Theories of Personality Bandura Chapter 16 © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Outline Overview of Social Cognitive Theory Biography of Albert Bandura Learning Triadic Reciprocal Causation Human Agency Self-Regulation Cont’d

Outline Dysfunctional Behavior Therapy Related Research Critique of Bandura Concept of Humanity

Overview of Social Cognitive Theory Chance Encounters and Fortuitous Events Are Important Central Human Characteristic Is Plasticity Emphasis on Vicarious Learning Rely on Behavioral, Environmental, and Personal Factors People have Capacity to Regulate Nature and Their Lives People Regulate through Internal and External Factors In Morally Ambiguous Situations, People Regulate Selves through Moral Agency

Biography of Bandura Born in Alberta, Canada in 1925 Earned his PhD in clinical psychology in 1951 at the University of Iowa Published Adolescent Aggression in 1959 President of American Psychological Association in 1974 Professor at Stanford for over 50 years Investigates hypotheses generated by his social cognitive theory

Learning Observational Learning Enactive Learning Modeling Processes governing observational learning Attention Representation Behavioral Production Motivation Enactive Learning

Triadic Reciprocal Determinism Human Action Is Result of Interaction Among Three Variables: Environment Behavior Person Differential Contributions The relative influence of behavior, environment, and person depends on which of the triadic factors is strongest at the moment Chance Encounters and Fortuitous Events Unintended meeting of persons unfamiliar to each other or environmental experience that is unexpected or unintended

Human Agency Core Features of Human Agency: 1. Intentionality 2. Forethought 3. Self-Reactiveness 4. Self-Reflectiveness

Self-Efficacy Self-Efficacy Proxy Agency Collective Efficacy What is self-efficacy? What contributes to self-efficacy? Mastery experiences Social modeling Social persuasion Physical and emotional states Does self-efficacy predict behavior? Proxy Agency Collective Efficacy

Self-Regulation Self-Regulation External factors in self-regulation Internal factors in self-regulation Self-Observation Judgmental Process Self-Reaction Self-regulation through moral agency Redefine the Behavior Disregard or Distort the Consequences of Behavior Dehumanize or Blame the Victims Displace or Diffuse Responsibility

Dysfunctional Behavior Depression Occurs in any of three self-regulatory subfunctions: Self-observation Judgmental processes Self-reactions Phobias Fears that have severe debilitating effects on one’s daily life Learned in three ways: Direct contact Inappropriate generalization Observational experiences Aggression Learned through: Observation of others Direct experiences with positive and negative reinforcements Training or instruction Bizarre beliefs

Therapy Deviant behaviors are socially learned and then maintained because they serve a function The ultimate goal of social cognitive therapy is self-regulation Three steps in successful therapy: Instigate some change in behavior Covert or cognitive modeling Enactive mastery Systematic desensitization

Related Research Self-Efficacy and Terrorism Fischer et al. (2009) Religion, self-efficacy, and coping with threats of terrorism When threat is salient only, self-efficacy and intrinsic religiosity are crucial in lessening the detrimental impact of the threat Self-Efficacy and Diabetes Sacco et al. (2007) In diabetic patients, greater self-efficacy increases adherence to doctors’ orders and sense of control over disease, lowers BMI, decreases depression and number and severity of diabetes symptoms The relationships between self-efficacy and adherence, BMI, diabetes symptoms, and depression are reciprocal

Critique of Bandura Bandura’s Theory Is: Very High on Generating Research, Internal Consistency, and Parsimony High on Falsifiability, Organizing Knowledge, and Practicality

Concept of Humanity Free Choice over Determinism Optimism over Pessimism Equal Emphasis on Teleology and Causality Conscious over Unconscious Social Factors over Biology Uniqueness over Similarity