social-cognitive theory
an extension of social learning theory to include the effects of cognitive processes, such as conceptions, judgment, and motivation, on an individual’s behavior and on the environment that influences him or her. Rather than passively absorbing knowledge from environmental inputs, individuals actively influence their learning by interpreting the outcomes of their actions, which then affects their environments and their personal factors, which in turn inform and alter subsequent behavior. Emphasis on this interaction of behavioral, environmental, and personal factors is thus a major hallmark of the theory. Although Julian Rotter, Austrian-born U.S. personality psychologist Walter Mischel (1930– ), and many others have proposed different social-cognitive perspectives, the one introduced by Albert Bandura in 1986 remains most prominent and has been applied to a wide range of topics (e.g., personality development and
functioning, the understanding and treatment of psychological disorders, organizational training programs, education, health promotion strategies, advertising and marketing). A central tenet of Bandura’s social-cognitive theory is that people seek to develop a sense of agency and to exert control over important events in their lives, a sense that is affected by factors such as their self-efficacy, outcome expectations, goals, and self-evaluation. Despite the distinction between social-cognitive theory and social learning theory, many individuals use the terms synonymously. Also called cognitive-social learning theory.