Piaget And Bandura's Theory Of Motivation And Behavior

Developmental psychology is a branch of psychology associated with characterizing how humans acquire knowledge, mature, and acclimate themselves throughout the course of their lives (American Psychological Association, 2015). Over the years, countless theories have been proposed to differentiate these deviations and to investigate the causes and mechanisms of human motivation and behavior, such as Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygtosky’s varying takes on cognitive development, and Lawrence Kohlberg and James Marcia’s interpretations of an individual’s moral development (Snowman and McCown, 2012: Kohlberg, 1971; Marcia, 1980). Psychologist Albert Bandura (1989), however, offers a different perspective through

Originally influenced by three weaknesses observed in the behaviorism model of learning (i.e., limited behavior range, the theory did not account for fluctuations in behavior, and only one type of learning was studied), Bandura’s (1989) model of the social cognitive theory of human development in turn has served as a catalyst for developmental psychologists and still remains its influence to this

However, Bandura (1989) states that what separates humans from their mammalian counterparts is the notion that they do not always react instinctively to their microsystem or immediate environment nor is their behavior steered by past experiences. To Bandura (1989), human behavior is regulated by the third stage in human development –the capability of forethought or anticipation. Bandura defines forethought as the culmination of the ability to symbolize and learn vicariously from the models in one’s life so as to make intentional or purposeful action by weighing possible outcomes (p. 43). According to