A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the role of thoughts in influencing human behavior.
Albert Bandura suggests that any theory which dismisses the link between thoughts and actions falls short when trying to explain the intricacies of human behavior. He underscores the importance of cognitive processes in understanding how people navigate and respond to complex situations in their lives.
In practice
During a psychology lecture discussing cognitive behavioral therapy.
Moral justification is a powerful disengagement mechanism. Destructive conduct is made personally and socially acceptable by portraying it in the service of moral ends. This is why most appeals against violent means usually fall on deaf ears.
Self-efficacy is the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations.
We are more heavily invested in the theories of failure than we are in the theories of success.
Humans are producers of their life circumstance not just products of them.
Once established, reputations do not easily change.
The content of most textbooks is perishable, but the tools of self-directedness serve one well over time.
People's behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives.
It is an odd thing, owing life to pills, one's own quirks and tenacities, and this unique, strange, and ultimately profound relationship called psychotherapy.
Addiction, obesity, starvation (anorexia nervosa) are political problems, not psychiatric: each condense and expresses a contest between the individual and some other person or persons in his environment over the control of the individual's body.
I'm fascinated by the ways in which people express themselves, because their responses are often counter to what they're actually feeling. Like when they're frightened, they tend to freeze. When they're angry, it doesn't always come out as volume. There are wonderful contradictions in the way that people express their emotions.
We have come to see that just as the child must learn to love wisely, so he must learn to hate expeditiously, to turn destructive tendencies away from himself toward enemies that actually threaten him rather than toward the friendly and the defenseless, the more usual victims of destructive energy.
I wrote several articles criticizing psychoanalysis, but the analysts weren't listening to my objections. So I finally quit after practicing it for six years.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.