The purpose of this paper is to present a critique of two books related to counseling: (1) Albert Bandura's (1977) Social Learning Theory; and (2) Carl Rogers' book (1961) On Becoming A Person. The first two sections of the paper discuss the main themes of each book, their theoretical aspects as related to counseling and to personal growth, and the basic strengths and weaknesses of each perspective.
The final section of the paper compares Bandura's (1977) and Rogers' (1961) perspectives. Similarities and differences are delineated regarding the two theories' views of human nature, their models of the role of counselor, their theoretical concepts and assumptions, and their perspective of the goals and treatment of counseling.
Albert Bandura: Social Learning Theory
In his book Albert Bandura (1977) focuses attention on the conditions that affect the acquisition, performance and maintenance of human behavior. It is noted that social learning theory differs from other behavioral theories because it postulates that certain thoughts or cognitions are central to the human being's ability to learn. Prior to this, only the environmental stimuli and consequent overt behaviors were focused upon in behavioral theories.
Key cognitive learning processes postulated by the social learning theory model are said to be:
(1) Observational learning in which one learns from watching others; in other words, others "model" the behaviors that are learned. Bandura (1977) states:
Because people can learn from example what to do, at least in approximate form, before performing any behavior, they are spared needless errors. (p. 22)
(2) Self-regulation defined as the ability of individuals to exercise influence over their own behavior rather than reacting mechanically to external influences. This is a clear difference from earlier behavioral models in which people were viewed as passive reactors to environmental influences.
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