fei75766_ch17_534-568.indd 565  02/24/20 10:49 AM
Chapter 17    Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory565
Bandura believes that people are quite plastic and flexible, and that 
plasticity and flexibility are the essence of humanity’s basic nature. Because 
humans have evolved neurophysiological mechanisms for symbolizing their 
experiences, their nature is marked by a large degree of flexibility. People 
have the capacity to store past experiences and to use this information to 
chart future actions.
People’s capacity to use symbols provides them with a powerful tool 
for understanding and controlling their environment. It enables them to solve 
problems without resorting to inefficient trial-and-error behavior, to imagine 
the consequences of their actions, and to set goals for themselves. 
Humans are goal-directed,  purposive animals who can view the future 
and bestow it with meaning by being aware of the possible consequences 
of future behavior. Humans anticipate the future and behave accordingly in 
the present. The future does not determine behavior, but its cognitive rep -
resentation can have a powerful effect on present actions. “People set goals 
for themselves, anticipate the likely consequences of prospective actions, 
and select and create courses of action likely to produce desired outcomes 
and avoid detrimental ones” (Bandura, 2001, p. 7).
Although people are basically goal oriented, Bandura believes that 
they have specific rather than general intentions and purposes. People 
are not motivated by a single master goal such as striving for superiority 
or self-actualization but by a multiplicity of goals, some distant and some 
proximate. These individual intentions, however, are not ordinarily anar -
chical; they possess some stability and order. Cognition gives people the 
capacity to evaluate probable consequences and to eliminate behaviors 
that do not meet their standards of conduct. Personal standards, there -
fore, tend to give human behavior a degree of consistency, even though 
that behavior lacks a master motive to guide it.
Bandura’s concept of humanity is more optimistic  than pessimistic, 
because it holds that people are capable of learning new behaviors through -
out their lives. However, dysfunctional behaviors may persist because of low 
self-efficacy or because they are perceived as being reinforced. Neverthe -
less, these unhealthy behaviors need not continue, because most people 
have the capacity to change by imitating the productive behaviors of others 
and by using their cognitive abilities to solve problems.
Bandura’s social cognitive theory, of course, emphasizes social factors  
more than biological ones. However, it recognizes that genetics contributes 
to the person (P) variable in the triadic reciprocal causation paradigm. But 
even within this model, cognition ordinarily gains ascendance, so biological 
factors become less important. Moreover, social factors are clearly more 
crucial to the other two variables—environment (E) and behavior (B).
We rate Bandura high on freedom  versus determinism  because he 
believes that people can exercise a large measure of control over their lives. 
Although people are affected by both their environment and their experiences 
with reinforcement, they have some power to mold these two external condi -
tions. To some extent, people can manage those environmental conditions 
that will shape future behavior and can choose to ignore or augment previous Final PDF to printer