Albert Bandura’s social learning

We know Albert Bandura as the father of social learning and one of the most influential psychologists of all time. So much so that this past year was awarded the medal of sciences at an event held at the White House.

At a time when behaviorism dominated the psychology of learning, Bandura goes one step further and formulates his theory of social learning. From then on, importance began to be given to the cognitive and social processes that mediate people’s learning and not only to consider the associations between stimuli or the reinforcements that follow behaviors as behaviorism had done until now.

Nevertheless, Bandura recognizes the role of conditioning that arises in the environment and is aware that they are an important part of learning, but that it is not the only one. For this author, reinforcement is only necessary for execution to occur, not learning itself.

Our internal world is essential when it comes to incorporating a new behavior into our repertoire or carrying out those that we already possessed, but were not capable of executing. Much of our current behaviors are due to imitation or vicarious learning of models. that for us have been relevant.

The importance of social learning

According to Bandura, There are three components that interact mutually when it comes to learning.. It is called reciprocal determinism or triadic reciprocity. These are: the person, the environment and the behavior. Therefore, the environment influences the subject and her behavior, but the subject also influences the environment through his behavior, and the behavior in the subject himself.

People learn by observing others, our environment. We not only learn through reinforcement or punishment as behaviorists would postulate, but mere observation would already produce certain learning effects in us without the need for direct reinforcement.

In the famous Bobo doll experiment carried out by Bandura, we can observe these effects. It was carried out with children between three and five years old who were separated into two groups. One of them was shown an aggressive model and the other a non-aggressive model. Each group observed the corresponding model in a room with toys. The latter was either aggressive or not aggressive towards the Bobo doll, so that the children also learned to be aggressive or not to be aggressive towards said doll.

This fact has great significance for psychology, since we can then understand why some people behave the way they do.. For example, the challenging behaviors of some adolescents who were born into unstructured families and who have been exposed to certain behaviors until they have finally learned them by imitating their reference models and have incorporated them into their way of being.

What influences vicarious learning?

According to Bandura, in addition to the three basic elements that we mentioned above, there are a series of processes that are necessary for observational learning to occur:

Care processes: Paying attention to the model that executes the action to be learned is essential. In this process Variables such as stimulus intensity, relevance, size, ease of discrimination, novelty or frequency influence. Other variables are those of the performing model. Sex, race, age or the importance given by the observer can modify the attention process. Regarding the variables of the situation, it has been seen that The most difficult tasks cannot be copied and the easiest ones, by contributing little to the subject, lose the subject’s attention.Retention processes: It is an intimate process related to memory. It allows the subject to perform the behavior even if the model is no longer present. The association of what is perceived by the observer with elements already known previously, and the cognitive practice or review of what has been learned, can help maintain retentive capacity.Reproduction processes: It is about the transition from what has been learned as images, symbols or abstract rules to concrete and observable behaviors. For it, The subject must have the basic skills to carry out the behavior to learn, and have its basic components within their repertoire of behaviors.Motivational processes: It is the other important process for the execution of the learned behavior. The functional value of the behavior can cause it to be carried out or not to be carried out. This value depends on direct, vicarious, self-produced or intrinsic incentives.

What effects does observational learning have?

There are three different types of effects that can occur when observing a model’s behavior. They are the acquisition effect, the inhibitory or disinhibitory effect and the facilitation.

Effect of acquisition of new behaviors: The subject acquires new skills and behaviors thanks to imitation and the rules necessary to complete them and develop new ones in that same line of action. The acquired behaviors are not only motor skills but also emotional responses are also learned.Inhibitory and disinhibitory effect: If the previous effect generated the acquisition of new behaviors, this promotes the disinhibition or inhibition of existing ones through changes in motivation. In this variable The perception of the subject’s own ability or the consequences he or she receives comes into play. the model through its action.Facilitation effect: Finally, this effect refers to the ease that observational learning provides to carry out to a greater extent already existing behaviors that are not inhibited.

We have acquired many of our behaviors by imitation. Although it is true that Temperament, of more biological origin, plays an important role, the models that surround us are even more so.. The fact of being shy, speaking more slowly or quickly, our gestures, whether we are aggressive people or have a phobia, are, in part, learned through modeling.

Bandura’s social learning theory has not only been relevant to understand why people behave in a certain waybut it has also been for treat behaviors considered maladaptive by observing new models who, for example, overcome their fears, behave appropriately and are also reinforced for it.

Bayes, R. and Pinillos, JL (1989). Learning and conditioning. Alhambra Publishing House. Madrid

Domjam, M. and Burkhar (1990). Principles of learning and behavior. Debate Editorial. Madrid

You might be interested…