Albert Bandura:one of the most influential psychologists of all time

Albert Bandura (December 4, 1925 - July 26, 2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist. He was a professor of social science in psychology at Stanford University.
His proposed social learning theory gradually emerged in the historical context of inheriting and critiquing traditional behaviorism. It stands out distinctly in contemporary psychology alongside cognitive psychology and humanistic psychology, nearly dividing the realm of psychology itself. Its influence extends across experimental psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology, as well as fields such as education, management, and mass communication in social life. According to him, all learning phenomena derived from direct experience can actually occur through observational learning, with vicarious reinforcement being a significant influencing factor in learning. He has been referred to as the founder, master, or grandmaster of social learning theory.

1 Biography

Bandura was born in Mundare, Alberta, an open town of roughly four hundred inhabitants. Bandura was of Polish and Ukrainian descent; his father was from Kraków, Poland, whilst his mother was from Ukraine.
Born in 1949, Bandura graduated from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1949. He pursued his studies in psychology at the University of Iowa, where he earned his master's degree in 1951 followed by his doctorate in 1952. Bandura subsequently joined Stanford University as a faculty member, achieving the rank of professor in 1964.
Influenced by Miller, Dollard, and Sears, he applied learning theories to investigate social behavior, thereby laying the foundation for social learning theory and establishing a prominent reputation in Western psychology. Apart from a one-year tenure as a senior research fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in 1969, Bandura remained dedicated to teaching and research at Stanford. He also served as chair of the Psychology Department from 1976 to 1977.
In 1980, Bandura was honored with the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions.
Bandura died at his home in Stanford on July 26, 2021, from congestive heart failure, at the age of 95.

2 Main theroies

Bandura's social learning theory encompasses observational learning, self-efficacy, behavioral adaptation, and therapy. He delineates the process of observational learning into four stages: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.
Bandura posits that children primarily acquire social behaviors through observing and imitating actions of significant individuals in real-life contexts. He asserts that the observational learning process of any organism is a result of interactions among the individual, the environment, and behavior.
According to Bandura, reinforcement of an organism's behavior occurs in three main ways: firstly, through direct reinforcement, where immediate positive or negative stimuli are applied in response to the learner's behavior; secondly, through vicarious reinforcement, whereby learners determine their actions based on outcomes observed from others' behaviors; thirdly, through self-reinforcement, where children evaluate their own behavior against societal standards conveyed to them and reinforce their own performance positively or negatively. Self-reinforcement is guided by personal expectations and goals.
In 1961, Bandura conducted a controversial experiment known as the Bobo doll experiment, designed to show that similar behaviors were learned by individuals shaping their own behavior after the actions of models. Bandura's results from this experiment were widely credited with helping shift the focus in academic psychology from pure behaviorism to cognitive psychology.

By the mid-1980s, Bandura's research had taken a more holistic bent, and his analysis tended towards giving a more comprehensive overview of human cognition in the context of social learning. The theory he expanded from social learning theory soon became known as social cognitive theory.

Self-efficacy

Bandura introduced the concept of "self-efficacy" in 1977 to denote an individual's belief in their capacity to achieve desired outcomes in specific situations. He posited that higher efficacy expectations correlate with increased effort from individuals. Bandura identified four factors influencing the formation of self-efficacy: direct experiences of success and failure, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and emotional arousal. These factors play pivotal roles in shaping self-efficacy development and significantly impact students' engagement and motivation in educational settings. The concept of self-efficacy has garnered considerable attention in educational psychology, particularly in research on teachers' psychological states and student motivation.
After two decades of theoretical exploration and empirical research, Bandura published "Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control" in 1997, offering a comprehensive and systematic analysis of self-efficacy issues.

3 Educational application

Bandura's social cognitive theories have been applied to education as well, mainly focusing on self-efficacy, self-regulation, observational learning, and reciprocal determinism.
Social learning theory became one of the theoretical frameworks for Entertainment-Education, a method of creating socially beneficial entertainment pioneered by Miguel Sabido.

4 Major books

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: the exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
His other books are
Bandura, A., & Walters, R.H. (1959). Adolescent Aggression. Ronald Press: New York.
Bandura, A. (1962). Social Learning through Imitation. University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln, NE.
Bandura, A. and Walters, R. H.(1963). Social Learning & Personality Development. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, INC: NJ.
Bandura, A. (1969). Principles of behavior modification. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Bandura, A. (1971). Psychological modeling: conflicting theories. Chicago: Aldine·Atherton.
Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: a social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

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