Social information and evaluations

Abstract

Early social learning theories posit that behaviors can be conditioned vicariously, by seeing other people's rewards and punishments. This evolved into Bandura's social cognitive theory, which emphasized the role of human agency, stating that humans change the environment around them through their behaviors, and vice versa. Other social cognitive theories (e.g., social comparison theory) describe the central role of other people's opinions, statements, behaviors, or emotional expressions in an individual's evaluations of reality. For example, if employee perceives the workload to be about the right amount, but other coworkers express (e.g., gossip, unwanted social support, co-rumination, expressions of anxiety) that it is too much, the employee may be inclined to reappraise the workload as overload. Social evaluation also affects job stress. Ego threat, need for belonging, identity theory, and stress-as-offense-to-self explain the importance of other people's judgments in the stressor-strain response.