Bandura social learning
MCAT glossary · MCAT
Definition
Learning through observation, imitation, modeling (Bobo doll experiment); self-efficacy mediates behavior.
Bandura social learning in plain English
Bandura's big idea is that you don't have to personally get rewarded or punished to learn something — you can learn just by watching other people. In his famous "Bobo doll" study, kids who saw an adult punch an inflatable clown copied that aggression themselves, showing we imitate role models. A huge piece of this is self-efficacy: your belief about whether you can actually pull something off, which strongly shapes whether you even try. It's why seeing a friend nail a skateboard trick makes you more likely to attempt it — you both learned the move and gained the confidence that you could do it too.
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