Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) Revisited

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) Revisited

Social cognitive theory (SCT) posits that parts of individuals’ knowledge acquisition relies on information gotten from others, outside the media or other channels of communication. According to this theory, persons record what certain behaviours bring about in terms of consequences and act accordingly. Such behavioural modelling seems to represent learning from others’ mistakes (or successes). Further, SCT involves self-regulation and adaptation when environmental variables signal it is time to change strategy.

Professional photography also involves self-efficacy. Image: Elena

But like is often the case with psychology, reality is not as simple as it appears to be. For example, goals influence self-regulation. Also, when people have a goal they may feel particular self-efficacy towards this goal, which is likely to affect their regulatory processes. Naturally, self-regulation is impossible without self-reflection. Enter self-efficacy. If and when people believe they can achieve a result, they will work harder at it if they do. The more they hold positive beliefs about their personal competence at achieving the task, the harder they try, the longer they persist and the more they succeed, more often than not.

Interestingly enough, self-efficacy can be applied to a range of behaviours from diet and exercise to learning physics and mathematics. To go back to the the beginning of the present short essay and explore SCT, some commentary teaches us much more than the media alone. For example, fairly recently, a fit mom, Maria Kang, posted a picture of herself with her three sons with the caption “What’s your excuse?” Her toned body and six pack muscles generated a lot of attention, some positive and some negative. But what’s more important, is that some people responded by showing that they had hereditary diseases (such as chronic problems with their thyroid gland) that prevented them from being fit and/or thin, contrary to some stereotypical beliefs that being overweight necessarily has to do with laziness and lack of willpower. Such learning from others represents learning from those around us in a society.