Julian Rotter: Cognitive Social Learning Theory

Behavior

Any action or responses to a stimulus from the environment. According to Rotter, this refers to any response, implicit or explicit, that can be observed or measured directly or indirectly.

Five Basic Hypotheses of Social Learning Theory

1. Humans interact with their meaningful environment

   • Reinforcements are not dependent on external stimuli alone but are given meaning by the individual’s cognitive capacity.

2. Human personality is learned

3. Personality has a basic unity

4. People are capable of anticipating events

   • People are anticipatory insofar as your actions have also consequences in the future

   • Driving force so you can arrive to your idealized self

5. Personality is goal-directed

Prediction of Specific Behaviors

Personality is both a product of the environment and cognition which we can use to derive from and predict personalities from

Behavior Potential (BP)

It refers to the likelihood that a given behavior will occur in a particular situation. The behavior potential in any situation is a function of both expectancy and reinforcement value.

Expectancy (E Prime)

The person’s expectation that some specific reinforcement or set of reinforcements will occur in a given situation. Not determined by history of reinforcement, but the subjective perceptions.

Generalized Expectancies (GE)

Learned through previous experiences with a particular respones of similar responses.

Specific Expectancies

An individual beliefs about the likelihood of a specific outcomes resulting from a particular behavior within a given situation.

Reinforcement Value (RV)

Preferences that a person attaches to any reinforcement when the probabilities of a number of different reinforcements are equal. It is determined by (1) Internal or external reinforcement (2) Needs (3) Expected consequences for future reinforcements

Psychological Situation

“Complex set of interacting cues acting upon an individual for any specific time period”. People do not behave in a vacuum; instead, they respond to cues within their perceived environment.

Empirical Law of Effect

People are most strongly reinforced by behaviors that move them in the direction of anticipated goal. “Defines reinforcement as any action, condition, or event which affects the individual’s movement toward a goal”

Internal Reinforcement

What determines the reinforcement value for any event, condition, or action? First, the individual’s perception contributes to the positive or negative value of an event.

External Reinforcement

Refers to events, conditions, or actions on which one’s society or culture places a value.

Reinforcement-reinforcement sequences

Clusters of reinforcement

Basic Prediction Formula

The potential for behavior x to occur in situation 1 in relation to reinforcement a is a function of the expectancy that behavior x will be followed by reinforcement a in situation 1 and the value of reinforcement a in situation 1.

Needs

Any behavior or set of behaviors that people see as moving them in the direction of a goal. These are not states of deprivation or arousal but indicators of the direction of behavior.

Maladaptive Behavior

Any persistent behavior that fails to move a person closer to a desired goal. It frequently, but not inevitably, arises from the combination of high need value and low freedom of movement: that is, from goals that are unrealistically high in relation to one’s ability to achieve them