A comprehensive and foundational analysis of learning and motivated action from one of the undisputed masters of the psychological sciences

The third and final work of psychology’s most eminent modern figure, Dr. Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective on Human Nature delivers a singular, book-length introduction to the ideas of the most influential psychological scientist of the last half-century. In the book, the author crafts a theory that combines the determinants of thought and action while identifying processes through which agents exert substantial control over their actions and the courses of their development.

Readers will also find:

• A thorough introduction to the author’s agentic-perspective argument
• A comprehensive analysis of the author’s perspective on moral behavior and moral disengagement
• An application of the basic principles of Social Cognitive Theory to social change for human betterment

An essential and groundbreaking resource for educational, health, and personality psychologists, Social Cognitive Theory: An Agentic Perspective on Human Nature will also prove indispensable to organizational behavior theorists and researchers.

ALBERT BANDURA, PhD (deceased), the most highly cited figure in contemporary psychology, was known internationally for his groundbreaking lines of research on observational learning, behavioral change, moral behavior, and self-efficacy, and for his Social Cognitive Theory of human nature.

Daniel Cervone (Editor) is Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  He earned his bachelor’s degree at Oberlin College, and his Ph.D. at Stanford University, where his graduate advisor was Albert Bandura.  In addition to his faculty position at UIC, Dan has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a visiting faculty member at the University of Washington and Sapienza University of Rome.  Dan is author of numerous journal and book publications in personality psychology and related fields, including Personality: Theory and Research, 15e (Cervone & Pervin, 2023; Wiley & Sons).

Preface

Foreword

Acknowledgements

1. 1.     A Psychology of Human Agency
2. 2.     Social Modeling and Psychological Processes of Observational Learning
3. 3.     Perceived Self-Efficacy as a Foundation of Agency
4. 4.     Shaping One’s Future through Self-Regulation
5. 5.     Morality and the Disengagement of Moral Standards
6. 6.     Applying Science for Human Betterment

References