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When We Think We Can, We Do. When We Think We Can’t, We Don’t.

Albert Bandura, one of the world’s most influential social psychologists, who revolutionized Behaviorism and gave rise to Social Cognitive Theory, would have turned 99 in December.

Born in 1925 in Alberta, Canada, he was the youngest of six children, raised by Eastern European immigrants who instilled in him the value of hard work and education. 

Bandura enrolled in college after high school and went west to Vancouver at his parents' urging. His early morning commute to campus left a hole in his schedule that needed filling, and by chance, he chose an Intro to Psychology course, igniting a lifelong passion.

After getting his BA in psychology, he moved to the States. He got his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology, studying under Kenneth Spence, a well-known learning theorist, and Kurt Lewin, a social psychology pioneer. 

Social Learning Theory, a branch of psychology focused on observational learning, lit a fire under Bandura. In the early 1960s, he began conducting experiments that challenged the prevailing view of Behaviorism, which had taken the field of psychology by storm.

Behaviorism is the belief that human behavior is shaped and influenced through conditioning by external stimuli—punishments and rewards—and that cognitive processes, or internal experiences, play no role. 

Bandura was skeptical.

He understood that cognitive processes were not fixed and demonstrated how, even without direct commands, people learn by imitating what they see. 

In his most famous study, the Bobo Doll Experiment, he illustrated how children learn aggressive behavior simply by watching violent adult models. 

The study showed children a film of adults yelling aggressive insults and beating up Bobo, a doll. Afterward, the same children were allowed to play with Bobo. Those who’d seen the film imitated the adult violence and aggression they’d seen and beat the doll.

They’d received no rewards or punishments.

They’d simply imitated behavior they’d witnessed. 

The doll study challenged the prevailing view that internal processes did not influence or shape behavior and offered a revolutionary perspective that accounted for cognitive processes. 

It was clear to Bandura the role of cognitive processes and social influence in shaping behavior. This gave rise to his Social Cognition Theory (SCT). This theory considered how people acquired and maintained behaviors, including the environments in which these behaviors were performed.

Bandura set out to prove that behavior results from an interplay between a person’s history, environmental influences, cognitive processes, and emotional factors. His interest in vicarious learning led him to develop the concept of self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy is the belief in one’s capacity to execute behaviors to achieve a specific performance. It reflects confidence in one's ability to control behavior despite external motivation and social environment. 

He had a theory about fear.

The problem wasn’t the fear itself; instead, it was the belief that we were helpless to overcome our fear. 

To prove his theory, he developed the "Guided Mastery" technique. He had snake-phobic participants observe non-phobic individuals model a desired behavior (interacting with snakes) and then had them imitate the behavior.

The interactions were broken down into steps, beginning with looking at photographs of snakes and leading up toward live physical interactions with the snakes.

Patients with higher self-efficacy were more likely to approach and interact with snakes, while those with lower self-efficacy tended to avoid them. 

For those with higher self-efficacy, the experience cured their phobias in hours and empowered them to face other fears with greater confidence – the essence of self-efficacy in action.

He identified four primary sources that influenced a person’s self-efficacy.

1. Mastery experiences. When we perform a task successfully, it strengthens our sense of self-efficacy. 

2. Vicarious experiences. Witnessing people similar to us completing a task through sustained effort raises a person’s belief that they, too, are capable of mastering comparable activities.

3. Social persuasion. When we receive encouragement from others, we become persuaded that we have the skills and capabilities to succeed. This helps us overcome our self-doubt and focus on the task at hand.

4. Emotional states. Our psychological responses also play a role in self-efficacy. Our moods, level of stress, and physical reactions (whether due to lack of sleep or hunger, among other things) impact how a person feels about their capabilities in particular situations. 

People with high self-efficacy, he posited, were likelier to look at complex tasks and situations as challenges to master and not as threats to avoid. 

By recognizing our capacity for observation, self-reflection, and self-regulation, we can harness the power of self-efficacy to achieve our goals, overcome obstacles, and reach our full potential across various life domains.

People with high self-efficacy tend to set ambitious goals, persist through obstacles, recover quickly from setbacks, and ultimately achieve tremendous success.

Conversely, those with low self-efficacy are more prone to avoiding challenges, giving up quickly, and experiencing heightened anxiety.

The idea is that when you believe you’re capable of dealing with a challenge and employ the spirit of someone who achieves their goals, it helps you face obstacles and moves you closer to where you want to go. 

By setting achievable goals and breaking them down into smaller, manageable steps (just how we face our anxious fears), we can apply Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy to our lives. 

By experiencing small successes along the way, we can build our self-efficacy and develop the confidence to tackle more challenging goals in the future.

Watching others do what we desire teaches us new skills, reinforces our capacity, helps us to face our fears, and improves our health. 

When we worry we can’t, we can either believe the worry—which isn’t a fact but a belief born of fear—or think that we can. This is why self-reflection, which leads to self-awareness, is a valuable tool that can help us develop a strong sense of self-efficacy.

Cultivating a growth mindset, emphasizing that abilities can be developed through effort and perseverance, can also help individuals build self-efficacy. Rather than viewing setbacks as failures, individuals with a growth mindset see them as opportunities for learning and growth.

When we think we can, we do. When we think we can’t, we don’t.

If you want to read Bandura’s work, here’s an article from 1977 on Social Learning Theory and his book Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control" (1997).

The Self-Efficacy Scale has been repurposed and applied in various fields. Here’s a peek at a Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Teachers.

Got any thoughts about this piece? Let me know in the comments!

Until next week, I will remain…