© 2013 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The Personality PuzzleSixth Edition

by David C. Funder

Chapter 15:Learning to Be a Person: Behaviorism

and Social Learning Theories

Slides created byTera D. LetzringIdaho State University 1

Objectives

• Discuss the two learning approaches to explaining personality: behaviorism and social learning theory

• Discuss the cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS)

• Discuss the contributions and limitations of learning approaches to personality

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Learning-based Approaches

• Learning– Stimuli that occur close together in time will come

to elicit the same response– Behaviors followed by pleasant outcomes are

more likely to be repeated; behaviors followed by unpleasant outcomes are less likely to be repeated

• Explain personality in terms of learning principles

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Learning-based Approaches

• Emphasizes objectivity, publicly observable data, and tight theoretical reasoning

• Implies everyone should behave the same in the same environment/situation

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Behaviorism

• Definition• People should be studied from the outside• Personality is the sum of everything a person

does• Belief that the causes of behavior can be

directly observed• Functional analysis

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The Philosophical Roots of Behaviorism

• Empiricism– Experience is the direct product of reality– Reality determines personality, the structure of

the mind, and behavior– In opposition to rationalism – Implies that at birth the mind is essentially empty

• John Locke: tabula rasa, or blank slate

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The Philosophical Roots of Behaviorism

• Associationism– Many things are associated because one causes

the other

• Hedonism– Explains the motivation for learning and behaving– Implications for values and morality

• Utilitarianism

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Behaviorism: Three Kinds of Learning

• Habituation– Simplest form of behavior change as a result of

experience– How to maintain the intensity of the original

response– It is possible to habituate to violence portrayed in

the media and video games, winning the lottery, and being paralyzed

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Behaviorism: Three Kinds of Learning

• Classical conditioning– Pavlov’s dog– One stimulus becomes a warning signal for

another stimulus– Physiology: classical conditioning affects

involuntary processes– Learned helplessness– Stimulus-response (S-R) connections in personality

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Behaviorism: Three Kinds of Learning

• Operant conditioning– Thorndike’s law of effect

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Behaviorism: Three Kinds of Learning

• Operant conditioning– Techniques of operant

conditioning: Skinner• Skinner box• Reinforcement• Shaping

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Behaviorism: Three Kinds of Learning

• Operant conditioning– People are not always aware of the causes of their

behavior.

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Behaviorism: Punishment

• Definition• Alternative: reward a response that is

incompatible with the one you want to prevent

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Behaviorism: Rules of Correct Application of Punishment

• Availability of alternative responses• Behavioral and situational specificity• Apply punishment immediately after the

behavior and every time it occurs• Condition secondary punishing stimuli• Avoid mixed messages

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Behaviorism: The Dangers of Punishment

• Arousing emotion• It is difficult to be consistent• It is difficult to gauge the severity of

punishment• Teaches misuse of power• Motivates concealment• It is nearly impossible to use punishment

correctly15

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Social Learning Theory

• Suspicion that behaviorism did not tell the whole story– Kohler’s chimpanzees

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Social Learning Theory

• Reaction to shortcomings of behaviorism– Ignores motivation, thought, and cognition– Primarily based on animal research– Ignores the social dimension of learning– Organisms are treated as essentially passive

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Dollard and Miller’s Social Learning Theory

• Habit hierarchy– The effect of rewards, punishments, and learning

is to rearrange the habit hierarchy– Learning does not change behavior—it changes

the hierarchy (i.e., personality)– Understand this to understand the person

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Dollard and Miller’s Social Learning Theory

• Motivation and drives– Primary drives– Secondary drives

• Drive reduction theory

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Dollard and Miller’s Social Learning Theory

• Frustration and aggression– The frustration-aggression hypothesis

• Psychological conflict – Approach-avoidance conflict

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Dollard and Miller’s Social Learning Theory

• Psychological conflict1. An increase in drive strength increases the

tendency for approach or avoidance2. When there are two competing responses, the

stronger response wins3. The tendency to approach increases as the

positive goal gets closer4. The tendency to avoid increases as the negative

goal gets closer

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Dollard and Miller’s Social Learning Theory

5. Tendency 4 is stronger than tendency 3• Avoidance gradient

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Dollard and Miller’s Social Learning Theory

• Psychological conflict predictions– People are willing to commit to behaviors that

produce conflict when they are far off in time– Regret will increase as the event gets closer in

time

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Rotter's Social Learning Theory

• Primary concerns of the theory• Expectancy value theory• Expectancy (for a behavior):

– Specific and general

• Locus of control– Internal vs. external– Domain-specific

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Bandura's Social Learning Theory

• Emphasizes the social nature of learning and the ways people interact with situations

• Efficacy expectations– Self-efficacy– Influenced by the self-concept– Influences motivation, and performance– How to change behavior

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Bandura's Social Learning Theory• Observational learning

– Bobo doll experiments

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Bandura's Social Learning Theory• Reciprocal determinism

– People are not passive– The self system affects behavior independent of

the environment

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The Cognitive-Affective Personality System (CAPS)

• Mischel• Based on Kelly’s personal construct theory• The most cognitive version of social learning

theory• Combines two important ideas

– The individual’s interpretation of the world is all-important

– Thoughts proceed simultaneously on multiple tracks that occasionally intersect

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CAPS: Interactions Among Systems

• The most important aspect of the many systems of personality and cognition is their interaction

• Definition of personality

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CAPS: Cognitive Person Variables

• Cognitive and behavioral construction competencies

• Encoding strategies and personal constructs• Subjective stimulus values• Self-regulatory systems and plans• Affects

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CAPS: If and Then

• If . . . then contingencies– Behavioral signature– Mischel wants these to replace traits as the

essential units for understanding personality differences

– Advantages: specificity, more sensitive to behavior change across situations

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Contributions of Learning Approaches to Personality

• Establishing psychology as an objective science

• Recognition that people’s behavior depends on the environment and even the specific, immediate situation

• A technology of behavior change– Used to treat phobias, addictions, and other

emotional and behavioral disorders

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Limitations of Learning Approaches to Personality

• Unclear whether behavioral therapies are generalizable and long-lasting

• Underappreciation of the degree to which the characteristic ways people think can cause them to respond differently to the same situation

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Behaviorism and Personality

• Behaviorism was too simple to account for the whole range of human and animal behavior

• Does what you do depend on rewards and punishments? What else does it depend on?

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Clicker Question #1

According to learning theorists, learning is the change in as a function of .a) behavior; experienceb) behavior; cognitionsc) personality; sensationsd) personality; associations

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Clicker Question #2

If a child is rewarded for saying thank-you after receiving a gift, then she will be more likely to say thank-you after receiving another gift. This change in behavior is the result of a) social learning.b) classical conditioning.c) operant conditioning.d) cognitive affect.

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Clicker Question #3

The most cognitive of the social learning theories is from a) Bandura.b) Mischel.c) Rotter.d) Dollard and Miller.

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