Research. Bandura was initially influenced by Robert Sears’ work on familial antecedents of social behavior and identificatory learning and gave up his research of the psychoanalytic theory. He directed his initial research to the role of social modeling in human motivation, thought, and action.

Bandura is known for his social learning theory. He is quite different from other learning theorists who look at learning as a direct result of conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment. Bandura asserts that most human behavior is learned through observation, imitation, and modeling.

Social learning theory, proposed by Albert Bandura, emphasizes the importance of observing, modelling, and imitating the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others.

In Bandura’s 1977 article, he claimed that Social Learning Theory shows a direct correlation between a person’s perceived self-efficacy and behavioral change. In this book, Bandura argued that human behavior is caused by personal, behavioral, and environmental influences.

According to Bandura, learning can occur by watching others and then modeling what they do or say. This is known as observational learning. There are specific steps in the process of modeling that must be followed if learning is to be successful. These steps include attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.

Name the three types of behavior and social cognitive theories described in your text. The three versions of the behavioral approach are Pavlov’s classical conditioning, Skinner’s operant conditioning, and Bandura’s social cognitive theory.

Social cognitive theory has a broader theoretical scope as it includes a conceptualization of humans as agents capable of shaping their environment and of self-regulation. Social learning theory on the other hand is limited to tackling the learning process in the social context.