And he's from Mundare..Who knew?

The man who laid theoretical foundations for a legion of self-help and positive thinking books and is seen by many as the most renowned living psychology theorist, grew up in a local pioneer town better known for its Ukranian sausage.

Born in Mundare, Albert Bandura spent a lifetime proving -- through his own small-town background and countless experiments -- the importance of self-empowerment and social learning.

One 2002 study found Bandura to be the fourth most cited psychologist in scientific papers published around the world, after B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget.

Bandura flew home to northern Alberta to receive his 18th honorary degree in a ceremony at the University of Alberta today . When Bandura, now 84, looks at his own life through the lens of classical psychology, he says he shouldn't be where he is today. He grew up in poverty.

During one drought his father had to decide how much of their thatched roof they could spare to feed the cattle.

And Bandura went to a high school where most students dropped out to work on family farms.

But he had a role model in his father, who taught himself to read three languages, and formed a school study group with four peers to teach themselves everything they needed to know. Soon, Bandura was learning French by correspondence with a Quebec-based instructor and followed politics outside the classroom by hiking to his sister's house and following the formation of the United Nations in the pages of the Edmonton Journal.

The handful of teachers at the K-to-12 school were stretched thin, but it didn't matter, Bandura said. The study group pursued their interests on their own. "Between us, we could figure out anything."With a background like that, Bandura found contradictions when he began to study psychology at the University of British Columbia.



Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Influential+psychologist+receive+honorary+degree+from/3129733/story.html#ixzz0qO0l46Wn
"People do want more control over their lives, but they don't want to put in the effort. There are no quick fixes," he said. To gain success, people need to understand themselves and their mistakes, learn to set goals, build up their own confidence, and become an active agent enlisting social support for their change.

"There are going to be a lot of relapses," he said. "That's hard work."
------------ Forwarded message ------------


From: cbrailey@telus.net

Date: Jun 9, 2010

Subject: Re: psychologist

To: d_moozik9@telus.net



Yeah, I do know about him. I knew he was Canadian but I didn't know his circumstances growing up. He was one of the group which offered an alternative to Skinner's theories about behaviour and learning. One of his experiments (maybe early 60s,70s?) showed beyond a doubt that much behaviour is learned, not inherent.I don't recall all the details but it involved a particular bird species and milk bottles.This was in the days of milk delivery door to door. They (his research team) discovered that a single bird through trial and error had learned to open the caps of these bottles and get at the contents. They found that this behaviour spread, and soon other birds, just from observing the first bird, were able to do the same. Anyway, I think a lot of his research is fascinating and also I believe it is true especially for human beings. Behaviour is learned through observation and therfore changable, not inherent and fixed. It certainly affirms for educators such as yourself that the way a kid behaves at school tells you a great deal about the parents and the home environment!



Jun 9, 2010 09:03:19 AM, d_moozik9@telus.net wrote:

Do you know about this guy? The fourth most quoted psychologist ever...and he comes from Mundare?







Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Influential+psychologist+receive+honorary+degree+from/3129733/story.html#ixzz0qO0Ji1u2