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SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

Albert Bandura (1925-2021)
Life of Bandura
• Born in Alberta, Canada on December 4, 1925
• His parents were immigrants from Poland who emphasized the value of education.
• During the summer following his graduation from high school, he took a construction job in
the wilderness of the Yukon Territory, filling holes in the Alaska Highway.
• Attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver as an undergraduate and took a
course in psychology.
• He found the material fascinating and pursued his studies in the field, earning his Ph.D. in
1952 from the University of Iowa.
• Joined the faculty of Stanford University and has compiled an extensive record of
publications.
• Elected as the President of the American Psychological Association in 1973.
• In 1980, he received his Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award.
• 2006, he was presented with the American Psychological Foundation’s Gold Medal Award for
Life Achievement.

Social Cognitive

➢ Social cognitive theory is an outgrowth of Skinner’s behaviorist approach.

➢ Represented by Albert Bandura who also focuses on overt behavior rather than needs, traits,
drives, or defense mechanisms.
➢ Bandura allows internal cognitive variables that mediate between stimulus and response.
➢ He observed the behavior of human subjects in social settings.
➢ Bandura agreed with Skinner that behavior is learned and that reinforcement is vital to
learning, but he differs from Skinner in his interpretation of the nature of reinforcement.
➢ Bandura’s approach is a social-learning theory that investigates behavior as it is formed and
modified in the social context.
➢ Although Bandura, like Skinner, recognizes that much learning takes place as a result of
reinforcement, he also stresses that virtually all forms of behavior can be learned without
directly experiencing any reinforcement.
➢ Bandura’s approach is also called as observational learning
➢ Observational Learning -Learning new responses by observing the behavior of other people.

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➢ Rather than experiencing reinforcement ourselves for each of our actions, we learn through
vicarious reinforcement.
➢ Vicarious reinforcement –learning or strengthening a behavior by observing the behavior of
others, and the consequences of that behavior, rather than experiencing the reinforcement
or consequences directly. (Learning through observation or example)
➢ Bandura believes that cognitive processes can influence observational learning.
➢ He emphasizes the observation of others as a means of learning, and he considers learning to
be mediated by cognitive processes.
➢ His theory is based on rigorous laboratory research with normal people in social interaction.

MODELING: The Basis of Behavior

• Basic idea: learning can occur through observation or example rather than solely by direct
reinforcement.
• To Bandura, most human behavior is learned through example, either intentionally or
accidentally.
• We learn a wide and varied range of behaviors in our daily lives by observing other people
and patterning our behavior after theirs
• Modeling is a behavior modification technique that involves observing the behavior of others
(the models) and participating with them in performing the desired behavior.

Characteristics of Modeling Situation

1. Characteristics of the models
a. Individuals are more influenced by someone who appears to be similar to them.
b. People are more likely to model behavior after a person of the same sex and age than
a person of the opposite.
c. Status and prestige of the model also contributes in learning through observation
2. Characteristics of the observers
a. People who are low in self-esteem are much more likely to imitate a model’s
behavior.
b. A person who has been reinforced for imitating a behavior is more susceptible to the
influence of models

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3. The reward consequences associated with the behaviors

a. If rewards for imitating a certain behavior are not meaningful, a person will
discontinue the behavior and be less likely to be influenced by that model in the
future.

The Process of Observational Learning

1. Attention
• Developing our cognitive processes and perceptual skills so that we can pay
sufficient attention to a model, and perceiving the model accurately enough, to
imitate displayed behavior.
2. Retention/Representation
• Retaining or remembering the model’s behavior so that we can imitate or repeat it at
a later time; for this, we use our cognitive processes to encode or form mental
images and verbal descriptions of the model’s behavior.
3. Production
• Translating the mental images or verbal symbolic representations of the model’s
behavior into our own overt behavior by physically producing the responses and
receiving feedback on the accuracy of our continued practice.
4. Motivation
• Perceiving that the model’s behavior leads to a reward and thus expecting that our
learning—and successful performance—of the same behavior will lead to similar
consequences.

THE SELF

➢ In Bandura’s approach to personality, the self is not some psychic agent that determines or
causes behavior.
➢ Rather, the self is a set of cognitive processes and structures concerned with thought and
perception.
➢ Two important aspects of the self are self-reinforcement and self-efficacy.
➢ Self-reinforcement -administering rewards or punishments to oneself for meeting,
exceeding, or falling short of one’s own expectations or standards.

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• We set personal standards of behavior and achievement. We reward ourselves for

meeting or exceeding these expectations and standards and we punish ourselves for
our failures.

• Self-administered reinforcement can be tangible such as a new pair of gym shoes or

a car, or it can be emotional such as pride or satisfaction from a job well done.

• Self-administered punishment can be expressed in shame, guilt, or depression about

not behaving the way we wanted to.

➢ Self-efficacy (“Believing you can”)

• Refers to feelings of adequacy, efficiency, and competence in coping with life.
• Meeting and maintaining our performance standards enhances self-efficacy; failure
to meet and maintain them reduces it.
• People low in self-efficacy feel helpless, unable to exercise control over life events.
They believe any effort they make is futile. When they encounter obstacles, they
quickly give up if their initial attempt to deal with a problem is ineffective. People
who are extremely low in self-efficacy will not even attempt to cope because they are
convinced that nothing they do will make a difference.
• People high in self-efficacy believe they can deal effectively with events and
situations. Because they expect to succeed in overcoming obstacles, they persevere
at tasks and often perform at a high level. These people have greater confidence in
their abilities than do persons low in self-efficacy, and they express little self-doubt.
They view difficulties as challenges instead of threats and actively seek novel
situations. High self-efficacy reduces fear of failure, raises aspirations, and improves
problem solving and analytical thinking abilities.
• One researcher defined self-efficacy quite simply and effectively as the “power of
believing you can,” and added that “believing that you can accomplish what you want
to accomplish is one of the most important ingredients … in the recipe for success”
(Maddux, 2002)

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Sources of information about self-efficacy

➢ Mastery Experiences
o Previous success experiences provide direct indications of our level of mastery and
competence. Prior achievements demonstrate our capabilities and strengthen our
feelings of self-efficacy. Prior failures, particularly repeated failures in childhood,
lower self-efficacy.
o Receiving feedback on one’s performance is an important indicator of self-efficacy.
➢ Vicarious experiences
o Seeing other people perform successfully—strengthen self-efficacy, particularly if the
people we observe are similar in abilities.
➢ Social Persuasion
o Reminding people that they possess the ability to achieve whatever they want to
achieve, can enhance self-efficacy.
➢ Physical and Emotional arousal
o We are more likely to believe we will master a problem successfully if we are not
agitated, tense, or bothered by headaches. The more composed we feel, the greater
our self-efficacy. Whereas the higher our level of physiological and emotional arousal,
the lower our self-efficacy. The more fear, anxiety, or tension we experience in a
given situation, the less we feel able to cope.

Proxy Agency
• Proxy involves indirect control over those social conditions that affect everyday living.
• Through proxy agency, people can accomplish their goal by relying on other people.
• DOWNSIDE: relying too much on the competence and power of others, people may weaken
their sense of personal and collective efficacy.
Collective efficacy
• Collective efficacy is the people’s shared beliefs in their collective power to produce desired
results.
• The confidence people have that their combined efforts will bring about group
accomplishments.

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Self-Regulation
• Self-regulation –the capacity to regulate one’s own behavior
• When people have high levels of self-efficacy, are confident in their reliance on proxies, and
possess solid collective efficacy, they are said to have developed self-regulation

References:
Feist J. et. al (2013). Theories of Personality 8th Edition. McGraw-Hill Education.
Schultz & Schultz (2013). Theories of Personality 10th Edition. Cengage Learning

Prepared by: Ms. Laarni D. Muzones, MSPsy PERTHE230 Theories of Personality