Social Learning Theory

Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, in Mundare, Alberta, Canada. He attended school at an elementary and high school in one and received his bachelor's from the University of British Columbia in 1949. Before he entered college, he spent one summer filling holes on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon. Bandura graduated from the University of Iowa in 1952 with his Ph. D., and after graduating, took a post-doctoral position with the Wichita Guidance Center in Kansas. In 1953, Bandura accepted a position teaching at Stanford University. There he collaborated with student, Richard Walters on his first book, "Adolescent Aggression" in 1959. He was President of the APA in 1973 and received the APA's Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution in 1980. In 1999 he received the Thorndike Award for Distinguished Contributions of Psychology to Education from the American Psychological Association, and in 2001, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy. He is also the recipient of the Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology Award from the American Psychological Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Western Psychological Association, the James McKeen Cattell Award from the American Psychological Society, and the Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Psychological Science from the American Psychological Foundation. In 2008, he received the Grawemeyer Award for contributions to psychology. His works include Social Learning Theory, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory, and Self-efficacy : the exercise of control.