Glossary
Reciprocal Determinism
What is reciprocal determinism?
Reciprocal determinism is Bandura’s proposal that personal factors, behavior and environment can influence one another. This three-part relationship is also described as triadic reciprocal determinism. It is a central idea in social cognitive theory. Beliefs can affect action, actions can change circumstances, and circumstances can affect beliefs and behavior.
The three factors in reciprocal determinism
- Personal factors include beliefs, expectations, and self-efficacy: a person’s belief about their ability to carry out an action.
- Behavior is what the person does.
- Environment includes physical surroundings and other people’s responses.
The model proposes influence in both directions, with the strength of each relationship varying across people and situations.
Reciprocal determinism example
As an illustration, a learner’s confidence may affect whether they seek practice; practice can change performance and the feedback they receive. This is a possible pattern to investigate.
How is reciprocal determinism measured?
Questionnaires, observed behavior and measures of environment can assess components. Merely measuring all three, or finding correlations among them, does not establish reciprocal causation. Testing a proposed relationship requires an appropriate design and attention to timing and alternative explanations.
How is reciprocal determinism used?
The framework encourages researchers to consider several influences when designing educational or behavioral interventions. For a workplace illustration, consider how confidence affects whether someone requests feedback, how that request changes a supervisor's response, and how the response affects later confidence and behavior.