Social cognitive theory

lecture 7

Social Cognitive theory

developed and refined by Albert Bandura “human health is a social matter, not just an individual one. A comprehensive approach to health promotion also requires changing the practices of social systems that hav widespread effects on human health.”

How people learn by observing others and how personal, behavioral, and environmental factors influence each other. it emphasizes that learning occurs through imitation, modeling, and reinforcement, not just through direct experience. A key concept in SCT is recrprocal determinism, meaning behavior, personal factor (like beliefs) and the environment all interact and shape one another.

Reciprocal Triadic Causation

it is central to social cognitive theory

relationships among individuals cognitions, behavior, and environment are reciprocal

the triangle operates as a WHOLE, never as independent parts

environment-behavior-person

5 Key Constructs of Social Cognitive Theory

1. knowlegde

2. perceived self-efficancy

3. outcome expectations

4. goal formation

5. socio-structural factors

Define Knowledge 3 parts 

1. precondition

2. content

3. procedural

Knowledge

1. precondition for behavior change, a “gateway” for it “knowledge is a necessary, but not sufficient, basis for behavior change”

2. content knowledge- understanding advanatges and drawbacks of helath behavior

3. procedural knowledge- understanding how to engage in a given health behavior

Self-Efficacy Construct

a persons perception of their ability to perform specific behavior (e.g. a person belives they can successfully stick to a strict workout routine)

~is task specific

~a perception

~low self-efficacy → fleeting/no effory to perform behavior

Self Efficacy Construct 4 Methods

1. Physiological State

2. Verbal Persuasion

3. Vicarious Experience

4. Enactive Attainment

Physiological state

Learning to reduce fear/other negative emotions associated with health behavior (e.g. someone who has a fear of needles can learn relaxation or breathing techniques to stay calm during vaccinations.)

Verbal Persuasion

verbally convincing people to perform a behavior (e.g. a doctor telling a patient “I know you can quit smoking, you have already made so much progress”

Vicarious Experience

Visualizing other similar people perform behavior (e.g. watching a friend make progress in their weight loss journey pushes you to do the same “if they can do it can do it”

Enactive Attainment

actual performance of a behavior (e.g. when a person successfully sticks to a healthy diet for a month, that success boosts their confidence to continue making healthy food choices)

Outcome Expectations Construct

anticipated outcomes from engaging in behavior (Belief that behavior will pay off to lead to behavior change)

-prevention paradox- hard to convince people that their actions paying off because nothin happening )no heart attack/ stroke)

Outcomes of OEC

Observablilty- learning through watching other (vicarious learning) + learning directly through pesonal experience

Level of immediacy- short term to long term

Expectancies VS Expectations

1. personal evualtion of anticipated outcome, refer to the value or importance a person places on the outcome how much they care about the result (e.g. valuing better health as a result of excercisin)

~Y will occur following X, and a positive or negative value is attached to Y

~ “ncies” nices value attached

2. what the person believes will happen (e.g. believing that excercising regular will lead to weight loss)

Outcome Expectations + Self Efficacy Combined

they combined determine a persons’s level of motivation toward adopting heakth protective behavior

2 questions

Will adopting the health protective behavior reliably lead to a valued outcome?

Can I realistically perform the necessary behaviors?

Goal Formation Construct

Breaking down goals into progressive sub-goals to lead to long term behavior outcomes

SUB-GOALS-

well defined and easy to measure

may not have clinical benefit but will enhance self-efficacy and expectancies, thus motovating continued behavior that may eventually lead to clinically meaningful outcomes

Socio-Structural factors

enviromental  facilatitors and barriers that influence a person’s ability to perform a behavior (positive outcome expectancies + sufficient levels of percienved self efficacy)

Is parallel to concept of percienved behavioral control in the Theory of Planned Behavior

3-fold stepwise implementation of 3 levels of Readiness

Bandura makde this to adopt a given health behavior

Centered on sef-efficacy and outcome expectations, making them different from other stae models

The 3 levels of readiness

1. High self efficacy & strong outcome expectations

~little, if any intervention is needed

2. Doubts about self efficacy & weak outcome expectations

~multiple intervention points will be required to move them to level one so they can progress tho behavior chane

3. Belief that personal control over behavior is lacking

~ intensive intervention required, the goal involves personal agency - the perception of having any control in performing the behavior