Albert Bandura is a key contributor to the field of psychology. More specifically, he is responsible for major research pertaining to the social learning theory (Thomas, 2000). Contrary to prior beliefs about social learning theory Bandura concluded that while environment causes behavior, behavior causes environment as well. Fortunately for the field of psychology, Bandura's life took the course it did. .
Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, in Alberta, Canada. He was the youngest and only boy among six children born to Ukrainian parents. Bandura spent his elementary and high school years at the one and only school in town. After graduating Bandura began his collegiate career at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver (Pajares, 2002). .
Bandura entered the field of psychology by chance. He was a part of a daily car pool that began very early in the morning. Since this car pool was his only means of transportation to campus he decided to take a class to fill the early slot. Bandura ended up taking a course on psychology. He was immediately fascinated and decided to major in it (Pajares, 2002). After graduating in 1949 Bandura went on to graduate school at the University of Iowa. One of his mentors at Iowa, Kenneth Spence, worked closely with Clark Hull of Yale University. Thus, students and faculty at Iowa followed theory and research at Yale closely. It was at Yale's Institute of Human Relations where social learning theory was born (1930's). Bandura received his M.A. degree in 1951 and his Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology from the University of Iowa in 1952. It was also in 1952 that the theorist married his wife Virginia Varns, a teacher at the College of Nursing. The couple later became parents of two daughters (Boeree, 1998). .
In 1953 Bandura joined the faculty at Stanford University (he is still there today). Bandura began field studies of social learning and aggression.