The 3 Factors of Reciprocal Determinism

The 3 Factors of Reciprocal Determinism Theories Social Psychology Print What Is Reciprocal Determinism? This theory explores the role our behavior plays in our environment By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Updated on December 21, 2018 Rubberball/Nicole Hill / Getty Images More in Theories Social Psychology Behavioral Psychology Cognitive Psychology Developmental Psychology Personality Psychology Biological Psychology Psychosocial Psychology According to psychologist Albert Bandura, reciprocal determinism is a model composed of three factors that influence behavior: the environment, the individual, and the behavior itself. According to this theory, an individuals behavior influences and is influenced by both the social world and personal characteristics. This model suggests that these three components are continually interacting with one another. Just as the environment exerts an influence on individual behavior, a persons actions also play a part in influencing the environment. Earlier thought often portrayed children as simply passive recipients of environmental influences, which suggested that they could simply be shaped and molded in whatever way that parents, educators, and other caregivers chose. Reciprocal determinism instead suggested that children play a much more active and interactive role. They do not simply react as a result of learned associations or reinforcements - their own personal characteristics, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors impact how they interact with the world. Behavior Component Reciprocal determinism is the idea that behavior is controlled or determined by the individual, through cognitive processes, and by the environment, through external social stimulus events. So in the case of our troubled student, his dislike of school is being reinforced (and perhaps magnified) by the actions of his teachers and classmates, which hes perpetuating by continuing to act out. For Example: A child who doesnt like school may act out in class, resulting in negative attention from classmates and teachers. The teachers are forced to alter the school environment for this child (and theoretically others like him). Environmental Component The environmental component is made up of the physical surroundings around the individual that contain potentially reinforcing stimuli, including people who are present (or absent). The environment influences the intensity and frequency of the behavior, just as the behavior itself can have an impact on the environment. For Example: So if our student gets yelled at by a teacher for talking in class, it not only has an effect on him but on the classroom environment for the rest of the students, not to mention the teacher. Individual Component The individual component includes all the characteristics that have been rewarded in the past. Personality and cognitive factors play an important part in how a person behaves, including all of the individuals expectations, beliefs, and unique personality characteristics. If our student knows that the teacher is more likely to give him something he wants if he waits until close to the end of the school day to act out, obviously hell tailor his behavior. For Example: So all the factors in our troubled student example affect each other: the child doesnt like school, he acts out, his teachers and classmates react to his behavior, reinforcing his dislike of school and creating a hostile environment. The behavior itself is something that may or may not be reinforced at any given time or situation. Another Example Of course, the situation doesnt have to be a negative one. If our student is a shy girl who usually keeps to herself (the individual/cognitive component), and enters a room on the first day of class to find that all of the other students are already present (the environment), she might try to slip into the back of the class to avoid becoming the center of attention (the behavioral component). But if another student at the front of the room boisterously greets our shy girl and invites her to sit down in an adjacent seat, the environment has introduced a new reinforcing stimulus (the friendly student) that could lead to a change in our shy girls normal routine and a change in her behavior. A Word From Verywell Banduras theory represented an important shift from the behavioral perspective to a more social-cognitive approach to understanding behavior. While the behaviorists suggested that it was the environment that almost entirely shaped individual behavior, Bandura recognized the importance of the bidirectional relationship between individuals, their behaviors, and the environment. This suggests that while people are certainly affected by the things they experience in their environment, they also have the power to exert a change on their situation and circumstances through their own choices and behaviors.