Jerry looks up to his Brother John. John has started shop lifting and is getting away with it. Explain, referring to social learning theory, how this could be detrimental to Jerry.

Social Learning theory was established by Bandura. It suggests that people learn through social interactions such as observation and imitation.In relation to Jerry and John, Jerry is observing a negative behaviour that John is doing. This puts Jerry in a difficult position as although he may know that shop lifting is wrong, John is doing it and getting away with it. In addition, because Jerry looks up to his brother, and observes his behaviour, this makes him a model. This means Jerry is more likely to imitate John's behaviour. This will happen by learning methods of shop lifting from John and copying them himself. This means that Jerry is more likely to also shop lift and potentially get away with it as he will have learnt the behaviour from his brother. This is therefore in line with social learning theory as Jerry has learnt this behaviour through John and acts accordingly.

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Answered by Jazmyn T. Psychology tutor

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