What is the Social Cognitive Theory?

The social cognitive theory is a theory that was discovered by Ukrainian-Canadian psychologist and professor, Albert Bandura. The theory grew from the social learning theory. The social cognitive theory explains human thought and actions as a process of triadic reciprocal causation. In addition, the social cognitive theory stresses four distinctively human traits.

Psychologist Albert Bandura, who discovered the theory in the 1960s, while teaching at Stanford University, defined his theory, saying, “Social cognitive theory embraces an international form of causation in which environmental events, personal factors, and behavior all operate as interacting determinants of each other.”

The social cognitive theory explains human thought and actions as a process of triadic reciprocal causation, which means that thought and behavior are determined by three individual, but interweaving factors: (1) behavior, (2) personal characteristics (e.g. race, gender, age), and (3) environmental factors. In media studies, most of the emphasis is placed on the third factor, as the media falls into the category of environmental factors.

The social cognitive theory stemmed from the social learning theory, also called social cognitivism in communications and social sciences. It is a learning theory based on the ideas that people learn by watching what others do and that human thought processes are central to understanding personality.

This theory, discovered in 1941, was advanced by Albert Bandura, who in his most famous experiment, “The Bobo Doll” concluded that children imitate what they see, also known as observational learning. This theory is especially important in psychology and media studies, as children are susceptible to viewing violence not only in person, but also, and especially in the media, namely television.



“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” -Albert Bandura

Four Distinctively Human Traits

The social cognitive theory stresses four distinctively human traits. These are: symbolizing, self-regulatory, self-reflective, and vicarious capacities. All are equally important in the social learning theory, as all play a crucial role in out daily lives.

Symbolizing, for example, could explain a child learning the alphabet by symbolizing the letters for words. We, as humans, constantly symbolize as a way of retaining and memorizing information.

Self-regulatory explains one’s ability to evaluate and motivate one’s own self. For example, a college student may strive to achieve good grades, without a parent or professor’s persuasion.

Self-reflective means evaluating one’s own decisions to make sure that one’s thinking is correct. For example, a person may become self-reflective during or after making a large purchase.

Vicarious capacity is the ability to learn without direct experience. This is especially important to the media in today’s world, while a war is currently being fought.

A positive example of this would be watching primetime news as to learn what’s going on in the current world.

The flipside to this would be being exposed to images you might not otherwise have wanted to see (e.g. a terror hostage’s beheading; a plane flying into the World Trade Center).





“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” -Albert Bandura

Inhibitory and Disinhibitory Effects

When a person observes behavior or actions that somehow conflict with, or contribute to, that person’s values, one of two major effects can be determined.

The first is inhibitory effects, meaning that one’s own lessons and experiences have taught them a certain value. For example, a boy who watched his alcoholic father be abusive may decide to never drink.

The second effect is a disinhibitory effect. A disinhibitory effect occurs when one becomes more lax in his or her belief systems as a result of observing others. For example, a girl that grows up in a strict religious household that goes to church every Sunday, then goes away to college and sees that her roommates do not, may be influenced to decrease her churchgoing.

The social cognitive theory helps psychologists and others understand the media’s effect on people. It also helps the media produce positive messages (like the “Got milk?” campaign). More than anything else, it helps us understand our own behavior. As parents, most of us just want what is best for our children. Understanding the social cognitive theory allows us to know which television shows our children should not be viewing, and perhaps, why they behave the way they do after watching a certain show. We don’t have all the answers just yet in this growing science of the mass media, but we have come a long way since those golden days of television.



“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” -Albert Bandura

The media made me do it!

The social cognitive theory explains much of the impact that people often claim the media has on themselves and others. For example, if taking into account the three factors of the triadic reciprocal causation, behavior, personal characteristics, and environmental factors, it would be safe to assume that a 5-year-old child would be largely negatively affected by the show, “CSI.”

Likewise, someone could also point out positive aspects of the mass media. Shows like “Sesame Street” and “Barney” teach children not only academic knowledge, like counting and the alphabet, but also emphasize moral values. In fact, a newer show, “Dora the Explorer,” which premiered in 1999, and is currently the most-watched pre-school show in US, teaches its viewers the Spanish language.

In the 1970s, professor and social scientist, Nathan Katzman, studied soap operas, an increasingly popular television genre in that decade and the present one. What he found was that issues on these shows were not consistent with those in real life. For example, soaps have a surprisingly high number of extramarital affairs. These affairs are not seen as taboo on the shows and are typically quickly forgiven by the spouse. Assuming that the social cognitive theory is correct, one might assume that people who watch soap operas frequently may be more easily influenced by infidelity. In another interesting find, homicide is also represented at a higher proportion on soap operas than actually occur in real life.

The mass media also uses the social cognitive theory for what some of us might call positive influences. For example, a young girl who’s interested in music, may be influenced to drink milk after seeing Carrie Underwood’s participation in a “Got milk?” ad.


“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” -Albert Bandura

Bobo Doll Experiment

This is a really good re-enactment of Bandura'a famous Bobo Doll Experiment, in which children were shown violence, then observed to see if they would copy. Check out the video for yourself to find out the results!





“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” -Albert Bandura