Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory (also called social cognitive theory) is a general theory of learning that explains how people not only learn directly through their own trial-and-error efforts but also through observation of other's behaviors and the positive or negative outcomes of those behaviors. The theoretical foundations of social learning theory can be found in the work of Albert Bandura. According to his principles of social learning theory, people learn to perform behaviors by observing others and subsequently modeling those behaviors. For this reason, the learning process is referred to as modeling, observational learning, or vicarious learning. Social learning theory holds that behavior should be conceived in the broad sense to include both overt (observable) as well as covert (emotions and thoughts) behaviors. In addition, Bandura's 1978 principle of reciprocal determinism (also called reciprocal causation) claims that a person's behavior, personal characteristics (including cognitions and feelings), and environment interact with and affect one another to influence behavior.

Four factors account for social learning: (1) attention, (2) retention, (3) behavior reproduction, and (4) motivation. The first factor is attention. In order to learn from the model's behavior, the individual must pay attention to that behavior. Failure to attend to the behavior means the behavior process cannot be encoded in memory. The second factor, retention, is necessarily dependent on the first factor. Visual as well as verbal elements of the behavior performance must be stored and recalled at another time. In addition to storing the performance, the person retains the consequences of that behavior. Was the behavior rewarded or punished by valued others? Remembering that a particular behavior was rewarded and another behavior was punished will increase the likelihood that the rewarded behavior will be enacted. Cognitive rehearsal of the behavior and outcomes aids retention. The third factor is reproduction of the observed behavior. The individual must have the physical or verbal skills or both as well as knowledge needed to effectively replicate the desired behavior. The person must understand the circumstances that led the behavior to be rewarded as well as how to enact the behavior. The final factor is motivation, which is related to the individual's internal mental states. An individual may recall how to perform an action but choose not to reproduce it. Motivation can stem from both internal and external factors. Internal factors include the individual's emotion states, personal characteristics (e.g., risk aversion, extroversion), and feelings of self-efficacy, as well as imagined outcomes— rewards or punishments—for performing the behavior. An individual's motivation to produce the behavior will increase when anticipated positive rewards, whether internal (such as feelings of mastery or self-reinforcement) or external (such as tangible awards or verbal phrase) are contingent upon the behavior performance. Recalling that the model received desired positive reinforcement for performing the behavior also should enhance motivation.

The role of self-efficacy in social learning has attracted attention from researchers interested in modifying people's motivations to enact desired behaviors. Self-efficacy expectations refer to beliefs that one can successfully execute the behavior required to produce particular outcomes (Bandura, 1977b). Self-efficacy is important to behavior reproduction because it affects whether the person will attempt to perform the potentially rewarding behavior, how much effort the person will exert to perform a behavior, and how long the person may persevere in trying to enact the behavior. Enhancing a person's self-efficacy expectations should increase the likelihood of behavior enactment.

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