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Social Cognitivism: Viewpoint Synthesis

Literature Review on Social Cognitivism

Social Cognitivism

Theoretical Paper: Social Cognitive Theory of Personality by Albert Bandura

The core of the social cognitive theory is that through observation, learning occurs. This theory has several premises forming its foundation. Human beings are seen to learn when they participate in the observation process. A person who is a model, demonstrates a behaviour while the observer picks up this behaviour or learns it by seeing the model doing it. Albert Bandura, in his Social Cognitive Theory on personality, which is now known as the Social Learning Theory, states that there are many interactions of various elements such as people, the environment and behaviours when learning is taking place. Thus it takes place within a social setting (Bandura, 1999).

Purpose of the study

Bandura pursued various aims in this study. He looked at the behaviour of groups and individuals and he sought to gain an underlying understanding as well as predict it. He also aimed to find out how the behaviour of people changed or adjusted. He also looked to comprehend the interventions that were mostly used with the aim of developing personality, enhancing health and in the pathology of actions (Bandura, 1999).

Methodology

In carrying out his study, Albert Bandura employed various methods of data collection and the identification of the subjects of the survey. One of the considerations was the environment or the surroundings of the subject where the person had access to opportunities and received social support. The methods also considered the circumstances of the person as well as how well they perceived their surroundings as social cognitive theory focuses on enhancing health through correct perceptions. He also assessed the individual's level of comprehension and application of skills, known as behavioural capability.

The study modelled behaviour that would have desirable outcomes. This was in consideration of the person's expectations and their anticipated behaviour. Expectancies in terms of the person's hopes to achieve or incentives were also taken into account. Self-control was assessed by giving the person the chance to govern themselves in terms of the goals to achieve. The method of Observational learning was also applied as the person was expected to resort to a certain behavioural pattern accrued from a model. Reinforcements were also used in this study. These were in the forms of incentives that the person was given in order to raise the chance of repeating certain behaviours. Self-efficacy was also employed where the desired change was approached in small increments to increase the confidence of the person as they took up the new behaviour. Emotional coping responses were also applied where the person was taught how to resolve challenges and reduce the amount of stress they were carrying. Reciprocal determinism where the interactions of the person with their environment, and behaviour were considered (Glanz, Rimer & Lewis, 2002).

Summary of Key Findings

Albert Bandura worked with people who had fear or phobia of snakes. In his research, he found out that behavioural models are a significant element when overcoming this fear. It was therapeutic for those with this phobia to observe people who previously had this phobia of interacting with snakes. They were able to perceive that no harm befell those who were handling snakes and that these people were no different from them. This helped the patients to reconsider their behaviour in positive light. It was a very effective exercise to observe others perform this exercise. It proved to be more successful than persuasion techniques or even observing the psychologist performing the desired behaviour. In his theory of social learning, some of the key things emphasized include learning through observing as well as imitating behaviour that has been modelled. He proposes a reciprocal causal model in which there are interactions between behaviours, the environment and even the person's thought processes. He did not however suggest that to facilitate learning, reinforcing should be used. Nevertheless, he stated that vicarious reinforcing and punishing occurred as a result of modelled behaviour (Bandura, 1989).

Discussion of Results / Findings

The theory of social cognitivism sees human behaviour as that which involves interactions of surroundings, actions and personal elements. These interacting factors are the key bases of human behaviour. It is also based on the premise that the person's cognition controls their behaviour and it thus acts as a precursor. This is in addition to the response consequences which also play a part in controlling behaviour. Thus the ability to foresee the consequences of behaviour before engaging in it is emphasised in this theory.

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The cognition of a human being is seen as a powerful element that creates reality, processes information through the expected outcomes, actions, behaviours, and creates a controlled system. As a person interacts with his surroundings their reality is created. Therefore, human behaviour can be comprehended when one understands how their reality is formed and it can then be foreseen and altered (Jones, 1989).

Limitations of the study

This theory requires a lot of thought and understanding as it is multifarious and may not be easy to put into practice. In its application, several constructs have been overlooked in favour of a few, such as the self-efficacy construct (Bandura, 1989).

Conclusion

The Social Cognitivism Theory has been studied in understanding and comprehending various human challenges such as addictions and medical therapy. It has been very useful in understanding how children internalize morals and values of their society as they are socialized. The SCT has also been widely used in many mediations. Some of these include contracting where a person interacts with others, self-monitoring, where they interact with themselves and in modelling skill training where a person's reasoning is developed (Bandura, 1989).

Research Study: Social Cognition: A multilevel analysis brain research by Beer and Ochsner

Purpose of the Study

This study brought together cognitive neuroscience and social psychology in the study on social cognition. In this research the proponents argued that social cognition involved the interaction of relational information, a person's manner of decoding and encoding others and themselves. They also brought in neural modularity as an aspect to be considered in social cognition (Beer & Ochsner, 2006).

Methodology

Elements of social cognition were used to in the collection of data and these included the manner in which people were perceived. It was not possible at the time for the researchers to carry out experiments as this was out of their scope. The researchers however did consider two points that were concerned with the processes of perception of the person. They looked at how a person understood others and the compound processes that were involved. The researcher collected information on various cues that they picked up from the subjects including smiling and frowning. They then attached psychological meanings to these cues. The context of the information gathering was also considered as the individual interacted with that particular context (Beer & Ochsner, 2006).

Summary of Key Findings

The researchers defined social cognition as perception of self, other people, and even the interpersonal knowledge. In this theory, the thought processes involve considering a stimulus which varies in complexity and is social. This stimulus can be someone else, the person and their interaction. The final phases of explanation bring together rudimentary insight with appropriate information and these include depictions of likely reactions to the situation. The knowledge bases need not be the same for the person and others' insight though they may depend on each other. These processes can be implied directly and indirectly and are susceptible to bias (Beer & Ochsner, 2006).

Discussion of Results/Findings

A person's thoughts and how they interact with the social environment encoding and decoding it are included in social cognition. To describe social cognition comprehensively there has to be an incorporation of how knowledge on people, the individual and the social world is processed. These cognitive processed may be involuntary or regulated and they are impacted by the biases that the person has related to what motivates them. The theory argues against there being a specific neural system that deals with the social cognition, as most systems dealing with information other than from social interactions can process that from the social environment. Thus the neural dissimilarities seen in self-processing reflect various strategies applied rather than specifically to self-processing (Beer & Ochsner, 2006).

Limitations of the Study

While studies into social cognition may be increasing in many areas, many limitations still exist therein. Many questions remain without solutions. A basic model of social cognition proposes that it is based on motor depictions that reinforce comprehension on a person's motives as well as their thoughts on others. There are mirror neurons which bring together understanding of a person's actions and their motives behind these actions. The studies on social cognition have not been done uniformly over the various facets of how one perceives themselves, others and interpersonal awareness. This therefore leaves a gap of understanding what is basic and what is complex in social cognition (Beer & Ochsner, 2006).

Conclusion

There are two processes….....

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