SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

Social Cognitive Theory

Abstract

The social cognitive theory is one of the 4 personality theories; that focuses mainly on the full development stages of the personality. The social cognitive theory takes an exhaustive approach to gaining a crystal clear understanding into the inner-workings of how people are heavily influenced by their immediate surroundings and inter-personal associations. The rich history of the social cognitive theory dates back for more than 60 years. It continues to be intensely studied, researched, and further developed; as strides in science and technology continue to advance at seeming light-speed.

Social Cognitive Theory

Social learning theory and social cognitive theory were developed by Albert Bandura in an effort to explain how individuals learn from the environment. Both theories provide a useful framework for understanding how the media influence behavior. This entry describes the main elements in social learning theory and social cognitive theory and their direct application to understanding the influence of the media on development. This theory has many different branches and facets; in particular, triadic reciprocal determinism. Careful study of how surroundings and personal associations directly affect citizens' everyday decisions just may point science in the right direction; to fully understand why people commit crime in the first place.

Traditional learning theories suggest that people learn about societal expectations by performing behaviors and receiving direct positive or negative feedback from the environment. For example, learning theories suggest that girls and boys learn to play with different types of toys because they receive different feedback from parents, peers, and teachers when they play with the “right” toys (e.g., boys with trucks and girls with dolls) than when they play with the “wrong” toys (e.g., boys with dolls and girls with trucks.) From these sorts of experiences, individuals learn which behaviors work and which behaviors don't work in their environment.

The development of social learning theory marked a theoretical advance by suggesting that humans need not experience every cause and effect in order to learn; rather, they can learn by observing others. For example, children do not have to directly experience different feedback to learn about gender expectations; they can learn by observing the actions of others and the consequences they receive. Beck termed this process observational learning.

Bandura further expanded his theory of learning in his description of social cognitive theory by focusing on the active role of human cognition in the process of observational learning. Bandura suggests that people are not passive recipients of knowledge transmitted by their environments; rather, they actively seek out and process information. This means that every individual does not learn from every event in the environment; people, to some extent, choose what they see and to what they pay attention.

The history of the social cognitive theory dates back to 1941; through the pioneering research of N.E. Miller & J. Dollard. Their proposition posits that if humans were motivated to learn a particular behavior that particular behavior would be learned through clear observations. By imitating these observed actions the individual observer would solidify that learned action ...