social learning

social learning, in psychological theory, learning behaviour that is controlled by environmental influences rather than by innate or internal forces. The leading exponent of the concept of social learning, often called modeling, is the American psychologist Albert Bandura, who has undertaken innumerable studies showing that when children watch others they learn many forms of behaviour, such as sharing, aggression, cooperation, social interaction, and delay of gratification. In Bandura’s classic study of imitation learning, children who...