Social Cognitive Theory in Psychology

Social Cognitive Approach

• Emphasizes rational thought, but also investigates non-conscious and automatic processes.
• Involves many models, including the General Aggression Model (Anderson and Bushman, 2002).

Albert Bandura and Social Cognitive Theory

• Founder of social cognitive theory.
• Core concept: people can learn through observation, imitation, and modelling, even without reinforcement or Pavlovian conditioning.
• Adds a social element to human learning, influenced by factors such as:
  • Attention
  • Motivation
  • Attitudes
  • Emotion
• Assumes internal mental states are crucial in this process, including:
  • Self-efficacy
  • Behaviour outcome expectancy
  • Self-efficacy expectancy

Self-Efficacy Expectancy

• The expectancy that one has the capability to carry out a behaviour to reach a desired outcome.
• Predicts:
  • Success on task performance
  • Attempts to obtain an outcome

Conditions for Learning and Enacting Behaviour

• One must:
  • Be paying attention
  • Be able to retain the information learned
  • Be motivated to initiate the seen behaviour
  • Reproduce the seen behaviour, practicing it to become more skilled

Social Cognitive Theory

• A blend of social learning theory and cognitive psychology.
• Focuses on how individuals perceive, recall, think about, and interpret information about themselves and others.

Nancy Cantor and Self-Understanding

• Self-understanding is largely determined by:
  • How we conceive ourselves
  • How we conceive others
  • How we encode social information
  • How we interpret social information
  • How we remember social information
• Accurate and well-organized schemas lead to a more functional person.

Schemas

• A mental outline or framework of some aspect of experience based on prior experience or memory
• Provides the mental framework through which we see the world and evaluate what is happening
• May include knowledge, beliefs, emotions, memories, and links to other concepts, thoughts, feelings, and emotions

Characteristics of Schemas

• Influence thoughts, feelings, and behavior
• Can be adaptive, assisting with quickly categorizing and dealing with experiences
• Can be maladaptive, biasing the way life events are perceived and prompting inappropriate responses
• Influence is generally out of conscious awareness and is usually automatic

Neural Networks and Schemas

• A schema can be thought of as a group of nodes with associative links that are so strong that the activation of any node/concept will begin to activate the entire schema network
• If enough nodes are activated, the entire schema will 'reach threshold', become fully activated, and influence the person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior
• If some nodes are activated, but the schema does not reach threshold, it is said to be primed, influencing behavior at an implicit level

Early Maladaptive Schemas (EMSs)

• Developed by Jeffrey Young as a basis for therapy for personality disorders
• Assume that certain childhood experiences bias the way we see ourselves and others, and that these biases continue to be elaborated across the life span
• Form part of our stable 'self'

Development of EMSs

• Developed out of an interplay between the child's innate temperament and ongoing noxious experiences of the child with parents, siblings, or peers
• Toxic childhood experiences are the primary origin of Early Maladaptive Schemas

Examples of EMSs

Abandonment Schemas

• Involves the belief that one's closest relationships are unstable or unreliable and thus cannot provide enduring nurturance
• Involves the expectation that significant others are likely to leave, either through death or finding another more worthy
• Developmental origin: Parent or primary caregiver left the house permanently when child was young, parents withdrew or left child alone for extended periods, etc.

Mistrust/Abuse Schemas

• An expectation that others will intentionally (or through unjustified neglect) hurt, abuse, cheat, humiliate, manipulate, or take advantage
• Developmental origin: Physical, sexual abuse, childhood experiences of manipulation, humiliation, betrayal, severe punishment, retaliation, or ostracism within own family

Emotional Deprivation Schemas

• The expectation that one's desire for a normal degree of emotional support will not be met by others
• Developmental origin: Childhood experiences of emotional deprivation, neglect, or abuse

This quiz covers the social cognitive approach in psychology, its emphasis on rational thought and non-conscious processes, and key models like the General Aggression Model. It also explores the core concept of social cognitive theory, including observational learning and imitation.