Albert Bandura

It was while at the University that he took a de-tour from the regular behaviorism theory that was prevalent then. Instead, he focused to come up with a psychological phenomenon that underwent repeated experimental testing.

He put stress on imagery and representation and came about with a relationship between an agent and its environment. Instead of abiding by the psychoanalysis and personology, he aimed to bring about a practical theory about the mental process through observational learning and self-regulation.

Attaining his academic qualification, he took part in the clinical internship at the Wichita Kansas Guidance Center. The following year, i.e. in 1953, he took up a teaching position at the Stanford University, a position he serves till date.

During the early years, he was influenced by the works of Robert Sears’s social behavior and identification learning. Collaborating with Walters, he engaged in studying social learning and aggression.

According to the social learning theory, he found out that human learning and imitation of behavior were based on three principles, the stimulus that generates the behavioral response, the response feedback influencing the behavioral response and the cognitive functions in social learning that impacts the behavioral response.

It was after his detailed research that he came up with his first book, ‘Adolescent Aggression’ in 1959. The book rejected Skinner’s behavioral modifiers in the form of rewards, punishments and positive and negative reinforcements as the main source of treating aggressive children. Instead, it focused on treating unduly aggressive children by identifying their source of violence.

Further research led to release of his subsequent book, ‘Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis’ in 1973. Continuing further on his experiments and research, in 1977 he came up with hugely influential treatise, ‘Social Learning Theory’ that changed the direction psychology took in the 1980s.

Social Learning Theory was considered novel and innovative in the field of psychology due to its sheer experimental and reproducible nature. It was stark in contrast to the then prevalent theories of Sigmund Freud.

In 1961, he conducted the famous Bobo Doll experiment which changed the course of psychology completely with its shift to cognitive psychology instead of behaviorism.

Through the experiment, he proved that young individuals are influenced by the acts of adults. When adults were praised for their violent behavior, the children kept hitting the doll to imitate their elders. However, when the adults were rebuffed for their aggressive nature, the children stopped hitting the doll.

Instead of limiting the theory to learning, he aimed at giving a comprehensive view of the human cognition in the context of social learning. He eventually expanded the social learning theory to form the social cognitive theory.

Revising his work yet again to portray humans as self-organizing, proactive, self-reflecting, and self-regulating, he rebuffed the orthodox conception of being governed by external forces and came up with the book, ‘Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory’ in 1986.

The book, ‘Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory’ forwarded a more advanced concept of cognitive theory wherein individuals instead of being influenced by external sources for their behaviour were affected by environmental factors and personal factors such as cognitive, and biological events.

He spent much of the late 1970s concentrating on exploring the role of self-efficacy belief in human functioning. Though he concentrated on other factors as well, it was self-efficacy that he believed mediated changes and aroused fear.

The study of self-efficacy belief not only helped in phobia studies but also was found useful for natural disaster survivors and those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It was through sense of control that the traumatic survivors were able to come over their ordeal and look further. In 1997, he finally came out with the book that dealt with the same, titled ‘Self-Efficacy: The Exercise Of Control’.