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What is social learning theory?

By Rahul Awati

Social learning theory is the philosophy that people can learn from each other through observation, imitation, modeling and even emotions. The concept, proposed by Canadian-American psychologist Albert Bandura in 1977, combines many of the ideas behind the traditional learning theory or behaviorism and cognitive learning approaches. It endeavors to study socialization and how it affects human behavior and ultimately, enables individuals to acquire knowledge, skills and beliefs through observational learning.

History of social learning theory

A well-regarded, frequently awarded psychologist, Bandura focused his career on human behavior. He is most widely known for his 1961 Bobo Doll experiment, a pioneering study on aggression, in which he had different groups of preschool-age children watch adults indulge in aggressive and nonaggressive behaviors toward an inflatable clown-faced toy.

Some children were assigned to the aggressive group, where they were made to watch the adults violently beating the doll, assaulting it with various objects and even verbally abusing it. Then, Bandura and his co-researchers gave these children hammers, mallets, dart guns and other "toys" and asked them to interact with the doll. Some of the other children were assigned to the nonaggressive group, where they witnessed adults indulging in positive behaviors toward the doll.

The children in the first group who witnessed the adults' aggressive behavior toward the doll mimicked these behaviors and acted violently toward it. Similarly, most of the children in the other group also mimicked the nonaggressive adults' behaviors to display positive behaviors toward the doll.

Bandura later repeated the experiment, this time exposing the children to adults behaving violently toward the bobo doll on videotape. He found that many children who were assigned to the aggressive behavior group in the first experiment continued to model the adults' behavior even while they were not watching the behaviors in real time during the second experiment. Ultimately, Bandura concluded that children, and indeed, all humans, tend to learn social behaviors through interactions with and observations of other humans -- a conclusion that formed the basis for his social learning theory.

Social learning theory details

Social learning theory is directly tied to social psychology, which deals with the personality traits and behaviors of members of a civilization or society.

According to Bandura, direct experience with a particular environment, whether through association, reinforcement, conditioning or punishment, does not fully explain how humans learn. In this way, the theory differs from the traditional behavioral school of psychology that states that human behaviors are simply the result of environmental interactions and responses to environmental stimuli. Bandura's theory suggested that learning has both environmental and social elements. People are not only influenced by the external environment, but also by observing other humans' behaviors and actions, analyzing the consequences of those behaviors and actions, and then internalizing this information to guide their own behaviors and actions.

Also known as the observational learning theory, the social learning theory remains an important construct in social psychology. Many applications have emerged to test the theory and apply it in the real world.

Social learning theory vs. social cognitive theory

The social learning theory relates with many other theories that have been proposed over time, such as nature versus nurture, symbolic interaction, situated learning, reinforcement learning, and social development. In the mid-1980s, Bandura also proposed the social cognitive theory, which is often confused with social learning theory despite some distinct differences.

Bandura's social learning theory predates his social cognitive theory by a couple decades. He proposed the latter in his 1986 book Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. It expands on the social aspects of the social learning theory by accounting for the other factors that affect a person's learning beyond only one (socialization). It states that a person's learning and behaviors are also influenced by their environment, cognition and behaviors. In other words, all these factors play a deterministic role in influencing and enabling learning as opposed to only one factor playing a dominant role.

Social cognitive theory also accounts for human agency and self-efficacy in promoting learning. In contrast, the social learning theory mainly emphasizes observational learning and reinforcement. This reinforcement can come from both external or environmentally generated factors (e.g., social acceptance) or internal factors generated by a person's own mental state or sense of motivation. Where social learning theory limits itself to understanding human learning in a social context, social cognitive theory also considers the capability of humans to shape their learning environment and self-regulate the way they learn and behave.

What are the 4 stages of social learning theory?

The basis behind social learning theory is that people observe the behavior, attitudes and consequences of others and then use that information to form their own actions.

The learning process includes four basic stages that are all essential for social learning success:

1. Attention. For a lesson or experience to have an impact on an observer, the observer must be actively observing their surroundings. In other words, they should be paying attention. It helps if the observer identifies well with these surroundings or feels positively about them, is invested in the observation process and has strong feelings about the experience they are observing.

2. Retention and memory. For any learned experience to make a lasting impact, the observer must be able to retain it and remember it later. Once they can recall the experience, it also helps if they go over the experience, say, by revisiting it cognitively in their mind. For example, a toddler might learn from an adult not to throw things, remember it and then "teach" their stuffed animals that throwing things is not an appropriate response to anger or frustration.
3. Motor reproduction. To carry out the lesson learned, the observer must be able to physically reenact it. Simple observation might not be enough to build the required skills if they are unable to physically reproduce the behavior. Examples include dancing, sports or writing left-handed (for a right-handed person). When a person effectively pays attention to modeled behavior and repeats or demonstrates it, they are more likely to be able to build the necessary skills.
4. Motivation. Even if an observer has focused on a lesson, remembered the details and learned the skills to do it, they still need the motivation to make it happen. The source of motivation could include external rewards and bribes, observations that similar behaviors tend to be rewarded, a desire to be like the model who demonstrated the behavior and even the thought of internal "rewards" like pride or a sense of accomplishment. Other factors like personal characteristics, past experiences, promised incentives, positive reinforcement and punishments also impact the motivation to learn.

Applications of social learning theory

Outside of psychology, social learning theory can be applied to several use cases, including the following:

• Human resources (HR). In HR, professionals can increase employee retention by applying social learning theory techniques. Examples include correcting mistakes as they happen before they become routine habits and incentivizing positive behaviors with rewards or bonuses. Similarly, undesirable behaviors can be curtailed by giving mistakes weight during appraisals and in decisions about promotions.
• Workplace training and development. Social learning theory, specifically the idea of learning by doing, is also useful in workplace training environments. Many new employees best learn their roles by imitating or repeating the behaviors of their supervisors or people in similar positions. If the corporate environment is toxic and employees see their seniors bullying others without consequence for their actions, they might adopt similar behaviors. Alternatively, if they see good behaviors as the norm and witness others being rewarded for behaving well, they might mimic the behaviors hoping to reap those rewards for themselves.

• Education. In educational settings, learners might be exposed to positive role models and their behaviors to promote a sense of belonging, to encourage learning and to remember important lessons. Having the students repeat certain phrases or watch a skit can also help to solidify their lessons. The social learning theory is particularly useful to encourage learning among marginalized groups, such as racial minorities or women in male-dominated STEM courses.
• Marketing. Advertisements and marketing materials can incorporate the social learning theory to reach target audiences and encourage purchases. For example, a company might suggest that a buyer might be able to achieve the lifestyle of a certain successful individual (e.g., a film star) by buying the company's product.
• Social work. The social learning theory is used to correct and eliminate undesirable behaviors like drug use or crime. By exposing addicts to positive stories of former addicts, social workers can help them to emulate those positive behaviors and overcome their own addiction-related challenges. In other situations, providing young adults with healthy resources to deal with loss or grief can stop them from behaving badly and getting into trouble with the law or with society.
• Machine learning. Social learning theory can be applied in training machine learning algorithms for purposes such as cognitive computing and robotics.

• Law enforcement. Criminal justice professionals use social learning theory to explain, identify and even correct learned illicit behaviors. They can discover patterns of behavior in large communities and create educational programs and tools to correct those behaviors, determine if those behaviors are likely to result in a crime and design interventions to prevent the crime.
• Social research. The theory is often used to understand the effects of media violence on human behavior. It has been observed that repeated exposure to media violence, say, via news reports or video games, can lead to decreased emotional sensitivity to violence and even encourage individuals to behave aggressively or violently in their own lives.

Personality development and social learning theory

Personality development is the establishment of a set of patterns involving the behavior, temperament and character a person displays regularly. Social learning theory postulates that many of the features of a person's personality might emerge as a result of observing others in their family or society. In addition, their temperament might be determined by their genetics and their environment.

The environment, often described as nurture, has a large impact on a person's personality, including how they approach and view the world, and how they interact with others. Someone who frequently interacts with people with a negative temperament is more likely to model those behaviors. Even as a baby, a person who is loved and cared for is more likely to trust others and develop an optimistic outlook on life than an infant who is frequently neglected, or worse, abused.

One of the richest ages for social learning is the preschool years, when a child is likely to see and observe many behaviors that will shape the way they behave as adults. Play, imagination and cooperation are all important parts of this stage of development. Also, during school years, children learn how to interact with groups in more structured environments, and through observation and learning can apply self-discipline, follow rules and trust in positive outcomes.

Other traits that might be learned socially in childhood include the following:

• Activity level.
• Distractibility.
• Intensity.
• Regularity of sleep and appetite.
• Sensory threshold.
• Approachability.
• Adaptability.
• Persistence.
• Mood.

If children are not taught how to integrate into groups at this early age, they might have a hard time joining groups and behaving in acceptable ways when they are older and required to join social groups, say in college or in the workplace. Additionally, the sense of connectedness people feel to their community is greatly influenced by how heavily the society they are raised in values things like family, collectivism (putting the group above the individual) or national pride.

Social learning theory, personality theory, family psychopathology

Four main personality theories are psychoanalytic, trait, humanistic and social-cognitive. Social learning theory falls in the social-cognitive umbrella, and involves personality being shaped by people's expectations about the world and the people they interact with, their observation and judgment of others' actions, and the environment.

The foundation of social learning theory involves an understanding of a person's self-concept, their social cognition, attribution theory, social influence, group traditions, prejudice, discrimination, interpersonal interactions, attitudes and aggression. A person might be able to hone these abilities better by increased interactions and social behavioral observations, and through third-party experiences like film, reading and television.

Social learning theory often directly influences family psychopathology. People who observe pathological behaviors in their direct family members might see them as normal and even if they don't remember observing them, might repeat them later. One example is spousal or child abuse. Conversely, families who embody strong positive traits will likely raise offspring who demonstrate, value, and mimic those same behaviors and promote them among others.

Social learning therapy

Social learning theory is also sometimes incorporated in psychotherapy.

Social learning therapists might treat any number of conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, anorexia, substance abuse, bulimia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and common phobias.

Because social learning is about learning behaviors from watching other people, social learning therapy involves observing people behaving in ways the therapist wants to teach the patient to emulate and internalize. The behavioral models used can be demonstrated live, verbally or even symbolically. The therapist also verbally instructs the observer to help them understand the desired behavior.

When providing treatment, social learning therapists think about a patient's environment, actions, and personality traits and patterns and how these factors might influence their behavior. Additionally, they examine the patient's symbolic social influences like books, plays, poems, music, the internet, movies and television, and how they might impact the patient's behaviors, feelings and thoughts.

A social learning therapy session involves the four stages of social learning theory discussed earlier: attention, retention and memory, motor reproduction and motivation. Sessions are often grouped into stages of pretreatment, followed by active treatment, then generalization and follow-up. During follow-up, the therapist ensures that the lessons learned in treatment are maintained and assesses whether the patient needs additional support.

Social learning therapy sessions can focus on different areas of social learning. These might include willpower, support for conquering unhealthy behaviors, family, goals, communication, self-control and reinforcement of helpful behaviors. Social learning therapy might be used to achieve various outcomes, including reducing aggression, increasing family unity, reducing conflicts, supporting healthy relationships, building healthy coping mechanisms to deal with disturbing changes like death or divorce, encouraging empathy and strengthening problem-solving skills.

Social learning therapy is considered an effective kind of treatment. People who undergo this form of therapy report better self-control and ease at home, at work and in school, and might default to more positive behaviors. They also experience an increase in problem-solving abilities, better connection with their families, friends and communities, and fewer conflicts in their everyday lives.

Learn about a newer AI-driven approach to teaching employees new skill sets called the learning experience platform and explore notable discrepancies between AI and human cognition. Also, there are many ways for an organization to gauge and improve employee retention. Learn how people analytics can help HR improve employee retention.