Showing papers by "Albert Bandura published in 2011"

Mechanisms of moral disengagement.

Abstract: This chapter analyzes how the mechanisms of moral disengagement function in terrorist operations. The mechanisms of moral disengagement involve cognitive and social machinations but not literal self-deception. Acting on moral or ideological imperatives reflects a conscious offense mechanism, not an unconscious defense mechanism. Cognitive restructuring of behavior through moral justifications and palliative characterizations is the most effective psychological mechanism for promoting destructive conduct. Moral justification is brought into play in selecting counterterrorist measures. Public intimidation is a key element that distinguishes terrorist violence from other forms of violence. People who are objects of terrorist attacks, in turn, characterize their retaliatory violence as trifling, or even laudable, by comparing them with carnage and terror perpetrated by terrorists. Terrorist behavior evolves through extensive training in moral disengagement and terrorist prowess, rather than emerging full blown. The various disengagement practices form an integral part of the training.

Impact of Family Efficacy Beliefs on Quality of Family Functioning and Satisfaction with Family Life

Abstract: The present study tested with 142 families a structural model of the interplay of perceived dyadic and collective forms of efficacy within the interdependent family system, and how these different forms of efficacy are structurally related to quality of family functioning and satisfaction with family life. Dyadic parent-child efficacy, dyadic spousal efficacy, and filial efficacy were linked to family satisfaction through the mediating impact of collective family efficacy. A high sense of collective family efficacy was accompanied by open family communication and candid disclosure by adolescents of their activities outside the home. Collective family efficacy contributed to parents' and adolescents' satisfaction with their family life both directly and through its impact on quality of family functioning. An alternative structural model in which quality of family functioning affects the different forms of perceived family efficacy and family satisfaction provided a poorer fit to the data.

A Social Cognitive perspective on Positive Psychology

Abstract: This article addresses positive psychology from the agentic perspective of social cognitive theory. There is a difference between pursuing happiness and achieving it through meaningful pursuits. Perceived well-being and satisfaction are derived from how one lives one's life not just from episodic good feelings or transient pleasures. Social cognitive theory addresses well-being and satisfaction in terms of commitment to a valued future and enablement to take the steps to realise it. The state of one's satisfaction and well-being is determined, in large part, relationally rather than solely by objective life conditions. Self-satisfaction and subjective well-being are rooted in temporal comparison on whether one's life is better or worse than in the past; social comparison on whether the quality of one's life compares favourably or unfavourably with the quality of life others enjoy; and aspirational comparison on how one's life status measures against the life ambition one set for oneself.

Self-deception: A paradox revisited

Abstract: A major challenge to von Hippel & Trivers's evolutionary analysis of self-deception is the paradox that one cannot deceive oneself into believing something while simultaneously knowing it to be false. The authors use biased information seeking and processing as evidence that individuals knowingly convince themselves of the truth of their falsehood. Acting in ways that keep one uninformed about unwanted information is self-deception. Acting in selectively biasing and misinforming ways is self-bias.

But What About that Gigantic Elephant in the Room

Abstract: When I began my career, more than half a century ago, behaviorism had a stranglehold on the field of psychology. It focused almost entirely on learning by direct experiences through paired stimulation and response consequences. This type of theorizing was at odds with the conspicuous social reality that much of what people learn is through the power of social modeling. Direct experience is an unmercifully tough teacher. Hence, people shortcut the tedious, costly, and potentially hazardous process of trial and error by observational learning from the myriad modeling influences in their social and symbolic environment.