Social Learning: Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura designed the Theory of Social Learning. This is where people, in this case children, learn behaviour through observing others.

Social learning, like classical and operant conditioning, is a behaviour-based way of drawing theories about the world. Although, it differs from them in that it is not experiential. Bandura believed that conditioning (experience) on its own is not always enough for certain behaviours to be learnt, whether they are practical (like brushing hair) or social (like following laws). Therefore, this form of behaviour learning is completely observational and vicarious (learning through others).

It is also based on cognition (thinking). Cognition-based learning is learning due to the capacity to think, remember, understand, and anticipate the outcomes of behaviour. This is a crucial factor in social learning. Since they are not experiencing the thing that they are learning about for themselves, merely observing (viewing) it, they still need to make sense of it before they can go out and execute it.

According to Bandura, society facilitates learning. Essentially, everyone, including children, is constantly learning from each other how to think, behave, and be, and society is constantly responding to behaviour, either rewarding, ignoring, or punishing it. These responses thus shape learning.

Vicarious Learning

Social (observational) learning theory is based on this belief: that learning happens when one’s behaviour is changed after viewing the behaviour of a model (someone else). A model is often someone considered important, more knowledgeable, or admired by the child.

Through vicarious learning, children learn by observing not only the behaviour of other people, but also the consequences to their behaviour. That way they know what to expect from that behaviour and whether or not it will benefit them. Vicarious learning further demonstrates the influence of intentional modelling when raising children.

For example, one might learn not to commit a crime or physically harm someone else just by observing what happened to someone else who performed that particular behaviour. A baby or young child will learn how to hold a spoon properly by watching their caregiver do it. There are many cute anecdotes about children behaving like adults, "cooking", or pretending to do dishes. This imitational behaviour is the result of social learning.

Vicarious learning doesn't just stay observational, though. Desirable behaviours or behaviours with desired results played out as well.

When a child learns vicariously, they are drawing up a model of how the world works, even without the input of deliberate direction and putting it into practice for themselves. They are learning the rules of the world and how to navigate it successfully. Vicarious learning may not always happen consciously, but it can be identified in behaviours. In other words, you don’t always know that you’ve learnt to behave a certain way until you see yourself behaving that way.

The 4 key elements to social learning

There are 4 elements required for social learning to effectively happen.

1. Attention (watching)

2. Retention (storing that information in your mind)

3. Reproduction (you try it yourself)

4. Motivation (the driving force for all the above - the reason you chose to pay attention, retain, and reproduce this behaviour)

As these 4 key elements show, learning requires a good amount of cognition, it requires a degree of thinking. While it is still behaviour-based, we see that there’s quite a bit of complexity in it because they have learned, but not through experience.

Social Media and Social Living

Children are naturally looking to those around them to model for them how to successfully navigate the world. The same way we adults do. This model shows us that both positive and negative behaviour can be modelled to children by those around them.

Bandura emphasised the role that media, particularly social media (tv, movies, games, apps) can play in shaping behaviour, and how it can sometimes be even more influential than that modelled by caregivers. As I stated back in Issue 1, Part 3, there was a time where children learned how to behave from only their caregivers or those directly in their world (their microsystem), however, with the influence of modernisation and globalisation, there are now more voices speaking into the child's life, often that their caregivers are unaware of.

However, despite social changes, this theory, and even children's behaviour as a result of engaging with online content, shows that our biology remains the same. We still learn by watching others, and children, whose young minds are picking up everything they possibly can, are particularly vulnerable to this. Modern media shows the increasing importance of what others have to say over parents, and how this has implications for how ideas get spread and children get raised.

The Takeaway

Social learning is basically learning how to behave by watching how everyone else behaves.

Albert Bandura’s theory is quite a simple one, yet with powerful implications. We, especially children, are always learning from and being shaped by society, not often through instruction, but purely through observation. It can be deliberately modelled but just think of how much what you learn has been deliberately taught to you, versus what you’ve observed (particularly bad habits and behaviours). Think about what is then being transmitted to children.

Bandura shows us the power of society and how the individual’s learning and development cannot be kept separate from that. This theory reinforces that idea that you cannot just behave however you want around children because they will pick it up and imitate it. Similarly, you cannot allow children to be exposed to just anything and anybody, because they will definitely learn from it.

Social learning theory places a responsibility on us all when it comes to raising children and watching out for their healthy development.

In Issue 4, when I discuss Play, Imagination, and Creativity, we will see more of how social learning theory comes powerfully into these things, so stay tuned!

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