ALBERT BANDURA

 Born in Canada—youngest child out of 6—only son

 Went to Uni of Iowa—came under the influence of behaviorist tradition and learning theory
 Became president of APA in 1973

Social Cognitive Theory:

 Doesn’t consider himself a Social Learning theorist—but prefers Social Cognitive theory
 Its comprehensive theory—includes motivation and self-regulatory mechanisms
 Emphasizes the social origins of human thought process and behav
 Also emphasizes the cog influence on behav rather than conditioning influences from the
envir

Agentic Perspective

 Bandura views ppl as agents/originators of experience

 Human agency
o Intentionality—enables us to behav w purpose
o Forethought—allows use to anticipate outcomes
o Self-reactiveness—can be motivated to regulate our actions
o Self-reflectiveness—reflect on our thoughts and behav and make needed
modifications

Triadic reciprocal causation model

 Bandura; reciprocal determinism

 Behav is the result of interactions among personal charac behav and envir factors
 Learning resulted from these interactions:
o Personal charac
o Behav patterns
o Envir stimuli
  Self-system: cog structures—provide reference mechanisms
 Self: grp of cognitive processes and structure—help ppl to relate to the envir and shape their
behav

Learning thru Observation

 Learning that occurs by observing and imitating others

 The person imitated and observed is called the model

Factors influencing modeling

 Characteristics of the model: influenced more by those who are similar to ourselves, simpler
actions
 Attributes of the observer: low self-esteem, dependent personality types, motivated
individuals
 Reward consequences associated w behav: self-efficacy

Process of observational learning

 Attention: Person should be focused on what the model is doing and pay attention to the
model. Observational learning will not occur the subject pays attention to the model. The
subject must perceive the model accurately to acquire the necessary information to the
model’s behavior.
 Retention: The observed behavior should be retained in order to be able to repeat it later.
To increase the chances of retention, one must structure the information using an easy-to-
remember format.
 Reproduction: The person should have the capability to perform that behavior. Every
individual has their own capacity when imitating certain behaviors. This means that even
with proper attention and retention, one might not replicate a behavior easily.
 Motivation: The person should want to copy the work and this depends on whether or not
the model was reinforced for their behavior. The motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic.

Bobo Doll Experiment:

 Bandura particularly researched children’s modeling of adult’s aggressive and violent

behaviors.
 He then conducted the Bobo doll experiment.
 Bobo dolls were five-foot inflatable dolls.
 His main aim was to investigate whether social behaviors, in this case, aggression, can
be acquired through observation and imitation.
Procedure of the exp:

 Phase 1
o Pre-schoolers—divided into two groups—put in 2 separate rooms—allowed to play
w ‘attractive toys’ while bobo dolls were ‘unattractive’ 5 ft inflatable balloons—
these dolls were kept at the far end of the rooms
 Phase 2
o Grp1: noticed adults come into the room and start behaving harshly towards the
dolls
o Grp 2: noticed adults enter the room and behav calmly w the dolls
  Phase 3
o Both grps then sent to the same room
o Attractive toys were taken away from each grp

Results:

 Grp 1 kids modeled the behav—they acted aggressively towards the bobo dolls, even added
some aggressive acts not shown by the model
 Bandura concluded that people watch and learn and this learning can have prosocial and
anti-social effects.
 Prosocial or positive models can be used to encourage socially acceptable behavior.
 These findings supported Bandura’s Social Learning Theory.
 This study also has important implications for the effects of media violence on children.
 Children watching a model on television or video game imitate the model’s behavior
regardless if they have been provided with a reward.
 Therefore, reinforcement can assist in modeling but is not vital to it.
 When reinforcement does occur, it can be given by another person, experienced vicariously
or administered by oneself.

Types of Reinforcements in Obs Learning

 Extrinsic motivation
 Intrinsic motivation
 Vicarious motivation
 Self-reinforcement
 Bandura says that human behav is motivated by self-regulation, self-monitoring, self-
judgement, affective self-reaction

Aggression, inhumane behav and moral disengagement

 Exposure to violence in media—leads to aggressive acts by children

 Aggressive models of films are just as affective as real life models
 Moral disengagement
o Process of convincing oneself—ethical standards do not apply to them in certain
contexts
o Seems to permit ppl and institutions to take part in violence and inhumane activities
o They feel their behav is justified
o Rationalize, minimizing, displacement etc are used to help in this respect

Strengths of Bandura’s theory

 Strong emphasis on exp research

 Clinical application—using modeling as a form of psychotherapy
 Blend of internal and external variables—add holistic view to his ideas—allows analysis of
wide range of behav
 His exp were based on philosophical assumptions—but he did not include his philosophical
ideas into his empirical conclusions

Weaknesses of Bandura’s Theory:

 Ethical issues of using aggressive models

  To devep self-regulation and self-efficacy in classroom—must be enough time to create a
sense of mastery in each subject—but this time may not always be available
 Unconscious mind not considered

SOCIAL COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

 Started as the social learning theory by Bandura in 1960s—deveped into SCT in 1986
 Unique feature—emphasis on social influence and its emphasis on external and internal
social reinforcement
 It considers unique ways in which a person acquires and maintains behav—while considering
the social envir where the person performs the behav
 Takes into account a person’s past exp—influence reinforcements, expectations and
expectancies—shape whether a person will engage in a specific behav or not
 Goal of SCT: explain how ppl regulate their behav thru control and reinforcements to
achieve goal directed behav—which can be maintained over time
 Reciprocal Determinism –
o This is the central concept of SCT.
o This refers to the dynamic and reciprocal interaction of person (individual with a set
of learned experiences), environment (external social context), and behavior
(responses to stimuli to achieve goals).
 Behavioral Capability –
o This refers to a person's actual ability to perform a behavior through essential
knowledge and skills.
o In order to successfully perform a behavior, a person must know what to do and
how to do it.
o People learn from the consequences of their behavior, which also affects the
environment in which they live.
 Observational Learning –
o This asserts that people can witness and observe a behavior conducted by others,
and then reproduce those actions.
o This is often exhibited through "modeling" of behaviors.  
o If individuals see successful demonstration of a behavior, they can also complete
the behavior successfully.
 Reinforcements –
o This refers to the internal or external responses to a person's behavior that affect
the likelihood of continuing or discontinuing the behavior.
o Reinforcements can be self-initiated or in the environment, and reinforcements can
be positive or negative.
o This is the construct of SCT that most closely ties to the reciprocal relationship
between behavior and environment.
 Expectations –
o This refers to the anticipated consequences of a person's behavior.
o Outcome expectations can be health-related or not health-related.
 o People anticipate the consequences of their actions before engaging in the behavior,
and these anticipated consequences can influence successful completion of the
behavior.
o Expectations derive largely from previous experience.  
o While expectancies also derive from previous experience, expectancies focus on the
value that is placed on the outcome and are subjective to the individual.
 Self-efficacy –
o This refers to the level of a person's confidence in his or her ability to successfully
perform a behavior.
o Self-efficacy is unique to SCT although other theories have added this construct at
later dates, such as the Theory of Planned Behavior.
o Self-efficacy is influenced by a person's specific capabilities and other individual
factors, as well as by environmental factors (barriers and facilitators).

Limitations of the theory:

 The theory assumes that changes in the environment will automatically lead to changes in
the person, when this may not always be true.
 The theory is loosely organized, based solely on the dynamic interplay between person,
behavior, and environment. It is unclear the extent to which each of these factors into actual
behavior and if one is more influential than another.
 The theory heavily focuses on processes of learning and in doing so disregards biological and
hormonal predispositions that may influence behaviors, regardless of past experience and
expectations.
 The theory does not focus on emotion or motivation, other than through reference to past
experience. There is minimal attention on these factors.
 The theory can be broad-reaching, so can be difficult to operationalize in entirety.

Advantages of the theory:

  Experiments are the only means by which cause and effect can be established. Thus, it could
be demonstrated that the model did have an effect on the child's subsequent behavior
because all variables other than the independent variable are controlled.

 It allows for precise control of variables. Many variables were controlled, such as the gender
of the model, the time the children observed the model, the behavior of the model and so
on.

 Experiments can be replicated. Standardized procedures and instructions were used,

allowing for replicability. In fact, the study has been replicated with slight changes, such as
using video and similar results were found (Bandura, 1963).