Social Learning Theory and Child Development

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Social Learning Theory and Child Development Name: Institution: Social Learning Theory and Child Development Albert Bandura is the theorist who proposed the social learning theory, which has become one of the most significant theories of human learning and development. He believed that direct reinforcement cannot explain all categories of learning. This theory added a new component, holding that individuals can learn new behaviors, values, and information through watching other individuals. Modeling or observational learning can be utilized in explaining a range of human behavior (Akers, 2009). Bandura holds that behavior is learnt through observational learning process from the environment. Children observe the individuals around them behaving in certain ways. The paper, therefore, focuses on explaining what social learning theory is in detail through looking at its implications on children. In this theory, people that are being observed are known as models. In all societies, children are surrounded by a variety of influential objects including guardians or parents in the family, friends in their peer groups, teachers at schools and religious institutions, and characters on television (Akers, 2009). The models offer cases of feminine and masculine behavior to watch and emulate. Children give significant attention to some of the models and imitate their behavior. In other cases, they do this irrespective of whether the behavior is ‘appropriate’ for their gender or not. There are, however, some processes which make it more possible that children will replicate the behavior that the society terms appropriate for its gender (Akers, 2009). First, children are more likely to listen to and emulate those individuals they perceive as similar to themselves. As a result, they are more likely to emulate behavior exhibited by individuals of the same sex as them.
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