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Essay / Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory: Behavioral Change and Empowerment nishmentStrengths and WeaknessesFinal Point: Philosophical FoundationsReferencesPeople form social connections that greatly influence human health. Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) explains that personal factors, environmental influences, and interaction with others can impact human behavior. The theory suggests that interaction between humans and the environment leads to behavioral change in individuals. This theory has some important elements that connect people's attitudes toward their health. These are observational learning, reinforcement, self-control and self-efficacy. We will analyze social cognitive theory in this essay because it helps people by informing, guiding, and motivating them to change habits that promote healthy behavior and helping them reduce habits that are detrimental to health. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Albert Bandura is considered the father of social cognitive theory. The younger Bandura was always fascinated by psychology, which led him to earn a degree in psychology from the University of British Columbia. He later received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Iowa. He became interested in human behavior, which led him to experiment with a group of psychologists and social scientists on children. The study is known as the Bobo doll experiment. They learned that children imitate the behaviors they observe. With this experiment, he moved away from Pavlo's theory that people only acquire new behavior from a conditional stimulus, positive or negative reinforcement, or punishment. After this discovery, Bandura renamed social learning theory to social cognitive theory. Bandura explains SCT as a cognitive process that occurs through observation. Social cognitive theory highlights the importance of observation and cognitive factors in learning, understanding, and predicting behavior.Elements of Bandura's Social Cognitive TheoryBandura's social cognitive theory consists of three elements: personal cognitive factors, socio-environmental factors, and behavioral factors.Personal Cognitive FactorsIn the 1970s, when psychologists began to realize that influencing cognition was crucial to human behavior, social cognitive theory was developed. Personal cognitive factors are a person's ability to process information and apply that knowledge to analyze their experiences. Four major elements construct personal cognitive factors. These are self-efficacy, collective efficacy, outcome expectations, and knowledge. However, self-efficacy is the major component of SCT theory. Self-efficacy Self-efficacy is an internal mental process of a person's confidence in their abilities to perform a behavior. For example, self-regulation helps one develop strategies to increase awareness of one's actions. Based on the goal that people set for themselves, self-monitoring allows people to progress and achieve their goals. Low self-efficacy can lead people to be pessimistic and they are less likely to maintain a good habit. On the other hand, highly effective people have high self-esteem and are more likely to be confident in their abilities. People with high self-esteem arelikely to work on improving their skills through different experiences. As Bandura's SCT theory explains, a person's self-efficacy is formed through their personal or vicarious experiences, social persuasion, and emotional arousal. When people want to start a new task, they look at their past behaviors to determine whether they accomplished it. For example, a person who successfully lost weight through dieting in the past is more likely to diet again. Positive personal experiences help build morale to set new goals. People also make decisions by observing others. Additionally, social persuasion can have direct effects on people's lives. For example, if teens see that their role models are avoiding drugs, they will be more likely to follow them. The final thing that contributes to self-efficacy is a person's emotional state. Negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, or depression can lead to lowered self-esteem, which can harm a person's ability to successfully complete a task. Collective Effectiveness and Outcome Expectations We all function individually as well as collectively, whether we are at home, at school, or at work. , or at a social gathering. People's behavior is influenced by social conditions that they may not be able to control. But a person's ability to work toward common goals or willingness to act for the common good is known as collective efficacy. This motivates individuals to collaborate with others and increase social cohesion. Schools, neighborhood organizations or unions can help people develop a sense of unity. Through collaboration, individuals can change many health outcomes. People have expectations about their health status before engaging in activities. Bandura describes outcome expectations as the result of an individual's action. For example, a person runs with a group of friends for thirty minutes each day in hopes of reducing their risk of cardiovascular disease. This person expects a positive outcome of his health while working in a group. Self-Assessment Outcome Expectations and Knowledge Bandura describes self-assessment outcome expectations as a behavior that a person has with their internal standards such as self-satisfaction and self-esteem. People tend to do things that satisfy them. For example, a person performs excisions to clear their mind. People need to be aware of the behavior they are about to adopt. Knowledge means understanding the health risks and benefits of choosing different health practices. Bandura emphasizes that knowledge itself is not enough to bring about a change in people's behavior; skills are also necessary. For example, a person knows that smoking is bad for your health. However, this person is unable to quit because they may not know how to quit smoking. Health professionals can provide the information and tools needed to engage in this behavior. Additionally, providers can help the patient understand that their actions will lead to a certain outcome. Socio-Environmental Factors Socio-environmental factors are aspects that encourage or discourage an individual's health habits. Learning by observing models or through cultural beliefs determines these factors. A person can learn new things by observing the behavior of others as well as theconsequences of their behavior. Cultural beliefs or norms affect the way everyone behaves. When people have social encouragement and accessibility, these resources help them adopt healthy behavior. However, obstacles and barriers make it difficult to achieve the goal. Observational Learning and Normative Beliefs Observational learning is when a person learns by observing others and the consequences of that behavior. Although people can learn good habits by observing others, bad habits can also be learned. Before changing health habits, it is important to evaluate their intentions. A person's intentions can be determined by what they believe to be the norm. People may shy away from completing a task that might not be socially approved. On the other hand, people may engage in negative behavior because the social norm around them approves of that behavior. For example, a teen may start vaping because their peers think it makes them look "cool" and may be part of a popular vaping group at school.Social Support, Barriers, and OpportunitiesSocial support is one part important to human beings. By creating social support, changes in health behaviors can be made. Interpersonal relationships promote an individual's well-being and help people get through difficult times. For example, if a person is diagnosed with skin cancer and feels stressed, a friend can provide them with information about skin cancer treatment that would put them at ease. Even with the social support people receive, health behavior change can be difficult because of the barriers they face. SCT theory explains that barriers can be cognitive and environmental. Beliefs about obstacles can interfere with task performance. For example, thinking about the health cost associated with colorectal cancer screening may prevent someone from doing it. Behavioral factors The ability of people to successfully achieve a goal is associated with the development of necessary skills, as Bandura calls behavioral capacity. People can create short-term and long-term intentions to achieve their goals. Making changes to complex behaviors often requires learning new behavioral skills. To accomplish a particular task, people must have the ability and know how to accomplish it. For example, a person may know that good wound care is important for healing, but does not know how to change the dressing. Health care providers can show patients how to change dressings and have patients relearn them. Before completing a task, it is important to set a goal that you can achieve. Assessing an individual's readiness can help practitioners understand whether the patient is likely to change behavior. Bandura describes that one must be able to participate in planning one's future and create an internal standard for how to achieve that goal. Reinforcement and PunishmentReinforcement and punishment can be positive and negative. An example of positive reinforcement is a child eating fruits and vegetables at dinner, and as a reward watching their favorite cartoon for half an hour after dinner. The child might associate eating vegetables with television. She will probably eat more vegetables thinking about the reward she will receive. On the other hand, punishment can have positive consequences. For example, if a childperforms poorly in school due to excessive screen time, parents may punish him and make him get his cell phone back. Reinforcement and punishment can both strengthen and weaken health behaviors. Strengths and Weaknesses Albert Bandra's social cognitive theory is one of the most studied theories in psychology. Healthcare professionals use this theory as a core concept to create behavioral health interventions for their patients. Studies show that people use this SCT theory in managing conditions such as arthritis, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. Social cognitive theory is widely used by advanced practice nurses because it can help patients bring about behavioral change on a personal and collective level. Health promotion, health practices, and environmental change strategies can help manage many chronic illnesses and mental health disorders. This model promotes the health of young people since many bad habits begin in childhood. Bandura's model encourages preventing the adoption of bad habits before they start. Additionally, providers in the field of sports and exercise medicine prefer the SCT model to help their patients. One of the strengths of this theory is that it provides practical guidelines for its application, as well as instructions for intervention and policy. Social cognitive theory primarily focuses on changing individual behavior. Often, environmental influences are overlooked when studying individuals. Therefore, the interventions designed do not adequately address an individual's problem. One criticism of SCT theory is that researchers can influence outcome expectations. For example, when conducting research, researchers may offer only a few options as incentives. Depending on the different personalities of individuals, the incentives they chose may result in different results.outcome. Additionally, researchers often use interview questions to determine people's self-efficacy. While self-reporting is a great way to learn details about a person, it can also be reported inadequately. Bennett et al. conducted a study to evaluate the relationship between depression and medication adherence. Study results were determined by participants' self-reported responses. The researchers found that the responses indicated a lack of understanding and dishonesty. Even with its limitations, SCT theory is one of the most influential theories used in human behavior change. Last point: philosophical foundations When developing a theory, it is very crucial to take into account the point of view of the theorist. A philosophical position has an impact on how the theory will be constructed. Based on Bandura's SCT theory, it follows the paradigm of constructivism. From a constructivist perspective, the type of ontology this theory follows is relativism. Relativism means that multiple realities exist at the individual level. A person's reality can be changed depending on their social environment. Constructivists believe that people can acquire knowledge by interacting with the world and possibly hold multiple truths that are considered correct. Anything that is not objective does not exist in the real world. Their epistemology is that during experimentation, a researcher and his participants interact with each other to construct the.
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