Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

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Introduction of the Theory (History) Social Learning Theory was introduced by Albert Bandura in year 1977 ( McLeod, 2011). Social Learning Theory was mainly talking about how environmental factor influence the social behavior of an individual. An individual will simply observe and imitate the behaviors or actions of nearby people. In the early stages of Albert Bandura’s research for social learning theory, he analyzed the basics of learning process of human and also the willingness of children and adults to imitate behaviors observed in others. Models are an important source for an individual to learn new things and behaviors. He also stated that in social learning theory, there are 3 systems that affect and control behavior. First, antecedent inducements will influence the time and response of a behavior greatly. Next, response feedback influences will also impact the occurrence of such behavior in the future. Lastly, it stressed that cognitive functions are important as well. To prove that same behaviors will be learned by individuals following the action of the models and altering their own behaviors, Albert Bandura conducted a famous experiment, known as the Bobo doll experiment in 1961 (McLeod, 2014). Before the experiment, Albert Bandura made 4 predictions. First, children that observed adult acting aggressively will be more likely to act the same. Second, children that observed non-aggressive adults will be less likely to act aggressively. Thirdly, children will