Social Learning Theory :

The social learning approach to motivation focuses on the patterns of behaviour the individual learns in coping with environment. Within this viewpoint, individual differences in behaviour result from variations in the conditions of learning that the person encounters in the course of growing up.

Some behaviour patterns are learned through direct experience; the individual behaves in a certain manner and is rewarded or punished. But responses can also be acquired without direct reinforcement.

Because we can make use of complex symbolic processes to code and store our observations in memory, we can learn by observing the actions of others and by noting the consequences of those actions.

Thus, for social learning theorists, reinforcement is not necessary for learning, although it may facilitate learning by focusing attention. Much of human learning is observational or vicarious.

Reinforcement may not be necessary for learning, but it is crucial for the performance of learned behaviour.

One of social learning theory's main assumptions is that people behave in ways likely to produce reinforcement. A person's repertoire of learned behaviours is extensive; the particular action chosen for a specific situation depends on the expected outcome.

Most adolescent girls know how to fight, having watched their male classmates or TV characters agrees by kicking, hitting with the fists, and so on. But since this kind of behaviour is seldom reinforced in girls, it is unlikely to occur except in unusual circumstances.

The reinforcements that controls the expression of learned behaviour may be (1) direct-tangible rewards, social approval or disapproval, or alleviation of aversive conditions; (2) vicarious- observation of someone else receiving reward's or punishment for similar behaviour, or (3) self- administered-evaluation of one's own