Thinkers
Albert Bandura
Social Learning Theorist
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Albert Bandura was a Canadian-American psychologist who taught at Stanford University from 1953 to 2010. He bridged behaviourist and cognitive psychology, showing in his Bobo doll experiments of the early 1960s that children imitate behavior, including aggression, that they merely observe in a model, without needing their own reinforcement first. He formalized social learning theory in 1977 and, in his 1986 book Social Foundations of Thought and Action, expanded it into social cognitive theory, adding self-efficacy, a person's belief in their own capability, as a central driver of motivation.
Facts
Nationality / Culture Defining ContributionShowed through the Bobo doll experiments that observation and modeling alone, without direct reinforcement, produce learned behavior, and later added self-efficacy as a governing factor in motivation and persistence. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Bandura taught at Stanford from 1953 and developed social learning theory there.
Theories and Approaches Developed
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Albert Bandura
Wikimedia FoundationBiographical overviewQuote, Biographical overview
Bandura also is known as the originator of social learning theory, social cognitive theory, and the theoretical construct of self-efficacy.
1. Wikipedia: Albert Bandura
Wikimedia FoundationResearch sectionQuote, Research section
Modeling as an important means for learning new behaviors and for achieving behavioral change in an institutional setting
1. Wikipedia: Albert Bandura
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Stanford University, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bandura, lead sectionQuote, Associated With: Stanford University, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bandura, lead section
was a Canadian-American psychologist and professor of social science in psychology at Stanford University
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