Discussion of Adult Learning Theory
The two theories that will be discussed in this paper are Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy and Skinners theory of operant conditioning. An overview of both theories will be analyzed. Then, both theories will be compared and contrasted. Finally, professional application of these theories will be discussed.
Bandura’s Theory
Bandura’s social cognitive theory hightlights the role of observational learning, social experience, and reciprocal determinism on learning (Cherry, 2005). Bandura believed that an individual 's behavior influences and is influenced by both the social world and personal characteristics. According to Cherry, (2005) the central concept of Bandura’s theory is the theory of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is belief in your own abilities to succeed. This not only plays a role in how you feel about yourself but how you learn and achieve your goals. Bandura believed that observational learning could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work.
According to Resnick (2013) Bandura believed that individuals are more likely to take on a modeled behavior if the behavior results in outcomes that they value and the behavior is functional. Also, individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if the person being modeled is similar to the observer and the observer admires the model.
Some examples of how Bandura’s social cognitive theory is used include its application in health behavior change and in cognitive and behavioral
Noteworthy due mostly to the work of Albert Bandura, social learning theory attempts to explain behavior through the interaction of three variables: the environment, the behavior, and psychological processes. With his model, Bandura stepped away from strict behaviorism and opened the doors for the cognitivist movement. His premise is that human behavior and learning is influenced by a complex network of observations made about the behaviors, beliefs, and emotional responses of those in our
Bandura had developed the theory on social learning, this is based on we learn from one and another through
Bandura focused on perceived self-efficacy, which he defines as a belief in one’s own capability to organize and execute the course of action required to attain a goal. (Bandura, 1977).
Social cognitive personality development has some similarity as behaviorism. Behavioral and Social learning theories consists of four characteristic: Behaviorism, Basic Principles of Conditioning, Social Learning theory, and Social-Cognitive Theory. Behavioral is regarded as “attitude change, language acquisition, psychotherapy, student-teacher interaction, problem solving, gender roles, and job satisfaction.” Social learning is regarded as “thoughts, morals, expectancies, and individual insights” (Burger, 2010). Social-Cognitive theory as described by Albert Bandura engages in thinking and symbolic learning from observation. Behaviorism holds that people are conditioned, or trained, to respond in certain ways by rewards and punishments. Bandura suggested that there must be a way that people can
Bandura’s theory is essentially an agentic perspective, which views people as self-organizing, proactive, and self-regulating, as opposed to being reactive organisms shaped solely by environmental forces. His theory posits that human beings have a considerable amount of control over their own behavior, though they may exhibit variations on how effectively they exert it. Bandura believed that individuals can be, essentially, self-directed, at least to the extent that they are able to make goals and then track and evaluate their own progress.
The contributions Albert Bandura made to the understanding of social learning have led to further investigation and new findings. Social Cognitive Theory is Bandura’s greatest contribution to social, cognitive, and abnormal psychology. It has led to a greater understanding of human behavior and how humans learn behavior in a social context. Ultimately, modern research found that while Albert Bandura and other social learning theorists uncovered many aspects of learning and perception, there are factors that need further scrutiny, (Martin, Ruble, and Szkrybalo, 2001). The ability to produce more
Bandura - Social Learning Theory. Retrieved from
Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory explains psychological functioning in terms of triadic reciprocal causation. Triadic reciprocal causation is a system assuming human action as a result of an interaction with the environment, behavior, and a person. Bandura explains "person" as being a cognitive factor such as memory, anticipation, and planning. It is because of these cognitive capacities that some people can select or restructure their environment.
The concept of interest is self-efficacy. This began in 1977 with Bandura’s social learning theory that was renamed social cognitive theory in 1986, of which self-efficacy was one of the major concepts of his theory. Self-efficacy makes a difference in how people will feel, think, behave, and motivate themselves. A low sense of self-efficacy can be associated with stress, anxiety, depression, and feelings of helplessness. Such individuals also have low self-esteem and become pessimistic about their accomplishments and personal development. In thinking terms, a strong sense of efficacy facilitates cognitive processes and performance in a variety of settings, including the quality of decision-making and academic achievement. When it comes to behavior, self-efficacy can be said to influence people’s choice of activities as self-efficacy levels can foster or decrease a person’s motivation. People with high self-efficacy approach difficult tasks as challenges and do not try to avoid them. People’s self-efficacy beliefs determine their level of motivation, as reflected in how much effort they will
Albert Bandura, a 20th century American pszchologist, proposed a very important and probably the most influential theory of development and learning. He believed that: “Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions
Annie, a fifth-grade student in Mr. Keller's class, is being quiet and sullen for the fifth day in a row. "I just can't do this writing stuff," she finally says in an appeal to Mr. Keller. "I'm not a good student. Give me P.E. or art over this stuff any day!" If we apply Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory in her comment "I just can't do this writing stuff" how does Bandura's theory help us to understand Annie? According, the Social Cognitive Theory of Albert Bandura which combines both behavioral and cognitive philosophies to form his theory of modeling, or observational learning states that human personality is an interaction between the environment and a person's psychological processes. With this interaction humans are able to
The social learning theory, as proposed by Albert Bandura (1977), describes how new knowledge can be
Albert Bandura is considered the developer of social learning theory, which is also known as social cognitive theory (Corey, 2013; Feist et al., 2013; Thoma et al., 2015). Badura’s theory, while based upon the principles of behaviorism, departs from the traditional behavioral model and leaves room for the exploration of unobservable mental states and their influence on behavior (Corey, 2013; Thoma et al., 2015). Social Cognitive theory bases its theory of learning on two types of learning processes: observational learning and enactive learning (Feist et al., 2013). In contrast to Skinner’s belief that reinforcement is required for learning, Bandura believes that learning is possible simply by observing the behavior of others; while reinforcement facilitates learning, it is not a necessary requirement (Feist et al., 2013). Enactive learning is learning through direct experience, and is similar to the concept of operant conditioning; people determine appropriate behaviors by evaluating their behavior and the potential consequences thereof (Feist et al., 2013). Where behavioral theory adopts the ABC approach to behavior, social cognitive theory uses a BPE approach known as Triadic Reciprocal Causation. In TRC, BPE stands for behavior, person variables, and environment (Feist et al., 2013). Within the TRC, the term person encompasses many variables including memory, judging, anticipation, gender, social position, physical attributes, and planning; the belief is that
Bandura studied social cognitive theory, however; his research was more focused on observation with importance surrounding reinforcement and reward. Bandura believed that the reactions were activated by the human and that the human would react that way expecting to receive the same reinforcement, meaning the human would react to the stimuli a certain way while expecting the reinforcement or punishment. Also,
Likewise, Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory derives on the premise that humans learn and develop accordingly to our environment and not our genetics. The Sociocultural Level of Analysis in psychology states that people retain an individual identity as well as a collective identity and therefore base personality on a combination of