Application of Bandura’s Social Learning theory to care settings

Bandura’s modification of behaviour

  • Select an appropriate role model. This role model will be a more effective if the child sees them as:
  • someone with similar values
  • more powerful
  • warm and loving
  • liked and respected
  • Reward any positive behaviour that this role model carries out. The child is then more likely to copy behaviours which are rewarded.
  • Try to ensure that the role model’s behaviour is noticeable, that your rewards are noticeable and that the behaviours can be easily copied.

Provision for needs to be met in early years settings
/ Provision for needs to be met in
Day care settings

Personal support, supervision, advice, chiropody, aids and adaptations, meals. / Provision for needs to be met in
Residential and nursing homes

Early years workers are often role models for children so should lead by example e.g. the language they use between each other will be imitated. Research shows that children imitate vocab and accent as well as actual words. / Day care centres encourage independence in personal hygiene and the SLT can be applied here e.g. a service user says that they are able to shower themselves today to the care worker and gets praised for this by the care worker. Another service user is watching this and when it is his turn for a shower he says ‘actually I think I can do it myself today’ / Certain powerful residents can encourage anti-social behaviour through SLT e.g. a popular male resident flirts with the nurses so other residents start to do it e.g. a resident is bulling another resident and some residents begin to imitate the bully and join in.
The way the early years workers eat their lunch is likely to be imitated by the children therefore they should display good table manners i.e. eating with mouth closed, knife and fork in correct hands. / At day care centres intellectual stimulation is encouraged. SLT can be applied here e.g. the carers sit down to play chess. Service users see this and start their own chess group. / SLT can be applied to pro-social behaviour e.g. residents in lounge A always share the remote, so residents in lounge B start to do this too.
EYW’s need to be trained to provide reinforcement via praise for good behaviour. When children see their friends being reinforced for good behaviour, they are likely to copy that good behaviour too. / Physiotherapy takes place in day care centres and e.g. of SLT can be applied here – Fred and Bert both have arthritis. One is having physiotherapy for the condition and one isn’t. Fred’s arthritis is getting better and Bert can see this, so Bert now decided to have physiotherapy. / A service user may act aggressive towards the care worker due to previous experience of visiting their parent/s in a home where they were also aggressive towards the care worker which helped them get what they wanted
When a child behaves poorly in the setting an EYW must deal with it appropriately i.e. negative punishment – time out on a chair. They cannot ignore this otherwise other children will imitate the bad behaviour because they feel they will not get told off for it by the EYW. / One of the services that is provided by a day care centre is advice giving. An example of this within the SLT is: a service user is stubborn and has problems with money, which makes him very worried and not nice to be around. He agrees to get help with this and over a period of time everyone can see a substantial difference in his behaviour – showing happiness and being friendlier. One of his friends sees how much happier he is and decides to seek advice for his own financial matters. / If a service user is in a home where a lot of the other service users acted in a particular manner e.g. depressed/angry/happy then they may model this behaviour.
A child is most likely to copy someone with similar values, someone who is more powerful than them, someone who is warm and loving and someone who is liked and respected. In short, a child will copy someone who they admire and want to be like. / At day centres advice is given. An example of the SLT here would be Mary tells her friend Ann about seeking advice today about her financial problems. Ann also has financial problems and therefore suggests to Mary that she also wants to seek financial advice and therefore asks to go with her.
Barbara may come into the day care centre and say that she is going to see the chiropodist about some problems with her feet. Elizabeth overhears this and decided to go along with Barbara because she also has problems with her feet. / One of the elderly ladies has a routine of changing the sheets that she still carries over from being at home. Therefore she always takes off her dirty sheets before the maid comes round in order to help her out. As a result of this, the maid chats to her and smiles. The lady across the hall sees this and decides to do the same as she has never been talked to by the maid before.
Bandura would say that if a child observes behaviour of another child who, for example, generally shares well and takes turns they will notice that this behaviour is rewarded by being popular. The child will then copy this behaviour and in turn will internalise it and it will then take on that behaviour as normal.