Sports and Life Skills: An Analysis from the SCT Perspective

Abstract

This paper proposes a theoretical discussion about positive development by using sport, focusing on “life skills” learning, which receive a growing attention on 21th century education, and aimed to discuss and integrate different existing models based on Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory (SCT). For this, we described the heuristic model of Gould and Carson, drawing comparisons with later theoretical models. We present aspects of SCT that enable to perceive a theoretical unity between the different models, which can facilitate and deepen the understanding of the phenomenon. We concluded that the benefits of sports to human development are not automatic and depend on multiple factors, especially cognitive and relational aspects associated to these practices. These factors should be the focus of interventions, so that the sports experiences may really result in positive development. The SCT allows the integration of different models and can serve as a basis for planning interventions and research that promote the learning of life skills by using sport.

Keywords:
Sports psychology; Human development; Social learning