How many variable does Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) has?

Hi Abdul,

Your question is related to Bandura's [see Bandura, A. (1986), Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Inc.] social cognitive theory, namely to the variables, other than self-efficacy and outcome expectancies, the theory appeals. As you certainly know, Bandura put forth his social cognitive theory to overcome, say, some shortcomings of his initial social leaning theory [see, Bandura, A. (1977), Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall], for example, its exaggerated behaviorist flavor and orientation, even though social learning theory were devoted to a topic -- learning from observing and imitating others' behaviors -- not much addressed by either J. Watson or B.F, Skinner.

It sounds good to appeal to Bandura's social cognitive theory on the leadership domain, or  even other domains.

It is true that self-efficacy and outcome expectancies are prominent variables in Bandura's social cognitive model. Although prominent, these two variables are not alone in Bandura's SCT paradigm. As you certainly know, according two Bandura, when one learns from imitating or observing others' behaviors, four processes, steps, or variables are at issue. I think that each process plays a role in the field of leadership: Attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.  

If one wants to be, for example, a political leader, then one has to pay attention, for instance, to what political leaders one admires do. In other words, if one wants to learn from the behavior of, say, a model, then we should pay attention to what s/he does. The more we pay due attention to the model, the more we are likely to learn from his/her behaviors. Of course, the more an observer or leaner has a high self-efficacy and expects good consequences or outcomes from paying attention to, say, a political leader, the more s/he isattentive to what the focal leader does.

For one to become, for example, a political leader by observing what an admired political leader does, one has to be capable of retaining and storing that which one paid attention to. In other words, if one wants to learn from the behavior of others, then a retention or storage of the newly learned behavioral is necessary. If this were not the case, then one needed to go back to observing the focal behavior, For example, how could a student learn the information provided by his/her professors if s/he forgot or did not retain the information just provided and to which s/he paid attention?  Again, the more we retain the model's behaviors, the more we are likely to learn from his/her behaviors.  Also, the more an observer or leaner has a high self-efficacy and expects good consequences or outcomes from retaining the information provided by, say, a political leader, the more the observer/learner is inclined to retain that information.

In addition to paying attention and retaining the information underlying the model's behaviors, other processes and variables are involved in Bandura's theorizing on social and cognitive learning  and theory. The next step – reproduction – requires that one is able to demonstrate the focal behavior or behaviors. We see much behavior on a daily basis that we would like to be able to imitate but that this not always possible. We are limited by our physical and intellectual abilities, and for that reason, even if we wish to reproduce the behavior, we cannot. Again, the more we are able to reproduce the model's behaviors, the more we are likely to learn from his/her behaviors. Also, the more an observer or leaner has a high self-efficacy and expects good consequences or outcomes from reproducing the behavior of a given model, be it a political leader, professor, and so on, the more s/he is likely to reproduce the focal behavior.

The last process, step, or variable is motivation. That is, after due attention, retention, and reproduction, one has to feel motivated to repeat the behavior at issue. The rewards and punishment that follow a behavior will be considered by the observer. If the perceived rewards outweighs the perceived costs, then the behavior will be more likely to be imitated by the observer. Needless to say, the more one has a sense of self-efficacy and expects positive consequences or outcomes from imitating others’ behaviors, the more one is motivated to learn by observing others’ behaviors.

Bandura’s theory on social, and social cognitive learning has its strengths and limitations, which are beyond the scope of my answer to your question

In a nutshell, Bandura’s social cognitive theory appeals to variables, others than self-efficacy and outcomes expectancies. Attentional processes, retentional processes, reproductional processes, and motivational processes are but four examples of such variables. As self-efficacy and outcomes expectances play an important role in each of these variables, self-efficacy and outcome expectancies are really the prominent variables in Bandura’s model of social leaning and social cognitive leaning.

I hope that this helps.

Best regards.