Reciprocal determinism is the theory set forth by

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

Albert Bandura Albert Bandura (; December 4, 1925 – July 26, 2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist who was the David Starr Jordan Professor in Psychology at Stanford University. Bandura was responsible for contributions to the field of education and to ...

which states that a person's behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the

social environment The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educate ...

. Bandura accepts the possibility that an individual's behavior may be conditioned through the use of consequences. At the same time he asserts that a person's behavior (and personal factors, such as cognitive skills or attitudes) can impact the environment. Bandura was able to show this when he created the Bandura's Box experiment. As an example, Bandura's reciprocal determinism could occur when a child is acting out in school. The child doesn't like going to school; therefore, they act out in class. This results in teachers and administrators of the school disliking having the child around. When confronted by the situation, the child admits they hate school and other peers don't like them. This results in the child acting inappropriately, forcing the administrators who dislike having them around to create a more restrictive environment for children of this stature. Each behavioral and environmental factor coincides with the child and so forth resulting in a continuous battle on all three levels. Reciprocal determinism is the idea that behavior is controlled or determined by the individual, through cognitive processes, and by the environment, through external social stimulus events. The basis of reciprocal determinism should transform individual behavior by allowing subjective thought processes transparency when contrasted with cognitive, environmental, and external social stimulus events. Actions do not go one way or the other, as it is affected by repercussions, meaning one's behavior is complicated and can't be thought of as individual and environmental means. Behavior consist of environmental and individual parts that interlink together to function. Many studies showed reciprocal associations between people and their environments over time.

Research

Research conducted in this field include the study of doctor-patient relationships where one group of patients are termed 'physician-reliant' and the other group 'self-reliant'. The physician-reliant patients tend to be more passive in their decision making and rely on their physicians to make their choices for them. Self-reliant patients take a more active role in deciding which health options would better suit them.

Mathematics

Another relevant research is regarding the reciprocal determinism of self-efficacy and mathematical performance. It shows that reciprocal determinism may not be the appropriate model in all cultures but does take place in most. Self-efficacy is a conceptualized assessment of the person's competence to perform a specific task. Self-efficacy results from success or failures that arise in attempts to learn a task. Self-efficacy, measure by a personal confidence level before each question, and the mathematical scores were obtained in 41 countries for the study by Kitty and Trevor Williams. The reciprocal determinism of mathematics self-efficacy and achievement was found in 26 of the 30 nations. They suggest that this might be a fundamental psychological process that takes place across national boundaries. According to Albert Bandura,

self-efficacy In psychology, self-efficacy is an individual's belief in their capacity to act in the ways necessary to reach specific goals. The concept was originally proposed by the psychologist Albert Bandura. Self-efficacy affects every area of human endea ...

is defined as a person's belief in their capability to accomplish a certain task. Another study looked at the relationship of self-efficacy and job culture with job satisfaction among athletic trainers. The study used Bandura's triadic reciprocal causation model as a template to label job satisfaction as the behavioural factor, self-efficacy as the personal factor, and job culture as the environmental factor.

Triadic reciprocal causation

Triadic reciprocal causation is a term introduced by

to refer to the mutual influence between three sets of factors: * personal factors (e.g.,

cognitive Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...

affective Affect, in psychology, refers to the underlying experience of feeling, emotion or mood. History The modern conception of affect developed in the 19th century with Wilhelm Wundt. The word comes from the German ''Gefühl'', meaning "feeling. ...

and biological events), * the environment, *

behavior Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as wel ...

Interaction of genes and environment

Behavioral genetics Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of scientific research that uses genetic methods to investigate the nature and origins of individual differences in behaviour. While the name "behavioural genetics" c ...

is a relatively new field of study attempting to make sense of both genetic and environmental contributions to individual variations in human behavior. Genes can be turned on and off. Multiple genes are factors in forming behavior traits.

Aggression in abused boys

Researchers believe there is a genetic link to impulsive aggression through the impact of a gene on the production of an

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

called

Monoamine oxidase A Monoamine oxidase A, also known as MAO-A, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ''MAOA'' gene. This gene is one of two neighboring gene family members that encode mitochondrial enzymes which catalyze the oxidative deamination of amines, ...

(MAOA). The MAOA gene reduces the production of MAOA, leading to increased incidents of impulsive aggression. A 26-year study in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

found strong correlation between experience of

childhood abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to a ...

and criminal or violent behavior in males with the MAOA gene. In that study, impulsive aggression was found to be nine times more likely to manifest in males with the gene who were

abused Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

than in abused males without the gene or males with the gene who had not been abused.

Research

Mathematics

Triadic reciprocal causation

Interaction of genes and environment

Aggression in abused boys

See also

References

Further reading