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Social Cognitive Theory Is The View That People Learn By Watching Others

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Social cognitive theory is the view that people learn by watching others. In psychology, it explains personality in terms of how a person thinks about and responds to one 's social environment. For example, in the 1960s Albert Bandura (a pioneer in social cognitive theory) argued that when people see someone else awarded for behavior, they tend to behave the same way to attain an award. People are also more likely to imitate those with whom they identify. Bandura famously illustrated social learning by showing children a video of a girl punching a doll; presented later with a doll, the children behaved in similarly aggressive ways. Not all learning is acted upon; for example, one might learn to hunt by observing others yet never …show more content…

Bandura suggests in the preface: “Much contemporary theorizing depicts people as on looking hosts of internal mechanisms or orchestrated by external events. They are stripped of any agency. People are proactive, aspiring organisms who have a hand in shaping their own lives and the social systems that organize, guide and regulate the affairs of their society (Bandura, 1997). He also suggests teachers’ beliefs and how their teaching or instructional efficacy contributes to students’ determination of their own personal intellectual capabilities.

Applying this theory will benefit the classroom environment with student growth and development. “Through the use of self-efficacy and self-regulation, Bandura actively involves the learner in the educational process”. It can help improve the amount of time a student is paying attention to a subject which allows a teacher to dive into effective teaching strategies. While teaching an addition problem, a teacher can write it on the board, show each step and complete the problem while the children are observing then the children will complete their math worksheet with the method they were taught. This theory can also create a desire for a student to seek intrinsic motivators, which benefits growth in maturity, and confidence. This will require an individual the time to think through a response when they desire a higher level of personal reward. In a classroom, role playing with the students to model behavior that is

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