Albert Bandura Psychologist, author of social learning theory Country: USA

Biography of Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura (born 1925 in Mundare, Alberta, Canada – 1988) was an American psychologist and author of the social learning theory. He obtained his bachelor's degree in arts from the University of British Columbia in 1949 before moving to the United States, where he gained citizenship in 1956. Bandura then pursued clinical psychology at the University of Iowa, earning a master's degree in philosophy in 1951 and a doctorate in philosophy in 1952.

Starting in 1953, Bandura worked as a professor of psychology at Stanford University and later became a professor of social sciences in the field of psychology in 1973. During his time at Stanford, he became acquainted with the works of Miller and Dollard, and was greatly influenced by Spence. He began with the stimulus-response methodology but concluded that this model was not fully applicable to human behavior. Bandura proposed his own model, which better explained observed behavior.

Through numerous studies, Bandura provided a new formulation of instrumental conditioning, giving central importance to learning through observation of models. He viewed reinforcement as a facilitating factor rather than the sole determinant of learning. According to Bandura, the main determinant of human learning is the observation of other people's behavior and the consequences of that behavior. The anticipation of these consequences motivates individuals to engage in certain behaviors. The consequences can include reinforcement from others and self-reinforcement, which is based on the evaluation of adherence to internally mandatory behavioral standards (self-reinforcement standards demonstrated by other people). The speed of learning depends on the psychological availability of the model behavior (including the possibility of direct communication and the complexity of the behavior) and the effectiveness of verbal encoding of the observed behavior. Learning through observation is necessary in situations where errors can lead to significant or even fatal consequences.

Based on his social learning theory, Bandura attempted to provide a new interpretation of aggression in his work "Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis" (Englewood Cliffs, 1973). Initially, he understood aggression as an impulsive reaction close to pathological response to frustration, but he later realized that this was not the case. Bandura found that the theory of aggression as frustration explained the facts less well than his theory of learning based on the observation of the reward consequences of aggression. He discovered that aggressive behavior develops in children who are exposed to examples of aggressive behavior by adults. Specifically, he found that fathers of highly aggressive teenagers serve as models for such behavior, encouraging them to display aggression outside the home. Bandura conducted studies with young children, showing them films that encouraged verbal aggression, and found that the children were inclined to imitate what they saw (1965). Based on these studies, he concluded that anger, as a manifestation of general arousal that promotes aggression, will only be displayed when angry reactions are socially accepted in the given situational conditions.

Bandura's contribution to the study of personality primarily lies in his shift from studying generalized character traits to examining situation-specific forms of behavior ("Principles of Behavior Modification", N.Y., 1969).