Theories of Personality: Cognitive/Social Learning Theories

Julian Rotter

Biography

• Born in Brooklyn in 1916
• In high school, he became familiar with the writings of Freud and Adler
• In 1941, he received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University
• Published Social Learning and Clinical Psychology in 1954
• Moved to the University of Connecticut in 1963 and has remained there since his retirement

Introduction to Rotter’s Social Learning Theory

• Rests on 5 Hypotheses
  • Humans interact with their meaningful environments
  • Human personality is learned
  • Personality has a basic unity
  • Motivation is goal directed
  • People are capable of anticipating events

Predicting Specific Behavior

• Behavior Potential
• Expectancy
• Reinforcement Value
  • Internal and external reinforcement
  • Reinforcement - reinforcement sequences
• Psychological Situation
• Basic Predicting Formula

BP = f (Ev + Rv)

Julian Rotter

• Rotter is known for the concept of locus of control. Being inclined towards an internal locus of control is seen as more desirable than having a strong locus of external control
  • Result of their own behaviors and attributes (internal control)
  • Results of luck, fate, chance, or powerful others (external control)
• Categories of Need: recognition-status, dominance, independence, protection-dependency, love and affection, and physical comfort
• In studying behavior, Rotter considered reinforcement, the psychological situation, expectancies, need potential, freedom of movement, and need value
• Rotter also studies interpersonal trust
• Psychotherapy involves modifying goals and increasing expectancies

Walter Mischel

Biography

• Born in Vienna in 1930
• Second son of upper-middle-class parents
• When the Nzis invaded Austria in 1938, his family left for the US
• Received his PhD from Ohio State University in 1956, where he worked under Rotter
• Published Personality and Assessment in 1968
• Has taught at Colorado, Harvard, Stanford, and Columbia, where he remains as an active researcher
• Mischel realized that the person and the situation interact with one another and that there is a consistency paradox
  • The observation that a human being’s personality tends to remain the same over time, while their behavior can change in different situations

Background of the Cognitive-Affective Personality System

• The Cognitive-Affective Personality System recognizes people have a behavioral signature of personality
• Person-Situation Interaction
  • Mischel believes that behavior is best predicted form an understanding of the person, the situation, and the interaction between person and situation

Cognitive Personality Variables

• Elements between the stimulus and response
  • Constitute to individual differences in people
  • Referred as cognitive-affective units
• Part of a complex system that links situations people encounter with their behavior
• Individual differences in cognitive framework is due to difference in mental representation of people
• Individuals differ in the manner they access stored information
  • People react to the same situation differently

Cognitive-Affective Personality System

• Behavior Prediction
  • Individuals should behave differently as situations vary
• Situation Variables
  • All those stimuli that people attend to in a given situation
• Cognitive - Affective Units
  • Encoding strategies
  • Competencies and self-regulatory strategies
  • Expectancies and beliefs
  • Goals and values
  • Affective responses

Cognitive-Affective Units

• Encoding: categories (constructs) for encoding information about one’s self, other people, events, and situations
• Expectations and Beliefs: expectations for what will happen in certain situations, for outcomes for certain behaviors, and for one’s personal efficacy
• Affects: feelings, emotions, and emotional responses
• Goals and Values: individual goals and values, and life projects
• Competencies and Self-Regulatory Plans: perceived abilities, plans, and strategies for changing and maintaining one’s behavior and internal states