Dr. Albert Bandura's Impact On The Criminal Justice System
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There have been numerous theorists that have attempted to impact the criminal justice field, but very few have been as successful as Dr. Albert Bandura. His academic insight and creative theories have changed the way we view not only the criminal justice system, but behavioral sciences as a whole. Over the past six decades, Albert Bandura has dedicated himself to changing the world of psychology and affecting the criminal justice system.
Dr. Bandura was born in Mundare, Alberta, Canada on December 04, 1925, in a small town of roughly four hundred people. He is the youngest of six children and the only boy born to his Eastern European immigrant parents. Dr. Bandura grew up in a poor family with limited resources. His father was a track layer…show more content… Bandura developed the social cognitive theory of human functioning. He took a more holistic approach where his analysis gave a more comprehensive view on human cognition in the context of social learning. This theory expanded from social learning theory and became known as the social cognitive theory. According to Dr. Bandura, people are not machine like in the sense that they automatically respond to external stimuli. In fact, reactions to stimuli are initiated by the person (Akins, Smith, and Mosher, 2010). Again, Dr. Bandura disagreed with traditional behaviorists about their idea that there is a direct link between stimulus and response or behavior and reinforcement. Dr. Bandura suggested that a person’s cognitive process mediates between stimulus and response. Human functioning is the product of interaction between environment, behavior, and the individual’s psychological functioning according to Bandura (Levermore & Salisbury,…show more content… His sense of concern for expanding his knowledge and changing the lives of others influenced his extracurricular activities. He works with advisory boards, research panels, federal agencies, and congressional committees. The only thing in life that trumps Bandura’s academic pursuits is happiness. He believes that happiness is the ultimate goal in life. In his free time, Dr. Bandura enjoys spending time with his family, hiking in the Sierras and coastal ridges of California, and visiting the San Francisco Opera. At the age of eighty eight, he still holds his original faculty position at Stanford University that he first received in 1953. After six decades of dedication to the field of psychology, Albert Bandura is simply the most influential psychologist of the 21st