BANDURA, ALBERT

(1925- ) Canadian-born U.S. psychologist. Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, Bandura received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1952 under the direction of Arthur I. Benton (1909- ). He joined the faculty of Stanford University, where he remained throughout his career. Bandura is best known for his work on social learning theory. Early in his career, he studied the familial origins of antisocial aggression in adolescent boys, and wrote his findings in the books: Adolescent Aggression (1959), and the later Aggression: A Social Learning Analysis (1973). Bandura and his colleagues explored the role of observational learning. In famous studies using a Bobo doll, Bandura showed that, contrary to the predictions of behaviorist theory, humans could learn through social modeling in the absence of positive reinforcement. Bandura's subsequent work centered on various topics in the field of social- cognitive theory, especially self-regulatory processes and their role in motivation and behavior. Among his other important works are Social Learning Theory (1977), Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory (1986), and Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control (1997).