Which description reflects a major tenet of social cognitive theory?

Which description reflects a major tenet of social cognitive theory?

• A. Repetitive stimuli helps individuals quickly react to new situations and people
• B. Norms and intentions are the primary influences of future behavior
• C. Knowledge acquisition occurs through observing how people interact with each other.
• D. Individuals use outcomes from their previous behaviors to determine their future behaviors

Answer: (C)

A key aspect of social cognitive theory is learning by watching others and the outcomes of their actions. People gain knowledge through observational learning, or modeling, and can imitate behaviors after attending to, remembering, and being motivated to reproduce what they observed. This vicarious learning lets individuals learn about how to interact in social situations without having to experience everything directly. The four-step process—attending to the model, retaining what’s seen, reproducing the behavior, and being motivated by expected outcomes—captures why describing knowledge acquisition through observing how people interact with each other best fits the theory. The other options describe different learning mechanisms: one points to automatic responses from repeated stimuli, another to norms and intentions from planning or attitudes-focused theories, and the last to using past outcomes to shape future actions, which aligns more with reinforcement or behaviorist perspectives.

A key aspect of social cognitive theory is learning by watching others and the outcomes of their actions. People gain knowledge through observational learning, or modeling, and can imitate behaviors after attending to, remembering, and being motivated to reproduce what they observed. This vicarious learning lets individuals learn about how to interact in social situations without having to experience everything directly. The four-step process—attending to the model, retaining what’s seen, reproducing the behavior, and being motivated by expected outcomes—captures why describing knowledge acquisition through observing how people interact with each other best fits the theory. The other options describe different learning mechanisms: one points to automatic responses from repeated stimuli, another to norms and intentions from planning or attitudes-focused theories, and the last to using past outcomes to shape future actions, which aligns more with reinforcement or behaviorist perspectives.