Personality Theories Chapter 18

Rotter and Mischel: Cognitive Social Learning Theory

What does it mean that Rotter and Mischel were interactionists?

What does it mean that Rotter and Mischel were interactionists?

What is Rotter’s empirical law of effect?

Reinforcement is any action, condition, or event that moves a person toward a goal.

What is behavior potential?

The likelihood that a particular behavior will occur in a specific situation.

What is expectancy in Rotter’s theory?

A person’s belief that a certain behavior will lead to a certain reinforcement or outcome.

What is reinforcement value?

The importance or desirability a person places on a particular reward.

What is the psychological situation?

The part of the internal and external world as the person interprets it and responds to it.

What is a generalized expectancy?

A broad expectation built from past experiences that influences behavior across many situations.

A broad expectation built from past experiences that influences behavior across many situations.

The likelihood that a person will engage in behaviors aimed at satisfying a particular need.

What is freedom of movement?

A person’s expectation that they can successfully reach a desired goal.

What is need value?

The importance a person places on achieving a particular goal or reinforcement.

The importance a person places on achieving a particular goal or reinforcement.

A person’s belief about whether outcomes are controlled mainly by their own actions or by outside forces.

What is the difference between internal and external locus of control?

Internal = outcomes come from your own effort or ability; External = outcomes come from luck, fate, or other people.

What is Mischel’s consistency paradox?

People seem consistent in personality, but their behavior often changes across different situations.

What is a behavioral signature?

A person’s consistent pattern of behaving differently in different situations.

What are encoding strategies?

The ways people interpret and categorize information from situations.

What are competencies in Mischel’s theory?

A person’s knowledge, skills, and abilities for dealing with the world.

What are self-regulatory strategies?

Ways people control their own behavior through self-set goals and self-produced consequences.

What is the Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS)?

Mischel’s idea that behavior comes from the interaction of situations with thoughts, feelings, goals, and expectations.

What is Rotter’s basic prediction formula?

Behavior potential depends mainly on expectancy and reinforcement value.