Customer Reviews

Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory

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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.

Of the two books, Social Learning Theory and Social Foundations of Thought and Action, I found Social Learning Theory to be written in a more conversational tone. It was easier to read and held a lot of the same information. However, Social Foundations is a remarkably in-depth analysis of various theories of observation, modeling, and learning styles. It holds elements of personal development, teaching, and environmental influences such as the home and school. There is a fountain of useful information that can be used to fully understand how people learn. Learning and Cognitive were used interchangeably due to the abuse of the phrase social learning theory. Don't let it deter you.