Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

 Core Assumptions and Statements: -

SCT explains how we acquire some of our behaviors, how we maintain them and what we can do to make lasting behavioral changes. It looks at environmental factors such as our physical environment, which could include access to certain foods, size of a room, access to physical tools that help us maintain health. It also looks at our social environment such as our friends and family and the impact their opinions, beliefs, and lifestyles have on us.

1. People learn from observing others. This means that a person can change and learn new behaviors by simply observing a role model. A model is a person that demonstrates a behavior.

2. Learning is an internal process. This means that although a person may observe a new behavior, they do not immediately repeat the behavior. It is first processed internally, and then observed behavior can lead the person to a new behavior or they can choose not to engage in the new behavior. The fact that we learn from others could be called observational learning, however the point to understand here is that the change in behavior does not occur simply from watching others’ behavior, it comes from the cognitive process that happens after the observation.

3. What determines whether a person implements what they’ve observed and processed is whether the behavior is positively reinforced. The first 3 assumptions fit together like this. First, a person observes a behavior, then they process what they’ve learned, and finally they observe if this behavior is reinforced socially. As you can see, there is both a social and a cognitive aspect to whether the person will implement the change.

4. We also choose behaviors based on our goals that we set for ourselves. That is why its important to be intentional with our goals and to understand our true motivations and driving forces.

5. We learn our behaviors from our exposure to feedback from our environment. Once we implement the new behavior, our actions will be reinforced, or punished, by others. Our behavior one way or another will have a consequence. Both the actual reaction from others and the expected consequences of the action play a big factor in our behavior, and specifically whether we continue a new learned behavior. Because of this social feedback, our behavior can change depending who we are with or what environment we are in.

6. Our behaviors that we learn from others eventually become self-regulated. Once we have been reinforced enough from our environment, we will continue to reinforce our behavior to ourselves, without the need for continuous external feedback affirming the behavior. At this point, we will have learned the behavior and it has become unconscious or automatic.