“Outline and evaluate one social psychological theory
of aggression”
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
A01 –
Proposed by Bandura.
SLT is an extension of Behaviourism – they agree that people learn
through classical and operant conditioning but SLT adds that people can
also learn through vicarious reinforcement.
Children mainly learn their aggressive responses through observation –
watching the behaviour of role models and then imitation the behaviour.
Children observe and learn about the consequences of aggressive
behaviour by watching others be reinforced/punished – this is vicarious
reinforcement.
Whether or not the child will repeat the aggressive behaviour will depend
on whether they have observed a role model being rewarded or punished
for that behaviour.
Bandura claimed that in order for social learning to take place, the child
must form mental representations of events in their social environment.
The child must also represent possible rewards and punishments for their
aggressive behaviour I terms of expectancies of future outcomes.
When appropriate opportunities arise in the future, the child will display
the learned behaviour as long as the expectation of reward if greater than
the expectation of punishment.
If a child is rewarded for a behaviour, they are likely to repeat the same
action in similar situations in the future – e.g. a child who has a successful
history of bullying other children will come to attach considerable value to
aggression.
As well as forming expectations of the outcomes of their aggressive
behaviour, children also develop confidence in their ability to carry out
aggressive actions – for children whom aggressive behaviour hasn’t
worked in the past (they weren’t very good at it) they will have less
confidence in their ability to use aggression successfully to resolve
conflicts, so may use other means.
A02 –
RESEARCH 1 – Bandura et al (1961)
POINT – supports social learning theory of aggression
EVIDENCE – conducted an experiment in which children observed aggressive
and non-aggressive adult models behaviour towards a bobo doll. The children
were then tested for imitative learning in the absence on the model. They found
that children in the aggression condition reproduced a significant deal of
physically and verbally aggressive behaviour resembling that of the model.
Children in the non-aggressive group exhibited virtually no aggression towards
the doll.
of aggression”
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
A01 –
Proposed by Bandura.
SLT is an extension of Behaviourism – they agree that people learn
through classical and operant conditioning but SLT adds that people can
also learn through vicarious reinforcement.
Children mainly learn their aggressive responses through observation –
watching the behaviour of role models and then imitation the behaviour.
Children observe and learn about the consequences of aggressive
behaviour by watching others be reinforced/punished – this is vicarious
reinforcement.
Whether or not the child will repeat the aggressive behaviour will depend
on whether they have observed a role model being rewarded or punished
for that behaviour.
Bandura claimed that in order for social learning to take place, the child
must form mental representations of events in their social environment.
The child must also represent possible rewards and punishments for their
aggressive behaviour I terms of expectancies of future outcomes.
When appropriate opportunities arise in the future, the child will display
the learned behaviour as long as the expectation of reward if greater than
the expectation of punishment.
If a child is rewarded for a behaviour, they are likely to repeat the same
action in similar situations in the future – e.g. a child who has a successful
history of bullying other children will come to attach considerable value to
aggression.
As well as forming expectations of the outcomes of their aggressive
behaviour, children also develop confidence in their ability to carry out
aggressive actions – for children whom aggressive behaviour hasn’t
worked in the past (they weren’t very good at it) they will have less
confidence in their ability to use aggression successfully to resolve
conflicts, so may use other means.
A02 –
RESEARCH 1 – Bandura et al (1961)
POINT – supports social learning theory of aggression
EVIDENCE – conducted an experiment in which children observed aggressive
and non-aggressive adult models behaviour towards a bobo doll. The children
were then tested for imitative learning in the absence on the model. They found
that children in the aggression condition reproduced a significant deal of
physically and verbally aggressive behaviour resembling that of the model.
Children in the non-aggressive group exhibited virtually no aggression towards
the doll.
