social cognitive theory Flashcards
what is social cognitive theory?
is a learning theory: it attempts to explain how people learn new behaviors. it developed by Bandura (1986) from his early theories of social learning theory and self-efficacy. both of these are incorporated into SCT, which is a theory of how humans act as agents and through their thoughts, beliefs, and actions affect and are affected by their own environments and social systems. this process is called reciprocal determinism (Swash, 2017)
what does Bandura claim?
he claims that a great deal of learning occurs through observation. Observational learning occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models. Observational learning involves being conditioned indirectly by virtue of observing another’s conditioning.
certain conditions that are necessary for social learning to take place:
- attention- selective observation of modeled activities.
- retention- transforming and storing this information in memory
- reproduction- performing the observed behavior
- motivation- propels the learner to do the above
factors that affect the overall potential for social learning:
- consistency: the model’s behavior must be consistent.
- liking: the model is liked and respected by the observer.
- identification: the observer perceives a similarity between him/herself and the model
- rewards/punishment: the model’s behavior is reinforced.
4 factors that result in high or low self-efficacy:
- performance accomplishment
- vicarious experience, comparing ourselves to others.
- social persuasion, being encouraged, experiencing support
- emotional and physical states.
study 1
A. Bandura et al. (1961) transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models
aim: to investigate if children would imitate the aggression of an adult model and whether they would imitate same-sex models more than opposite-sex models
pps: 36 boys 36 girls. aged from 37 to 69 months.
procedure: read the handout
