While all students of psychology recognize Bandura’s name, his work most cited in the textbooks does little to reveal the man behind the ideas. This interview offers a glimpse at the life of a truly remarkable pioneer in the field. Bandura exemplifies the wisdom of keeping an open and curious mind in how we approach the practice of therapy and the ever-evolving knowledge base about the nature of change. His thirst for knowledge, discipline and dedication to the field are inspiring to witness.
By watching this video, you will:
- Learn the core principles of social cognitive theory, and the theories of social learning, guided mastery, and self-efficacy.
- Delineate the general branches of thought in behavioral therapy.
- Describe the research behind Bandura’s key contributions to therapy
- Identify key contributions of behavior therapy
Length of video: 00:54:34
English subtitles available
Group ISBN-10 #: 1-60124-420-7
Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-420-8
Albert Bandura is the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University and the author of ten books, including
Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control and
Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. For nearly six decades, he has been responsible for contributions to many fields of psychology, including social cognitive theory, therapy, personality psychology, self-efficacy, and was also influential in the transition between behaviorism and cognitive psychology.
It was during his studies on adolescent aggression that Bandura became interested in vicarious learning, modeling and imitation. Out of this work came Social Learning Theory, which Bandura is best known for. The theory stresses the importance of observational learning, imitation and modeling. He famously made the case for social learning in the 1961 Bobo doll study. In the experiment, Bandura made a film in which a woman was shown beating up a Bobo doll and shouting aggressive words. The film was then shown to a group of children. Afterwards, the children were allowed to play in a room that held a Bobo doll. The children immediately began to beat the doll, imitating the actions and words of the woman in the film. Social Learning Theory, unlike traditional Behaviorism, posits a continuous interaction between behaviors and the environment, mediated by cognition.
In recent years, Bandura has been involved with the development and dispersion of serial dramas in developing nations, using the tenets of Social Learning Theory to influence social change in reproductive health and women’s rights. The dramas are much more effective to influence social norms than documentaries because the powerful emotional ties formed with audiences increase the likelihood that the audience will model the behavior in the dramas.
Perhaps equally important to Social Learning Theory is Bandura’s work on self-efficacy. While investigating the processes by which modeling alleviates phobic disorders in snake-phobics, he found that self-efficacy beliefs (belief in one’s own capabilities to alleviate one’s phobia) mediated changes in behavior and in fear-arousal. He launched a major program of research examining the influential role of self-referent thought in psychological functioning, which has had a considerable impact on the field of psychotherapy.
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