Learning Approaches to Personality

• Basic assumptions:1. Changes in behavior occur in predictable

ways

2. Personality is formed by person’s unique history

3. Objectivity and rigor in testing are crucial

4. Situational specificity

Ivan Pavlov – classical conditioning

• Classical conditioning = type of learning in which a neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally associated with another stimulus

• Digestion in dogs

• Tone = neutral stimulus (became conditioned stimulus)

Classical conditioning

Two necessary conditions:1. Reflexive response2. Stimulus that elicits response must be

associated in time and place with another stimulus

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)• Unconditioned response (UCR)• Conditioned stimulus (CS)• Conditioned response (CR)

Classical conditioning extended

• Discrimination – being able to tell stimuli apart (i.e. discriminate)

• Generalization – responding to different stimuli in a similar way

• These two processes are complementary• Extinction• Higher order conditioning – CS-CR pair

can serve as an UCS-UCR for more classical conditioning

Emotional conditioning

= classical conditioning in which the CRs are emotional reactions

• Accounts for likes and dislikes, preferences and biases from this perspective

Phobias

• Phobia = intense fear that is not justified

• Systematic desensitization1. Extinction

– Role of avoidance

2. Counterconditioning

Step 1: taught to relax body (incompatible “emotion)Step 2: develop anxiety hierarchyStep 3: relax completely, visualize lowest item on

hierarchy, allow anxiety to dissipateStep 4: move to next level and repeat