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Social Learning Theory

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Social Learning Theory

Developed by Albert Bandura in 1965 and 1977, Social Learning Theory emphasized on the importance of rewards and punishments. This theory identified that children can learn new behaviours in one or two ways: by direct experience through trial and error or by observing and imitating others in their social environment. Bandura (1994) stated that observational learning eventually is more efficient than trying to discover everything on your own. Children can and do learn from other people in their environment, including parents, siblings, peers, and teachers. Children can also learn from characters and people that appeared in the mass media (Sparks, 2002)

Bandura’s studies helped researchers to understand a number of things about television violence, animated programs and children. First, viewing television violence and animated programs could cause children to behave more aggressively, particularly if the violent characters were attractive and received rewards for their actions. Second, in many of these studies, the effects emerged most strongly for boys not girls. The researchers thought that perhaps this aggressive tendency resulted in boys being more sensitive to the impact of media violence. In the 1980s, Bandura (1986) reformulated his theory for the reason that it had been criticised as too behaviouristic, which was focusing mostly on the reinforcements and how people act. The newer perspective, which was called Social Cognitive Theory, acknowledges that cognitive processes such as attention and retention are involved in observational learning. Children pay attention to different features of a character’s behaviour in animated programs, in which later they bring forth different experiences to interpret and evaluate the character’s actions. Finally, they store that different information in memory. These types of cognitive processes can be used to help explain why some children might imitate a model but others do not (Strasburger & Wilson, 2002). Social Learning and Social Cognitive Theory are useful frameworks for understanding how children can learn new behaviours from television violence. However, these theories tend to focus on short-term learning. Despite the criticisms, Bandura’s social learning theory should be seen as important in the study and influences of aggression and criminal behaviour formed in this. In order to control aggression, he believed family members and the mass media should provide positive role models for their children and the general public.

Social Cognitive Theory Conceptual Model

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