Albert Bandura

Ideal for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses, or for professional use, the book is based on Bandura's theory that those with high self-efficacy expectancies - the belief that one can achieve what one sets out to do - are healthier, more effective, and generally more successful than those with low self-efficacy expectancies. He begins with a discussion of theory and method: what self-efficacy is and how it can be developed. Bandura then demonstrates how belief in one's capabilities affects development and psychosocial functioning during the course of life, underscoring provocative applications of this work to issues in education, health, psychopathology, athletics, business, and international affairs. Ideal for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses, or for professional use, the book is based on Bandura's theory that those with high self-efficacy expectancies - the belief that one can achieve what one sets out to do - are healthier, more effective, and generally more successful than those with low self-efficacy expectancies. He begins with a discussion of theory and method: what self-efficacy is and how it can be developed. Bandura then demonstrates how belief in one's capabilities affects development and psychosocial functioning during the course of life, underscoring provocative applications of this work to issues in education, health, psychopathology, athletics, business, and international affairs.

Presents a comprehensive theory of human motivation and action from a social-cognitive perspective. This insightful text addresses the prominent roles played by cognitive, vicarious, self-regulatory, and self-reflective processes in psychosocial functioning; emphasizes reciprocal causation through the interplay of cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors; and systematically applies the basic principles of this theory to personal and social change.--

"How do otherwise considerate human beings do cruel things and still live in peace with themselves? Drawing on his agentic theory, Dr. Bandura provides a definitive exposition of the psychosocial mechanism by which people selectively disengage their moral self-sanctions from their harmful conduct. They do so by sanctifying their harmful behavior as serving worthy causes; they absolve themselves of blame for the harm they cause by displacement and diffusion of responsibility; they minimize or deny the harmful effects of their actions; and they dehumanize those they maltreat and blame them for bringing the suffering on themselves. Dr. Bandura's theory of moral disengagement is uniquely broad in scope. Theories of morality focus almost exclusively at the individual level. He insightfully extends the disengagement of morality to the social-system level through which large-scale inhumanities are perpetrated...Moral disengagement will transform your thinking about how otherwise considerate people can behave inhumanely and still feel good about themselves"--Book jacket.

Adolescents' beliefs in their personal control affect their psychological well-being and the direction of their lives. Self-efficacy in Changing Societies analyzes the diverse ways in which beliefs of personal efficacy operate within a network of socio-cultural influences to shape life paths. The chapters, by internationally known experts, cover such matters as development of personal agency in infancy, competency through the life span, and the role of familial, educational, and cross-cultural factors in the social construction of personal and collective efficacy. The volume addresses important issues of human adaptation and change that will be of considerable interest to people in the fields of developmental psychology, education, health, and sociology.