Albert Bandura’s Social Learning and cognitive Theory in Real Life! How We Learn from Others.

Social Learning Theory, developed by Albert Bandura, says that people learn by watching others.
We can learn how to act, what to think, or how to feel just by observing someone else—without having to try it ourselves.
This learning happens through watching, copying, and paying attention to what happens to others after they behave a certain way.
Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory proposes that human behavior is the product of the interaction between personal factors, behavioral patterns, and environmental influences.
Behaviour is shaped by a constant loop between:
You: Your personal cognitive beliefs and expectations.
Your actions: What you do.
Your surroundings: Your environment
Albert Bandura believed that people learn by watching others. To show this, he did a famous test called the Bobo doll experiment.
In this experiment, children watched adults play with a big inflatable doll called Bobo.
Some adults were aggressive, hitting and shouting at the doll. Others played nicely.
Later, when the children were given the same doll, the ones who saw the aggressive adults were more likely to copy the same aggressive behaviour.
This showed that children (and people in general) learn by watching what others do and often copy it, especially if they see that person being rewarded or not punished.
Bandura wrote a book called "Social Learning Theory" in 1977, which explained all of this in more detail.
Bandura identified four cognitive processes that must occur for observational learning to take place:
These processes highlight how learning is not automatic but rather depends on the learner’s capacity and incentive to engage with observed behaviours.
These include attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation (Bandura & Walters, 1963).
ATTENTION
The individual needs to pay attention to the behavior and its consequences and form a mental representation of the behavior. Th attention of a person involve characteristics of the specific model or person who we are observing .
This means that the model must be salient or noticeable. If the model means the person or their activities must be attractive, prestigious, or appears to be particularly competent, then we will pay more attention.
And if the model seems more like yourself, we pay again more attention.
RETENTION
Storing the observed behavior and it can stay for a long period of time. Imitation is not always immediate. This process is often mediated by symbols. Symbols are “anything that stands for something else” (Bandura, 1998).
They can be words, pictures, or even gestures.
For symbols to be effective, they must be related to the behavior being learned and must be understood by the observer.

In Social Learning Theory, motor reproduction refers to the process where an observer attempts to physically replicate a behaviour they've observed. This involves translating the learned information (retention) into action, requiring the observer to have the physical capabilities and skills necessary to mimic the mode
Motivation
The observer must be motivated to perform the behavior. This motivation can come from a variety of sources, such as a desire to achieve a goal or avoid punishment.
Bandura (1977) proposed that motivation has three main components: expectancy, value, and affective reaction.
Expectancy refers to the belief that one can successfully perform the behavior.
Value refers to the importance of the goal that the behavior is meant to achieve.
Affective reaction, refers to the emotions associated with the behavior.
The key principles of Social Learning Theory:
Observational Learning:People learn by watching others, especially those they look up to.
Modelling:Learning happens when someone copies the behaviour of a role model or someone they respect.
Vicarious Reinforcement/Punishment:People learn by seeing what happens to others—if someone is rewarded, they may want to do the same. If someone is punished, they may avoid it.
Attention:To learn, a person must focus on the person they are watching and what they are doing.
Retention:The person needs to remember what they saw to be able to use it later.
Motor Reproduction:The person must be able to physically do the behavior they saw.
Motivation:People need a reason to copy the behavior—like expecting a reward or wanting approval.
Bandura expanded his theory into social cognitive theory (1986), which places greater emphasis on cognitive factors such as self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the reciprocal relationship between behavior, environment, and personal factors.
Social learning theory, proposed by Albert Bandura, emphasizes the importance of observing, modelling, and imitating the behaviours, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others.