社会学习理论是美国心理学家阿尔波特·班杜拉提出的社会心理学基础理论，这一理论源于行为主义学派的强化学习理论——即学习，本质上说是受到增强与惩罚的影响，而改变了行为的发生概率。例如，小孩说真话，得到了糖果奖励，以后他倾向于更多说真话；小孩说谎话，得到了糖果，以后他倾向于更多地说谎话。

而社会学习理论则认为，不仅加诸于个体本身的刺激物可以让其获得或失去某种行为，观察别的个体的社教化学习过程也可以获得同样的效果。例如，小孩看到幼儿园老师夸赞彬彬有礼的小朋友，并且给其糖果吃，等到他（她）见到幼儿园老师，也会彬彬有礼；而小孩其他特质如性别角色等也是从社会环境学习而来的。

Social cognitive theory (SCT), used in psychology, education, and communication, holds that portions of an individual's knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences. The theory states that when people observe a model performing a behavior and the consequences of that behavior, they remember the sequence of events and use this information to guide subsequent behaviors. Observing a model can also prompt the viewer to engage in behavior they already learned. In other words, people do not learn new behaviors solely by trying them and either succeeding or failing, but rather, the survival of humanity is dependent upon the replication of the actions of others. Depending on whether people are rewarded or punished for their behavior and the outcome of the behavior, the observer may choose to replicate behavior modeled. Media provides models for a vast array of people in many different environmental settings.