The Social Learning Theory is also called “social cognitive,” “observational learning,” or Modeling. This theory has it’s roots in psychology. This communication theory was developed by Albert Bandura in the 1960s. His theory was that humans learn behaviors by others performing those behaviors and imitating them. Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental influences.
His social cognitive theory, derived from the social learning perspective, creates a very interesting framework for understanding media in general and social media in particular. Opposing a narrow behaviorist perspective, which saw learning and behavior change in rather individualist terms, Bandura proposes that behaviors are socially learned through observational learning and vicarious reinforcement. He also emphasizes the role of self-efficacy (beliefs in one’s ability to affect change) in the process of social learning.
In today’s increasingly mediated society, the mass media message becomes the source of observational learning.
Given the explosion of new media in recent years, it is only reasonable to consider what such changes in the media landscape might mean for the media-social cognitive theory relationship. According to Chafee and Metzger (2001) new media, like the Internet, are those that “allow for a greater quantity of information transmission and retrieval, place more control over both content creation and selection in the hands of their users, and do so with less cost to the average consumer” (p. 369).
The interactivity associated with virtual reality technologies and video games often leads to the inclusion of these forms of media under the new media umbrella as well (Biocca, 1992; Livingstone, 1999).
Given the characteristics differentiating them from traditional media, new media may be better suited to meet some of the challenges of testing social cognitive theory, such as portraying a range of behavioral reinforcements, increasing identification between the model and the target audience, and building self-efficacy.
