28思想和行动的社会基础in performance accomplishments and emotional well-being.The extraordinary advances in electronic terhnologies and globalhuman interconnectedness present novel adaptational challenges andexpanded opportunities for people to shape their social future andnational life. The globalization of knowledge by informational technolo-gies enables people to influence the course of their development andchange through a rapidly evolving cyberworld that transcends time, dis-tance, and place. By acting on their efficacy beliefs, people can draw onPrefacethe vast knowledge in the cyberworld to promote their education, health,worklife, organizational innovativeness and productivity to change socialconditions that affect their lives.The exercise of human agency can take different forns. In directpersonal agency bring their individual influence to bear on life events. Into the Chinesepersonal agency exercised individually, people bring their influence tobear on their own functioning and on environmental events. In manyspheres of functioning people do not have direct control over social con-ditions and institutional practices that affect their lives. Under thesecircumstances they rely on proxy agency by others who have theresources, knowledge, and means to act on their behalf to secure theoutcomes they desire. People do not live as isolates. They have to workfogether to manage and improve their lives. They pool their knowledge,skills, and resources and act in concert to shape their future.Successful funetioning requires an agentic blend of individual,proxy, and collective efficacy. But the growing interdependence ofhuman life is placing a premium on the exercise of collective agency.TranslationPeople's shared beliefs in their collective power to produce desiredresults are a key ingredient of collective agency. A group's attainmentsare the product not only of shared knowledge and skills of the differentmembers, but of the interactive, coordinative, and synergistic dynamicsof their transactions, Therefore, perceived collective efficacy is notsimply the sum of the efficacy beliefs of individual members. Rather, itis an emergent group-level property.Personal and collective efficacy differ in the unit of agency, but inboth forms, efficacy beliefs serve similar functions and operate through
29Prefacesimilar processes. People's shared heliefs in their collective efficacyinfluence the type of futures they seek to achieve through collectiveaction; how well they use their resources; how much effort they put intotheir group endeavor; their staying power when collective efforts fail toproduct quick results, and their vulnerability to the discouragement thatcan beset those taking on tough problems that are not easily control-Preface to the Chinese Translationlable.Some people livc in individualistic societies. Others do so in col-lectivistic systems. By encompassing collective agency within its con-ceptual framework, social cognitive theory is applicable to diverse typeof societal systems. A contentious dualism pervades our field pittingautonomy against interdependence and individualism against collec-tivism. The relative contribution of individual, proxy, and collectivemodes to the agentic blend may vary cross-cullurally. But all agenticmodels of agency are needed to make it through the day, wherever onelives. Perceived efficacy is a vital resource regardless of whether peoplemanage their activities individually or collectively. Cultures are diverseand dynamic not static monoliths. Intergenerational, educational,regional, and socioeconomic variations within cultures, and differencesacross spheres of functioning underscore the multifaceted, dynamicnature of cultural systems.Viewed from the social cognitive perspective, human nature ischaracterized by a vast potentiality that can be fashioned by direct andvicarious experience into a variety of forms within biological limits.Other species are heavily innately programmed for stereotypic survival ina particular habitat. In contrast, the human species has been selectedfor leamability and plasticity of behavior. Through agentic action,people devise ways of adapting flexibly to remarkable diverse habitats;fignre out ways to circumvent physical and environmental constraints;redesign and construct environments to their liking; create styles ofbehavior that enable them to realize desired futures and pass on the ef.fective ones to others by social modeling and other experiential modes ofinfluence.Evolved structures, specialized neurophysiological systems, and
30思想和行动的社会基础biological potentialities can serve diverse purposes. The major issue incontention is not between nature and nurture as commonly framed, butwhether nature operates as a determinist or as a potentialist. Biologicaldeterminists emphasize the rule of nature, inherent constraints, andlimitations. Biological potentialists give greater weight to the rule ofdistributed opportunities, privileges, and power. They emphasize humanpossibilities, The rapid pace of social change gives testimony that biol-Preface to the Chinese Translationogy, indeed, permits a wide range of possibilities.Among the various types of self-reflectiveness none is more centralor pervasive then people's beliefs in their capabilities to exercise controlover events that affect their lives. Beliefs of personal efficacy are thefoundation of human agency. Unless people believe they can producedesired results by their actions they have little incentive to act.Efficacy beliefs affect how people think, feel, act, and motivatethemselves. Specifically, such beliefs regulate what people choose to do,how much effort they invest in what they undertake, how long they per-severe in the facc of obstacles and failure experiences, whether theirthought patterns are self-hindering or self-enhancing, and how muchstress and despondency they experience in coping with taxing situations,and their resilience to adversity. A high sense of personal efficacy paysoff in performance accomplishments and emotional well-being.The extraordinary advances in electronic technologies and globalhuman interconnectedness present novel adaptational challenges andexpanded opportunities for people to shape their social future and na-tional life. The globalization of knowledge by informational technologiesenables people to influence the course of their development and changethrough a rapidly evolving cyberworld that transcends time, distance,and place. By acting on their efficacy beliefs, people can draw on thevast knowledge in the cyberworld to promote their education, health,worklife, organizational innovativeness and productivity and to changesocial conditions that affect their lives.The exercise of human agency can take different forms. In directpersonal agency bring their individual influence to hear on life events.People have changed litle genetically over recent decades, but they
31Prefacehave changed markedly through accelerated sociocultural and techno-logical evolution in their beliefs, mores, social roles, styles of behavior,and global interconnectedness. The symbolic environment of the globalcyberworld has become a dominant milieu that transcends time, placeand distance for people world-wide in the new millenium. We are alsowitnessing the growing ascendency of human agency in the bidirectionalPreface to the Chinese Translationbiology-socioculture coevolution, and even bypassing evolutionarygenetic processes by altering genetic codes directly through the appli-cation of biotechnologies. The values to which we subscribe and thesocial systems we devise to oversee the uses to which our powerfultechnologies are put will play a vital role in what we become and how weshape our destiny.I am deeply indebted to Professor Pi Liansheng for translating thisvolume, and to Jin Yong to Peng Chengjun and the East China NormalUniversity Press for preparing the Chinese edition. By their generousefforts they have contributed greatly to the sharing of ideas and achievingnew knowledge for human understanding and betterment.Albert BanduraStanford University
本书以社会认知观为基础，为分析人的动机、思想和行动提出了一个理论框架。贯穿全书的主题之一是强调相互决定论。社会认知论信奉因果关系的相互作用模型，其中的环境事件、人的因素和行为三者都是作为决定因素相互起作用的。相互的因果关系既为人们对自己的命运施加某种控制提供了机会，也给他们的自我指向设置了某些限制。有关心理功能的人的决定因素观把认知的、替代的、自我调节和自我反思的过程看成是核心作用的过程。人的思想是他们理解环境和应付环境的有力工具。因此，本书充分分析了人的情感和行动中的认知因果关系的多种形式。然而，为了与相互作用观保持一致，我们更多地注意了思想的社会根源。由于研究者日益广泛关注思维的结构和加工过程，从而产重忽略了行为的内在机制。本书拓宽了研究的范图，也致力于探讨知识被转化为适当的行动的机制。人不仅是认知者，而且也是行动者。他们还是具有自我指向能力的自我反应者。动机和行为的自我调节部分通过内部标准和对自身行为的评价反应实现。深谋远虑的能力给自我调节过程增加了一个维度。人的大多数行为都是指向目的和预期的结果的。通过认知的表征，想像的未来能作为当前行为的原因起影响作用。反思自己的思想和效能的能力是自我影响的另一维度，本书对此给与了特别的注意。心理学理论在传统上一直强调通过行为后果进行学习。幸运的序是，通过进化，人具有通过观察进行学习的高级能力，这种学习与单纯通过尝试和错误的后果进行的学习相比，更适合于迅速习得胜任