Introduction
Psychologists have formulated various theories to explain how human beings acquire complex and diverse attributes throughout their lifespan. Albert Bandura formulated one of these theories; the social cognitive theory, based on early works of social and behavioral psychologists. This theory seeks to explain the psychosocial development process and other integral factors in development of human behavior.
The social cognitive theory postulates that, “human behavior is a triadic, dynamic, and reciprocal interaction of personal factors, behavior, and the environment” (Stone, 2003, p. 2). To the behavioral theory, Albert Bandura added cognitive component as it plays an interacting role in mediating stimulus and response during the formation and development of any behavior.
Therefore, cognitive processes regulate the interaction of environment, personal factors, and behavior in a triadic reciprocal determinism. However, ethnocentric attitudes limit the social cognitive theory in cultural interaction because different people believe in different things shaped by environment, culture, and personal behavior amongst other factors.
Person-Behavior Interaction
In triadic reciprocal determinism, personal factors influence the formation and development of behavior throughout the lifespan of human beings. Personal factors such as thoughts, affect, beliefs, actions, and biological factors interact with behavior thus shaping behavior of an individual. “Expectations, beliefs, self-perceptions, goals and intentions give shape and direction to behavior as what people think, believe, and feel affect how they behave” (Bandura, 1989, p. 3).
Cultural beliefs and values affect the way people of a certain culture behave. Given the social cognitive theory and diversity of the cultural beliefs and values in the world, the behavior of an individual in a certain culture will reflect their cultural beliefs and values. Hence, the diversity of cultures and values in the world would result into diverse behaviors that affect cultural interaction.
Hindrance to effective cultural interaction results from varied cultural beliefs and values that shape the behavior of an individual and the society. The interactive relationship of personal factors and their behavior have significant effects in determining the ultimate behavior.
In the reciprocal interaction of personal factors and behavior “the behavior that is carried out will then affect one’s thoughts and emotions … also accounts for biological personal factors, such as sex, ethnicity, temperament, and genetic predisposition and the influences they have on behavior” (Stone, 2003, p. 3).
The ethnocentric limitation of the social cognitive theory emanates from the influence of cultural and ethnical beliefs that structure the behavior within a given society. The ethnocentric perspective of different cultures due to people’s beliefs complicates cultural interaction of individuals.
Person-Environment Interaction
Reciprocal interactions of personal and environmental factors result into comprehensive development of behavior relative to certain cultural environment. According to Bandura, “human expectations, beliefs, emotional bents and cognitive competencies are developed and modified by social influences that convey information and activate emotional reactions through modeling, instruction and social persuasion” (1989, p. 4).
In a cultural environment, there are social factors such as sex, race, age, size, and physical appeal, which influence the behavior development. For instance, personal attributes and cultural influences make an individual to conform to a given cultural set up.
For there are diversified cultures, each culture shapes its members according to their cultural set up and ultimately, diverse and unique behaviors emerge in the society, which affect effective interaction of cultures. In the view of the fact that every culture is proud to uphold its beliefs and values for posterity, cultural influences enhance ethnocentric attitude.
Personal and cultural factors nurture ethnocentric attitude in the society because cultural beliefs and values reflects social environment, which in turn determines individual’s behavior and capacity to interact within various cultures. “Although people are endowed with the receptive and expressive capacity for vicarious arousal, social experience largely determines the level and pattern of emotional activation,” (Bandura, 1989, p. 30).
Consequently, the vicarious affective learning in response to the cultural environment elicits cultural responses that enhance the ethnocentric attitude. In a cultural society, where cultural environment dictates the development of behavior, it is quite hard to develop harmonious society where diverse cultural values cannot feature in any human behavior or character.
The social cognitive theory favors ethnocentric development of behavior in the society for it dictates cultural environment to interact with personal attributes during the process of developing behavior.
Behavior-Environment Interaction
This is another factor in triadic reciprocal determinism, which underscores the reciprocal interaction between environment and behavior. During the process of behavior development, human beings strive to alter environmental conditions and concurrently conform to the environmental conditions they create therein. In the case of cultural environment, human beings have been shaping cultural destiny throughout the centuries and conforming to it, thus reciprocal effect of behavior and environment determines human behavior.
Stone argues that, “…people are both products and producers of their environment because a person’s behavior will determine the aspects of their environment to which they are exposed, and behavior is, in turn, modified by that environment” (2003, p. 3).
Therefore, if members of a certain cultural group are ethnocentric, then, they influence their cultural environment to ethnocentric, and subsequently, the environment pushes the entire society to nurture ethnocentric attitudes. Therefore, the resulting condition enhances ethnocentric culture that affects effective cultural interaction.
Social cognitive theory views environment as a dynamic entity that has significant effect on the development of behavior. Given the fact that cultural environment has overwhelming influence on the members of any society, the effectiveness of interaction among diverse cultural groups reflects their background values and beliefs, which affect behavior. The belief of ethnocentric and strong attachment to cultural beliefs and values determines cultural behavior.
For example, a cultural environment that is ethnocentric coupled with members’ willingness to conform to the same environment would result into ethnocentric society. Bandura argues that, “people tend to select activities and associates from the vast range of possibilities in terms of their acquired preferences and competencies” (1989, p. 4). Therefore, in a cultural set up, members of a certain cultural group would acquire ethnocentric attitude, which is a limitation of the social cognitive theory.
Conclusion
According to the social cognitive theory, development of human behavior depends on the triadic factors that interact in a reciprocal manner. The triadic factors are behavior, environment, and personal factors. Cognitive processes mediate and regulate these triadic factors objectively in order to develop a certain behavior.
From cultural perspective, social cognitive theory elicits ethnocentric attitude, which affects effective interaction of diverse cultural groups. Based on the cultural values and beliefs that have overriding effects on the behavior of the respective members of the various cultural groups, there is a tendency for members to nurture ethnocentric attitude due to their cultural environment. Hence, ethnocentric limits interaction of diverse cultures.
References
Bandura, A. (1989). Social Cognitive Theory. Annals of child development Journal, 6, 1-60
Stone, D. (2003). Social Cognitive Theory. Psychological Theory Journal, 1-6.