Junior golf is a sport that teaches skills and lessons kids and teens keep learning from, for the rest of their lives. Through observation and communication, youth understand the value of fairness, good sportsmanship, competitive spirit, teamwork, and several other key lessons. This is due to the core values taught by instructors and junior golfers in the sport. Some like Bandura and Rotter observe such phenomenon as a product of social learning theory. Social learning theory or as Bandura relabeled, social cognitive theory, posits that behavior is determined from expectancies as well as incentives. Expectancies are divided into three types. The first is expectancies about environmental cues or beliefs on what leads to what. The second is expectancies about the consequences of an individual's actions meaning outcome expectation. The third is expectancies over competence to perform a necessary behavior in order to influence outcomes, termed efficacy expectation.

These expectancies are what fuels modified behavior. What motivates continual modified behavior are incentives. "Incentive is defined as the value of a particular object or outcome. The outcome may be health status, physical appearance, approval of others, economic gain, or other consequences. Behavior is regulated by its consequences" (Rosenstock, Strecher,...

176). When a junior golfer begins the sport and gains skills from it along with the social bonds that often come from playing a sport, that individual feels gratification and motivation to continue playing. These moments build confidence in the person and is then taken and applied to other areas in the person's life. Junior golf instills in youth the ability to learn and apply positive life lessons and characteristics through expectancies and incentives discussed in social cognitive theory and perceived benefits/health problem reduction as explained in the health belief model.
Bandura developed social cognitive theory, from examining HBM or the Health Belief Model. HBM hypothesizes that "health-related action depends upon the simultaneous occurrence of three classes of factors" (Rosenstock, Strecher, & Becker, 1988, p. 177). The three classes of factors begin with the prevalence of adequate motivation that make any health issue relevant or salient. The next is the belief one may be vulnerable to a grave health concern and is typically referred to as perceived threat. The last is the belief that application of a health recommendation will benefit and minimize perceived threat at an allowable cost. Cost may include financial outlays.

When comparing the concepts of SCT and HBM one…