BANDURA & SOCIAL COGNITIVE (LEARNING) THEORY
Introduction:
--Early emphasis on learning, social contexts; 
imitation
--Current emphasis on self processes, cognitive 
factors, and social contexts
	Scope: deals with all behaviors -- particularly 
social behaviors
	Strongly emphasizes nurture (experience)
	Direction of development: increasing relevance of 
cognitive variables
	Emphasizes continuities
	Original moral position??
	Downplays personality structure: Takes an empirical 
approach
	--self-efficacy expectations
	Motivation & learning
	--Learning vs performance
	--Modified behavior theory
	--Cognitive emphasis
	--Emphasizes self- processes
BANDURA (continued)
	--Modelling
	IDs: f(soc. learning + ....)
	Abnormal: largely social labeling
	Philosophical origins: reaction to 
	--psychoanalytic theory
	--Skinner's positions, etc.
	Activity of Child: stressees reciprocal causation
	Investigative methods: exper.
	Terminology: standard learn./cog.
	Major weakness: Not developmental
	Major Strengths:


Bandura strongly  emphasizes the importance of nurture:
In lover mammalian species, for example, sexual activities are 
completely regulated by gonadal hormones; among primates sexual 
behavior is partially independent of physiological stimulation; 
while human eroticism is exceedingly variable and essentially 
independent of hormonal regulation....thus, one would induce sexual 
behavior in a rodent Don Juan by administering androgen, whereas 
presenting him lascivious pictures of a well-endowed mouse would 
have no stimulating effects whatsoever.   By contrast, one would 
rely on sexually-valenced social stimuli, rather than on hormonal 
injections for producing erotic arousal in human males.

A Bandurian analysis 
of the moral behavior of a child -- truth telling
  What kind of models (e.g., parents and sibs) was the child 
exposed to?  
  What were the consequences for truthtelling and dishonesty?  
  What kind of labels were used with the child ("you are such an 
honest person, and daddy loves you for being so honest").
  How consistently -- e.g., across settings -- was the child’s 
truthfulness dealt with?
  What kinds of standards was the child exposed to: vicariously, 
directly, other symbolically (TV, kids stories, etc.)
 



 

 




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Social & Person. Devel. (Psychology 326, Hartmann), 
Bandura lecture, 98Sp, p. 3