Theories and Theorists

Theories and Theorists Many professions have theories and theorists, especially in the medical and psychological fields. Sometimes theories will develop by theorists doing new research, but at other times previous theorists theories are used by a new researcher to expand on the theory and possibly come up with a new theory of his or her own. This paper will help show theories and theorists important to psychology. Psychologists and researchers in this field use these theories often, which is what makes the theories and theorists important to psychologists and researchers in today’s society. Two theories will be discussed in more detail in this report to help show their importance to the field of psychology including the theorists, sources, and the basic tenets of the theories. The theories will be analyzed and assessed to find a relationship between them if any exists. Also, there will be an explanation on why these theories are important in the field of psychology and how they would relate to doing research on bullying in the school systems. Then as a final note there will be a reference list of five classic or influential works that are important in psychology.

Social-Cognitive Theory

The social cognitive theory was originally known as the social learning theory and was discovered by Albert Bandura. This theory helps with the development by using modeling and observational learning. Bandura also found that reinforcements and punishment work to help motivate the behaviors to imitate. Today the theory stresses the important of thinking, or cognition. The reasoning for this is because there is a strong emphasis on how a person thinks about him or herself and about others, which is why the name was changed to social cognitive theory. Children often watch other use self-praise and self-blame and get feedback about their own actions to help develop the self-efficacy and to set personal standards (Berk, 2010).

Many social learning theorists believe Bandura

References: Berk, L. E., (2010). Development Through the Lifespan (5th Ed.). Chapter 1: History, theory, and research strategies Berk, L. E., (2010). Development Through the Lifespan (5th Ed.). Chapter 5: Cognitive development in infancy and toddlerhood Berk, L. E., (2010). Development Through the Lifespan (5th Ed.). Chapter 6: Emotional and social development in infancy and toddlerhood Berk, L. E., (2010). Development Through the Lifespan (5th Ed.). Chapter 8: Emotional and Social development in early childhood Creswell, J. W., (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches