... Learning Theory (Bandura). It was an attempt to reformulate learning theory to include a role for cognitive factors. The idea of this theory is that we learn through indirect rewards as well as direct rewards. Behaviourism has had an enormous influence through its behaviour rather than introspection, and its insistence on studying behaviour in controlled conditions. However this theory has been rejected by most psychologists. Behaviourists and social learning theorists are some of the examples of scientists and psychologists who come down strongly on the nurture side of the debate. They believe that children can be moulded and shaped by the environment through behaviour modification, rewards and punishments. In the early part of last century John Watson claimed that you could give him any child from birth and he could turn it into any type of person that he decided. In 1920, Watson and Rayner carried out a study on an eleven month old ...

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