Social Cognitive Theory

Course Information
- Course Code: HBHEQ 600
- Topic: Social Cognitive Theory
- Instructors:
- Kristi E. Gamarel, PhD (she/her)
- Victoria Davis, PhDc (she/her)
- Date: October 20, 2025

SCT Placement in Course Sequence:
- Weeks 1-3: Framing
- Weeks 4-5: Critical Perspectives & Stress
- Week 5: Cognitive Theories
- Week 6: Motivation & Readiness & Purpose
- Week 7: Contextual Drivers (behavioral economics & social support)
- Week 8: Place-Based Theories
- Week 9: Social Cognitive Theory

Origins:
- SCT evolved from Social Learning Theory.
- Albert Bandura's Contributions:
- In the 1960s, began exploring how individuals learn through observing others, beyond rewards or punishments.
- Realization of the role of self-efficacy—individual beliefs in their capabilities—in learning processes.
- 1980s Expansion:
- Broadened to include collective efficacy.
- Applications extended to media, health promotion, and community change.

Definition:
- Behavior, person, and environment are in a continuous cycle of influence on each other.
- Individuals actively shape their surroundings while also being shaped by them.
- SCT serves as a link between individual behaviors and structural contexts.

Constructs and Definitions:
- Self-efficacy:
- The belief in one’s ability to execute behaviors necessary to produce specific performance attainments.
- Outcome Expectations:
- Anticipated consequences resulting from actions or behaviors.
- Observational Learning:
- Learning that occurs through observing the behaviors of others and the outcomes of those behaviors.
- Reinforcement:
- The processes through which behaviors are strengthened or weakened by rewards and punishments.
- Collective Efficacy:
- The shared belief in the group's ability to achieve collective goals.

Study by Wethington & Kessler (1986):
- Goal:
- To increase engagement in HIV care among racially and ethnically minoritized communities.
- Approach:
- Utilized short, culturally tailored narrative role-model stories based on real community experiences.
- Each narrative:
  - Illustrated an individual overcoming barriers (e.g., transportation, stigma, mistrust, medication side effects).
  - Modeled problem-solving and perseverance in accessing care.
  - Provided practical information including clinic particulars, transportation routes, and contact details to enhance access.

Case Study:
- CHASS Center's Food-as-Medicine Program in Detroit:
- Key Question:
  - “Who actually gets to benefit?”
- SCT indicates behavior is heavily influenced by environmental contexts.
- Environments are shaped by elements such as power dynamics, safety, and accessibility.

Critical Race Theory (CRT):
- Examines systemic racism embedded in institutions, moving beyond individual bias.
- Challenges the notion of “neutral” knowledge or colorblind policies.
- Prioritizes the lived experiences of those affected by social inequities.
Counter-Storytelling:
- Arises from CRT, providing a method to contest predominant narratives.
- Employs personal stories to reveal the influence of power and privilege regarding whose voices are recognized.
- Validates personal experiences as valuable knowledge for both theory and social change.

Group Discussion Questions:
- Identify whose voices are present in Berkley-Patton et al. (2009) narratives.
- Consider whose perspectives may be overlooked or marginalized.
- Discuss the dominant narrative of HIV care that the intervention risks reinforcing.
- Explore how a counter-storytelling framework may complicate or contest that narrative.
- Envision how this could alter the design and success metrics of the intervention.

Revelations from Counter-Stories:
- Understanding who learns from these narratives under specified conditions.
- Identifying who has authority over those conditions.
Re-evaluating SCT Constructs through a Structural Lens:
- Self-efficacy:
- Can be constrained by systemic barriers.
- Collective Efficacy:
- Expands definitions to include community advocacy and mobilization.
- Observational Learning:
- Encompasses witnessing resistance and the establishment of care networks.
- Reinforcement:
- Is governed by broader systems and institutions, moving beyond peer influence.
- Environment:
- Encompasses social, economic, and political structures that impact individual and collective actions.

Examination of how cognition, motivation, stress, support, and spatial contexts interrelate.
Inquiry into the intricacies when interpreting one theoretical lens through another.
Identifying boundaries between individual, interpersonal, and community models versus structural theories.
Potential of counter-storytelling to surface overlooked aspects in existing theories.

Upcoming Topics:
- October 22: Diffusion of Innovations
- October 27: Implementation Science
- October 29: Healthcare System-based Theories & Group Work
- November 3: Social Media
- November 5: Community and Participatory Strategies
- November 10: Group Work
- November 12: Social vs. Structural Drivers
- November 17: Social Ecological Model Revisitation
- November 19: Planning Models
- November 24: Political Advocacy
- November 26: Thanksgiving Break
- December 1-3: Presentations
- December 8: Presentation & Wrap-Up