Social Cognitive Theory

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Social Cognitive Theory
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History

• Behavioral Psychology
• Tries to explain why people and animals behave
  the way they do.
• Stimulus-response theories
• The closer the relationship (time, location,
  etc.) between stimulus and response, the more
  likely it is that learning will occur (and
  behavior will change.
• Debate are there mediating factors?

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Theory History

• Additional key theorists and their theories
• William James (1890s) Social Self
• Kurt Lewin (1920s-40s) shift focus from the
  individual to processes between individuals
• Alfred Adler (early 1900s)
• human behavior is purposeful and goal-oriented.
• Perception of and attitudes toward the
  environment influence behavior.
• Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are
  interactions with the environment.

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Social Learning Theory

• Miller and Dollard Social Learning and
  Imitation. (1941)
• Explains how animals and humans model observed
  behaviors, which become learned behaviors through
  environmental reinforcement.
• Human behavior motivated by drives.
• Incorporated the principles of learning
• Reinforcement
• Punishment
• Extinction
• Imitation of models

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Social Learning Theory

• While behaviorism theory believes that there is a
  direct relationship between stimulus and
  response, SLT holds that there is a mediating
  factor which allows humans some control over
  their own behavior.
• Mediator human cognition

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Basic Tenets of SLT

• Tenet 1 Response consequences influence
  likelihood that a personal will perform a
  particular behavior again in a given situation.
• Tenet 2 Humans can learn by observing others,
  in addition to learning by direction
  participation.
• Tenet 3 Individuals are more likely to model
  the behavior of other people with who they
  identify in some way.

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Social Cognitive Theory

• Albert Bandura (1977)
• Introduced the idea of modeling (vicarious
  learning) as a way of learning behavior.
• Renamed the SLT Social Cognitive Theory as a
  better representation of what he was advocating
  and further distance himself from the pure
  stimulus-response theories of Behaviorism.

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Basic Concepts of SCT

• Environment
• Situation
• Expectations
• Self-control
• Observational Learning
• Reinforcements
• Self-efficacy
• Emotional coping responses
• Reciprocal determinism

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Purpose of the theory

• To understand and predict individual and group
  behavior
• To identify methods in which behavior can be
  modified or changed
• To specifically target personality development,
  behavior pathology, and health promotion behaviors

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Theory Overview

• SCT defines human behavior in terms of personal
  factors, behavior, and the environment.
• An individuals behavior is determined by these
  three factors, and their interactions, and is
  unique for each individual.
• Example siblings

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Overview of Theory

• Response consequences will influence behavior
  behavior is large regulated by and through
  cognitive processes.
• Response consequences lead to expectations
  of behavioral outcomes.
• These expectations give us the capability to
  predict behavioral outcomes BEFORE behavior
  occurs by observing what happens to others
  (vicarious learning).

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Something to think about....

• The SCTs strong emphasis on ones cognitions
  suggest that the mind is an active force that
  constructs ones reality, selectively encodes,
  information, performs behavior on the basis of
  values and expectations, and imposes structure on
  its own actions (Jones, 1989).

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Something else to think about....

• A persons reality is formed by the interaction
  of the environment and ones cognitions.
• Cognitions change over time as we mature and have
  more experiences, vicarious and direct, upon
  which to base our perceptions of behavioral
  outcomes.

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Social Cognitive Theory