Albert Bandura

Meaning: Bandura's social learning theory (later called social cognitive theory) holds that learning can happen by watching a model. The observer's own behavior does not have to be reinforced. Seeing a model rewarded (vicarious reinforcement) makes imitation more likely, and seeing a model punished (vicarious punishment) makes it less likely. Observational learning depends on attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. Bandura also described self-efficacy, a person's belief in their ability to succeed at a specific task, and reciprocal determinism, in which behavior, personal factors and environment influence one another.

On the MCAT: The classic setup is the Bobo doll experiment. Children watched an adult act aggressively toward an inflatable doll, and many later imitated that aggression. Imitation was lower when the model was punished. Questions ask you to name the process (observational learning or modeling), predict how a model's consequences change imitation, or pick the concept from a vignette. Self-efficacy appears in health-behavior and motivation passages: higher self-efficacy generally predicts more effort and persistence.

Common confusion: Observational learning is not classical or operant conditioning, because the observer is not directly paired with a stimulus or reinforced. Learning and performance also differ: a child who saw a punished model may have learned the behavior but not show it. Self-efficacy is task-specific. It is not self-esteem (overall self-worth) or locus of control (whether outcomes are seen as internal or external).