Social cognitive theory said that social environment promoting certain influences to audiences, and audiences act following what they learn from the environment. Can this theory be used as analysis knife in qualitative Research with constructivist paradigm ?
Hi Salman,
Yes - it can easily be applied. Most things that can be investigated quantitatively, can also be investigated qualitatively. Social Learning (Cognitive) Theory is no exception. A large part of one of my research disciplines (Health Education) falls under the umbrella of SCT/SLT. From a quantitative perspective - we can study/survey and measure participants with regard to observation/perception of health-related events. From a qualitative perspective, we can personalise this to ask that participants form a narrative of their experiences, opinions, beliefs etc with regard to health-related events and behaviours.
Yes it can. I used in the context of higher education to justify the need for integrating cross-cultural elements into curriculum design for workforce education students that I hope with the helpful for you.
Many thanks,
Debra
Article Integrating Cross-Cultural Elements Into Workforce Education...
I agree with Dean and Debra. As Dean suggests, many questions in quantitative/experimental approaches can also be asked/investigated via qualitative research...It is all in how the questions are asked and whether you want to do more explication (qualitative) or make various sample/population/occurrence predictions (Experimental). One additional aspect for your question is the point that qualitative research has actually been driven by the desire to ask and answer questions about social action that are relevant to social cognitive theory. Symbolic Interactionalism, for example, is based upon such social theoretical stances and played a strong role in the development and use of qualitative methods -- especially through the Chicago School of Sociology and the applications in places like UC-Berkeley.
Salman,
Social cognitive theory is a 30 year old theory. Why do you want to use a theory that is so old? Newer advancements in health behavior have improved SCT such as integrative model or multi-theory model of health behavior change (Sharma, 2015; 2017). Both of these can be reified in qualitative paradigm.
Sharma, M. (2015). Multi-theory model (MTM) for health behavior change. WebmedCentral Behaviour, 6(9), WMC004982.
Sharma, M. (2017). Theoretical foundations of health education and health promotion (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
yes, surely u can use, as most questions being researched quantitatively can be approached qualitatively just by applying different methodology...
Hi Manoj,
I'm intrigued. I will endeavour to look at your cited works here - although the book will be hard to see - plus I assume that it is 'in press' if 2017. I've been in the SCT game for some time now. The SCT theory might appear old in terms of original publication dates (as I'm sure does Newton's Laws of Relativity) - but 'the oldies can be the goldies'. Are you suggesting that the likes of IM or MTM 'replaces' SCT (I note that you only cite yourself in this post) - or does it merely build upon it? If your theory transcends and replaces SCT - then you are a true superstar!!
Dear Dean,
The book is out with a publication date of 2017. It is not in press it is available on Amazon.com and Barnes and noble etc.
There are many models that have been suggested as improvements on old theories like SCT. I have just cited two of them. Old is gold but science progresses everyday. It builds on old theories and makes improved versions of those. That is evolution. If we just take Bandura's 1986 theory and do not play with it then there is no progress. Please do not compare physics theories with behavioral theories, even in them there are everyday advancements but some of the physics principles once discovered cannot change which is not true for behavioral sciences. In behavioral theories we are constantly striving for parsimony and greater predictive power and both constantly elude us.
Yes we can use that; in fact for an in-depth understanding of internal process of thinking and learning , it is useful to interact directly, in the form of interview, chit chat or observation, with the individual being researched , preferably in a sequential manner, with quantitative survey making the first phase.
Yes it is always good to approach communication theories related to cognition or perception qualitatively as quantitative research often fails to provide in-depth analysis in relation to perceptual assessment of the subject(s) in question.
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