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Albert Bandura

Learning and Cognitive Theorists

Albert Bandura was a Canadian-American psychologist who taught at Stanford University from 1953 to 2010. He bridged behaviourist and cognitive psychology, showing in his Bobo doll experiments of the early 1960s that children imitate behavior, including aggression, that they merely observe in a model, without needing their own reinforcement first. He formalized social learning theory in 1977 and, in his 1986 book Social Foundations of Thought and Action, expanded it into social cognitive theory, adding self-efficacy, a person's belief in their own capability, as a central driver of motivation. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Birth Year
1925 1
Death Year
2021 1
Nationality / Culture
Canadian-American 1
Defining Contribution
Showed through the Bobo doll experiments that observation and modeling alone, without direct reinforcement, produce learned behavior, and later added self-efficacy as a governing factor in motivation and persistence. 1
Connections

Associated With

Bandura taught at Stanford from 1953 and developed social learning theory there.

Source Wikipedia: Albert Bandura

In Approach

Theories and Approaches Developed

Source Wikipedia: Albert Bandura
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Albert Bandura
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Biographical overview
    Bandura also is known as the originator of social learning theory, social cognitive theory, and the theoretical construct of self-efficacy.
  • Research section
    Modeling as an important means for learning new behaviors and for achieving behavioral change in an institutional setting
  • Associated With: Stanford University, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bandura, lead section
    was a Canadian-American psychologist and professor of social science in psychology at Stanford University
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