Module 5, Personality: 11.4 Learning Approaches

Learning Objectives

  • By the end of this section, you will be able to:

    • Describe the behaviorist perspective on personality.

    • Describe the cognitive perspective on personality.

    • Describe the social cognitive perspective on personality.

Overview of Personality Approaches

  • In contrast to psychodynamic approaches (Freud and neo-Freudians), learning approaches focus on observable behaviors.

  • Learning approaches have the advantage of being scientifically testable because they involve measurable phenomena.

The Behavioral Perspective

  • Behaviorists reject biological determinism and do not consider personality traits to be inborn.

  • They argue that personality is significantly shaped by external reinforcements and consequences.

  • Behavior is viewed as consistent based on prior learning, leading to certain response tendencies.

  • B.F. Skinner's Contribution:

    • Skinner proposed that environment solely dictates behavior, including enduring personality traits.

    • Disagreed with Freud’s notion that personality is fixed in childhood; argued that it continues to develop throughout life.

    • Example: Greta, a young woman who takes risks, changes her behavior after marriage and motherhood due to altered reinforcements—shifting from risk-taking to caution.

The Social-Cognitive Perspective

  • Albert Bandura's Contribution:

    • Agreed with Skinner that personality develops through learning but emphasized the importance of cognition alongside behavior.

    • Proposed social-cognitive theory which includes:

    • 1. Reciprocal Determinism: Interaction among cognitive processes, behavior, and context.

      • These components influence each other simultaneously.

      • Example: At a festival, deciding whether to bungee jump involved considering cognitive factors (beliefs about jumping), observed behaviors, and environmental rewards.

    • 2. Observational Learning: Learning through observing others’ behaviors and consequences.

      • Suggested that reinforcement shapes the likelihood of imitating behaviors.

      • Influences the understanding of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in culture.

Key Concepts in Social-Cognitive Theory

  • Reciprocal Determinism:

    • Cognitive processes (beliefs, expectations, personality traits), behaviors, and situational context (environmental stimuli) interact.

  • Observational Learning:

    • Vicarious learning, witnessing others rewarded or punished shapes one's own behavior.

    • Example: A person may imitate behaviors based on personal experiences with reinforcement in similar contexts.

Self-Efficacy

  • Defined as confidence in one’s own abilities, shaped by social experiences.

  • Impacts goal pursuit and response to challenges:

    • High self-efficacy leads to a positive outlook on challenges, commitment, and resilience.

    • Low self-efficacy results in avoidance of challenges and focus on failure.

  • Self-efficacy is context-specific; individuals may feel confident in one area (e.g., English) but not in another (e.g., math).

Locus of Control

  • Proposed by Julian Rotter (1966) as a cognitive factor in learning and personality development.

  • Distinct from self-efficacy, locus of control relates to beliefs about personal influence over outcomes:

    • Internal Locus of Control: Outcomes are seen as the result of one’s own efforts.

    • Example: Poor performance on a test leads one to study harder next time.

    • External Locus of Control: Outcomes are attributed to external forces (luck, others).

    • Example: Poor score on a test leads to the belief that the test was unfair, resulting in no effort to improve.

  • Research indicates that individuals with an internal locus of control generally:

    • Perform better academically.

    • Achieve more in careers.

    • Are healthier and more resilient.

    • Are less prone to depression.

Person-Situation Debate

  • Notable contributions by Walter Mischel, a student of Rotter:

    • Analyzed the stability of personality traits across varying situations and found inconsistencies.

    • Proposed that behavior is more consistent within similar situations than across different settings.

  • Self-Regulation:

    • Defined by Lecci & Magnavita (2013) as the process of setting and pursuing goals using feedback for maximized success.

    • Often associated with willpower and the ability to delay gratification.

  • Marshmallow Test:

    • Conducted by Mischel to study self-regulation in preschoolers, with one marshmallow presented as immediate reward versus two if waited.

    • Follow-ups revealed that children exhibiting self-control had better life outcomes (academic success, stable relationships).

    • Recent studies suggest contextual factors influence these outcomes, reinforcing the significance of situational considerations.

Conclusion of the Debate

  • Modern psychology evaluates both situational and personal factors in understanding behavior.

  • Mischel’s Perspective:

    • Emphasized that individuals as situation processors interpret the situational context based on cognitive processes influencing their behavior.