DIGITAL MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY

Lecture 04

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Social cognitive theory
and media

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 Social cognitive theory

 Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) started as the Social

Learning Theory (SLT) in the 1960s by Albert Bandura.

 It developed into the SCT in 1986 and posits that

“learning occurs in a social context with a dynamic
and reciprocal interaction of the person, environment,
and behavior”.

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 Social cognitive theory

 Social cognitive theory, explains how

people learn and behave by observing others,
particularly through the interaction of
personal, behavioral, and environmental
factors.

 People learn by observing others, with the

environment, behavior, and cognition acting
as primary factors that influence development
in a reciprocal relationship.

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 Each behavior witnessed can change a
person's way of thinking. Similarly, the
environment one is raised may influence later
behaviors.

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 REFLECTION 1

 Differences between SCT & SLT

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 Social cognitive theory
Constructs/Concepts

1. Human agency
 This concept suggests that, instead of being just
shaped by environments or inner forces, individuals
are self-developing, self-regulating, self-reflecting
and proactive. Human agency operates within three
modes:
 Individual Agency: A person’s own influence on the
environment;
 Proxy Agency: Another person’s effort on securing the
individual’s interests;
 Collective Agency: A group of people work together to
achieve the common benefits.

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 Human agency has 4 core properties:
1. Intentionality: Individuals’ active decision
on engaging in a certain activities;
2. Forethought: Individuals’ ability to
anticipate the outcome of certain actions;
3. Self-reactiveness: Individuals’ ability to
construct and regulate appropriate
behaviors;
4. Self-reflectiveness: Individuals’ ability to
reflect and evaluate the soundness of their
cognitions and behaviors.
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2. Human capability
 Evolving over time, human beings are featured with
advanced neural systems, which enable individuals
to acquire knowledge and skills by both direct and
symbolic terms.

 4 primary capabilities are addressed as important

foundations of social cognitive theory: symbolizing
capability, self-regulation capability, self-reflective
capability, and vicarious capability

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3. Self-efficacy
 Social cognitive theory posits that learning most
likely occurs if the observer has a great self-efficacy.
According to Bandura, self-efficacy is "the belief in
one's capabilities to organize and execute the
courses of action required to manage prospective
situations"
 Self–efficacy is the extent to which an individual
believes that they can master a particular skill an
individual's self-efficacy plays a major role in how
goals, tasks, and challenges are approached.

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 Individuals with high self-efficacy are more likely to
believe they can master challenging problems and
they can recover quickly from setbacks and
disappointments.

 Individuals with low self-efficacy tend to be less

confident and don't believe they can perform well,
which leads them to avoid challenging tasks.

 Therefore, self-efficacy plays a central role in

behavior performance. Observers who have a high
level of self-efficacy are more likely to adopt
observational learning behaviors.

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Reflection 2
1.What increases or decreases self-efficacy?

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4.Reciprocal Determinism
 This refers to the dynamic interaction
between personal factors, behavior
(actions), and environmental influences
(social and physical surroundings).

 These three components influence each

other, and behavior is shaped by both
internal factors and the external
environment.

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 For example, your thoughts, actions, and
environment all influence each other in a
continuous feedback loop.

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5. Observational Learning (Modeling)

 People can learn new behaviors and acquire

knowledge by observing others.
 This can occur without direct experience,
simply by watching others and noting the
consequences of their actions.
 This is often referred to as "modeling" or
"social learning".

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The process involves 3 steps:

 Attention (noticing the behavior),

 Retention (remembering what was
observed),
 Reproduction (the ability to replicate the
behavior), and motivation (the incentive
to repeat the behavior).

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6. Reinforcement and Punishment
 Reinforcements increase the likelihood of
a behavior being repeated, while
punishments decrease the likelihood.

 These can be external (e.g., rewards or

social approval) or internal (e.g., feelings
of satisfaction).

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 In SCT, reinforcement is not only through
direct experiences but also through
vicarious reinforcement (seeing others
being rewarded or punished for their
actions).

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SCT and media

 Social cognitive theory (SCT) is a theory

that can be used to understand how media
influences people's thoughts and actions.

 Frequently SCT, is used in studies of

media representation, media effects, and
social media.

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Ways SCT relate with Media

 Modeling behavior
SCT suggests that people learn healthy
behaviors by watching others and modeling
them. For example, celebrities wearing seat
belts in movies or public service
announcements can influence people's
behavior

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Ways SCT relate with Media

 Media representation
SCT is often used to study how media
represents race, gender, age, and other
demographics.

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 Ways SCT relate with Media

 Social media
SCT can be used to understand how social
media influences people's behavior. For
example, the ability to personalize social media
has been a topic of interest among researchers.

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Ways SCT relate with Media

 Media effects
SCT is used to study how media can change
people's attitudes or behaviors. For
example, many studies have explored the
impact of media violence on human
behavior.

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Ways SCT relate with Media

 Video games
Video games can be used to increase
minority students' comfort with technology
and their positive attitudes towards STEM.

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 Social cognitive and study of media
effects

 The capacity of humans to think abstractly or

symbolically positions the media as an
important source of information to facilitate
observational learning and increase self-
efficacy to perform given behaviors.

 In turn, social cognitive theory offers a

vantage point from which to examine the
influence of mediated content on audiences’
attitudes and behaviors.

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 social cognitive theory suggests that, for
mediated content to positively affect audience
members’ behaviors, the audience must pay
attention to attractive or similar models
realistically performing relevant behaviors.

 Models engaging in positive behaviors should be

positively reinforced, whereas those engaging in
negative behaviors should be negatively
reinforced.

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Entertainment-education
 Entertainment-education (E-E), is a strategy that
owes its effectiveness to the process of oblique
persuasion by which educational messages are
“sugarcoated” in entertainment content, which
lowers audiences’ resistance and defenses to the
embedded educational messages.

 Example; E-E radio and television efforts have

targeted a range of behaviors and topics, such as
AIDS prevention, gender equity and literacy.

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 E-E programs typically include three types of
characters from which audience members can
learn: positive role models who support a
prosocial value, negative role models who
reject this value, and transitional models who
change from negative to positive models over the
course of the serial or program. Transitional
characters provide particularly relevant models
from which audiences can learn.

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 REFLECTION 3

Thoroughly read the essences of E-E in

today’s society.

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TEST ONE

DATE 11/12/2024
TIME: 18:00 PM

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