Bandura’s goal in developing his social cognitive approach to behaviorism has been a practical and applied one; to change or modify behavior that society considers to be abnormal or undesirable. He reasoned that if all behavior, including the abnormal, is learned by observing others and modeling our behavior on theirs, then behavior can be relearned or changed in the same way.

Modeling is used to changed behavior by having subjects observe a model in a situation they find to be frightening or anxiety provoking. For example, children who are afraid of dogs watch a child of their age approach and play with a dog. Observing from a safe distance, the fearful children see the model make progressively closer and bolder movements toward the dog. The model may pit the dog through the bars of a playpen, then enter the pen to play happily with the dog. As result of this observational learning situation, the children’s fear of dogs will be markedly reduced.

Traditional behaviorists have been critical of Bandura’s social cognitive approach to behaviorism, arguing that cognitive processes such as believe and anticipation have no causal effect on behavior. Bandura’s response is an follows; “it is amusing to see radical behaviorist, who contend that thoughts have no causal influence, devoting considerable time to speeches, articles, and books in an effort to convert people’s believe to their way of thinking” (quoted in evans, 1989).

Source page; http://behaviouralsciences.net/behavior-modification/