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