ALBERT BANDURA: SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

SITI ZURAIN YUSOF‘AINA MADIA OMAR

EARLY LIFE OF ALBERT BANDURA

• Born on December 4, 1925 in a small town called Mundare in northern Alberta, Canada (50 miles east of Edmonton).• He was the

youngest and only boy of six children.

EARLY LIFE OF ALBERT BANDURA (CONT.)

• Both of his parents were of Eastern European descent, and his father and mother emigrated to Canada when they were adolescents.• Albert Bandura’s father was from Krakow,

Poland and had no formal education, but he placed a high value on attaining an education. He taught himself three languages, including Polish, Russian, and German.• Albert Bandura’s mother was from the

Ukraine. She did not have any formal education.

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

• Bandura does not consider himself a Social Learning Theorist, but prefers Social Cognitive Theory• Comprehensive theory that includes

motivational and self regulatory mechanisms• Emphasizes the social origins of human

thought process and behavior• Emphasizes cognitive influence on behavior,

rather than conditioning influences from the environment

BANDURA’S THEORY

• Human beings have specific abilities related to learning that sets them apart from other species. • Social cognitive theory states that there are three

characteristics that are unique to humans:• Vicarious consequences (Model and

imitate others)• Self–efficacy (self reflection)• Performance standards and moral

conduct (Ability to regulate one’s own behavior)

BANDURA’S THEORY (CONT)• Bandura believed that a person’s level of

motivation is an affective state and actions are based more on what they believe. Bandura believed that motives included:• past reinforcement or more traditional

behaviorism• the promise of reinforcement or incentives• and also vicarious reinforcement or modeling.

• These beliefs define what is learned.• According to Bandura, in order to learn, one must • pay attention• be able to retain or remember • have the ability to reproduce the behavior.

THE BOBO DOLL STUDY

• Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll study in 1961 was a classic study that demonstrates the social learning theory. The study showed that after viewing adults strike and kick a Bobo doll, children would imitate the behavior in another environment. This was important, as it suggests that the violence could be imitated by viewers.

• Results showed 88% of the children imitated aggressive behavior following the viewing of the tape of adults acting aggressively toward the doll.

• 8 months later 40% of the same children reproduced the violent behavior observed in the Bobo doll experiment.

THE BOBO DOLL STUDY (CONT.)

• The children were shown three different endings to the video. • The video first showed that the adults were

praised for their aggressive behavior.• The second group the adult was told to sit in

a corner. • The third group showed the adult walk out of

the room. • While controversial, Bandura maintained

that his experiment demonstrated that children are influenced by witnessing or modeling of aggression in others.

• Bandura found that the children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to act in physically aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model. • Boys exhibited more aggression when exposed to

aggressive male models than boys exposed to aggressive female models. • Bandura also found that the children exposed to

the aggressive model were more likely to act in verbally aggressive ways than those who were not exposed to the aggressive model..

• The experimenters came to the conclusion that children observing adult behaviour are influenced to think that this type of behaviour is acceptable thus weakening the child’s aggressive inhibitions. • Lastly, the evidence strongly supports that males

have a tendency to be more aggressive than females.

THANK YOU…=)