What it shows
Bandura’s triadic reciprocal determinism, the model of causation behind social cognitive theory. Personal factors (beliefs, expectations, feelings and biology), behavior (what the person does) and environment (the social and physical surroundings) each influence the other two, in both directions.
One student runs through all three boxes: they expect the course to be useful, attend the lectures and receive the lecturer’s teaching. Bandura uses the same case: lecturers do not influence students unless they attend their classes.
How to read it
Each curved two-headed arrow is one link, and its label gives both directions of influence.
Personal factors and behavior: beliefs guide actions, and the results of actions reshape beliefs.
Environment and personal factors: surroundings shape beliefs, and people evoke reactions. Behavior and environment: actions change the surroundings, which in turn shape actions.
Bandura stresses that the three influences need not be equally strong or act at the same time.
The model
- Personal factors: beliefs, expectations, feelings and biology. Example: expects the course to be useful.
- Behavior: what the person does. Example: attends the lectures.
- Environment: the social and physical surroundings. Example: the lecturer’s teaching.
Ways to use it in teaching
Ask students to replace the lecture course with a habit of their own and fill in all three boxes.
In a framework workshop, each two-headed arrow is two hypotheses, one per direction.
Contrast it with a one-way model such as the theory of planned behavior and ask what the reciprocal arrows add.
To see how a theory like this becomes the framework of a study, read our theoretical framework examples.
Sources
- Bandura, A. (1989). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of child development (Vol. 6, pp. 1–60). JAI Press.
