Educational Media Reviews Online

This video features Dr. Albert Bandura, renowned social psychologist and professor, providing a personal introduction to his social cognition theory of human behavior with specific emphasis on the theory of self-efficacy. As defined by Dr. Bandura, self-efficacy is “a person’s belief in their own ability to produce the desired results by their own actions.” Dr. Bandura also states “a comprehensive theory must explain how people acquire competencies, values and styles of behavior but also explain how people motivate and regulate their behavior.” This statement sets the stage for the information that follows in the video lecture.

Dr. Bandura places this theory in historical context, illustrates work with phobic behaviors, and discusses his research on observational learning. Using instructive information frames and illustrations with persons demonstrating concepts in actual situations, Dr. Bandura is able to provide the viewer with a thorough introduction to efficacy beliefs and the resulting effects. He guides, explains, and encourages further study in this discipline by his warm and engaging presentation style. He uses personal examples from his life to give additional perspective for the context of his theory.

The video mixes historical b&w sequences of still photographs as a part of the illustrative material and includes flute and harp music in selected scenes as a poignant background that serves to provoke and deepen thoughtful understanding of the concepts Dr. Bandura discusses. Even more effective while the ending credits scroll is the closing frame of an Inuit artist discussing his development as a commercial carver in the social theory context. This video is an excellent addition for psychology and education collections. Highly recommended!!