Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 16. Bandura: Social
Cognitive Theory(^490) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
to internal forces such as instincts, drives, needs, or intentions. Cognition itself is de-
termined, being formed by both behavior and environment.
Triadic reciprocal causation is represented schematically in Figure 16.1, where
B signifies behavior; E is the external environment; and P represents the person, in-
cluding that person’s gender, social position, size, and physical attractiveness, but
especially cognitive factors such as thought, memory, judgment, foresight, and so on.
Bandura uses the term “reciprocal” to indicate a triadic interaction of forces,
not a similar or opposite counteraction. The three reciprocal factors do not need to
be of equal strength or to make equal contributions. The relative potency of the three
varies with the individual and with the situation. At times, behavior might be the
most powerful, as when a person plays the piano for her own enjoyment. Other times,
the environment exerts the greatest influence, as when a boat overturns and every
survivor begins thinking and behaving in a very similar fashion. Although behavior
and environment can at times be the most powerful contributors to performance,
cognition (person) is usually the strongest contributor to performance. Cognition
would likely be activated in the examples of the person playing the piano for her own
enjoyment and the survivors of an overturned boat. The relative influence of behav-
ior, environment, and person depends on which of the triadic factors is strongest at
a particular moment (Bandura, 1997).
An Example of Triadic Reciprocal Causation
Consider this example of triadic reciprocal causation. A child begging her father for
a second brownie is, from the father’s viewpoint, an environmental event. If the fa-
ther automatically (without thought) were to give the child a second brownie, then
the two would be conditioning each other’s behavior in the Skinnerian sense. The
484 Part V Learning Theories
B
PE
FIGURE 16.1 Bandura’s concept of reciprocal causation.Human functioning is a
product of the interaction of (B) behavior, (P) person variables, and (E) environment.
From Albert Bandura, 1994. Social cognitive theory and mass communication. In J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.),
Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research(p. 62). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Reproduced by permission.