SCT is perhaps the best known of the social/environmental theories and is often used in public health. SCT explains human behavior as the result of personal factors, behaviors, and environmental factors in interaction with one another. Personal factors include individual cognition - the ability to observe and understand others behavior, to anticipate the outcomes of a given behavior, to be reflexive about one s experiences, and to have self-efficacy.

SCT began as an offshoot of behavioral psychology. If you remember back to week 5, behavioral psychologists realized that certain behaviors could be conditioned (taught) by administering rewards or punishment as appropriate. A rat will learn to push the red button if it receives food for doing so; it will avoid pushing the blue button if it is shocked for doing so.

In the 1960s, psychologist Albert Bandura argued that humans are capable of learning not only through direct experience, but through vicarious experience as well. If my brother is spanked for stealing a cookie, I will learn that stealing cookies is a bad idea. I do not need to be punished myself to learn this lesson. Bandura s notion of vicarious learning was called Social Learning Theory (SLT).

Over time, Bandura and other refined the theory as they acknowledged the significance of other constructs related to an individual s interaction with an environment until it reached its modern formulation as SCT. One of the most important of these is self-efficacy. Vicarious learning is thought to happen more easily if the individual has self-efficacy. Individuals must feel that they are able to perform the new behavior and that they are able to overcome any relevant barriers to doing so. Another added concept is that of identification. Here, SCT argues that learning is more likely if the individual modeling (performing) the behavior is similar to the observer. Finally, SCT also emphasizes the importance of reciprocal determinism. Reciprocal determinism emphasizes the fact that individuals both influence and are influenced by their environment.

Key constructs of SCT

According to SCT, changing a behavior is a function of internal factors, external factors, and reciprocal determinism.

Individual (internal) characteristics - particularly self-efficacy, behavioral capability, outcome expectations and expectancies, self-control and emotional coping. Self-efficacy, as noted above, refers to the confidence that an individual feels about their ability to perform a particular activity, overcoming any barriers to so doing.

Coupled with self-efficacy, behavioral capability is a crucial determinant of behavior. Behavioral capacity refers to the ability of individuals to perform a given behavior. In order to perform a behavior, the individual must know what that behavior is, and how to perform it.

The expectations an individual holds about the outcomes of a given behavioral change are also significant. Outcome expectations include thoughts about the likelihood of a given outcome. Individuals commonly learn these expectations by extrapolating from their own experiences in similar situations, by witnessing others in similar situations, from hearing about the experiences of others (be it personally or through the media; often such communication is intended to be persuasive). Outcome expectancies are the values attached on a given outcome -- is it positive or negative? Likely to be rewarded or punished?

Finally, the level of self-control in terms of making a behavioral change and emotional coping abilities to deal with the emotional experiences that come with a given behavioral change are also significant internal factors.

Environmental (external) factors -- The term environment refers to all factors external to the person that can affect the behavior of the person. Thus we consider the significance of both the social/physical environment surrounding individuals. The social environment includes all individuals who influence the individual - friends, family members, coworkers, neighbors, etc. It can also include celebrities and others whose behavior is disseminated by the media and who may serve as behavioral models.

The social environment is so crucial for SCT because it is through interactions with others that observational learning (vicarious learning) takes place. Individuals are able to learn which behaviors are positive and negative by witnessing the behaviors of others coupled with the reinforcements (rewards and punishments) that are given to others for those behaviors.

The interactive process of reciprocal determinism, where a person interacts with an environment, receives a response from the environment, adjusts behavior, interacts again, etc.

These factors, in combination, influence behavior decisions. The precise ways in which each factor matters is still under investigation - do all factors matter for all people? Do all factors matter equally? Do the factors interact with one another? Yet these core components do in fact seem relevant for understanding health behaviors.

Stop and Think:
Think about these factors. How might we use them to understand why an overweight teen may begin a diet and exercise routine? What expectations and expectancies would need to exist? What observational learning could take place? What reinforcements might be relevant?

Critiques of SCT

SCT is very complex and involves numerous constructs. As such, some argue that SCT can be viewed as less of a theory than a related grab-bag of constructs. Almost any phenomenon can be explained given the multitude of constructs available for use under this framework. SCT has gone through a number of evolutions; as it evolved, it retained earlier constructs, increasing the general complexity of SCT and reducing its clarity as a theory. A good theory is both parsimonious and one which can be falsified. As such, its complexity serves as a mark against it on both counts.

A second criticism of SCT is that the constructs central to this theory have not been rigorously studied and the appropriate measurement of each is not clear. Not only must scholars more thoroughly research the relevance of each construct and clarify the means through which it should be measured, but research is needed to verify that SCT can be useful in explaining health behavior for multiple populations - minorities, lower income individuals, and the like.