Relationship of Learner to the Environment

     Bandura says behaviorists and humanists believe the relationship between the individual and the environment is unidimensional, and notes this is wrong. The unidimensional perspective suggests that individual's operate on and shape their environment.  Instead, Bandura suggests that environmental influences on behavior are mediated by a variety of internal personal factors. These include:
    a) selection of events to observe
    b) ways events are judged

Therefore, in describing behavior Bandura includes 3 factors:
        Behavior (B)
        Environment (E),
        Perceptions and Actions (P).



Bandura describes the interaction between these variables as multi-directional.  Every factor influences every other factor.  As an example, assertiveness training leads to behavior which activates new environmental reactions which in turn results in increased self-confidence which mediates future behavior.  This process is referred to as. . .

Reciprocal Determinism: effects are produced by events rather than causal external factors.  These events include the individual's perceptions.



 

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