Reciprocal Determinism

Have you ever wondered what makes us behave the way we behave? Why do we like to catch up with our friends after work? Why do we show aggression on those traffic snarls everyday? To many of us this question may not even be a question in the first place. The answer for most of us will be that it may be just normal behavior. But have you ever wondered what drives our behavior? That is exactly what the theory of reciprocal determinism explains.

What is Reciprocal Behaviorism?

Albert Bandura, a renowned psychologist, put forth the brilliant concept of reciprocal determinism. Amongst the other noted and acclaimed theories of Bandura is the Social Learning Theory. Bandura's theory states that a person's behavior is influenced by the environment and vice versa. In simpler terms, it means that the environment tends to make changes in the behavior of the individual, and in return, the behavior of the individual is also responsible to change the environment. So it means that not only the environment influences the person, but the person also influences the environment.

Determinism is the theory that portrays that a person's actions, behavior, decision is just an outcome based on events that happened in the past. This means that our actions are just reactions of what has already happened. The way we behave today is just a reaction of past events. He agreed with the theory of determinism that our behavior and actions are causation of past events, but he also was of the opinion that the environment is also caused or affected by our behavior.

You will get a better understanding of this in the example given below. Imagine a person who does not wish to work in a particular firm, but circumstances are such that he cannot leave the job. This will make him dislike his work, and may also result in poor performance. In return, this will result in the person acting inappropriately, making his colleagues/superiors dislike not only his work, but the individual as well. It will only make the situation worse for both the parties. Hence, both social environment and physical behavior will create a more restrictive environment and lead to further behavior disorders.

Bobo Doll Experiment

Albert Bandura was interested in the study of aggression in adolescents. The bobo doll experiment is the most widely acknowledged experiment by Bandura. For this model Bandura used a visual aid, a video which had one of his students beating a bobo doll. (A bobo doll is a inflated toy with some weight put at the bottom of it which pops back up when hit). The video showed a woman hitting, kicking, and knocking the doll, displaying various levels of aggression. Bandura showed this film to children. After watching the film the children were taken to a play room which had the bobo doll.

Bandura was not at all surprised to see children imitate the woman from the video. They punched the bobo doll, kicked it, smashed it, sat on it, blowing it completely. Observers were astounded to see children behave so violently compared with their age. This model of learning put forth by Bandura was known as Observational Learning. With this experiment it was found out that almost 88% of the children exhibited aggression.The children were observed for few months after that, and to their dismay, it was found that almost 40% of these showed violent behavior.

Albert Bandura believed that the aggressive behavior displayed by family members was more harmful than anything else. He purported that children imitated their parent's passive aggressive behavior while dealing with their friends. His ideology was to treat and diagnose the problem in the person's childhood itself. Care must be taken during the upbringing of a child as this will determine his temperament in the future.

Man has the ability to change personal factors hence can also change environment. Change is constant as everyone knows. The doctrine of reciprocal determinism justifies that a person is capable of weaving the present, so as to make a smooth way to his future. The world would be better to live if we have the power to make it the way we want it to be. Of course, without challenging the laws of nature.