Albert Bandura was born on December 4, 1925, in the
small town of Mundare in northern Alberta, Canada. His
father was from Poland and mother from the Ukraine. He
was educated in a small elementary school and the only
one high school (20 students and 2 teachers) in town,
with minimal resources, yet a remarkable success rate.


During summer vacations he worked in several places
acquiring carpentry in Edmonton skills and filling
holes protecting the Alaskan Highway in the Yukon.
While, dealing with lot of people and a horrifying
encounter with bears, he developed appreciation for
psychopathology of everyday life.

In search of understanding human nature he received
his bachelors’ degree in Psychology from the
University of British Columbia in 1949. He went on to
the University of Iowa, where he obtained his Ph.D. in
1952. It was there that he came under the influence
of the behaviorist tradition and learning theory.

While at Iowa, he met Virginia Varns, an instructor in
the nursing school. They married in 1952 and later
had two daughters, Mary (1954) and Carol (1958).
After graduating, he took a postdoctoral position at
the Wichita Guidance Center in Wichita, Kansas.

In 1953, he started teaching at Stanford University,
and became full professor as well. While there, he
collaborated with his first graduate student, Richard
Walters, resulting in their first book, Adolescent
Aggression, in 1959. He became the president of the
American Psychology Association (APA) in 1973, and
received the APA’s Award for Distinguished Scientific
Contributions in 1980.

At 80 years of age, Professor Bandura continues to
research and teach at Stanford University to this day.