Albert Bandura developed social cognitive theory and researched how efficacy beliefs, observation, and self-regulation shape human action. His account treats people as both influenced by and capable of influencing their social environments. — Bandura on Social Cognitive Theory.

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On Self-Efficacy

  1. Self-Efficacy: Self-efficacy concerns a person’s belief that they can exercise influence over events affecting their life; that belief is distinct from merely possessing the relevant skills. — Bandura on Self-Efficacy.
  2. Challenges, Not Only Threats: Bandura links stronger efficacy beliefs with choosing challenging activities and persisting when difficulties arise, rather than withdrawing at the first obstacle. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  3. Efficacy and Persistence: Perceived efficacy affects whether people begin a difficult activity, how much effort they invest, and how long they persist through setbacks. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  4. Mastery Experiences: Successful performance is an important source of efficacy beliefs; overcoming obstacles can provide stronger evidence of capability than effortless success. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  5. Sources of Efficacy: Bandura discusses performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states as sources of information people use to judge their capabilities. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  6. Belief Is Not a Guarantee: Believing one can succeed does not replace skill or opportunity, but low perceived efficacy can keep capable people from using what they know. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  7. Recovering From Setbacks: Experiences of coping successfully with difficulty can strengthen efficacy beliefs and willingness to face later challenges. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  8. Efficacy and Human Agency: Bandura identifies efficacy beliefs as central to human agency because they shape motivation, performance, and emotional wellbeing. — Bandura on Self-Efficacy.
  9. Knowledge Needs Efficacy: Bandura argues that knowing what to do is not always enough: perceived inefficacy can prevent people from using skills they possess. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  10. Efficacy and Wellbeing: Bandura connects stronger efficacy beliefs with motivated action, accomplishment, and emotional wellbeing, while treating those outcomes as context-dependent. — Bandura on Self-Efficacy.

On Social Cognitive Theory & Observational Learning

  1. Learning From Others: Observing another person can teach a behavior without the observer first having to learn solely through their own trial and error. — Bandura–Ross Bobo Doll Study.
  2. Modeling: In the Bobo-doll study, children exposed to a model’s aggressive acts reproduced distinctive acts when later given the opportunity. — Bandura–Ross Bobo Doll Study.
  3. The Bobo Doll Experiment: In the 1961 experiment, children who had observed an aggressive adult model displayed more imitative aggression toward the doll than children in comparison conditions; the result concerns this experimental setting. — Bandura–Ross Bobo Doll Study.
  4. Processes in Observational Learning: Observational learning depends on attending to a model, retaining what was observed, being able to reproduce the behavior, and having reason to perform it. These are distinct processes, not a guarantee that any observed act will be copied. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  5. Beyond Simple Reactivity: Bandura’s agentic account includes forethought, self-regulation, and reflection: people are not described merely as passive responders to external forces. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  6. People Shape Social Systems: Bandura’s 2001 review describes people as both products and producers of social systems; personal agency operates amid social influences. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  7. Triadic Reciprocal Causation: Social cognitive theory describes human functioning through reciprocal interaction among personal influences, behavior, and environmental forces. — Bandura on Social Cognitive Theory.
  8. Psychology and Change: Bandura presents psychological theory as a way to understand and enable personal and social change, without claiming that psychology alone decides how people ought to live. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  9. Creativity Through Modeling: In a direct interview, Bandura describes creative development as building on prior contributions rather than creating in a vacuum. — Diane Hamilton Interview.

On Human Agency and Control

  1. What Agency Means: For Bandura, being an agent means influencing the course of events through one’s actions within social and environmental constraints. — Bandura on Social Cognitive Theory.
  2. Active Agents: Bandura’s account gives people capacities for forethought, self-regulation, and self-reflection rather than portraying them as only reactive organisms. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  3. Thought and Action: Social cognitive theory treats personal influences—including beliefs—alongside behavior and environment as interacting determinants of human functioning. — Bandura on Social Cognitive Theory.

On Moral Disengagement

  1. The Moral Paradox: Bandura’s moral-disengagement account explains how people can cause harm while maintaining positive self-regard by disengaging self-sanctions from that conduct. — Bandura on Moral Disengagement.
  2. Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement: Bandura identifies moral justification, euphemistic language, advantageous comparison, displacement or diffusion of responsibility, minimizing consequences, dehumanizing victims, and blaming them as ways harmful conduct can be made easier to carry out. — Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities.
  3. Dehumanization: Portraying victims as less than fully human can weaken self-censure and make harmful treatment easier to justify. — Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities.
  4. Agency Under Social Pressure: Bandura’s theory allows for strong situational and social influences while retaining a role for people’s self-regulation and action. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  5. Disputing Harm: In the direct interview, Bandura says arguments about whether a practice causes harm are central to moral disengagement because admitting harm would activate moral concern. — Smashing Interviews: Albert Bandura.

Additional Key Quotes and Learnings

  1. Vicarious Experience: Seeing what happens to others provides information that can influence one’s own efficacy beliefs and future behavior. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  2. Keep Developing Capabilities: In an interview, Bandura describes self-development through continuing education and learning rather than treating one stage of schooling as the end of growth. — Diane Hamilton Interview.
  3. Perceived Control: Bandura associates the belief that one can influence consequential events with motivation, action, and emotional wellbeing; this is not a blanket promise of health or success. — Bandura on Self-Efficacy.
  4. People as Contributors: Bandura’s agentic theory treats people as contributors to their development, not simply as products of external stimuli. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  5. Cognition Matters: Bandura’s social cognitive theory assigns thought and self-regulation an active role in action alongside environmental and behavioral influences. — Bandura on Social Cognitive Theory.
  6. Some Control Over Life: Bandura argues that the capacity to influence events affecting one’s life is central to human agency, even though control is never unlimited. — Bandura on Self-Efficacy.
  7. Information Is Not Enough: Knowing a course of action does not ensure its use: efficacy beliefs affect whether people put available skills into practice. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  8. Perceived Capability Affects Choice: People tend to avoid tasks they believe exceed their capabilities and choose activities they expect they can manage. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  9. Symbolic Thought: Bandura’s account of agency includes representing possible actions and outcomes mentally rather than relying only on immediate experience. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  10. Forethought: Forethought lets people anticipate outcomes and use imagined futures to guide present action. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  11. Self-Regulation: Bandura describes self-regulation as a way people guide and adjust their own conduct while pursuing goals. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  12. Self-Reflection: Self-reflection lets people assess their capabilities, the quality of their functioning, and the meaning of their pursuits. — Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective.
  13. Media and Social Models: In his direct interview, Bandura discusses mass media as a means by which models and messages can spread widely and shape social conduct. — Smashing Interviews: Albert Bandura.
  14. Partial Authors of Our Lives: Bandura’s account holds that people can shape events through action while also being influenced by their social environments. — Bandura on Social Cognitive Theory.
  15. Resilient Efficacy: Bandura links resilient efficacy beliefs to persistence despite obstacles and setbacks. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  16. Collective Efficacy: Bandura extends efficacy to groups: shared beliefs about collective capability can affect coordinated effort and social change. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  17. Proximal Goals: Bandura discusses attainable near-term goals as a way to support motivation and development of efficacy, rather than treating motivation as a fixed response to any gap between goal and performance. — Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency.
  18. Reciprocal Determinants: Personal influences, behavior, and environmental events interact reciprocally in Bandura’s social cognitive account. — Bandura on Social Cognitive Theory.
  19. Tread Still Left: Bandura used the image of the tread still left on a tire to emphasize remaining capacity for work over age or distance already traveled. — Smashing Interviews: Albert Bandura.
  20. Take Fortuity Seriously: Bandura argues that chance encounters can redirect lives, but people can cultivate interests and capabilities that help them make use of opportunities. — Bandura on Fortuity.

Learn more:

  1. Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency (American Psychologist)
  2. Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective (Annual Review of Psychology)
  3. Albert Bandura — Moral Disengagement
  4. Albert Bandura — Self-Efficacy
  5. Albert Bandura — Social Cognitive Theory