Social Cognitive

Theory: An Agentic
Perspective
ALBERT BANDURA (2001)
Human agency operates through phenomenal and functional
consciousness
Temporal extension of agency:
Intentionality
Forethought
Self-regulation
Self-reactive
Self-reflectiveness
Agent
Intentionally make things happen by ones actions
Embodies endowments, belief systems, self-regulatory capabilities
and distributed structures and functions through personal influence
Paradigm Shifts in Psychological
Theorizing
1. Behavioristic principles
1. Input-output model
2. Controlled by environmental stimuli
2. Linear model
1. Multilevel neural networks with intentional functions
2. Consciousness (cognitive regulation)
3. Eliminativism
1. Activation of network structure at a subpersonal level
4. Agentic factors
1. Forethoughtful, generative, reflective capabilities



Physicalistic Theory of Human
Agency
People
Hosts of internal mechanisms orchestrated by environmental events
Agents of experiences, not undergoers of experiences
Tools: sensory, motor, cerebral systems
Accomplish meaningful, directional, statisfactory tasks and goals
Exploring, manipulating, and influencing environement
Regulating motivation and activities
Social cognitive theory
Interactive agency
Human mind
Generative, creative, proactive, reflective, not just reactive
Cognitive agents regulate actions by cognitive downward causation
and upward activation by sensory stimulation
Psychological discipline
1. Microanalysis of inner workings of the mind
Processing, representing, retrieving, using coded information
Disembodied from interpersonal life
2. Macroanalytic workings of socially situated factors
Socially interdependent, richly contextualized, conditionally
orchestrated within the dynamics of various societal subsystems and
interplay


Core features of Human Agency
Intentionality
Representation of a future course of action to be performed
Forethought
Provides direction, coherence, and meaning of ones life
Self-reactiveness
Motivator, matching personal standards
Moral agency: inhibitive/ proactive
Self-reflectiveness
Efficacy belief
Agentic Management of Fortuity
Unintended meeting of persons unfamiliar with each other
chance favors only the prepared mind
Self-development
Cultivating personal resources
Safeguarding
Expand self-regulative capabilities to resist social traps
Modes of Human Agency
1. Personal
Direct: cognitive, motivational, affective, choice processes
2. Proxy
Socially mediated
3. Collective
Group attainments