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Social Learning Theory: Comprehensive Overview

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Social Learning Theory
Describe the historical development of the theory. Evaluate the intellectual and historical evolution of this theory and discuss how your discipline adopted and incorporated this theory. You may need to discuss the historical evolution of your discipline and how this theory fits in.
What are the major assumptions posited by the theory?
What is the scope and what are the problem areas addressed by this theory? How has your field of practice adopted this theory, and how has it influenced the problem areas it addresses?
What are the main intervention strategies this theory advocates? How do we know these intervention strategies are effective?

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Solution Summary

The solution provides information, assistance and advise in tackling the task (see above) of exploring Social Learning Theory - history, application, strategies and utilization. Resources are listed for further exploration of the topic.

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Dear Student,
Hi and thank you for using Brainmass. I hope this solution gets to you in time. In this particular task, you are asking for help in putting together a paper that discusses a particular theory as clearly as you can. The good thing is, you have been given goals that you must achieve for this exercise. As long as your work achieves those, you are in the right track. 6-7 pages following the usual standard will require at least 1,200 words. This outline should cover what you need:

1. Overview (about the paper) - 200 words
2. History of the theory - 250 words
3. Application in Psychology with examples - 250 words
4. Assumptions, scope, Application - 300 words
5. Solutions & interventions offered, impact - 250 words

This outline should yield around 1,250 words which should cover what you need. I suggest utilizing the attachments you provided as source for cited, expandable ideas as befitting to the discussion, or better yet, present them as literature review. You can also use the listed resources to further explore the topic. Just let me know via the feedback section if you need further clarification. All the best with your studies.

Theory Exploration: Social Learning Theory

The field of psychology simply put, is the science that explores mental function and human behavior. As an applied discipline, its practitioners utilize the science's varied theories and knowledge paradigms to understand mental, social and cognitive issues so as to provide solutions to individual and social concerns where psychological theories find relevance and application. Clinical psychologists utilize psychological principles to help people with mental and behavioral issues so as to intervene, treat and/or manage simple to complex problems and help them resume/live productive lives. Experimental psychologists meanwhile focus on exploring the science as a body of knowledge through continued and relentless experiments, studies and research that aims to explain, detail and measure mental functions and behavior. For both kinds of practitioners however, the topic of learning and knowledge/skills acquisition are of great interest. How we learn, how we know, what we know - they all contribute to our ability to cope with the pressures of our lives, our social realities. They contribute to our personalities, and eventually, our outcomes. Psychologists see learning as a process and have explored this phenomenon as a theoretical sub science that involves topics like memory, cultural acquisition, cognitive functions, conditioning, behaviorism and development. Of the many theories in this field, social learning theory (SLT) is one that is often utilised and applied to explore the process of learning. It is one of the 'classics' being that it provides both an academic and observable explanation for learning - that we learn by observation. In this narrative, I will be exploring SLT as a theory of choice to learn as much about the theory as I can for further application in my studies in cognitive psychology. The theory will be framed according to its genealogy (the history and discursive construction of the science), application, constructive framework (scope, limitations) and what it provides to clinical and social practice/concerns. It is important to recall on the onset that SLT has significance across much of the social sciences, especially in sociology.

History

Cherry (2014) writes that, "social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become perhaps the most influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning. While the behavioral theories of learning suggested that all learning was the result of associations formed by conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment, Bandura's social learning theory proposed that learning can also occur simply by observing the actions of others. His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information and behaviors by watching other people. Known as observational learning (or modeling), this type of learning can be used to explain a wide variety of behaviors." In 1971, Stanford Professor Albert Bandura published his SLT theory through a research paper that explained the dynamics of his theoretical framework. He follows in the footsteps of learning theorists like Noam Chomsky ...

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  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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