Abstract
Some theories focus on explaining developmental changes that happen to humans. The Social Cognitive Theory represents one of the many theories of psychology that explain human behavior. The theory was introduced by Miller and Dollard in 1941 and later advanced by Bandura and Walters in 1963. The main concepts of the theory are personal, behavioral, and environmental factors. Other concepts including self-control and efficacy, observational learning, and many others help in understanding the interaction between the environment, person, and behavior. On the other hand, the theory operates on five assumptions that relate the theory to learning, language self-control, and decision-making. The research in the theory reveals that it finds application in psychological counseling, organizations, institutions, and healthcare in creating health education programs. The understanding of the functionality of the theory helps people understand one another and live happy and interactive lifestyles.
Overview of the theory
Theorists have over centuries developed theories with the purpose of explaining developmental changes that human beings undergo in the lifetime. The mechanisms of human motivations and behaviors and primary causes of human behavioral patterns act as major conceptions that differentiate between different theories. The Social Cognitive Theory rejects behaviorist notions of associations as key motivators of human behavior and considers drive reduction principles. However, Nabi & Oliver (2009) criticizes the theory because of its failure to explain how a person initiates a behavior or imitate actions of other people. The Social Cognitive Theory is a widely known theoretical approach towards human behavior and development. The theory was proposed by Miller and Dollard in 1941 and plays a critical role in social learning and later broadened by Bandura and Walters in 1963.
Human psychology experts argued that the environment depicts and controls human behavior. However, the social cognitive theory took a different approach towards explaining the human behavior by claiming that a combination of environmental, personal and cognition factors influence human behavior. These factors do not occur simultaneously because of differences in strengths and the nature of reciprocating influences. Bandura advanced the view of human functioning to include other processes such as self-regulatory, cognitive, and self-reflective responsible for human adaptation and change. According to Slaugenhopu (2016), the cognitive nature gives people qualities of self-reaction, self-evaluation, self-observation, and self-efficacy.
On the other hand, the theory views human beings as agents of change with the capability of creating their individual developments and using their actions to make things happen. The presence of self-beliefs possessed by every individual enables a person to exercise different controls over actions, feelings, and thoughts. Maters (2012) argued that a person learns a behavior through observing others. The observed behavior occurs in the form of an idea coded in the individual’s mind and serves as a guide towards an action related to such specific behavior.
Main theoretical concepts
Bandura developed a conceptual model that describes the theory of social cognitive (See fig. 1). The model describes three major concepts of the social cognitive theory namely personal, environment, and behavior. Personal factors happen in the form of affect, biological events, and cognition. Behavioral factors show the behavioral capability of a person represented by skills needed to act in a certain manner and knowledge that gives mastery of behavior through the application of skills. Environmental factors refer to external physical factors capable of providing social support and opportunities to a person. The three main concepts of the theory do not fulfill the role of the social cognitive theory in explaining human development and behavior, hence; Bandura identified seven additional concepts as explained below:
Self-Control: Refers to goal-oriented behavior operating under the aspect of cognition that helps a person develop self-monitoring, solve problems, set goals, and reward oneself. The aspect of cognition develops from childhood and becomes more complex and abstract during adolescent creating a number of cognitive aspects referred to as self-schemas. Self-schemas give a person the ability to think responsibly and process relevant information (Stangor, Jhangiani, & Tarry, 2011).
Reinforcements: The theory describes the concept of reinforcement as the ability of a person to develop a behavior that decreases the likelihood of repeating a mistake or bad behavior.
Observational Learning: Acquiring behavior through watching actions and outcome of other people’s behaviors.
Emotional coping responses: Strategies employed by a person to control and cope with emotions. Psychologists apply the concept to train clients in problem solving and avoidance of depression.
Expectations: The anticipated outcome of a behavior
Self-Efficacy: The ability of a person to demonstrate goal-oriented behavior that leads to positive performances.
Reciprocal determinism: The formation of behavior through the interaction between the environment, the person, and the behavior.
Figure 1: The Social Cognitive Theory Conceptual Model by Bandura (Source: Slaugenhoup, 2016)
Theoretical assumptions
The social cognitive theory recommends intervention strategies to psychological counselors in addition to explaining the mode of behavior acquisition in human that depend on some assumptions. The assumptions relate to the use of language, learning, self-control, self-reflection, and decision-making (Nelson, 2008). First, the theory makes an assumption that people learn through observing and watching others’ behaviors. Second, the theory assumes that learning may cause or not cause a behavior, however; it is not a must for learning to take place. Third, the theory assumes that a person sets a goal and puts more efforts towards achieving the set goal. Fourth, the theory assumes that a person ends up regulating his or her learning process at later stages of growth. Finally, the theory assumes that people expect an outcome from a behavior or action.
Application of the Social Cognitive Theory
The social cognitive theory finds a lot of application in social sciences and education through guiding psychologists and teachers in understanding human behaviors. The ability of the theory to explain human behaviors using dynamic reciprocal interactions between behavioral, environmental, and cognitive influences makes counseling and therapeutic efforts easier. Teachers apply the social cognitive theory in classroom to understand the relationship between working memory and the child’s behavioral patterns. The working memory and child’s attentiveness determines the relationship between student learning process and cognitive process (Watson and Gable, 2011). The knowledge gained from the study of social cognitive behaviors assist in understanding human development patterns and promotes a good relationship between teachers and students.
On the other hand, the theory helps in designing health education and behavioral health programs. Psychologists apply the theory to understand client’s emotional developmental patterns especially when dealing with children and adolescents. The social cognitive theory finds application in such areas like schools by helping teachers understand a child’s source of emotional behaviors. According to Odle (2013), factors such as behavioral development, cognitive, and isolation influence emotional behaviors.
On the other hand, the United States health care system experiences some challenges among them unhealthy lifestyles that cause major chronic diseases such as obesity, depression, and heart attacks. The social cognitive theory helps in developing programs that health education experts use to help people develop healthy behaviors and overcome chronic health conditions. Health educators use key constructs of the theory relevant to behavioral change including reinforcement, observational learning, self-efficacy, and self-control (Glanz and Bishop, 2010; Hall, et al., 2015).
Conclusion
The Social Cognitive Theory uses the social cognitive perspective to understand human nature. The analysis of the theory reveals that three main concepts influence human behavior, namely personal, behavioral, and environmental. The interaction between these three concepts and the application of other minor concepts such as self-efficacy, self-control, expectancies, observational learning and many others creates an environment that promotes human thinking. Moreover, the theory makes assumptions related to learning, environment, language, self-control, and self-reflection. Learning and understanding the social cognitive theory helps a person understand others effectively. The theory also helps in developing health education programs to promote healthy behaviors among patients.
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