13.5: Social Cognitive Theory
Social cognitive theory (SCT) was developed by Albert Bandura in the 1980s, and built upon an earlier theory of his about societal learning. Learning is an important component of SCT, characterized by reinforcement of a particular behavior. Bandura provided the SCT as a loose framework, where each component had a bidirectional influence: it influenced the other factors and was influenced by them. Personal factors include the person’s own experiences, thoughts and feelings, which are highly influenced by their environment, and also influence the behaviors they engage in. Their environment includes the people in their social circles who may both model behaviors and provide reinforcement for those behaviors - but the individual also has influence on that circle. Finally, the behaviors themselves and the experiences from engaging in the behaviors will have an effect on the environment and the person’s thoughts and feelings (LaMorte, 2022).
Included in this theory are several concepts which tie these factors together: behavioral capability, self-efficacy, expectancies, and reinforcements. The first is behavioral capability , which refers to the knowledge and skills that individuals must possess in order to adopt a new behavior. Self-efficacy is the personal belief that the person has this knowledge and skill, and can effectively engage in the behavior. For example, if someone wants to start a healthy dietary pattern, they must first know what a healthy diet is, and secondly how to prepare these foods (behavioral capability). They must also believe that this dietary change is possible for them (self-efficacy). Something that contributes to developing both behavioral capability and self-efficacy is observational learning; which just means that people learn from watching others. If a child observes their parents preparing fruit for a snack, they are more likely to copy them. And observational learning works for adults too - if a person sees their neighbors taking walks every day, they might be more likely to do so themselves. Expectancies are the value that the person places on the anticipated outcome of the behavior. For example, if a person values healthy eating over enjoying the taste of a food, they are more likely to eat health-promoting foods - whether they taste good or not. Finally, reinforcements happen as a result of the behavior, and can be a natural consequence or imposed by the person or their social group. A reinforcement to eating a healthy diet might be that the person feels good, or that they reward themselves with a treat, or still further that a friend or family member gives them praise. Reinforcements are a key component of the SCT model (LaMorte, 2022, McKenzie et al., 2017). See Figure 13.3 for a diagram of the SCT.