Social Cognitive Theory

Albert Bandura relates back to Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory very strongly for me, though I like the direct look Bandura takes into the interconnected relationships of the factors in a persons life surrounding an issue. It gives power to everything in life, which is something that I think is true, and that even something in the environment that we think is beyond our control can be changed by our behaviours.

The fact that it is seen as a snapshot of an ever continuing cycle also is important to me. I can relate to the fact that things do not stay the same, or that things cannot be changed at a later date. It could only take a small change in one area to spawn a complete resynthesis of the system, which is a powerful idea. It could go either for the good or the bad, but in either case demonstrates the balance of control of things in a persons life. Imagining that all it could take is a child deciding that they don't agree with their parents dismissal of school to slowly reshape their cognitive system gives hope that behaviours are not set in stone, and that a child can have hope no matter where they are now.

In class, we mapped out our example of Bandura's social cognitive theory based on that very idea, of parents having a negative viewpoint of school. This is what we came up with :

Environment- Parents who look down on school as being something that you just have to put up with till you can quit.
Environment -> Personal: the child begins to be indoctrinated by their parents belief and agree with them
Environment -> Behaviour: Parents let the child get away with not attending school.


Personal- Child see's school as being a waste of his time, looks at his parents as examples of why you don't need it.
Personal ->Behaviour: The child stops going to school or caring about their studies.
Personal -> Environment: Parents support the child and school becomes less welcoming.


Behaviour- The child does not interact or participate in school and shows a lack of interest.
Behaviour -> Environment: Teachers punish the child for their lack of good behaviour.
Behaviour -> Personal: The child sees more negative sides of the school system.