Activity 7.3: Responding to Bandura (2011)

Activity 7.3: Responding to Bandura (2011)

Question: In Albert Bandura’s (2011) piece, “But What About That Gigantic Elephant in the Room?” he states that social cognitive theory is “founded on an agentic perspective toward human self-development, adaption, and change. To be an agent is to influence the course of events by one’s actions” (p. 4). Bandura proposes a dynamic relationship between individuals and their environments. Is Bandura suggesting that through agency, humans have “deliberate, reflective, (and) self-referential” (p. 4) free will within our social/environmental framework or structure? How would psychologists argue this position?

Quotation: Fortuitous means happening by chance or fortunate accident. Bandura states that people “exercise some measure of control over their self-development and life circumstances But there is a lot of fortuity in the courses lives take” (p. 8). People “can make chance happen by pursuing an active life that increases the number and type of fortuitous encounters they will experience. Chance favors the inquisitive and venturesome, who go places, do things, and explore new activities. People also make chance work for them by cultivating their interests, enabling beliefs and competencies. These personal resources enable them to make the most of opportunities that arise unexpectedly” (p. 9).

Personal Connection: Bandura talks about fortuitous events that can have very little or long lasting effects on people. “The types of settings in which one moves, and the types of people who populate those settings make some types of intersects more probable than others. Hanging out in a University library will spawn different intersects than hanging out with the Hell’s Angels” (p. 9).  The story of meeting my husband when I was a freshman and he was a senior in college is a story of serendipity, or chance. I had seen him several times in the university library often with a woman. I thought he was cute, but it appeared he had a girlfriend. One day, Jeannie from my dorm, said we should go over to another dining hall to eat because she wanted to show me a guy that worked there with a cute butt. We went that night, and the guy she pointed out was the same guy I had seen in the library. The next night, back at my own dining hall, there sitting with Mark, a guy I was kind of dating, was the guy with the cute butt! I was freaking out a bit when Mark called me over to say hello, but he did not introduce me to the cute butt guy. Later that night, I told Mark that I did not want to date him anymore. A couple of nights later, I went to the library looking for a book about the artist Salvador Dali to do research for my painting class. The art books were in a room called “The Browsing Room”, so I walked in and sitting there on a love seat was the cute butt guy, all alone.  I smiled and walked right up to him and sat down next to him. We talked so long he was late to his world religions class. He invited me to a play. When we met to see the play, it was sold out, so we studied back at the library, where we first met in The Browsing Room. Four years later, we were married, and this year we celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. That is serendipity.

Outside Connection: Bandura quotes Groucho Marx who said about chance, “you have to be in the right place at the right time, but when it comes, you better have something on the ball” (p. 9). There have been many movies made about chance, or serendipity, even one titled, “Serendipity.” There are, “Sleepless in Seattle,” “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” “Under the Tuscan Sun,” and my favorite, “Love Actually.” These are all romantic stories that place the characters in situations where they first happen to meet, have a connection, separate for some reason or another, and then spend the rest of the movie trying to reconnect, by trying to place themselves in, or reproduce, similar situations or intersects hoping for fate or chance to reunite them in love. Link to: "Serendipity"