Chapter 17 Bandura: Social Cognitive Theory 503The father, then, by virtue of his role and status as a father and perhaps in conjunc-
tion with his size and strength, has a decided effect on the child. Thus, the final
causal link is completed (P ⇒ E).
Chance Encounters and Fortuitous Events
Although people can and do exercise a significant amount of control over their
lives, they cannot predict or anticipate all possible environmental changes. Bandura
is the only personality theorist to seriously consider the possible importance of
these chance encounters and fortuitous events.
Bandura (1998a) defined a chance encounter as “an unintended meeting of
persons unfamiliar to each other” (p. 95). A fortuitous event is an environmental
experience that is unexpected and unintended. The everyday lives of people are
affected to a greater or lesser extent by the people they chance to meet and by
random events they could not predict. One’s marital partner, occupation, and place
of residence may largely be the result of a fortuitous meeting that was unplanned
and unexpected.
Just as fortuity has influenced the lives of all of us, it has shaped the lives
and careers of famous personality theorists. Two such examples are Abraham
H. Maslow (Chapter 9) and Hans J. Eysenck (Chapter 14). As a young man, Maslow
was exceedingly shy, especially with women. At the same time, he was passionately
in love with his cousin Bertha Goodman, but he was too bashful to express his love.
One day while he was visiting his cousin’s home, Bertha’s older sister pushed him
toward his beloved cousin, saying: “For the love of Pete, kiss her, will ya!”
(Hoffman, 1988, p. 29). Maslow did, and to his surprise, Bertha did not fight back.
She kissed him, and from that moment, Maslow’s previously aimless life became
transformed.
Also, Hans Eysenck, the noted British psychologist, came to psychology
completely by chance. He had intended to study physics at the University of
London, but first he had to pass an entrance examination. After waiting a year to
take the exam, he was told that he had prepared for the wrong test, and that he
would have to wait another year to take the right one. Rather than delaying his
education further, he asked whether there might be any scientific subject that he
could pursue. When told that he could enroll in a psychology program, Eysenck
asked, “What on earth is psychology?” (Eysenck, 1982, p. 290). Eysenck, of course,
went on to major in psychology and to become one of the world’s most famous
psychologists.
Fortuity adds a separate dimension in any scheme used to predict human
behavior, and it makes accurate predictions practically impossible. However,
chance encounters influence people only by entering the triadic reciprocal causa-
tion paradigm at point E (environment) and adding to the mutual interaction of
person, behavior, and environment. In this sense, chance encounters influence
people in the same manner as do planned events. Once a chance encounter occurs,
people behave toward their new acquaintance according to their attitudes, belief
systems, and interests as well as to the other person’s reaction to them. Thus,
whereas many chance encounters and unplanned events have little or no influence