¶ … dominant models of human behavior by the late 1950s and early 1960s were based on Neo-Freudian models and B.F. Skinner's brand of operant behaviorism. However, there were theorists that rejected the mechanistic views of behaviorism and Freudian instinct-drive-based models. Perhaps the most influential of these theorists was Albert Bandura. Bandura had received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and had been exposed to the work of Robert Spears who was studying familial influences of social behavior and identification in children. Bandura was also heavily influenced by other theorists at Iowa such as James Dollard and Neal Miller who had merged Freudian and Hullian learning principles. Bandura believed that learning principles were sufficient to explain and predict behavior, but he also believed that humans thought and regulated their behavior and were not at the mercy of environmental stimuli as in Skinnerian models of behavior. Furthermore, he believed that many functions of personality and learning involve interactions with other people and therefore any theory of personality or of learning should take interpersonal factors into account.
Bandura's social learning theory is based heavily on the ground breaking notions of Kurt Lewin (1943) and his Field Theory. Lewin's Field Theory was radical for its time given Freudian notions of behavior that dominated, but by today's standards his ideas seem obvious. Lewin developed the famous B = f (P, E) formula that states behavior is a function of the person and the environment. Bandura's notion of reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 1978) improves on Lewin's concept by maintaining the three factors of B, P, and E. By adding reciprocal lines of influence. Thus, the person has direct influences on the environment and his/her behavior and both can directly influence the person. Likewise the environment and the person's behavior also directly and reciprocally influence one another (see Figure 1).
Bandura believed that this reciprocal determinism, the idea that people influence their fate by controlling environmental forces but are also influenced by them, was the basic principle in his social learning theory (Bandura, 1997b). Moreover, Bandura departed from the traditional views of behaviorists in asserting that learning could occur without a change in one's behavior and without direct reinforcement.
In spite of the reciprocal influences of behavior, environment, and personal factors Bandura also understood that must be a center to the process. Bandura termed this center the self-system (Bandura, 1978). This self-system refers to a set of cognitive structures that effects perception and evaluation of the person, environment, self and others' actions and also and the regulation of one's behavior. In a sense there are reciprocating factors within the self-system. The self-system engages in constant monitoring of the self and environment. People evaluate themselves, their actions, and their goals based on their experience. These evaluations lead to important expectations. Bandura defined outcome expectations as estimates that one's actions will lead to specific outcomes, which are often learned. These outcome expectations are heavily influenced by internal notions of self-efficacy, one's perception of how well or poorly one can function in a given situation (Bandura, 1977a). The concepts of self-efficacy and outcome expectations are key components to behavioral change and to learning. The other important self-efficacy expectation in Bandura's social learning theory is the belief that a person can effectively perform the behavior required to produce the desired outcome (efficacy expectations).
Bandura viewed efficacy expectations as an important part of adaptation and coping. For example, Bandura (1982) compared group and person performances at on tasks at different levels of perceived self-efficacy and found that there was a direct relationship between self-efficacy and performance such that higher levels of perceived self-efficacy were associated with higher levels of performance. However, this is a relationship that could be explained either way: self-efficacy could lead to higher performance or better performers have greater levels of perceived self-efficacy. When self-efficacy of the individual or the group was increased performance subsequently increased at both the group and individual levels, indicating that perceived self-efficacy affects performance. Bandura, Adams, Hardy, and Howells, (1980) provided clinical support for increasing self-efficacy in the treatment of anxiety. People with agoraphobia were subjected to cognitive-behavioral treatment that increased their perceptions of being able to leave their homes safely and this was associated with a significant increase in their leaving their homes alone and performing daily activities such as shopping.
Bandura saw reinforcement as a causal mechanism of learning; however, he also maintained...
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