Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, in Mundara, a small town in Alberta, Canada. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia. Shortly afterwards he came to the United States and earned his M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Iowa in 1952. While there, he was influenced by Kenneth Spence. He has been on the faculty of Stanford University since 1953. His books include Social Learning Theory and Personality Development (1963), Principles of Behavior Modification (1969), Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis (1973), and Social Learning Theory (1977). He was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1974.

The original basis for social learning theory was the learning theory developed by behavioral psychologists. However, social learning theorists suggests that internal events - emotions and cognitions - are also important. The original basis for social learning theory was the learning theory developed by behavioral psychologists. However, social learning theorists suggest that internal events - emotions and cognitions - are also important. They make extensive use of these personality determinants as intervening variables of behavior. In this way, they are said to have bridged the gap between behavioral and cognitive theories.

Social learning theory views human behavior as being determined by an interplay between the influence of the situation, the person's behavior, and the person's cognitions and emotions. These determinants have a bi-directional influence on each other - a process called reciprocal determinism. It implies that humans have some freedom in their actions, but options are limited by both environmental and personal factors. By increasing our knowledge and skills we can exert more control over our lives. As a social learning theorist, Albert Bandura believed that human personality is mainly learned within a social context.

Cognition is not an ego or creative self but a product of both behavior and environment. He totally eliminates the influences of psychoanalytic theories and finds behaviorist ones lacking, especially in explaining acquisition of novel responses. He stresses the idea that reinforcement can be vicarious. People can be reinforced by observing someone else receive a reward or punishment. He asserts that this indirect reinforcement accounts for a great deal of human learning. Thus, his research centers on observational learning. He stresses the key to this learning is the human capacity to use symbols.

Observers mainly acquire symbolic representations of the modeled activity, and they serve as guides for appropriate performances. Observational learning occurs when the learner acquires a response from watching a model and indirectly experiencing the consequences of their behavior. It depends on four sub-processes: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation. For behavior to be learned, attention must be directed to a model who is engaging in the behavior. Attention is determined through a variety of variables, such as the attractiveness of the model, the conditions under which behavior is viewed, and the nature of the behavior being modeled. People cannot be influenced by observation if they cannot remember it; therefore, retention is also very important. Retention occurs first through imagery and verbal coding and then through rehearsal - both mentally and physically. Motor reproduction is the actual act of imitation. It is the application of information retrieval to appropriate action.