Preface to the Chinese TranslationPrefaceThe present volume analyzes human development, adaptation andchange within the conceptual framework of social cognitive theory.Human behavior has often been explained in terms of unidirectionalcausation, in which behavior is depicted as either shaped and controlledby environmental influences or driven by internal drives and disposi-tions. Social cognitive theory explains psychosocial functioning in termsof triadic reciprocal causation. In this model of reciprocal causality,human functioning is the product of the dynarnic interplay betweeninternal personal factors in the form of cognitive, affective and biolog.ical events; behavioral pattems; and environmental influences.There is much that people do designedly to influence their devel.opment and life circumstances. But there is also a lot of fortuity in thecourses lives take. The futurc direction of people's life courses, theirmarital partnerships, and occupational careers are often shaped byfortuitous events. In these instances, minor chance encounters set inmotion cyclic processes that can have major impact on the paths livestake.There are ways people can capitalize on the fortuitous character oflife. They can nake chance happen by pursuing an active life thatmultiples the fortuitous encounters they will experience. Chance favorsthe inquisitive and venturesome who go places, do things, and explorenew activities. People also make chance work for them by cultivatingtheir interests, efficacy beliefs, and competencies. These personalresources enable them to make the most of opportunities that arise un-
24思想和行动的社会基础expectedly from time to time. Enterprisingness and self-developmentgive people a greater hand in shaping their destiny in the life paths theytravel.Social cognitive theory is founded on an agentic perspective. Peopleare self-organizing, proactive, self-regulating, self-reflecting, not justreactive organisms shaped by external events. There are several corefeatures of human agency. The first is intentionality. Peolple formPreface to the Chinese Translationintentions that include plans and strategies for realizing them. The sec-ond feature is forethought. The temporal extension of agency involvesmore than future-directed plans. People set themselves goals and an-ticipate likely outcomes of prospective actions to guide and motivate theirefforts, anticipatorily. Future events cannot, of course, be causes ofcurrent motivation and action because they have no actual existence.However, the projected future can be brought into the present throughforethought. By being represented cognitively in the present, conceivedfuture states are converted into current motivators and regulators of be-havior. The third feature of agency is self-reactiveness. People are notonly planners and forethinkers. They are self-regulators as well. Theyadopt personal standards and monitor and regulate their actions byself-reactive influence. They do things that give them satisfaction and asense of self-worth and refrain from actions that bring self-censure. Thefinal core feature of human agency is self-reflectiveness. People arenot only agents of actions. They are self-examiners of their own func-tioning. They reflect on their efficacy, the soundness of their thoughtsand actions, the meaning of their pursuits and make corrective adjust-ments if necessary.Personal agency operates within a broad network of social systemsIn these transactions, people are producers as well as products of socialsystems. Social cognitive theory rejects a dualistic view that severspersonal agency from social structure. Social stnuctural and personaldeterminants function interdependently rather than as rival conceptionsof human behavior.Over the years, psychological theories focused almost exclusivelyon learning through the rewarding and punishing effects of one's actions
25PrefaceTwialatdnrnuJaamainainnndin..--Preface to the Chinese Translation
26思想和行动的社会基础of cross-cultural analyses beyond the focus on the social forces operatingwithin given societies. The issues of interest center on how nationalorientations interact with global forces to shape the nature of culturallife.Given the rapid pace of social, informational, and technologicalchange, successful functioning requires development of the capabilityfor self-directedness and self-renewal throughout the life course. ThePreface to the Chinese Translationself-regulation of motivation, affect, and performance accomplishmentsoperates, in large part, through intermal standards and evaluativereactions to one's own behavior. The anticipated self-satisfaction gainedfrom fulfilling valued standards and self-diagatisfaction with substandardperformances serve as incentive motivators for person accomplishments.The motivational effects do not stem from the standards themselves butfrom self-investment in the activities.In areas of functioning involving achievement strivings and cultivation of competencies, the standards that are selected as a mark ofadequacy are raised as knowledge and skills are acquired and challengesare met. In the exercise of moral agency, the internal standards thatserve as the basis for regulating one's conduct are more firmly established. Moral reusoning is translated into actions through self-regulatorymechanisms rooted in moral standards and self-sanctions. The exerciseof moral agency has dual aspects-inhibitive and proactive. The in-hibitive form is manifested in the power to refrain from behaving inhu-manely. The proactive form of morality is expressed in the power tobehave humanely.Moral standards'do not function as invariant internal regulators ofconduct, however. Self-regulatory mechanisms do not operate uulessthey are activated, and there are many processes by which moralself-sanctions can be disengaged from inhumane conduct. Disengage-ment may center on redefining the conduct itself to avoid recognizing itas immoral: it may center on the agency of action so that the perpetra-tors can minimize their role in causing harrn; it may invoke minimizingor distorting the harm caused, and it may center on dehumanizing thevictims of maltreatment and blaming them for what is being done to
27Prefacethem. Through selective disengagement of moral self-sanctions, other-wise considerate people can do extraordinarily cruel things. Indeed,over the centuries, much destructive conduct has been perpetrated byordinary, decent people in the name of righteous ideologies, religiousprinciples, ethnic identities, and nationalistic imperatives. Given themany psychological devices for disengaging moral control, societiesPreface to the Chinese Translationcannot rely entirely on individuals to deter human cruelty.Civilized liferequires, in addition to humane personal codes, effective social safeguards against the misuse of power for exploitative and destructive pur-poses, Regardless of whether inhumane practices are institutional,organizational, or individual, it should be made difficult to removehumanityfrom their conduct.The capability to reflect upon oneself, one's life circumnstances,and the adequacy of one's thoughts and actions is a distinctly humanattribute that figures prominently in social cognitive theory. Peoplegenerate ideas and act upon them or predict occurrences from them.They then judge the accuracy and functional value of their thinking byself-reflective means. By reflecting on their experiences people givestructure, meaning, and continuity to their lives.Among the various types of self-reflectivenss none is more centralor pervasive than people's beliefs in their capabilities to exercise controlover events that affect their lives. Beliefs of personal efficacy are thefoundation of humnan agency. Unless people believe they can producedesired results by their actions, they have little incentive to act or topersevere in the face of difficulties.Whatever other factors may functionas guides and motivators, they are rooted in core belief that one has thepower to produce effects by one's actions.Efficacy beliefs affect how people think, feel, act, and motivatethemselves. Specifically, such beliefs regulate what people choose todo, how much effort they invest in what they undertake, how long theypersevere in the face of obstacles and failure experiences, whether theirthought paterns are self-hindering or self-enhancing, how much stressand despondency they experience in coping with taxing situations, andtheir resilience to adversity. A high sense of personal efficacy pays off