Prior to beginning work on this assignment, review the following required sources and begin searching for scholarly articles to read to be applied to your literature review:

• Writing a Literature Review
• The Traits of Reciprocal Determinism in Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk
• The Cognitive Revolution: A Historical Perspective

Please remember to keep a copy of these instructions open while you write the paper.  This will help you include all required sections.

Learning and cognition is a broad discipline. For this Discipline-Based Literature Review, you will research at least four peer-reviewed articles published within the last ten years to support your analysis of just one of the following topics. You may choose the area that is of most interest to you:

• Operant and classical conditioning
• Reciprocal determinism
• The effects of modeling on learning
• The cognitive revolution
• The effects of self-efficacy on learning

In your analysis of your chosen topic, explain the theoretical perspectives and empirical research that are pertinent to the field of learning and cognition. This analysis should be developed robustly to support your success in completing the final project for this course.

Important: As you are writing this paper it is please note, that as a graduate student, your writing should be more developed than it was as an undergraduate. Be sure to overtly cite all information that would not be known as common knowledge in the world. Be sure to paraphrase (and cite) much more frequently than using quotation.  Avoid using a large number of quotes and avoid any quotation over 40 words in length.  Be sure to be clear and concise in your reporting of the research. When you are not sure about how to cite something, visit the Writing Center:

https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/

Review the following sources prior to writing your paper:

https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/writing-literature-review

After completing your writing, consider a paper review and double checking that all components are complete with an

Academic Paper Checklist.

It is also recommended that your paper be checked in

Grammarly

and through

Turnitin

prior to submission.

The Discipline-Based Literature Review

• Must be 1500 to 2000 words and double-spaced pages in length, not including the title or references pages, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Writing Center.
• Must include a title page with the following:

  Title of paper
  Student’s name
  Course name and number
  Instructor’s name
  Date submitted

• Must begin with an introductory paragraph which identifies the topic, its value to readers, and includes a thesis sentence explaining what you will argue or what topics will be covered. See https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/writing-a-thesis 
• Must address the topic of the paper, including each construct, with critical thought.
• Must end with a conclusion paragraph.
• Must use at least four scholarly sources in addition to the required resources.

  The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.

The IUP Journal of English Studies • Vol. XIV, No. 1, 201926

The Traits of Reciprocal Determinism in
Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk

Justy Joseph* and

B

Padmanabhan**

© 2019 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

* Research Scholar, Department of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore –
641046, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: justyjoseph0202@gmail.com.

* * Assistant Professor, Department of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore –
641046, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: pathuengbu@gmail.com.

Introduction
Understanding human behavior is likely never to become a reality. Behavioral sciences
attempt an investigation of human and animal behavior through controlled and naturalistic
observation. There were studies conducted regarding the determining factors of human
thoughts and actions. Thus the philosophical idea “determinism” gained importance in
behavioral studies. Determinism is the philosophical position that for every event, including
human interactions, there exist conditions that could cause no other event. The roots of
the notion of determinism surely lie in a very common philosophical idea of sufficient
reason “that everything can, in principle, be explained, or that everything that is, has a
sufficient reason for being and being as it is, and not otherwise” (Hoefer 2016).

Reciprocal determinism is a theory set forth by psychologist Albert Bandura (Bandura
and Walters 1963). When two events influence each other simultaneously, it causes

Determinism is the philosophical position that for every event,
including human interactions, there exist conditions that could cause
no other event. Albert Bandura, through his idea of reciprocal
causation, accepts the chances of a person’s behavior being
conditioned. Keith E Rice suggests that reciprocal determinism
considers how what we do and who we spend time with—our
behavior—impacts upon and changes the life conditions in the
environment we experience and how we respond cognitively and
emotionally, and possibly psychologically too, as a person to the
environmental feedback we then receive. This paper attempts a study
of Helen Macdonald’s heart-wrenching, talon-sharp memoir
H Is for Hawk based on reciprocal determinism and triadic reciprocal
causation.

27The Traits of Reciprocal Determinism in Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk

reciprocal causation. Bandura here accepts the chances of a person’s behavior being
conditioned. Reciprocal determinism is based on the transforming of an individual’s behavior
by cognitive processes and external social stimulus. “Triadic reciprocal causation” is a
term introduced by Bandura to refer to the ascendancy of three sets of factors (Figure 1):

1. Personal Factors

a. Cognitive events (memory, anticipation, planning and judging)

b. Affective events

c. Biological events

2. Environment

a. Physical surroundings

b. Family and friends

c. Social influences

3.

Behavior

a. Motor responses

b. Verbal responses

c. Social interactions

Rice (2016) suggests that reciprocal determinism considers how what we do and who
we spend time with—our behavior—impacts upon and changes the life conditions in the
environment we experience and how we respond cognitively and emotionally, and possibly
psychologically too, as a person to the environmental feedback we then receive. This
paper is a study of Helen Macdonald’s heart-wrenching, talon-sharp memoir H Is for

Figure 1: Triadic Reciprocal Causation

Behavior

Environment Personal

The IUP Journal of English Studies • Vol. XIV, No. 1, 201928

Hawk based on reciprocal determinism and triadic reciprocal causation. The book is a
kind of weird mixture of how the author deals with the sudden death of her father by
training a notoriously difficult species of hawk. The book also includes a mini-biography
of T H White.

Mutual Influence of Environment and Frequency of Behavior

Physical Setting on Motor Responses and Vice Versa

Physical settings affect our actions positively, negatively, or not at all. Being aware of the
physical environment and its impact can help us create new areas or redesign the existing
to meet our needs. Motor responses are voluntary movement response to stimuli, which
may be internal or external. In H Is for Hawk, Helen accedes to the influence of physical
setting on the motor responses saying, “Pieces of this place had disappeared since I was
last here. . . . That morning I felt like the deer. I was in the grip of very old emotional
ways of moving through a landscape, experiencing forms of attention and deportment
beyond conscious control” (Macdonald 2014, 5).1 The narration here portrays how the
behavior of Helen changes as she moves out of the comfort zone of Cambridge classrooms
and libraries to the wilderness. Here, the environment shift (from Cambridge to the forest)
affects the behavior (passive to attentive) of Helen. And the behavior (longing for isolation
from human world) also affects the creation or the shift of the environment (Cambridge
to the woods). Thus, behavior and environment are mutually coexisting factors.

Physical Setting on Verbal Responses and Vice Versa

Physical setting can be the primary source of mood, symbolism, or conflict. A person is
often judged by his/her verbal responses at various environments. Mabel was irked by
the shift in the terrain and Helen reacts to it voicing, “I hate him for upsetting my hawk –
actually hate him, am outraged by his existence. . . . It’s her first time out of the house,
and she’s still scared of people” (100). The shift of physical setting (from the closeness of
a home to the openness of a road) affects the behavior (passive to aggressive) of the
hawk and Helen as well. Hawk reacts to it through continuous bating and Helen responds
verbally. But this environment shift is created by Helen herself. She was aware of the
aftereffects of the shift in environment but was ready for an adventure.

Physical Setting on Social Interactions and Vice Versa

Physical setting assures one with security, shelter, social contact, task instrumentality,
symbolic identification, pleasure, and growth. Social interaction, being the building block
of a society, is an interaction between two or more individuals. The author in the due
course of narration attempts to bring out the mutual regard of physical setting and social
interactions. Revamping of the abode repeals Mable’s rapport with Helen. And she displays
her joy saying, “I opened the curtains the next morning. The brightness of the room made
me clearer, which concerned her for a while. . . . This room is not a dungeon and I am not
a torturer. I am a beneficent figure, one who crouches and stoops in anxious genuflection,

1 Subsequent citations from this source include only the page numbers.

29The Traits of Reciprocal Determinism in Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk

bearing delicious treats of steak in my hand” (92). The shift in the nature of the physical
setting (dungeon to bright) alters the aggressiveness of the hawk. It shows a wave of
friendship with Helen and this even changes the attitude of Helen. The result is that
Helen’s relation with the hawk as well as with her family and friends improves. Thus, it is
evident that shift in the physical setting can result in shift in the pace of social interactions
of an individual.

Social Factors on Motor Responses and Vice Versa

Social factors such as religion, family, or wealth are things that affect lifestyle; these
dynamic processes tend to change overtime. The shift in the above factors can result in
a sudden voluntary response. Operant conditioning and vicarious learning of T H White is
portrayed by Macdonald thus: “It reminds me of a paper by the psychoanalyst D W
Winnicott, the one about a child obsessed with a string. . . . For the boy, the string was a
kind of wordless communication, a symbolic means of joining. It was a denial of separation”
(49). Here, the social factors (being abandoned) result in the adaptation of a sudden
defense mechanism (tying things with a thread). The social factor as well is worsened by
the response of the boy. The boy accidently kills his sister and is thus left abandoned,
which is worse than before.

Social Factors on Verbal Responses and Vice Versa

Social factors can influence a person’s personality, attitude, and lifestyle. The response
given by an individual in oral or written form can be influenced by these changes. The
author regards the bereavement as a personal event and articulates the pain thus:

Robbed. Seized. It happens to everyone. But you feel it alone. Shocking loss
isn’t to be shared, no matter how hard you try. ‘Imagine,’ I said, back then, to
some friends, in an earnest attempt to explain, ‘imagine your whole family is in
a room. . . .’ I was puzzled by the pitying, horrified faces, because it didn’t
strike me at all that an example that put my friends’ families in rooms and had
them beaten might carry the tang of total lunacy. (13)

The fear of becoming socially insecure after her father’s death forces Helen to explain
the pain she is undergoing then. But the response is not properly comprehended by the
listeners. This increases the intensity of pain, insecurity, and alienation experienced by
Helen. The verbal responses and social factors can thus mutually influence each other.

Social Factors on Social Responses and Vice Versa

Social factors which affect an individual can be facts or experiences, and they influence
the ethical framework in which one reacts to the society. Helen narrates the insecurity
she experiences after her father’s death, which alters her social responses as follows:
“Kindness and love. I remember thinking ideally as I drove . . . the love was about my
father and me” (57). Here, the loss of her father affects her interaction with the entire
human community. The worsening of the social factors results in her seclusion from the
society. The loss of love and kindness and identifying a single man as the embodiment of

The IUP Journal of English Studies • Vol. XIV, No. 1, 201930

both breaks her trust in the rest of the world, and she shuts herself away from the world.
The pain in turn increases in the self-imposed isolation. Thus, it can be presumed that
social factors and social interactions are mutually influential.

Mutual Ascendancy of Personal Factors and Behavior
Personal factors can cause a person to behave in challenging ways. Behavior does not
evolve all of a sudden; it is related constantly to the past and also to the conditions in the
present. Better understanding of an individual’s experiences is necessary for understanding
his behavior.

Cognitive Factors

Cognitive factors refer to the characteristics of a person that affect performance and
learning. Factors like memory, anticipation, planning, and judging are considered to be
cognitive factors, and they serve to modulate performance in such a way that it may
improve or decline.

Memory on Motor Responses and Vice Versa

Memory is the process by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. It can
affect an individual’s sudden responses and vice versa. The usual sight of a mint in an
ice-cream induces the memory of a cut in Helen’s father’s forearm. She says “Touched
and bewildered that a waiter had thought that free cake and ice cream would comfort
me, I looked at the cut at the end of the mint. It reminded me of something . . . farewells
and was gone. The cut would not heal” (13). Memory here stimulates a motor response.
And this motor response stimulates the memory lane. Helen is reminded of her father and
these memories increase her pain. Thus, memory and motor responses are mutually
influential.

Memory on Verbal Responses and Vice Versa

Memory is an associative mechanism which molds the personality of an individual, and human
beings are judged through the verbal responses they produce. The mutual effect of memory
and verbal responses is impersonated in the text in many instances. One such is where Helen
retraces a childhood memory about her father as she writes, “He’d come home from work
strangely disheartened one winter evening. We asked him what was wrong. ‘Did you see the
sky today? . . . Remember you saw that. You’ll never see it again’” (71). Here the memory
(childhood) results in verbal response (“Look up, look at that. Remember you saw that. You’ll
never see it again”), and this verbal response affects the intensity of the memory. Thus, it can
be implicated that memory and verbal responses are mutually influential.

Memory on Social Interactions and Vice Versa

Memory is not just a unitary process, but it is a result of social interactions and can affect
the social interactions of an individual. In H Is for Hawk, memory functions as an
extraordinary factor influencing the thought process of Helen. She says, “But for all his
demonstrations of bravado and skill, Mr. White . . . was terribly afraid. . . . Because I am

31The Traits of Reciprocal Determinism in Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk

afraid of things, of being hurt, and death, I have to attempt them” (36). The memories of
a horrible childhood force Mr. White to withdraw from social interactions and leave him
afraid of things, of being hurt, and death, and these memories are a result of his previous
social encounters.

Anticipation on Motor Responses and Vice Versa

Excitement is generated about something which is about to happen due to recollection
of something that happened in the past. It is the remembrance of similar incidents in the
past that leads to the arousal of anticipation reactions, and anticipation results in the
remembrance of past. Helen identifies herself with the hawk. Her apprehension to be
in unison with Mable is narrated as follows: “The hawk was everything I wanted to be:
solitary, self-possessed, free from grief, and numb to the hurts of human life . . . my not
being myself” (85). The expectation of the author (to attain the qualities of the hawk)
results in the immediate response. And this response decreases the anticipation of the
author. Thus, anticipation and motor responses mutually coexist.

Anticipation on Verbal Responses and Vice Versa

Expectation always results in verbal responses and verbal responses give rise to
anticipation. In the memoir, when the falconer speaks about the aggressive sisterhood
between hawk and Helen, she exhibits the agony of broken anticipation saying, “He’s
saying because I’m training a female hawk, there’s some bond of sisterhood between
us… It is a smile that is a veneer on murder” (111). The anticipation, when broken, results
in aggressive verbal responses and vice versa. Thus, it is true that anticipation and verbal
responses mutually interact.

Anticipation on Social Interactions and Vice Versa

Expectations can also affect the social interactions and vice versa. The author’s
presumption of overcoming the loss is browbeaten, and this affects her social interactions,
which is narrated as follows: “An uneventful, slow climb back into life after loss. It’ll be
healed soon . . . when he worked out how broken I was. His disappearance rendered
me practically insensible” (86). The expectation of overcoming loss fails, and this leads to
Helen’s alienation from the society. And this alienation is one of the reasons behind the
failure of her anticipation.

Affective Factors on Motor Responses and Vice Versa
Affective factors are emotional factors which influence learning. They can have a negative
or positive effect on the motor responses. Motor responses can also result in the formation
of affective factors. The author incorporates in the memoir a biography of T M White, in
which she says, “When White took up his position . . . To gain approval, to avoid trouble,
he had to mirror what was around him: it was how he had tried to win love from his
mother as a child. It was a life of perpetual disguise (31). A childhood lacking love leads
to an adulthood of disguise. Thus, the affective factor leads to motor responses and vice
versa.

The IUP Journal of English Studies • Vol. XIV, No. 1, 201932

Affective Factors on Verbal Responses and Vice Versa
The emotional factors can affect the verbal responses of an individual and vice versa.
Macdonald pens down the craving for amenity through the image of an abandoned child
who cries out, “Look at me, Ruth, I am a pirate chief! Look, I am an aeroplane! Look,
I am a polar bear!” (39). Longing for attention forces the boy to get transformed into
safer selves which will able him to be loved. The mutual coexistence of affective factors
and verbal responses is thus evidently portrayed in the memoir.

Affective Factors on Social Interactions and Vice Versa

Affective factors can influence the social interactions of an individual. The abandoned
childhood of White is narrated by Helen as follows: “He thinks he will leave. School life
is unreal. All this is unreal. He has had enough. He can’t bear his colleagues. He can’t
bear the boys anymore either. . . He has to get out. He’ll live on his writing” (34). The
effect of a deserted childhood makes White hate Company. He wants to leave school.
He cannot bear people. This behavior affects the affective factors that are his memory
of a tortured childhood, and the affective factors influence the behavior too.

Biological Factors on Motor Responses and Vice Versa

Biological perspective on behavior emphasizes the internal, physiological, and genetic
factors that influence personality. These biological factors can affect the motor responses
and vice versa. The author in the biography of T M White says, “And back in India, right
at the beginning, where he remembered lizards and fireworks. . . . It was not a safe kind
of childhood” (37). It is biologically proved that Monoamine Oxidase A (MAOA) genes
carry the childhood memories. Even if they are not remembered, they influence the
individual’s character and personality. Here, White’s horrible childhood results in this
biological action and thus leads to the motor response (aggressiveness). And his
aggressiveness also adds to this biological factor. There is a genetic link to impulsive
aggression through the impact of a gene on the production of an enzyme called MAO-A.
The MAOA genes reduce the production of MAO-A, leading to increased incidents of
impulsive aggression. Considering childhood as tabula rasa is a wrong notion as it is
where the behavior of an individual is formed with the interaction of MAOA genes. No
behavior occurs without a reason. Every action of an individual coexists with some
experiences or facts which they were familiar with in the past. Every behavior of a person
is related to his/her past. Thus, biological factors and motor responses can be considered to
mutually exist.

Biological Factors on Verbal Responses and Vice Versa

Our personality traits can be manifested through biology and processes in brain. Eight
percent of a person’s behavior is analyzed through verbal responses. Biological factors
can affect a person’s verbal responses and vice versa. As Macdonald narrates in the
memoir, “The humans, White thought, were disgusting, their cries ‘tense, self-conscious,
and hysterically animal.’ But the hounds were not. ‘The savagery of hounds,’ he wrote,
‘was deep-rooted and terrible, but rang true, so that it was not horrible like that of the

33The Traits of Reciprocal Determinism in Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk

human’” (43). The biological factors (MAOA genes) cause the aggressive verbal response
of White, and this biological factor is the result of the verbal responses. Thus, biological
factors and verbal responses are mutually influential.

Biological Factors on Social Interactions and Vice Versa

Psychologists agree that social factors interact with genetic factors to form personality.
This mutual interaction is discussed in the memoir through White’s regard for human
community: “He could not imagine a human love returned. He has to displace his desires
onto the landscape. He found himself always in the dilemma of either being sincere and
cruel, or false and unnatural” (39). The biological factors (MAOA genes) lead to the lack
of social interactions, and this is the reason for the aggressive nature of the individual.

Conclusion
The memoir, H is for Hawk, thus serves effectively as a study of reciprocal determinism.
The behavior of the individuals in the memoir shows an evident symmetry with the notion
of triadic causative determinism. The behavior of an individual does not occur without a
reason. As we can change our behavior, we can change its determining factors too. The
study proposes, through reciprocal determinism, to transform individual behavior by allowing
subjective thought processes transparency when contrasted with cognitive, environmental,
and external social stimulus events.

References
Bandura, Albert, and Richard H Walters. 1963. Social Learning and Personality

Development. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Hoefer, Carl. 2016. “Causal Determinism.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Edited by Edward N Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/
determinism-causal/.

Macdonald, Helen, 2014. H Is for Hawk. New York: Grove Press.

Rice, Keith E. 2016. “Reciprocal Determinism.” http://www.integratedsociopsychology.net/
theory/reciprocal-determinism/.

Reference # 43J-2019-03-02-01

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