The Theory Of Social Psychology

Albert Bandura is one of the pioneers in the study of human development. His biographical background lays a good foundation for the basis of his work as a psychologist. His social cognitive theory will be examined in detail to highlight the effect that environment has on behavior. There are four basic features to the theory introduced by Bandura that will be discussed; (1) observational learning, (2) self-regulation, (3) self-efficacy, and (4) reciprocal determinism. All four features combined will prove to offer a keen insight into the environmental aspect of our behavior.

The learning theory selected for this essay is the social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura during the 1960s. The theory was influential in explaining how learning takes place in a social environment. This theory helped to emphasize the role of the social environment in the learning process. According to the social learning theory, an individual learns through the influences of the environment on the mind. The sense impressions from the environment are instrumental in shaping perceptions and connections that promote

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

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory describes the process through which people acquire new info, forms of behavior, or attitudes from others firsthand or vicariously. The likelihood of a behavior presenting itself will rely on the amount of reinforcement it receives and the value that the individual associates to it. While some behavior may be rewarded, others may produce unfavorable responses. An individual will learn from the consequences of these actions and when a similar situation arises, they will alter their behavior according to what was most successful in the past.

Social learning theory, developed by Bandura, discusses how people learn from one another through observation, modeling, and imitation bridging an individual’s attention, memory and motivation. Social learning theory identifies the importance of cognition, observable behavior, individual self-efficacy, and the extent of how the events surrounding an individual affect them; their locus of control. Social learning theory also looks at individual problem behavior being influenced by positive or negative reinforcement (Ashford & LeCroy, 2012).

The social cognitive theory was developed by Albert Bandura. According to Schunk (2016), Bandura developed the theory of observational learning to show how to acquire and perform diverse skills, behaviors, and strategies (p.118). Principles of the social cognitive theory are used to learn cognitive, motor,

Albert Bandura states “self-efficacy is the belief that one’s ability to influence events that affect one’s life and have control over the way these events are experienced. The theory of self-efficacy is a significant concept in the field of positive psychology since it has a direct relationship with the explanation on how a people’s cognition can affect how they think, behave, and motivate themselves. Albert Bandura presents his views on positive psychology in his chapter “An Agentic Perspective on Positive Psychology”. Albert Bandura states that the concept of self-efficacy is not an ability that certain individuals possess, instead he claims that all persons are capable of utilizing self-efficacy to control their circumstances. In Bandura’s

2. Behavior is regulated by its consequences, but only as those consequences are interpreted and understood by the client.

Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck were two well-known theorist of the cognitive-behavioral approach (Plante, 2011). Their ideas centered on the concept that cognitive processes influence behaviors and emotions. The cognitive-behavioral approach also suggests that an individual’s behaviors or cognitive responses are in direct connection with the person’s immediate

Bandura quickly learned that classical and operant conditioned theories could not explain human learning within its complex forms and he found that when someone possessed the required sills for certain behaviors, he or she could learn to extend a repertoire of skills by observing a model performing those behaviors. During the 1960s and 70s, Bandura showed through several studies that humans can learn through modeling. It was not until the 1970s that Bandura extended his theory into a sociocognitive one, and he theorized about a process called reciprocal determinism, which is behavior determined by the complex interaction of personal, behavioral, and situational or contextual factors; this is also called triadic reciprocality, meaning that behavior, cognitive processes, and environmental variables interact. Another aspect of Bandura’s theory is the concept of self-efficacy or a client’s perception that he or she can successfully perform certain behaviors to produced desired outcomes (Sapp,

An article published by John McClure, Luanna Meyer, Jessica Garisch, Ronald Fischer, Kirsty Weir and Frank Walkey in 2010 highlighted that whilst “research has found a relation between motivation and attributions for success and failure” few research studies have elucidated the relationship of attributions to possible cultural differences and school achievement (McClure et al., 2010). This statement and others similar in nature proposed by Lefcourt, von Baeyer, Ware and Cox (1979), Yan and Gaier (1994), Bochner (1994), Heine et al. (2001), Kudo & Numazaki (2003), Mezulis, Abramson, Hyde and Hankin (2004) and Koenig and Dean (2011) led to the present study being conducted to further evaluate the true effect of the self-serving attributional

Applied social psychology is one way that psychologist can study our thought, feeling and belief, and how we function around each other, in our everyday lives, here are the five issues that I will be addressing in my literature review they are social influence, Attribution Theory, Group polarization, Cognitive dissonance theory, and Observational Learning. Social applied psychology has been shown to dominant theories and practices of management and organization systematically favor some (elite) groups and/ or interests at the expense of those who are disadvantaged by them; and that this systemic inequality or interest- partiality is ultimately damaging to the emancipatory prospects of all groups. ( Alvesson, Bridgman, & Willmott, 2011, p.7). Most psychologist have research and applied this type of program to different studies to help people with their relationship, education, and interactions with the environment etc, as I research this field I can see me applying this to my everyday practice to help my clients with their well being.

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) proposes that people are driven not by inner forces, but by external factors. In its model, there is an interaction between behavior, personal and environmental factors. As a student who is studying at Indiana University, the environmental factor is the encouragement of how I choose the behavior I would like to change. That initially came from observing students walking around campus performing such a behavior, physical activity, influenced me with a good opportunity for defining my bad behavioral.

The Covariation model, created by Harold H. Kelley, has been a crucial contribution to the study of social psychology. The covariation model is one of two attribution theories. It states that there are internal and external causes for every occurring event that must be distinguished. There are three categories to the covariation model: consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness. Consensus is whether or not other people have acted in the same way as the person in question. Consistency is based on whether or not the person has acted like this in the past. Distinctiveness is the level of which this same person acted in the same manner when placed in diverse situations. Depending on these levels of consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness, the attribution to internal or external causes is determined. These situations are as follows: 1) low consensus, high consistency, and low distinctiveness results in internal attribution, 2) high consensus, high consistency, and high distinctiveness results in external attribution. Internal attribution shows that the events that occurred happened because of our own internal reasons, which is also known as disposition attribution. Whereas external attribution shows that events have happened because of external reasons, also known as situational attribution. The creation of the covariation model has been important to the field of social psychology because it has allowed us to understand the causes of behavior.

“Self belief does not necessarily ensure success, but self disbelief assuredly spawns failure” (Bandura, 1997). Albert Bandura was affectionately described as the "jovial genius" by one of his former students for his wisdom, humility, and wonderful sense of humor. Albert Bandura believed that social learning formed the basis for personality development (Bandura, 1977). Bandura’s theory is perceived to be an “internal reward”, such examples include “pride, satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment” (Social Learning Theory: Understanding Bandura's Theory of Learning, n.d.). It is evident that internal thoughts and cognitions help connect learning theories with cognitive developmental theories. Bandura suggested that his concept surrounding the social learning theory could be considered a “social cognitive theory” (Social Learning Theory: Understanding Bandura's Theory of Learning, n.d.).