Albert Bandura's Personality Theory

According to social learning theory, human behavior is mostly developed, and learning principles are sufficient to explain the development and maintenance of human behavior. Bandura thinks that human beings are not simply pawns of the environment; they think and regulate their own behavior. To him, a theory of personality must take account of the social contexts in which behavior is acquired and maintained.

Reciprocal determinism is the continuous mutual interaction among the person's mind, the person's behavior, and the external environment. The self system refers to structures concerned with acquisition of knowledge and sub functions involved in perception, evaluation, and the regulation of behavior. The self system regulates behavior through self-observation, judgmental processes, and self-response. The impression of how well one can function in a given situation is self-efficacy. Persistence and hard work are led to by strong efficacy expectations and realistic outcome expectations.

Altering the expectation of personal efficacy can change behavior. Efficacy expectations can be altered by four kinds of experience: enactive, or performance; vicarious; persuasive; and physiological information experience. Coping and adaptive behaviors in persons with a variety of behavioral problems can be improved by changing personal efficacy expectations.

Produced for Thinkquest Internet Challenge 2000.

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