Emeriti Council Autobiographical Lecture

Our speaker is Albert Bandura, David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus, who will speak on “A Transformational Lifepath from Frosty Alberta Plains to Stanford Balmy Palms.”

Al Bandura is a psychologist whose pioneering research in social cognitive theory has been a rich resource for academics, practitioners, and policy-makers across disciplinary lines.  His research on social modeling expanded our view of human learning.  Later research on the paramount role of perceived self-efficacy in self-development, adaptation, and change laid the foundations for this theory of human agency.  In the early 1960s he was a participant in transformative changes in psychotherapy.  The basic knowledge on social modeling and self-efficacy provided principles for large-scale global applications that address urgent global problems.

His recent research addresses the moral dimension of life.  In MORAL DISENGAGEMENT, a book to be published next month, he analyses how otherwise considerate people do harm and live in peace with themselves.

Al Bandura has received many awards and honorary degrees for his distinguished lifetime contributions to psychological science and innovative social applications.  He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, of the National Academy of Sciences, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He writes that he will address two themes in his talk: “reflections on my personal development and its relation to the evolution of social cognitive theory, and the social and international applications of this theory to some of our most urgent global problems.”