fei75766_ch17_534-568.indd 535  02/24/20 10:49 AM
Chapter 17    Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory535
People often havetheirlifepathpermanently altered byunexpected meetings with
others orbyunplanned happenings. These chance encounters andfortuitous 
events frequently determine whom people marry, what career theypursue, where they
live,andhowtheywilllivetheirlives. 
Many years ago,ayoung graduate student named Alhadachance encounter 
thataltered thecourse ofhislife.OneSunday, Al,whowasusually aconscientious 
student, became bored withanuninteresting reading assignment anddecided thata
round ofgolfwaspreferable totackling schoolwork. Alchecked withafriend, and
thetwoyoung menheaded tothegolfcourse. However, theyarrived toolatetomake 
theirteetimeandtherefore werebumped toalatertimeslot.Bychance, thismale 
twosome found themselves playing behind twoslower-playing female golfers. Rather 
than“playing through,” thetwomenjoined thetwowomen andthetwotwosomes 
became onefoursome. Thus, aboring reading chore andadelayed tee-off timeputtwo
people together whootherwise would never havemet.Bythisseries ofchance events, 
Albert Bandura andGinny (Virginia) Varns metinasandtraponagolfcourse. The
couple eventually married andhadtwodaughters, Mary andCarol, wholikemost of
us,weretheproducts ofachance encounter.
Chance encounters andfortuitous events havebeen largely ignored bymost 
personality theorists, eventhough most ofusrecognize thatwehavehadunplanned 
experiences thathavegreatly changed ourlives.
Overview of Social Cognitive Theory
Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory takes chance encounters andfortuitous 
events seriously, evenwhile recognizing thatthese meetings andevents donotinvari -
ablyalterone’s lifepath. How wereact toanexpected meeting orevent isusually 
more powerful thantheevent itself. 
Social cognitive theory restsonseveral basic assumptions. First, theoutstand -
ingcharacteristic ofhumans isplasticity; thatis,humans havetheflexibility tolearn a
variety ofbehaviors indiverse situations. Bandura agrees withSkinner (Chapter 16)
thatpeople cananddolearn through direct experience, butheplaces much more 
emphasis onvicarious learning, thatis,learning byobserving others. Bandura also
stresses theideathatreinforcement canbevicarious; people canbereinforced by
observing another person receive areward. Thisindirect reinforcement accounts for
agood bitofhuman learning. 
Second, through atriadic reciprocal causation model thatincludes behavioral, 
environmental, andpersonal factors, people havethecapacity toregulate theirlives. 
Humans cantransform transitory events intorelatively consistent ways ofevaluating 
andregulating theirsocial andcultural environments. Without thiscapacity, people 
would merely react tosensory experiences andwould lackthecapacity toanticipate 
events, create newideas, oruseinternal standards toevaluate present experiences. 
Twoimportant environmental forces inthetriadic model arechance encounters and
fortuitous events.
Third, social cognitive theory takes anagentic perspective, meaning thathumans 
havethecapacity toexercise control overthenature andquality oftheirlives. People 
aretheproducers aswellastheproducts ofsocial systems. Animportant component Final PDF to printer