Psychological Modeling: Conflicting Theories

The book's spine is Bandura's claim that modeling—learning by example—is a distinct process requiring its own theoretical account, not a derivative of instrumental conditioning or a loose synonym for imitation. In the introductory essay, Bandura rejects the terminological chaos that had scattered the phenomenon across 'imitation,' 'identification,' 'copying,' 'social facilitation,' 'contagion,' and 'role-taking' . He argues that unless different forms of matching behavior can be shown to be governed by separate determinants, the distinctions are 'gratuitous' and may cause 'needless confusion' . The collected papers then test rival theories—Mowrer's secondary reinforcement account, status envy theory, social power theory—against experimental evidence. The cumulative argument is that modeling is governed by attentional, retentional, and motivational processes that operant conditioning cannot capture.

Bandura's essay makes three substantive moves. First, he argues that natural environments are 'loaded with potentially lethal consequences' for those who make errors, making trial-and-error learning impractical for teaching swimming, driving, or surgery . Modeling allows complex performances to be established without costly mistakes. Second, he contends that some behaviors—most notably language—can be acquired solely through modeling; he doubts whether grammatical utterances could ever be shaped by selective reinforcement of random vocalizations . Third, he insists that the same determinants govern the acquisition of isolated matching responses and entire behavioral repertoires, which means distinctions based on content (imitation = discrete responses, identification = broad patterns) lack empirical justification . The essay thus sets the volume's agenda: replace terminological disputes with determinant-based analysis.

The volume includes Brian Foss's test of Mowrer's secondary reinforcement theory of mimicry in Mynas birds, which treats imitative behavior as reinforced by the model's presence [citation:2][citation:7]. Bandura, Ross, and Ross test status envy, social power, and secondary reinforcement theories of identificatory learning [citation:2]. Donald Baer and colleagues examine whether reinforcing behavioral similarity to a model develops imitation [citation:2]. Richard Walters and Ross Parke investigate how response consequences to a social model affect resistance to deviation [citation:2]. Each paper isolates a specific theoretical mechanism and subjects it to experimental test. Bandura's own contributions—the introductory essay and the paper on models' reinforcement contingencies—argue that reinforcement affects performance rather than acquisition, a distinction central to his social learning framework [citation:2].

Psychological Modeling (1971) occupies a transitional position in Bandura's trajectory. His 1969 Principles of Behavior Modification had established a social learning framework emphasizing observational learning and self-regulatory processes. The 1971 edited volume operationalizes that framework by gathering experimental tests of modeling's determinants against rival theories. By 1977, Social Learning Theory would synthesize these findings into a unified theoretical statement, and by 1986 Social Foundations of Thought and Action would rename the framework 'social cognitive theory' to emphasize the role of self-efficacy and reciprocal determinism. The 1971 volume thus documents the experimental consolidation of modeling research before Bandura's theory became a comprehensive account of human agency. Its focus is narrow and empirical: what determines whether an observer will reproduce a model's behavior.

The book was first published in 1971 by Aldine·Atherton in Chicago, with 210 pages and ISBN 9780202250793 [citation:5][citation:14]. A 2006 edition was issued by Aldine Transaction [citation:6]. In 2021, Routledge published a 'Classic Edition' in its Psychology Press and Routledge Classic Editions series, with a new ISBN (9780367626600 hardback, 9780367626587 paperback) and a slightly expanded page count of 218 [citation:2][citation:15]. The 2021 edition preserves the original contents—Bandura's introduction and nine empirical chapters—without substantive revision [citation:2][citation:7]. The reissue indicates the book's continuing pedagogical role in graduate courses on observational learning, though it is now primarily read as a historical document of social learning theory's experimental foundations rather than a current research statement.

The most persistent misreading treats Psychological Modeling as a comprehensive theory of observational learning, when it is an edited collection of experimental papers testing specific mechanistic claims. Bandura's theoretical synthesis came later, in Social Learning Theory (1977). A second misreading conflates the volume's title with Bandura's broader social learning framework, assuming it covers self-efficacy, reciprocal determinism, or moral disengagement—concepts that postdate the 1971 text. A third misreading assumes the 'conflicting theories' in the subtitle refer to unresolved disputes among Bandura and his contributors, when the volume is better understood as Bandura orchestrating a series of empirical confrontations between rival explanations and his own emerging position. The volume is a working paper collection, not a manifesto.