Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory

1922 Words4 Pages

“Once relegated to the margins of society, pornography has become one of the most visible and profitable sectors of the cultural industries in the United States. It is estimated that the pornography industry's annual revenue has reached $13 billion. At the same time, the content of pornography has become more aggressive, more overtly sexist and racist” (The Price of Pleasure, 2008). While the concept that humans are stimulated by depictions of eroticism is not novel, the culture surrounding the industrialization and distribution of pornography and its content has been repeatedly redefined. Attitudes about sexuality, what is considered acceptable, and what is demonized are highly context dependent and subject to change. Through an analysis …show more content…

He presented social learning theory as an empirically researched approach to understanding and predicting human behavior in direct opposition to psychodynamic theory. He emphasized the limitations of psychodynamic theory for its lack of scientific evidence and predictive ability. In his research, Bandura attempted to explain the likelihood of an individual to aggress based on social modeling. In his well-known study, “Bobo doll experiment” pre-school aged children witnessed an adult displaying aggression by inflicting violent beatings on an inflated doll. When children were left alone with the doll after viewing the adult model, those who had witnessed the model beat up the doll were more likely to mimic the aggressive …show more content…

The research concluded that individuals learn what social behaviors are acceptable by observing others. This research is pertinent with regards to studying the effect of men who view pornography with violent and aggressive themes because it demonstrates the predictability of the viewer to repeat the behavior. Social Learning Theory emphasizes that individuals are highly susceptible to imitating the behavior that they witness a model do. This can be applied to a man who repeatedly views aggressive and violent sex scenes in pornography because as he is witnessing the sex scene, he may be picturing himself performing what he sees in order to become aroused and reach an orgasm.

Open Document