Psychology

There has been little or no course that put emphasis on the seminal works of Canadian psychologists. Many students, and even faculty, fail to recognize the contributions made by our countrymen in the over-all development of psychology, precisely because the topic never made it to mainstream consciousness. Several reasons attributed to the exclusion of the Canadian viewpoint include, but are not restricted to (a) the undeniable influence of U.S. texts, (b) the late emergence of Canadian psychological research, and (c) the French-English split (Connors 2002). In this effort to acknowledge the existence of a Canadian psychological perspective, we bring to mind one of the most esteemed psychologists that went beyond the borders of Canada to find acclaim and recognition in the international sphere Albert Bandura. In this paper, we shall look into his history and find how his immediate environment has influenced him and his career, and furthermore, how his findings have influenced other psychologists, particularly that from his own nation.

Bandura is well known in the psychology circle as the man behind the Social Learning Theory, a study that posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling. It is known as the bridge between the cognitive and behaviorist learning because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation (). In line with this paper, Bandura is also known for initializing a different approach to understanding theories on behavior. He believes that it is not the environment that causes behavior alone rather, the world and the person influence each others formation (Boeree 2006).

In this sense, we now look at the world that has influenced Bandura, and how, in turn, he has influenced it. Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, the youngest and only boy in a brood of six to immigrant parents. They lived in Mundare, in Northern Alberta, Canada , about 50 miles east of Edmonton. This small hamlet comprised of 400 inhabitants, mainly immigrants from Poland and Ukraine. It was a quiet, rural town that relied mostly on farming as a main source of income. Banduras father also tackled this back-breaking work, aside from laying tracks for the trans-Canada railroad, just to make ends meet for the struggling family. Bandura recalls, The beginning of this pioneer life was a tough struggle. In the first year, a layer of the thatched roof on the house my father built had to be dismantled and fed to the cattle because of a severe drought (Pajares 2004). Several other tragedies unfolded for the family the loss of a young daughter during the wake of the flu pandemic, the relinquishing of a patch of farmland during the Great Depression, and the death of a son during a hunting accident. All this put together would make Banduras childhood seem dark and miserable, but the family never lost hope and always continued their positive attitude. They knew how to celebrate life, and they also worked hard to create a festive family atmosphere (Pajares 2004).

But the one thing from Banduras childhood that truly influenced his determination to succeed and excel were lessons he learned during his elementary and high school years. The town of Mundare had only one school, and it was woefully short of resources and teachers. At one instance, an entire curriculum of mathematics relied solely on one textbook. The students, Bandura included, bright and starving for knowledge, had to be proactive and learn on their own accord. Bandura recalls, The students had to take charge of their own education (Pajares 2004). And it was take-charge and winning attitude that has propelled him and his fellow students to excel and see further knowledge in universities all over the world. It also helps that his parents, though lacking of educational merits, believed in the power of a good education. As an example, his father pushed himself to learn three languages, and also served as a member of the school board in the district that they lived in. Without a doubt, these factors, though initially would be seen as a handicap, was actually the enabling factor that served him well into his later years. The content of the textbook is perishable...but the tools of self-directedness serve on well over time (Pajares 2004).

In 1946, Bandura left Mundare to seek higher education in the University of British Columbia and finally graduating with the Bolocan Award in psychology. Actually, his entrance into the world of psychology came as an accident and he details this experience in his 1982 article The Psychology of Chance Encounters and Life Paths where he argues that chance encounters play a prominent role in shaping the course of human lives (Bandura 1982, p. 747) His treatise doesnt center on the occurrence of these fortuitous encounters, but rather focuses on how we can predict its impact on our lives. He mentions in the text that in order to take control of ones life and its consequences a person should have a strong sense of personal agency that would require a development of competencies, self-percepts of efficacy, and self-regulatory capabilities for exercising self-directedness (Bandura 1982, p. 754). Back in the university, Bandura decided to take an additional morning class. In the library he happened upon a course catalog and found a psychology course that would serve as an excellent filler. It wouldnt take long before Bandura became enthralled and decided to concentrate on it. With his experience in Mundare and the self-directedness that he cultivated as a high-school student, it wasnt that hard for him to find his niche in psychology, though it wasnt his first interest.

Another major influence in the works of Bandura was Robert Sears study on the familial antecedents of social behavior and identificatory learning. He met Sears upon his acceptance as faculty at Stanford University, where he has remained to pursue his career. At that time Sears was working on the study of familial antecedents, and Bandura, inspired to pursue a different route, began field studies on social learning and aggression in collaboration with Richard Walters, his first doctoral student. They theorized several concepts that have now become fundamentals in understanding behaviorism and aggression. One, which was mentioned at the beginning of the paper, is called reciprocal determinism, in which a person doesnt react solely on the activities in the world. Rather, environment does cause behavior, but also behavior can cause the environment itself. This led to the theory that this is derived from an interaction of three things the environment, behavior, and the persons psychological processes (Boeree 2006). Following this, we see a deep involvement of imagery and pictures in the a persons learning capacity. Our psychological process, then, consists of our ability to entertain images in our minds, and language (2006). This work then led to a more detailed analysis of aggressive behavior among teenage boys from moderately well-off families and average backgrounds. Using his theories on observation, Bandura, along with Walters, found that these teenagers are aggressive because they monitor the same behavior in their parents. Though the parents would not tolerate clear aggression at home, they demanded that their sons be hostile when it comes to settling disputes (Pajares 2004). This pivotal conclusion completely changed how we see the influence of the home environment on young children and reject the Freudian-Hullian study that direct parental punishment would internally inhibit childrens expression of aggressive drives. Bandura published this treatise in his first book, Adolescent Aggression (1959), and developed it further in a subsequent book entitled Aggression A Social Learning Analysis (1973).

With Dorrie and Sheila Ross, Bandura took the study a step further by conducting a controlled experiment that sought to understand if the Freudian-Hullian assumption is actually workable. The children in the experiment were exposed to aggressive behavior as shown by social models on the now famous Bobo doll. The children, remarkably, adopted this same novel behavior on the Bobo doll. Through this, they carved out a new development in child psychology, pointing out that children could learn new behavioral patterns without actually performing them or receiving rewards. This research was published in 1963 in a book entitled Social Learning and Personality, and let Bandura to conclude that modeling was a powerful process that could account for diverse forms of learning (Pajares 2004). After this research, and with a growing legion of students and colleagues, Bandura initiated more inquiries into the understanding of child development and modeling, widening his scope to linguistics and others. He and his students have come to develop some of the most important studies on educational psychology (Zimmerman and Shunk, 2002 p. 7).

In 1974, as part of the psychology circles recognition of Banduras works and contributions, they elected him to the presidency of the American Psychological Association. Latter on he was made president, as well, of the Western Psychological Association, and was appointed Honorary President of the Canadian Psychological Association. Aside from these honors, he was also awarded several awards including the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the American Psychological Association, the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and twelve honorary degrees from universities including University of Salamanca in Spain, Freie Universitat Berlin, Penn State University, and his own alma mater, the University of British Columbia.

At the prime of his career, Bandura has influenced many psychological views through his seminal works. He has practically revamped the concept of education and the process that it entails. There is now a widespread awareness that modeling experiences and self-efficacy and self-regulatory processes greatly influence childrens coping with frustration, academic stressors, and failure (Zimmerman and Shunk, 2002 p. 19). He also challenged traditional views on teaching, such as that of Piaget, Kohlberg and Chomsky wherein they argue that it  is impossible to teach younger children higher ethical learning because of their ages innate egocentrism. Bandura argues that this assessment is unduly pessimistic and insensitive (p. 20). His interest in age-related shifts in childrens functioning also paved the way for educators to understand at what approximate age it is viable to understand a childs social learning experiences and goals. But Banduras influence doesnt just lie on his breakthroughs in educational psychology. Life-span development, discussed in his article The Psychology of Chance Encounters and Life Patterns, talk about the diverse effects of choosing a course in life and how these effects can be properly predicted through an assessment of the factors that ultimately form our sense of self. Banduras works are also critical in the development of self control therapies that were derived from his studies of self-regulation that are being used in to rehabilitate people with addictions (Boeree 2006).

Looking at Banduras life, we see how it has reflected on his work. From his prediction of life patterns to his understanding of self-efficacy, it all clearly boils down to his history. We might say his biographies, with just a mere mention in the beginning, completely undermine his Canadian descent. But, like Bandura, we should view this in a more positive light. In the end, he has not just come to represent the capabilities of Canadian psychologists (whove risen despite any lack of resources), but also shows the capacity that psychology can bring to understanding ourselves and the world around us.