Psychological level: Social-cognitive theory & dual processing models - Specific elements as part of human agency

6 important questions on Psychological level: Social-cognitive theory & dual processing models - Specific elements as part of human agency

What does positive or negative (self)feedback from behaviour influence on people?

people’s thinking (cognitions) and the ways in which act to change the environment.

Self-feedback is what we ourselves generate (e.g. I did a good job on the exam).

It is not just simply something that was going on outside that determines what you think about your selves. It is can also just be something that you thought about yourself.

We got consciousness and consciousness determines human agency, but what are then the specific elements that we would consider as part of the definition of human agency?

- Intentionality

- Forethought

- Self-reactance

- Self-reflectiveness

What is intentionality as a specific element in the definition of human agency?

A representation of a future course of action to be performed – a proactive commitment to perform an action.

- Commitment that you will do in the future. If you have some kind of intention it doesn’t mean that you'll actually do it.

- That is intentionality. A proactive commitment is not shared by a robot. Robots just follow a basic set of rules.
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What is forethought as a specific element as part of the definition of human agency?

about setting goals , thinking about expectation of some kind behavior.

Example: Weather veins: people are not like that. If the wind is going east we are not going east, we have our own sense of expectation based on what we experienced before. We have different anticipation.

What is self-reactance as a specific element to define the definitions of human agency?

Do I need to adjust my behavior? If I am doing something we are constantly reflecting on implications of behaviour that we are compositing.

Do we need to change something? Does it still correspond on my goals?

Am I doing right or do I need to change something?

What is self-reflectiveness as a specific element to define the definition of human agency?

- Metacognitive capability to reflect upon oneself and the adequacy of one’s thoughts and actions.


- Self-efficacy & perceived (behavioral) control:
               - How well can I execute courses of action required to deal with prospective situations? --> how well am I able to do this? Reflecting on your own capabilities

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