Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory

We humans build our personalities and beliefs based on numerous factors; among these, the element of social influence plays a significant role. Because we are social beings, we structure and design our perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors through interactions within our social networks. Therefore, it is appropriate to adopt the idea that our environment makes the most of us. Society has a major share in influencing and shaping our ideas and our internal understanding of the world. This concept of society, which is constantly mentioned, begins at home and extends to the entire global community.

Social cognitive theory was developed by the famous Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura in the 1980s. Bandura is a behavioral psychologist and became known in the field of psychology for a classic experiment called the "Bobo doll experiment," conducted to understand observational learning in children. This experiment has been seen as the principle underlying many important findings in the field of psychology thereafter.

Social cognitive theory, previously called social learning theory, claims that people acquire beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors by observing environmental events and learning from them vicariously. Unlike other theories that are one-way, social cognitive theory adopts a two-way perspective to understand human behavior. For example, a child gains a certain view of the world by observing the people around them and the nature of the interactions that take place.

People have the power to achieve the results they want to reach. This theory, therefore, seeks to claim that humans are both individuals with personal competence and beings exposed to external influences.

This theory adopts a triadic reciprocal causation in which personal factors, behavioral factors, and environmental factors are constantly interacting with each other. Personal factors include the knowledge, expectations, and attitudes one has about a behavior.

While behavioral factors refer to skills, self-efficacy, and practice, environmental factors include social norms, access, and influence over others.

According to Bandura, humans have four basic capabilities:

1. Symbolizing Capability: This refers to the fact that humans can learn not only from direct experiences but also from the experiences of the people around them. For example, learning what to pay attention to and what to avoid while doing a job from an experienced person is preferable to taking a step based entirely on chance. 

2. Self-Regulatory Capability: This aspect suggests that humans are accepted as capable and self-regulating individuals. They are not only knowledgeable but also action-oriented individuals.

3. Self-Reflective Capability: Social Cognitive Theory assumes that humans are equipped with the ability to look at themselves, to reflect on themselves metacognitively (metacognition, in its shortest definition, means a person's awareness of their own thinking processes and their ability to control these processes), and to self-evaluate.

4. Vicarious Capability: The tendency of humans to observe and learn from their environment is called vicarious capability. Without this ability, human evolution could have turned into a great struggle.

The Classic Bobo Doll Experiment

Albert Bandura conducted a classic experiment to explain how learning through observation occurs. In this experiment, he divided a group of children into three groups; two experimental groups and one control group.

Participants in one experimental group were shown a video of a person punching a Bobo doll aggressively. The other experimental group was shown a video of a person playing with the Bobo doll in a gentle and kind manner. The control group was not shown any video.

Later, the participants were sent to a room with a Bobo doll, and researchers observed them through a one-way mirror. As the researchers predicted, the participants who watched the aggressive video played with the doll more aggressively compared to the group that watched the non-aggressive video and the control group.

As a result of this experiment, Bandura concluded that behaviors can also be influenced by social models that inspire those behaviors.

Based on Bandura's experiment, we can say that media, and especially digital media, has a significant impact on shaping both our behavior and that of our children. Children are influenced by the scenes of violence they see in TV series and may attempt to apply this to their peers at school. A situation of peer bullying emerges. Young people who emulate influencers on social media may resort to unhealthy methods to perform various weight-loss techniques or makeup applications. It has become very important for families to be conscious of this issue under today's conditions.