Social Cognitive View & Reciprocal Determinism
The social-cognitive theory states that an individual’s thoughts serve as the inspiration for their emotions and behaviors. The theory supports the idea that changing the way one thinks impacts the personality of the person and therefore the mind becomes the controlling factor in all psychology. Unlike other theories, it focuses more on individual determination rather tha past experiences to determine future actions. Reciprocal determinism shows how the social-cognitive theory works by alleging that personal thoughts and thoughts made by the social environment define a person’s behavior.
Social Cognitive Terms
An internal locus of control, a crucial social-cognitive point, allows a person to feel that they can control the events that happen to them. An external locus of control is the opposite, with the person believing that the actions in their life is controlled by outside factors from the environment. These loci of control establish the cognitive and social aspect of the theory, respectively. Learned helplessness is when someone learns that behaving helplessly is easier than responding to the environment, even when the person can better himself through the action it ignores. Explanatory style refers to how people experience something and explain it; there are three types of explanatory style. Personal explanatory style makes a person see themselves as the cause of the event. Permanent explanatory makes the person see the event as unchangeable and happening to them every time. Finally, pervasive attributional style makes a certain experience’s positive or negative result apply to all zones of life.
Criticisms of the Social Cognitive View
Social-cognitive theory is well-sustained by scientific research, being the most recent personality theory, and it might as well be the closest to the actual explanation of human personality that the world has found so far. Due to this scientific reputation, social-cognitive theory has permanently become a portion of professional psychology. Weaknesses of the theory include the unclear and intangible nature of thoughts, even though thoughts are the dynamic power of the theory. Furthermore, the social-cognitive theory is lacking in the development area of personality psychology, and if it were exposed to people like Jung, Adler, and Horney, would be viewed as a placeholder for personality psychology rather than a permanent solution.