Showing papers by "Albert Bandura published in 1992"

Self-Motivation for Academic Attainment: The Role of Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Personal Goal Setting

Abstract: The causal role of students’ self-efficacy beliefs and academic goals in self-motivated academic attainment was studied using path analysis procedures. Parental goal setting and students’ self-efficacy and personal goals at the beginning of the semester served as predictors of students’ final course grades in social studies. In addition, their grades in a prior course in social studies were included in the analyses. A path model of four self-motivation variables and prior grades predicted students ‘final grades in social studies, R = .56. Students’ beliefs in their efficacy for self-regulated learning affected their perceived self-efficacy for academic achievement, which in turn influenced the academic goals they set for themselves and their final academic achievement. Students’ prior grades were predictive of their parents’ grade goals for them, which in turn were linked to the grade goals students set for themselves. These findings were interpreted in terms of the social cognitive theory of academic sel...

Self-regulatory mechanisms governing gender development.

Abstract: This study tested predictions about development of gender-related thought and action from social cognitive theory. Children at 4 levels of gender constancy were assessed for their gender knowledge, personal gender standards, and gender-linked behavior under different situational conditions. Irrespective of gender constancy level, all children engaged in more same-sex than cross-sex typed behavior. Younger children reacted in a gender stereotypic manner to peers' gender-linked behavior but did not regulate their own behavior on the basis of personal gender standards. Older children exhibited substantial self-regulatory guidance based on personal standards. They expressed anticipatory self-approval for same-sex typed behavior and self-criticism for cross-sex typed behavior. Their anticipatory self-sanctions, in turn, predicted their actual gender-linked behavior. Neither gender knowledge nor gender constancy predicted gender-linked behavior. These results lend support to social cognitive theory that evaluation and regulation of gender-linked conduct shifts developmentally from anticipatory social sanctions to anticipatory self-sanctions rooted in personal standards.

Social cognitive theory of social referencing.

Abstract: Effective functioning rests, in part, on the ability to predict the likely effects of different events and actions and to regulate one’s behavior accordingly Without such anticipatory capabilities, people would be forced to act blindly in ways that often are fruitless, if not injurious Information about the outcomes likely to flow from different events and actions is conveyed by environmental predictors One can be informed about what to expect by the distinctive features of places, persons, and things, by social signals in the words, affective expressions, and actions of others, and by functional rules that codify observed regularities

On rectifying the comparative anatomy of perceived control: Comments on “Cognates of personal control”

Abstract: The recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the nature, origins, and functions of human agency. Among the mechanisms of personal agency, none is more central or pervasive than people's beliefs in their capability to regulate their own functioning and to manage events that affect their lives. Such self-beliefs affect how people think, feel, strive, and behave, Peterson and Stunkard (1992) have taken on the unenviable task of characterizing and contrasting alternative theories of perceived control, with only a few pages devoted to each theory. It is difficult to do justice to important conceptual differences, complexities of processes, and bodies of evidence regarding comparative predictive power in a cursory review. This invited commentary addresses a number of misinterpretations of self-efficacy theory and research.