Thinking Aloud

Albert Bandura finds three main substructures in the human agency structure. First of all, we must have a motive to do something. Secondly, we need to know how to come to the result, and, finally, each action has something what the psychology calls the affect. Hereby we use this word to speak of something that goes beyond the strict rationality. It is, above all, emotions, feelings, and even such romantic things as hope, courage, or emotional outbursts. All these things have a remarkable characteristic that any serious science of humanity gets perplexed at an attempt to give a precise definition to any of these words. Indeed, affective states are situations when we rather feel than understand. The question what the role of the emotions in the efficiency increase of our actions is still open.

In this aspect claiming yourself an addict or even an alcoholic that is an ill addict does have its connotations. This label, although softened by the modern medical ethics, assumes being mentally ill. By claiming to be ill an alcohol addict intentionally or not wants to enjoy social security mechanisms that sooth a bit the competitive character of the contemporary world of humans. For example, it includes pity or social help in form of some rehabilitation programs, which are conditionally free of charge. In addition, the inability to be efficient in an unjust world can be both a consequence and a trigger of the addictive behavior.

Bandura’s basic category of a person’s characteristics is the human agency. It’s a state of our being capable representatives of our own persons. It means, like any successful agent we shall be efficient to act for our own maximum benefit. That’s the root of another Albert Bandura’s basic category -- self-efficacy. Although it isn’t the best analogy, but if we view a person as an agency, we’re always at work doing some job responsibilities to benefit ourselves. Then come the questions of when and how we shall use the benefit we gain and what we are. However, these questions are outside the theory we’re talking about. One of the tasks of psychology, as a craft, is to give a person a more effective strategy for interaction with the world around him or her. In this context, they can easily interpret alcoholism as a phenomenon.