Social Learning Definition

Social learning is a process through which people acquire knowledge, skills, and attitudes by observing and imitating others. It is a type of learning that occurs when an individual observes the behavior of another individual and then modifies his or her own behavior to match that of the other individual.

Social learning theory posits that humans learn by observing the behaviors of others and then imitate those behaviors. The theory was first proposed by psychologist Albert Bandura in 1977, and it has since been used to explain a wide variety of human behaviors, including aggression, altruism, language acquisition, and socialization.