Social cognition models examine factors that predict behaviour and/or behavioural intentions and in addition examine why individuals fail to maintain a behaviour to which they are committed. Social cognition theory was developed by Bandura (1977, 1986) and suggests that behaviour is governed by expectancies, incentives and social cognitions. Expectancies include:
■ situation outcome expectancies: the expectancy that a behaviour may be dangerous (e.g. ‘smoking can cause lung cancer’)
■ outcome expectancies: the expectancy that a behaviour can reduce the harm to health (e.g. ‘stopping smoking can reduce the chances of lung cancer’)
■ self-efficacy expectancies: the expectancy that the individual is capable of carrying out the desired behaviour (e.g. ‘I can stop smoking if I want to’).
The concept of incentives suggests that a behaviour is governed by its consequences. For example, smoking behaviour may be reinforced by the experience of reduced anxiety, having a cervical smear may be reinforced by a feeling of reassurance after a negative result.
Social cognitions are a central component of social cognition models. Although (as with cog- nition models) social cognition models regard individuals as information processors, there is an important difference between cognition models and social cognition models – social cognition models include measures of the individual’s representations of their social world. Accordingly, social cognition models attempt to place the individual within the context both of other people and the broader social world. This is measured in terms of their normative beliefs (e.g. ‘people who are important to me want me to stop smoking’).