Biography: Albert Bandura (1925-present) (continued)
Bandura then went to Stanford University, became a member of the staff, and stayed their to continue with his teaching career. Stanford University was the ideal place for Bandura - with extraordinary colleagues and talented students who have a thirst for knowledge. In 1964, Albert became a full professor. He was honored by Stanford in being awarded an endowed chair in 1974, and currently serves as chairman of the Department of Psychology in Stanford.
Bandura found Stanford an excellent place for collaborative research -"I have been able to work with such leading researchers as Jack Barchas and Barr Taylor in psychiatry, Robert DeBusk in cardiology, and Halsted Holman in internal medicine. We develop projects in which we can combine the expertise of several laboratories." One of these projects was to find out a person's ability to control the release of stressed-related hormones into the blood stream when facing threat. This research revealed that people can regulate their level of physiological activation through their belief in self-efficacy.
Bandura has served psychology in a variety of capacities. He has often been found on the Washington commute to various advisory boards, research panels, federal agencies, and congressional committees, and was elected president of the American Psychological Association in 1974. He has written some 20 journals. They include:
- Social Learning Theory and Personality Development (1963)
- Principles of Behavior Modification (1969)
- Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis (1973)
- Social Learning Theory (1977)
Albert Bandura is best known as a social learning theorist whose research established the concept of imitation, or modeling, on a firm empirical base. His contributions to psychology have been recognized in the many honors and awards he has received.
