Chapter 109. Reciprocal Determinism

Learning Objectives

attributional style
a person’s characteristic way of explaining the causes of someone’s behavior as a product of either the person’s internal disposition or the external situation
cognitive
refers to the mental activities involved in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and reasoning
conditioning
a form of learning by making a connection between two stimulus events, or between a behavioral response and a consequence that follows it
environment
external influences from the physical and social world
interaction
the combined result of influences from two or more factors; typically, the presence of one factor changes the impact of the other factor
observational learning
learning by watching others rather than from direct experience
personality
the enduring characteristics of an individual that distinguish him/her from other people
reciprocal determinism
the interaction, or two-directional influences, among an individual’s personality and cognition, the individual’s social environment, and the individual’s behavior
social-cognitive perspective
an approach to studying personality that explains behavior in terms of the interaction between a person’s individual characteristics and the social environment
trait
characteristic of a person’s behavior across situations; used to describe personality
Reciprocal Determinism
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true
true
 The image is a flow diagram in a circle.  Double headed arrows connect the three elements in the diagram, which are behavior, external factors, and personal factors.
Learning Objectives:

Describe reciprocal determinism in the context of the social-cognitive perspective on personality.

Identify the three factors that interact to influence a person’s behavior.

Review

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1. The social-cognitive perspective on personality emphasizes the interaction between the person and the situation. Each of us has characteristic patterns of thinking and acting, but we spend our lives in a physical and social environment that interacts with our behavioral tendencies.

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2. Clearly, our social environment shapes us through the processes of conditioning and observational learning. We adjust our behavior to imitate the models we admire, and we respond to the rewards and punishments delivered by the other people around us.

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3. In addition, our cognitive processes (how we perceive our environment and what we think about our situation) and our personality traits (our characteristic ways of acting and reacting to situations) also influence our behavior.

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4. Psychologist Albert Bandura's concept of reciprocal determinism expands the possibilities for interaction by adding the person's behavior as a separate factor that can influence the person (personal factors) and the situation (environmental factors), as well as be influenced by them. All three of these factors operate in an interlocking way, each partially determining the others.

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5. Reciprocal determinism is the key to understanding the social-cognitive perspective on personality. Determinism is about causes—what factor or factors cause something to happen. In this context, reciprocal means "back-and-forth" or "going both ways."

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6. For example, let’s consider what might happen if you are invited to jump off a 200-foot-high bridge with a bungee cord attached to your legs. Personal factors, such as your personality traits (willingness to take risks), interact with your past behavior (perhaps you were injured in a risky activity) to determine your likelihood of considering a bungee jump. External factors (your friends lining up to jump) interact with other personal factors (your judgment of the danger involved) to determine your actual behavior—to jump or walk away. Personal factors (your personality traits) influence your choice of friends, who in turn influence your decision to jump. At every step along the way, the influences go in both directions—as predicted by the principle of reciprocal determinism.

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7. Here is another example directly related to your present situation. Your past academic success (behavior) influenced your decision (personal factor) to attend college (environmental factor), which now shapes your current behavior. To extend this example back to your high school days, your attributional style (a personal factor referring to your tendency to explain someone’s behavior as caused either by internal qualities or the external situation) determined the way you interpreted your good grades (behavior). If you attributed the high grades to your hard work rather than luck or easy exams, you had more confidence that you could succeed at the college level.

Practice: Reciprocal Determinism in Action

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Practice: Reciprocal Determinism in Action

Select the "Step" buttons to move through this example of reciprocal determinism.

Step 1: Jim and Jenna are in calculus, and both performed poorly (behavior) on the first test. The low score on the first test (environmental factor) has influenced their self-esteem (personal factor). But each of them has a different attributional style (personal factor) that the will interact with the feedback from the professor (environmental factor) to produce different behaviors in the future.

Step 2: Differences in attributional style (personal factor) produce two different explanations for a poor score.

Step 3: For both Jim and Jenna, their attributional style (personal factor) will influence what they do to prepare for the next text (behavior).

Step 4: Jim is in a downward spiral in terms of study time (behavior) and test performance, while Jenna is steadily improving. Their behavior is influencing the classroom environment: The professor is influencing their self-esteem (personal factor).

Step 5: Jim and Jenna have both engaged in behaviors that have shaped their environment, but the feedback from the environment has shaped their attitudes and beliefs (personal factor).They started at the same place early in the course, but reciprocal determinism has pushed them in different directions by the end of the course.

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Quiz 1

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Quiz 1

Match the terms to their descriptions by dragging each colored circle to the appropriate gray circle. When all the circles have been placed, select the CHECK ANSWER button.

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Perhaps you should go back to review the concept of reciprocal determinism.
reciprocal determinism
interaction
trait
attributional style
environment
cognitive
refers to the mental activities involved in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and reasoning
external influences from the physical and social world
the combined result of influences from two or more factors; typically, the presence of one factor changes the impact of the other factor
characteristic of a person’s behavior across situations; used to describe personality
two-directional influences among an individual’s personality and cognition, the individual’s social environment, and the individual’s behavior
characteristic way of explaining the causes of someone’s behavior as due to the person’s internal disposition or the external situation

Quiz 2

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Quiz 2

Each of these situations involves one factor influencing another factor. Drag each factor label to an appropriate gray area to match the direction of influence within that situation. When all the labels have been placed, select the CHECK ANSWER button.

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Perhaps you should go back to review the concept of reciprocal determinism.
Environmental factor
Personal factor
Behavior
Environmental factor
Personal factor
Behavior
Bakari, a 10-year-old boy, believes that no one likes him. So, he is rude and mean to all his classmates.
Because Bakari has started acting so rude, none of his classmates want to be friends with him anymore.
Because Bakari doesn't have any friends, he feels worthless and depressed.

Conclusion

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The image is a flow diagram in a circle.  Double headed arrows connect the three elements in the diagram, which are behavior, external factors, and personal factors.
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