Social Learning Theory. The basis of social learning theory is simple: People learn by watching other people. We can learn from anyone—teachers, parents, siblings, peers, co-workers, YouTube influencers, athletes, and even celebrities. We observe their behavior and we mimic that behavior.
Observational learning requires these four processes: attention, retention, reproduction, motivation. You have to pay attention to imitate behavior, retain or remember the behavior, reproduce the behavior, be motivated to reproduce it. article continues after advertisement.
How We Observe and Learn. Social learning theory, developed by psychologist Albert Bandura, uses theories of classical and operant conditioning. But in this theory, the environment plays a large part in learning.