Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory was developed by Albert Bandura as a way to understand the influence individuals and their environments have on each other (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). Bandura proposed the idea of observational learning, or that an individual learns whenever he/she watches another person perform a behavior and then imitates that behavior (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). Learning, then, is essentially a cycle of observing and modeling. In one of Bandura’s more famous experiments known as the ‘Bobo Doll experiment’ , he used children and violent media in order to prove this theory (Ashford and LeCroy, 2009). He split children into one of two groups, which he sent to separate rooms. One group was allowed to watch violent media, while the other
An individual’s self-efficacy is how much he/she believes in his/her ability to perform a behavior (Hutchison and Charlesworth, 2008). When an individual believes he/she is competent in performing a certain behavior, he/she is more confident in his/her ability and will be more likely to continue trying until he/she succeeds. The individual has three ways to use self-efficacy in order to reach a goal (Hutchison and Charlesworth, 2008). He/she can use ‘person agency’ by doing the task by him/herself. He/she can use ‘proxy agency’, in which he/she influences others to act in such a way that it accomplishes his/her goal. The last option for the individual is to use ‘collective agency’, or cooperate with others in order to reach the goal. One major strength of social learning theory is that it believes people have the ability to change (Hutchison and Charlesworth, 2008). If individuals have learned their behavior from watching a role model, then they can learn new behaviors from others who are modeling new and more appropriate behaviors. This complements the social work belief that individuals have the ability to learn and
While Christine does have history of deviant behavior, I believe that it can explain many of her others behaviors as well. Christine’s childhood was characterized by her role models meeting their own needs first. She was neglected by her parents whenever they chose to use drugs instead of take care of her and her sister. She was then moved to her Uncle’s home, who decided that he wanted to take advantage of her sexually. These decisions by Christine’s close role models have shown her that it is okay to act inappropriately to get what you want or to find happiness. When Christine acts inappropriately to receive the attention she is craving or breaks a group home rule because she acted impulsively, it is easy to see how the behaviors that were learned in her childhood home and still apart of her