Social learning theory argues that we learn not just from firsthand experience, but also from watching others or by hearing about something. Enactive learning is learning by doing, whereas observational learning involves learning by watching others. Albert Bandura, the father of Social Learning, contends that observational (vicarious) learning accounts for many aspects of human learning. The primary method for this vicarious learning is known as modeling, or the process of observing and imitating behaviors performed by others. Such observational learning stresses the importance of models in our lives. To imitate a model's behavior, we must (1) pay attention to what the model does; (2) remember what the model did; and (3) convert what we learned from the model into action. The extent to which we display behaviors that have been learned through observation can be affected by vicarious reinforcement and vicarious punishment. Reinforcement experienced by a person that affects the willingness of others to perform the behavior they learned by watching the person is called vicarious reinforcement, whereas punishment experienced by someone that affects the willingness of others to perform the behavior learned by watching the first person is called vicarious punishment. Social cognitive theory emphasizes that learning a behavior from observing others does not necessarily lead to performing that behavior. We are more likely to imitate behaviors we have seen rewarded.
In the 1960s, Bandura did a series of studies incorporating a Bobo doll in which he demonstrated that children who viewed aggression were more aggressive with the doll than those who did not see aggression. For Bandura's description of this experiment, click here.
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