Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory

Dr. Bandura’s has been utilized in numerous studies, in diverse countries, on various age groups, and on different genders. His theory has been cited in several articles, which implies that the social cognitive theory generates empirical research, and it is also widely generalizable. I believe that Bandura’s social cognitive theory is indeed advantageous for myself along with other individuals as well. This approach can be applied to life’s practical problems. For instance, Bandura argues that a person cannot learn how to swim if they drowned first. Thus a person must observe a model swimming first to learn the basis of swimming. In order to learn, Bandura suggests the observer pays attention to the models. In this context, the observer would pay attention to the skilled swimmer. Upon watching the skilled model swim, the observer is able to retain the models behavior in order to imitate their behavior at a later time. This is what Bandura referred to as the retention process. Upon retaining the information, the observer put the performance into effect by transforming the obvious actions, which is the production process. During this process the observer actually display the learned behavior. Subsequently, the individual learns by observing someone else vicariously. This performance also goes along with driving a car, one must learn through vicarious reinforcement, not direct reinforcement. If a person learns by direct reinforcement, trial-and-error will be induced. Learning through trial and error is dangerous because it can result in death (Schultz & Schultz, 2013).

There are several cases in which this theory can be applied to clients of African descent. If I were a clinician I would definitely take this approach. I believe that...

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... to and responsibility members of their group.

Personally, Banduras theory is my favorite thus far. I believe that this theory can be applied to everyone, and everyone will benefit from the social learning theory. Based on my own life experiences, this theory has been applied to my life in numerous ways. As a graduate student life gets hard and sometime you need someone to look up to for basic motivation. I have several models that I look up to. One of the models is a classmate, after failing an exam I observed their studying techniques and started using it. Upon utilizing that same technique I passed my next exam, and reinforced that behavior for other exams. I will continue to utilize Bandura’s theory and apply it to my everyday life. Life is all about learning and I am glad that I can utilize this approach in an effort to continue learning and teaching others.