Cited by 8,263Free Will and AgencyBehavioral Health and InterventionsCritical Realism in Sociology

Human agency in social cognitive theory.

Bandura, Albert·1989·American Psychologist

Abstract

The present article examines the nature and function of human agency within the conceptual model of triadic reciprocal causation. In analyzing the operation of human agency in this interactional causal structure, social cognitive theory accords a central role to cognitive, vicarious, self-reflective, and self-regulatory processes. The issues addressed concern the psychological mechanisms through which personal agency is exercised, the hierarchical structure of self-regulatory systems, eschewal of the dichotomous construal of self as agent and self as object, and the properties of a nondualistic but nonreductional conception of human agency. The relation of agent causality to the fundamental issues of freedom and determinism is also analyzed.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/0003-066x.44.9.1175

Cites

5 of 5 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bandura, A.
Affiliations
Stanford University (US)
Corresponding author
Bandura, Albert
Venue
American Psychologist
Published
1989
Volume
44
Issue
9
Pages
1175-1184
ISSN
  • 0003-066X (ISSN-L)
  • 1935-990X
OpenAlex
W2153403719
Cited by
8,263
References
5
Citations by year
2026: 356 · 2025: 506 · 2024: 519 · 2023: 528 · 2022: 534 · 2021: 453 · 2020: 631 · 2019: 452 · 2018: 417 · 2017: 347 · 2016: 348 · 2015: 341 · 2014: 330 · 2013: 295 · 2012: 318
FWCI
26.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • American Psychologist (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (MH-5162-25)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Free Will and Agency
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Realism in Sociology
Keywords
human agency, social cognitive theory, self-regulation, observational learning, self-reflection, non-dualism, freedom and determinism, cognitive processes
MeSH terms
Cognition, Humans, Internal-External Control, Motivation, Social Behavior, Social Environment

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review