Research Paper On Albert Bandura

1627 Words7 Pages
ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY
INTRODUCTION
Bandura’s social cognitive theory highlighted the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. Albert Bandura developed this theory which was influenced by social behavior theories. This is because he believed that learning theories in vogue at that time and resulted in incomplete explanations of the acquisition and performance of prosocial and deviant behavior (Schunk, 2000). According to Nevid (2009), social cognitive theory proposes that individuals do not simply respond to environmental influences, but rather they actively seek and interpret information. Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways as illustrated during the famous bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961 as cited by McLeod, 2011). When children learn, they have their own aim or motive such as solve a problem, finish their homework or complete some experiments. With these aim to accomplish, they observe, judge and react to their perceived progress. As what Schunk (2012) had cited Bandura (1986) and Kanfer & Gaelick (1986), an early social cognitive theory viewed self-regulation as compromising three processes which are self-observation, self-judgment, and self-reaction. The component processes underlying this observational learning are attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation. This means all behavioral, cognitive and environmental factors can affect the learning