fei75766_ch17_534-568.indd 539  02/24/20 10:49 AM
Chapter 17    Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory539
Several factors determine whether aperson willlearn from amodel inany
particular situation. First, thecharacteristics ofthemodel areimportant. People are
more likely tomodel high-status people rather thanthose oflowstatus, competent 
individuals rather thanunskilled orincompetent ones, andpowerful people rather 
thanimpotent ones. 
Second, thecharacteristics oftheobserver affect thelikelihood ofmodeling. 
People wholackstatus, skill,orpower aremost likely tomodel. Children model more 
thanolder people, andnovices aremore likely thanexperts tomodel.
Third, theconsequences ofthebehavior being modeled mayhaveaneffect 
ontheobserver. Thegreater thevalue anobserver places onabehavior, themore 
likely theobserver willacquire thatbehavior. Also, learning maybefacilitated when 
theobserver views amodel receiving severe punishment; forexample, seeing another 
person receive asevere shock from touching anelectric wireteaches theobserver a
valuable lesson.
Processes Governing Observational Learning
Bandura (1986) recognizes fourprocesses thatgovern observational learning: atten -
tion,representation, behavioral production, andmotivation.
Attention  Before wecanmodel another person, wemust attend tothatperson. What 
factors regulate attention? First, because wehavemore opportunities toobserve indi-
viduals withwhom wefrequently associate, wearemost likely toattend tothese peo-
ple.Second, attractive models aremore likely tobeobserved thanunattractive ones
are—popular figures ontelevision, insports, orinmovies areoften closely attended. 
Also, thenature ofthebehavior being modeled affects ourattention—we observe 
behavior thatwethink isimportant orvaluable tous.
Representation  Inorder forobservation toleadtonewresponse patterns, those pat-
terns must besymbolically represented inmemory. Symbolic representation need not
beverbal, because some observations areretained inimagery andcanbesummoned 
intheabsence ofthephysical model. Thisprocess isespecially important ininfancy 
when verbal skills arenotyetdeveloped.
Verbal coding, however, greatly speeds theprocess ofobservational learning. 
With language wecanverbally evaluate ourbehaviors anddecide which oneswewish
todiscard andwhich oneswedesire totry.Verbal coding alsohelps ustorehearse 
thebehavior symbolically: thatis,totellourselves overandoveragain howwewill
perform thebehavior once given thechance. Rehearsal canalsoentail theactual 
performance ofthemodeled response, andthisrehearsal aidstheretention process.
Behavioral Production  After attending toamodel andretaining what wehave
observed, wethenproduce thebehavior. Inconverting cognitive representations into
appropriate actions, wemust askourselves several questions about thebehavior to
bemodeled. Firstweask,“How canIdothis?” After symbolically rehearsing the
relevant responses, wetryoutournewbehavior. While performing, wemonitor our-
selves withthequestion “What amIdoing?” Finally, weevaluate ourperformance byFinal PDF to printer