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)

OptionPossible OutcomeExpectancyValueBehavior Potential
Ask for an apologyapologyhighhighhigh
Insult backlaughter lowhighaverage
Yell at insulterUgly scenehighlowaverage
Leave the partFeel foolishaveragelowlow

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

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