Understanding Reciprocal Determinism & Self-Regulation: A Social Cognitive Perspective, Study notes of Cognitive Sociology

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The Social Cognitive perspective and Albert Bandura

Key terms:

• Reciprocal determinism
• Self-regulation
• Self-efficacy

To understand personality, you need to know the social environment in which the person exists. Thinking (personality), the environment, and behavior all interact; each can only be understood relative to each other.

• Based on beliefs we have, we act a certain way and chose to act in certain social environments. Personality is shaped by through reciprocal determinism.

Self-regulation

Self-regulation refers to setting goals, evaluating ones performance and adjusting ones behavior to achieving these goals in the context of ongoing feedback. People are constantly setting goals, applying their skills to reach their goals, monitoring their thoughts and actions to see if their goals are met. We try to seek out social environments (situations) we prefer and can be successful.

Reciprocal Determinism

Cognitive factor

I don’t think I can learn to play a musical instrument

Behavior factor

I don’t play any musical instruments.

Environmental factor

I avoid situations that require me to display my lack of musical talent.

Cognitive factor I have political leanings toward the Democrat or Republican political philosophy.

Behavior factor

I will vote for policies promoted by Democrats or Republicans

Environmental factor

I attend will associate with other Democrats or Republicans

Cognitive factor

I think I need to use drugs

Behavior factor

I use drugs

Environmental factor

I associate with other drugs uses

In order to understand the problems of drug abuse, you need to understand the process of reciprocal determinism, as well as the neurochemical basis of addiction (the neurotransmitter dopamine) and learning (classical conditioning and operant conditioning).

You can easily replace this with criminal behavior. This helps explain some programs to help disrupt the cycle of criminal behavior and drug use.

Reciprocal Determinism

For example: Playing basketball (a behavior) leads to thinking about basketball, which in turn may lead to playing basketball. Seeing a basketball (in the environment) leads to thinking about basketball, which in turn increases the chances of noticing people playing basketball. Playing basketball may lead to environmental rewards, which in turn reinforce basketball playing. All three elements— behavior, thought, and environment—take turns influencing or being influenced by each other.

Cognitive factor

I think about tennis

Behavior factor

I’ll play tennis

Environmental factor I associate with others who like to play tennis

Strengths and Contributions of the Social Cognitive Perspective

• The understanding human behavior comes from insights based on experimental findings, not clinical observations such as with the Freudians and Humanists.
• The social cognitive approach is based on good scientific data that can predict behavior—people who’s self-efficacy was raised were more likely to find a job after being laid off. Clinical observations have difficulties predicting behavior.

Weaknesses and Problems of the Social Cognitive Perspective

• Some researchers claim that social cognitive perspective describes people better in artificial situation of the laboratory and not in the complex real world, where real external factors are constrained.
• The social cognitive perspective ignores the unconscious influences of our emotions, subjective experience, internal conflicts we may have and genetic and biological issues.
• This perspective focuses only on a limited aspect of personality and not the whole person and the context in which they live.

A person’s belief concerning their ability to perform the behaviors needed to achieve desired outcomes (page 445).

A person with high self-efficacy in a particular context has confidence in their ability to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.