Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory

by Albert Bandura

Book Overview

Presents a comprehensive theory of human motivation and action from a social-cognitive perspective. This insightful text addresses the prominent roles played by cognitive, vicarious, self-regulatory, and self-reflective processes in psychosocial functioning; emphasizes reciprocal causation through the interplay of cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors; and systematically applies the basic principles of this theory to personal and social...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 013815614X
• ISBN13: 9780138156145
• Release Date: October 1985
• Publisher: Pearson
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 2.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A magnus opus - seminal contribution to the study of human functioning

In this important volume, Bandura advances a view of human functioning that accords a central role to cognitive, vicarious, self-regulatory, and self-reflective processes in human adaptation and change. People are viewed as self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting and self-regulating rather than as reactive organisms shaped and shepherded by environmental forces or driven by concealed inner impulses. From this theoretical perspective, human functioning is viewed as the product of a dynamic interplay of personal, behavioral, and environmental influences. For example, how people interpret the results of their own behavior informs and alters their environments and the personal factors they possess which, in turn, inform and alter subsequent behavior. This is the foundation of Bandura's conception of reciprocal determinism, the view that (a) personal factors in the form of cognition, affect, and biological events, (b) behavior, and (c) environmental influences create interactions that result in a triadic reciprocality. Bandura altered the label of his theory from social learning to social "cognitive" both to distance it from prevalent social learning theories of the day and to emphasize that cognition plays a critical role in people's capability to construct reality, self-regulate, encode information, and perform behaviors. This is a magnificant volume destined to become a classic in the field of psychology. Bandura is America's greatest psychologist.