Bandura's social cognitive theory stands in clear contrast to theories of human functioning that overemphasize the role that environmental factors play in the development of human behavior and learning. Behaviorist theories, for example, show scant interest in self-processes because theorists assume that human functioning is caused by external stimuli. Because inner processes are viewed as transmitting rather than causing behavior, they are dismissed as a redundant factor in the cause and effect process of behavior and unworthy of psychological inquiry. For Bandura, a psychology without introspection cannot aspire to explain the complexities of human functioning. It is by looking into their own conscious mind that people make sense of their own psychological processes. To predict how human behavior is influenced by environmental outcomes, it is critical to understand how the individual cognitively processes and interprets those outcomes. More than a century ago, William James (1890/1981) argued that "introspective observation is what we have to rely on first and foremost and always" (p. 185). For Bandura (1986), "a theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior" (p. 15).