ALBERT BANDURA Albert Bandura OC was a Canadian-American psychologist who was the David Starr Jordan Professor in Psychology at Stanford University. Also known as the father of cognitive theory • Born: December 4, 1925, Mundare, Canada • Died: July 26, 2021, Stanford, California, United States • Education: The University of Iowa (1952), The University of Iowa (1951), The University of British Columbia (1946–1949) • Children: Carol Cowley, Mary Bandura • Spouse: Virginia Varns (m. 1952–2011) • Awards: National Medal of Science for Behavioral and Social Science SLT & SCLT are Based on Observation Social Learning Theory Social Cognitive Learning Theory Observation , Imitation and Modeling Observation, Understanding, Predicting and Changing Human Behavior Social Learning Theory • Learning is about interacting with the environment and making a permanent change in knowledge or behavior that improves human performance (Driscoll, 1994) • According to Bandura's SLT, we learn from interacting with others in a social context. We observe, assimilate, and imitate others' behavior when witnessing positive or rewarding experiences (Nabavi, 2012). Observation We observe other people's behavior. Imitation Following observation, we assimilate and imitate the observed behavior. Modeling We are more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people we perceive as similar to ourselves. SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY The social-cognitive theory is a theoretical perspective in which learning by observing others is the focus of study. Social-cognitive theory is grounded by several basic assumptions • One is that people can learn by observing others. Learners can acquire new behaviors and knowledge by simply observing a model. A model is a person who demonstrates behavior for someone else. In our Electric Slide example, the observer watched the models perform the dance in order to learn it. • Assumption two: learning is an internal process that may or may not lead to a behavior. Learning may not occur immediately. The observer could process the new behavior, but his/her learning may not be affected until a later point or never at all. In our dance example, it may take our observer multiple parties at which the Electric Slide is being danced until he joins in, or he may never join in.