Social Cognitive Theory Paper

* Understanding of how the ideas, forms and language of a text interact within the text and may affect those responding to it.

Social cognition is the encoding, storage, retrieval, and processing, of information in the brain. It is a process that is generalized within a species, and relates to members of the same species. At one time social cognition referred specifically to an approach to social psychology in which these processes were studied according to the methods of cognitive

Effective comprehension of the reader and writer will occur if both authors and readers use similar interpretive methods and belong to the same discourse community. Scholars state that good readers use complex processes interactively and simultaneously in order to enhance comprehension (Stanovich, 1991). This interaction among processes is very influential in teaching reading skills for ESP. In other words, successful readers activate their schemata of the topic and use textual information to make sense of the new information (Stanovich, 1991; Jalififar & Shooshtari, 2011).

Everyday people use social cognition as a tool to help them thrive in social world. There are many important aspects of social cognition that are helpful to us in making decisions and help us to interpret the world around us. An important aspect that is linked to social cognition is that of thought suppression. Thought suppression is when a person tries to force particular thoughts, memories or feelings out of their minds that may be unpleasant or may cause a great deal of stress for the individual. Many people are unaware how often we use thought suppression in our daily lives, but the truth is we use it in almost every aspect of our day.

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 way we process new information is, to a significant extent, determined by prior experience and knowledge stored in our memory. These memories are organized by schemas. Schemas are cognitive structures for organizing information about the world, events, people, and actions. Schemas are needed help us save time and reduce our minds’ workloads when interpreting the ample amount of information in the world. However, schemas may affect our memory and make us concentrate on things that affirm our pre-existing beliefs only. Schemas also affect stereotypes and make it difficult to retain completely new information.

Overview: Schema Theory is part of the cognitive theories of learning module and deals with how the brain processes new knowledge (Chalmers, 2003). Schemata are packets of prior knowledge that have been stored in a learner’s memory. Each learner has developed schemata that are based on prior experience and knowledge. Learners seek to connect new information with prior knowledge and use generalizations to assist in organization of information. Schema Theory is focused on conceptual learning and states that knowledge seeks organization in order to develop meaning (Anderson, 1984).

What is the triadic reciprocal causality process? This is a process that contributes to learning through the cause and effect relationship between behaviors, the environment, and the individual in question. This is arguably one of the more important concepts that should be addressed in the classroom. It is always stated that a teacher must have a “safe and effective learning environment” in which all students adhere to certain behavioral expectations. If a teacher fills the classroom with distracting elements and visuals that have no bearing on what is to be learned and allows individual students be off task, and then the triadic reciprocal process tells us that any given student in that classroom will most likely not attempt to engage in any given learning activity in a desirable way. If the teacher decorates the room with content specific material and only allows behaviors that help maintain a learning environment, then an individual student will more likely exhibit those behaviors (which contribute to that environment).

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

Cognitive Theory claims that behavior can be changed through changing faulty thinking, irrational thoughts, automatic thoughts, or learned cognitive misconceptions. When a client has negative images of themselves or their accomplishments, it sets the pace for their behavior, perceptions and expectations; when that thinking is exposed as faulty to the client, the client can then begin to change their behavior based upon restructured, truer images of reality. It has been shown to be effective therapy for individual, group, marital and family treatment, in treating depression, addiction, anxiety, PTSD, personality disorders, and some organic conditions such as schizophrenia, and in many social work settings, such as child welfare, private practice, mental health, crisis intervention, and health care.

Cervantes, and Porretta, (2013) studied an exercise program for people with VIs which demonstrated an increase in social cognitive measures such as self-regulation, social support, outcome expectancy, and self-efficacy visual impairment. Showing that the Vbuddy could also help to improve these social cognitive measures.

This research is reinforced by Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1977; as cited in Redmond, 2010) which states that self-efficacy or a person’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in a particular situation plays an essential role in how goals, tasks, and challenges are approached. It continues to evolve as people acquire new skills, experiences, and understanding. It can have an impact on everything from psychological states to behavior to motivation. Bandura believed that the key to successful therapy is self-efficacy. Bandura's theory proposed that learning can also occur by simply observing the actions of others (Ross, 2007). It was stated that people can learn new information and behaviors by watching other people which is known as observational learning. Underneath the social cognitive theory is the social learning theory. There are three core concepts at the heart of social learning theory. In this study, the researchers will only use the two concepts which

“Cognitive psychology is a modern approach to the study of [processes by which people come to understand the world- such processes as memory, learning, comprehending language, problem solving, and creativity. Cognitive psychology has been influenced by developments in language, computer science, and of course, earlier work in philosophy and psychology” – Hayes (cited by Lundin)

Students having hard times in comprehending the thought of the text and what the author implies. It seems to be reading by words but not reading between the lines. It is important to know how comprehension plays an integral part in a manner of thinking and conceptualizing facts and ideas from the

That being said, comprehension is not just understanding the singular words that are being read, but being able to put them together, along with activating previous knowledge, make sense and develop meaning to the text. Essentially, when a reader is immersed and engaged in text, they are actively developing meaning to the text while formulating questions that may later be answered by the text itself.