Another variation of the study provided support for the idea of vicarious
reinforcement, in which we learn through observing other people receiving rewards or attention, or
punishment. Children who observed the adult in the video being praised for their behaviour we re
much more likely to imitate the same aggression than children who saw the adult being told off.
AO3 – evaluation:
One advantage of social learning theory is that it takes into account mediational processes, and has
thus been labelled the ‘bridge’ between the behaviourist and cognitive approaches by some
psychologists. By acknowledging the importance of cognitive factors and mental processes, social
learning theory provides a more comprehensive explanation of human behaviours. This is in contrast
to the behaviourist approach, which was criticised for being too deterministic in its assumption that
we are products of our environment. Through the mediational processes, we can exert a certain
amount of free will and have an effect on our environment through our behaviour, just as our
environment has an effect on us. This is known as reciprocal determinism, which offers a much more
balanced perception of human behaviour and motivation that hard-line approaches such as
behaviourism.
, Another advantage of social learning theory is that it has many real-world applications and possesses
great explanatory power. For example, it can be applied to explanations for how cultural norms and
gender roles are transmitted through society to younger generations. Bandura’s Bobo Doll research
has also helped to emphasise the susceptibility of young children to violence when they are exposed
to it / have it modelled to them. This led to the imposition of the Watershed in 1964, which meant
that any very violent programs, or programs with adult themes, could not be shown on TV until after
9pm (when it was assumed most young children would be in bed). Furthermore, the idea of vicarious
reinforcement has been applied within schools to help promote and encourage good behaviour,
while disincentivising people to behave badly. Children are often given certificates, praise and
achievements within assemblies, allowing their peers to observe them being rewarded. Children will
seek the same rewards for themselves and so are vicariously reinforced to achieve highly.
However, a disadvantage of social learning theory is that its primary support comes from Bandura’s
bobo doll study, which may have suffered from confounding variables and so low internal validity. As
the experiment was conducted in a lab, some of the processes and stimuli may have been contrived
/ artificial, meaning the environment lacked mundane realism. The children therefore may have
picked up on demand characteristics, realising that the researchers wanted them to hit or behave
violently towards the doll. This is compounded by the fact that the primary purpose of the doll was
to be hit, so children may have just been performing in the way they believed was expected of them.
Thus, meaning the results were a product of expectation, rather than imitation, and we cannot
establish a cause-and-effect relationship in terms of Bandura’s study.
Conditioning (the Behaviourist Approach)
AO1 – outline:
Classical conditioning occurs when we learn to associate one stimulus with another, which produces
a conditioned response. The pairing of a neutral stimulus (e.g. in Pavlov’s experiment, a bell) with an
unconditioned stimulus (a primary reinforcer such as food) will produce an unconditioned response
(salivating in dogs). However, eventually, Pavlov’s dogs learned to associate the sound of the bell
with food, and so simply hearing the bell would be enough to produce salivation. The bell, in this
case, has become the conditioned stimulus, and salivation is the conditioned response.
B.F. Skinner used rats to study the effects of reinforcement. He created a contraption called
‘Skinner’s box’ which contained a lever that would issue food pellets when pressed. The rat was
placed inside and would gradually, after trial and error, realise that food when presented when they
performed the behaviour of pressing a lever. This increased the likelihood that they would repeat
the behaviour. The rat was receiving a reward and so this is known as positive reinforcement.
However, in one condition of the experiment, the floor of the box was electrified. The electric shocks
administered to the rat through the floor would only cease when the lever was pressed. This
encouraged repetition of the behaviour of pressing the lever within the rats and is known as
negative reinforcement because an adverse consequence was being removed.
The behaviourist approach states that we are products of our environment, and so repudiates any
biological explanation or basis for behaviour. One of its key assumptions is that we are born a blank
slate ‘tabula rasa’ and we learn subsequently through interactions with the environment. As mental
processes are not observable and measurable, they should not be studied, leading behaviourists to
label the mind a ‘black box’. A key principle of the behaviourist approach is conditioning, of which
there are two types. Classical conditioning – learning by association – was investigated by Pavlov. He
found that by pairing the sound of a bell and the presentation of food, he could condition dogs to
