Explain Social Learning Theory

Social Learning Theory (SLT) was founded by Albert Bandura and is fundamentally built upon the idea that behaviour is learnt from the environment. Bandura argues that the way in which a society or culture passes on its norms to the individuals within a group is through SLT which assumes that humans learn their behaviour observationally.
One of the original and most famous studies by Albert Bandura (1963) was his BoBo Doll experiment. Where his aim was to test the observation and modelling of aggressive behaviour.
Method: Children were divided into 3 groups where they would experience different behaviours to observe and different environments. Group 1: Were exposed to adults showing aggressive behaviour towards bobo dollsGroup 2: Were exposed to adults who were assembling toysGroup 3: The control group (a group whom are not exposed to experimental conditions and are selected randomly)
Result: Bandura found that the children who observed the aggressive models were more aggressive verbally and physically with 88% of the group imitating aggressive behaviour they had witnessed. Bandura found that girls tended to mimic verbal aggression and boys mimicked physical aggression.
The results from this study support SLT. SLT suggests that the children learned these aggressive behaviours observationally and from the environment. This is an important concept as it demonstrates how important it is to expose children to positive role models in early life.
SLT can also help to explain why behaviour may be passed down in a family, within a culture or even within the whole human race.