Strengths and Weaknesses of the Social Learning Theory

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Social Learning Theory 

The theory was created by Albert Bandura, he argued that people could learn new behavior’s and information from watching others (also known as observational observational learning). The Social Learning Theory revolves around three concepts. The first concept is that behaviors and information can be learnt through watching others. The second concept is that internal mental, sub conscious, states are an essential part of this process. Lastly this theory re cognizes that just because something has been learned, it does not mean that there will be a change in the persons’ behavior. The social learning theory has many strengths but one of its key strengths is the fact that Bandura verified the first concept. His findings were that children do copy aggression, this was confirmed in his case study of 1961. This study revolved around vicarious reinforcement as he would have a child watch an adult bash and play aggressively with the Bobo Doll/inflatable doll. Afterwards the child would also repeat the same thing he/she had been shown as long as the role m odel was not punished for his/her actions. Another strength of the Social Learning Theory was that many acts of aggression or tragedies (e.g. school shootings, murders, homicide, suicide etc...) were linked to violent and gruesome television shows (Most Shocking, Burn Notice, Castle, CSI NY etc…) and video games (e.g. Call of Duty 1-8, Grand Theft Auto 1-5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Demon Souls etc…). This links back to all three concepts of the theory. Cause the first concept states that it is learnt from watching others in other words violent acts can be learnt from these video games and T.V shows. The second concept states that it an internal mental state, in other words it’s at the back of our mind but we never really consciously think about it.

So we may pick up some things from T.V shows and video games but may never act ually think about it until something is triggered. Lastly the third conce pt states that the persons’ behavior is not changed

even if something new is learnt. This may be a common trait between all tragedies that happen in school as most people that commit a crime c rime still act the same way the night before. Although the Social Learning Theory also has several weaknesses, o ne of these weaknesses is that it cannot explain why some children watch these violent T.V shows and play these games yet t hey never copy it. This is one weakness as many peo ple today are exposed to all sorts of violence yet there isn’t a

problem of mass terrorism everywhere around the globe each day. One other problem is that there are some people or children who are naturally aggressive even if they play violent games or watch gruesome T.V shows. This clearly defies the concepts of Social Lear ning Theory as it states that violence or any other behavior can only be learnt through either e xperience or watching another person experience it.

Strengths and Limitations of Biological Explanations for Aggression