Overview of Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura

Owner the theory of social learning (Bandura) finds that the person learns by observing the behavior of others or of social media and observing their actions, words and do it like them afterwards. For example, a young child learns pronunciation by hearing her family members talking or learns through seeing some videos in social media then the child take some words.

The four processes proposed by Bandura:

1. Attention: In order to learn from others we must pay attention to the movements they are working and note with interest and follow up.
2. Retention: What we see is not necessary to do it right away, but we may retain it and remember it well because there can come a time that we need to use.
3. Reproduction: Sometimes a learner can not imitate the behavior he sees. For example, a young child who can not move because of his broken leg sees other people playing with the ball and he wants to do the same and play but he cannot do that.
4. Motivation: Sometimes the learner has a motive to do the behavior he saw before and saw the success of others when they do this behavior then he do it. For example, a girl sees her sister care in her study then her father reward her and buy a gift for her, then this girl do same behavior that she saw in her sister, so she get a gift.

Description the classical studies of theory

Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated during the famous Bobo doll experiment by Bandura. Bandura experimented with bobo doll to see if the behavior had been learned through imitation. In his study, Bandura collected a group of children in a room contains games and of these games Bobo Doll and there were two person in the room. One of them was treating the doll brutally and aggressive behavior while the other was treated the doll in a good behavior and non-aggressive.

The aggressive model of the Bobo Doll: Bandura saw that the children who saw the person who was beating, fighting the doll they did the same behavior of this person and, they beat the doll and fight it like he did.

The non-aggressive model of the Bobo Doll: Bandura saw that the other children who saw the person who treated the doll in a polite behavior and did not fight it, they did the same behavior of this person and treated it with good and harmless behavior.

Examples of real life situations

There are some situations and events that I have lived in my life, and I have seen through it that learning be in observation of others and see their behavior and hear what they say. These situations will explain you more about social learning theory.

1. The first situation: One day I was in the car and I sang a song and my little sister saw and heard me. And in the next day, I heard my little sister singing like a song that l was sing in the car.
2. The second situation: One day I put a makeup on my face and my little sister saw me. Then I saw her did like I do before, and she put a lipstick in her lips.

Conclusion

Some critiques of social learning theory arise from their commitment to the environment as the main influence on behavior. In our opinion the classical theory is useful in order to motivate the student to learn. Parents or teachers can motivate children to learn something new by associating it with something children love. Also, the theory of operant conditioning is very useful for parents who want to change the behavior of their children to the better, also for teachers who want to change the behavior of their students from the worst to the best and this theory will help them a lot. On the other hand, I also believe that the social learning theory is very useful and it is can help us to develop good habits, values and morals by seeing good people, and it can help us in developing technical, motor and sports skills through the use of different presentations and models.