Social Cognitive Theory: A Study on the Novel The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta

Abstract

Buchi Emecheta is a Nigerian novelist. Her novels are based on the Nigerian Igbo society. Social Cognitive Theory was proposed by Miller and Dollard in the year 1941. It focuses on the learning by observing a model. The model can be a real life model or fictional character. People will either imitate the model or through observation, they learn to change their social behaviour. Based on this theory, the protagonist Aku-nna is taken as a model for study from the novel The Bride Price. She is a typical Igbo girl, born and brought up with all social norms. But, she deviates from it and marries a slave man without the bride price. It is against their custom. In the Igbo society, they have a belief: if a girl marries a man without the bride price, she will die in her child birth. It is proved in the case of Aku-nna. The paper aims to trace how Aku-nna is considered as a fictional model, based on Social Cognitive Theory and makes her people to observe and behave better without any deviation from their customs and beliefs in the Igbo society.