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Albert Bandura

Albert Bandura, currently aged eighty and endowed chair of the psychology department at Stanford University, sought to bring the area of psychology together. When he began his career, receiving his Ph.D. in 1951, the behaviorist view was widely held. The humanistic approach was in its infancy. What was needed at the time was empirical evidence of cognitive processes. Bandura's focus led him to field experiments on social learning and aggression, targeting the role of modeling. He is a pioneer in this area and continues to teach and conduct research today.

Bandura's processes of observational learning involve far more than just the imitation of an action. He describes four interrelated processes: attentional, retention, motor production and motivational processes. A number of variables influence the attentional process. Characteristics of the model, of the subject and of the action and perceived rewards and/or consequences all play a part in the attention given to a model. The system of retention is employed when a modeled behavior cannot be immediately performed. The subject must retain the information in a cognitive way for use at a later time. The motor production process is the act of carrying out the specific behavior in the same manner as the original was observed. Finally, the motivational process describes the internal decision to model the behavior based on consequences we value versus punitive measures we wish to avoid.
The environment and the specifics of a situation are important components in the decision to carry out any given behavior. To illustrate this point I will describe an incident reported by a nine-year-old boy, hereafter referred to as Tom, and his ten-year-old sister, hereafter referred to as Terese.
Tom and Terese had been close when they were younger, but have since grown apart due to differences in maturity level. Tom has been trying hard to win back his former playmate by adapting his own interests to hers. Terese has recently been captivated by pro wrestling and avidly talks about and watches the matches on television. Tom has always been a non-aggressive child given to active but non-violent play, preferring the use of his imagination to any real physical risk taking. Terese, on the other hand, does enjoy risk taking and very often finds herself in dangerous situations.
To blame the incident I am about to describe on the regular viewing of pro wrestling would be simplistic. It does,

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