Describe the triadic reciprocal causation model and note its relationship to social cognitive theory. Provide an example of how the model works

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Triadic reciprocal causation is the basis of social cognitive theory. It proposes that learning results from the interactions among personal characteristics (such as cognitive processes, self-perceptions, and emotional states), behavioral patterns (such as observing, evaluating, and making changes to one's behavior), and environmental factors (such as the occurrence of reinforcing and punishing consequences for particular behaviors, explanations and modeling of various skills and processes by others, and the type of task one is working on). The triadic model is arranged so that each component can influence the other two, giving it its reciprocal quality.
One example given in this chapter (p.297) involved a student solving mathematical problems. One of the student's salient personal characteristics is a high level of self- efficacy for solving mathematical problems. That is, the student feels prepared or competent to successfully carry out this task. This motivates the student to work on mathematical problems rather than other tasks and to persist when the problems are hard to solve. Being able to figure out correct solutions to mathematical problems raises the student's self-efficacy for solving additional and even more difficult mathematical problems in the future. This example demonstrates how a personal characteristic influences a behavior pattern and how that behavior pattern, in turn, influences that same personal characteristic.