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The 25 best phrases by Albert Bandura

The 25 best phrases by Albert Bandura

April 25, 2024

The Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura (born in 1925) is one of the most influential researchers in modern psychology.

He developed different theories that he included in his extensive theory of social learning. Among his major contributions, he highlighted the influence of the apprentice on the human environment that surrounds him. His theory was opposed to the behavioral postulates of authors such as B.F. Skinner or John B. Watson.

Quotes, quotes and reflections by Albert Bandura

So, in today's article we have proposed to pay homage to this researcher who so influenced the theories of human learning.

Throughout these famous quotes, Albert Bandura explains the cognitive keys to understand the way in which the learning processes are developed and its final result: knowledge.


1. People who believe they have the power to exercise some degree of control over their lives are healthier, more effective and more successful than those who do not have faith in their ability to make changes in their lives.

A phrase in which Albert Bandura talks about the locus of internal control and its benefits.

2. There are countless studies on the negative propagation of work pressures in family life, but few on how job satisfaction improves the quality of family life.

In this case, Albert Bandura emphasizes a very little investigated aspect.

3. Moral justification is a defense mechanism that we all use. Destructive behavior becomes personally and socially acceptable by portraying in the service of moral ends. This is the reason why most of the resources against violent media tend to fall on deaf ears.

In this sentence, Bandura talks about defense mechanisms.


4. People's beliefs about their abilities have a great effect on those abilities.

If you think you're good at something, you'll keep trying to improve and, in a while, you're likely to be a true expert. A phrase that tells us about the Pygmalion Effect.

5. To achieve success, individuals have a sense of self-efficacy, of fighting together to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequalities of life.

Self-efficacy is that feeling of being able to meet our goals. It is a skill intimately linked with the feeling of success and control.

6. We have developed a better understanding of everyday issues than the most famous of university professors.

A reflection that shows us how the passion for the knowledge of daily life is more powerful than the study systematized in a laboratory.

7. Psychology can not tell people how they should live their lives. However, it can provide them with the means to effect personal and social change.

Why is Psychology important? Well, maybe it does not show us the way, but it does provide us with some effective resources.


8. Learning is bi-directional: we learn from the environment, and the environment learns and modifies thanks to our actions.

Another reflection on learning and on the way in which knowledge changes the human and physical environment.

9. Trusting yourself does not guarantee success, but failure to do so guarantees failure.

A motivating phrase that is, perhaps, the most famous of the Canadian author.

10. Achievement is socially judged by ill-defined criteria, so that one tends to depend on others to find out how they are doing.

It is a mistake to value our own achievements from the perspective of other individuals.

11. Fortunately, most human behaviors are learned through observation through the modeling of other subjects.

We learn by observation, not by instruction.

12. If certain environmental conditions are met, the most kind and educated people can commit acts that are absolutely atrocious.

Do you know the Stanford Prison experiment? Bandura explains this phenomenon so investigated in social psychology.

13. Individuals are producers of their life circumstances, and not only product of them.

We have the ability to modify our environment.

14. Most of the images on which we base our actions are based on vicarious learning.

In this article we explain what vicarious learning is.

15. It's ironic: talented people with high aspirations are especially vulnerable to feelings of failure even though they can achieve great successes.

The higher the expectations, the higher the threshold from which we feel satisfied with what we have achieved.

16. We are more interested in theories that explain failure than in those that explain success.

Paradoxically, we are more attracted to knowing the negative phenomena.

17A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions is not capable of explaining the complexity of human behavior.

This phrase by Albert Bandura is a frontal criticism of behaviorism.

18. People who see themselves as highly effective act, think and feel differently than those who perceive themselves as ineffective. The former produce their own future, rather than simply predicting it.

In this reflection he talks about the locus of internal control.

19. Even the remarkable achievements of performance do not necessarily increase the perception of self-efficacy.

Although we achieve remarkable successes, self-efficacy is a virtue that is not reinforced by this type of environmental circumstances.

20. You can not afford to be realistic.

An excess of realism anchors us to mediocrity.

21. Once consolidated, reputation is very difficult to change.

If you have a label on it, it will be really difficult to change it.

22. People who have low self-confidence think that their achievements are due to external factors, rather than their own skills or abilities.

In this case, it tells us about the external control locus.

23. Perceived self-efficacy predicts academic dropout.

One of the biggest causes of school failure.

24. The satisfaction that individuals feel about the activities they perform is influenced by a long list of elements and standards of self-evaluation.

How we perceive success and personal fulfillment is somewhat less subjective than we might imagine.

25. Unsafe people avoid social comparisons that pose a threat to their self-esteem.

And maybe for this reason they tend to isolation and lavish themselves less on social events.


Albert Bandura: The Power of Soap Operas (April 2024).


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