Personality Theory

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Personality Theory

• Chapter 14 Learning Theories of Personality
  The Social Learning Theory of Julian Rotter

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An Introduction to Social Learning Theory

• Social Learning Theory (SLT) applies principles
  of learning to personality and personality
  disorders.
• Rotter acknowledges a varied number of
  influences, starting with Adler.
• The term social learning is borrowed from
  Miller and Dollard.
• Other personality-learning theorists have
  appropriated it (Albert Bandura).

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• Social learning theories are not a specific kind
  of theory they have a social focus.
• Influences on Julian Rotter
• Kurt Lewin, J.R. Kantor, Edward C. Tolman, Edward
  L. Thorndike, and Clark Hull

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• SLT is a cognitive theory of learning,
  emphasizing goal-oriented behaviour and cognitive
  processes, especially the meanings of situations
  to the person and the concept of expectancy.
• SLT is also a reinforcement theory in its
  emphasis on the goals (reinforcements) people
  seek.

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Julian Bernard Rotter

• Rotter was born in 1916 in Brooklyn, New York,
  the son of European immigrant parents.
• It was significant to him that his father lost
  his successful business in the Depression.
• He traces his strong social interest to this.
• Entered Brooklyn College (free) to study
  chemistry but switched to psychology.

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• He attended lectures by Alfred Adler, which
  changed his major and his life course.
• He earned an MA from Iowa, where he took courses
  from Kurt Lewin.
• Rotter held an internship at Worcester State
  Hospital, MA, in 1938-9.

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• He obtained a PhD from Indiana University under
  J.R. Kantor, an unusual and charismatic
  behaviourist.
• Kantors influence strongly appears in SLT.
• Rotter then served in the Army.
• In 1946 he joined the clinical psychology faculty
  of Ohio State University.
• Became director of the program.

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• SLT appeared in 1954
• The result of years of theoretical development
  and research.
• Rotter moved to the University of Connecticut in
  1963.
• He continued his research on the theory,
  especially on the expectancy concept of internal
  versus external control of reinforcement.
• Retired in 1987 still active as a teacher

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Emphases

• The basic principles of SLT are stated in a set
  of postulates
• The unit of investigation for the study of
  personality is the interaction of the individual
  and his meaningful environment.
• Personality constructs are not dependent for
  explanation upon constructs in any other field,
  including physiology, biology, or neurology.

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• Behaviour as described by personality constructs
  takes place in space and time. All such events
  may be described by psychological constructs. . .
  and may be described by constructs . . . in
  physics, chemistry, and neurology.
• Not all behaviour of an organism may be usefully
  described by personality constructs. Personality
  constructs are useful in describing thinking,
  feeling, and action in socialized people.

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• A persons experiences (or his interactions with
  his meaningful environment) influence each other.
  . . . Personality has unity.
• Behaviour as described by personality constructs
  has a directional aspect. It may be said to be
  goal-directed. The directional aspect is inferred
  from the effect of reinforcing conditions.

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• The behaviour of a person is determined not only
  by the importance of goals but also by the
  expectancy that these goals will occur.

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• SLT is both a process and a content theory.
• Process concepts describe learning and change in
  behaviour.
• Content concepts characterize significant
  individual differences.

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• Rotter rejects the drive stimulus reduction
  hypothesis of S-R theory.
• Reinforcements important in social life are
  learned early in life and are independent of
  primary drive states.
• SLT emphasizes the importance of developing a
  sense of competence and a generalized expectancy
  of success in early childhood.

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• Learning to cope with failure is an important
  source of competence.
• Not all children are fortunate in acquiring
  expectancies of success.
• The problem of poor parenting
• The development in children of minimal goals that
  are impossibly high (think of school grades as an
  example), which doom children to many experiences
  of failure

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• SLT recognizes siblings as important models in
  the development of expectancies.
• Children will develop expectancies of need
  satisfaction from their own special situations in
  the family.
• Note the different psychological situations of
  only, older, and younger children (an Adlerian
  concept).

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The Major Concepts of Social Learning Theory

• The potentiality of occurrence of a specific
  behaviour is a function of expectancy and
  reinforcement value.
• BP f(E RV)
• Why and not X?
• Rotter thinks a multiplicative relation between E
  and RV is probable, but its better not to
  specify it yet.
• Note that a person might not seek a reinforcement
  for 2 reasons low expectancy or goal is
  unimportant.

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• To account for behaviour toward broader goals in
  a class of situations (i.e., predict need-related
  behaviour), SLT introduces new terms
• Need Potential (NP) the probability of any of a
  set of related behaviours directed toward a
  particular need.
• Freedom of Movement (FM) generalized expectancy.
• Need Value (NV) the importance of the need to
  the person.

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NP f(FM NV)

• Low Freedom of Movement will likely lead to
  avoidant, self-protective behaviour or to
  symbolic attempts to achieve a goal.
• The SLT analysis of conflict is low Freedom of
  Movement and high Need Value
• Low generalized expectancy of satisfying an
  important need.

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Implications of the Theory

• The nature of disturbed behaviour.
• It is often the case that neurotic behavio.r is
  goal-directed and purposive.
• It satisfies valued needs (i.e., it is reinforced
  by others).
• Two clinical examples
• Note in each of them the evidence of low Freedom
  of Movement for more appropriate and satisfying
  behaviour and the way others reinforce the
  problem behaviour.

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• How do we change problem behaviour?
• Need values are usually not the difficulty and
  are hard to alter.
• We seek to change expectancies.
• Delinquency is an example.
• The delinquent child often has appropriate needs
  (for affection, recognition) which are gratified
  by a rebellious peer group.

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• Delinquents learn expectancies that peers will
  satisfy important needs.
• Do we try to increase Freedom of Movement for
  need satisfaction from better sources?
• Yes!

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• The psychological situation
• There is individual consistency in personality
  (Postulate 5), but behaviour also varies with
  situations.
• Situations are composed of cues that arouse
  expectancies for reinforcement (positive or
  negative).
• These cues are learned and may be unique to a
  specific person.

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• To predict individual behaviour, we have to know
  the meaning of situations important to the person
  (i.e., the significant cues and the expectancies
  they arouse).

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Research

• SLT is a research-intensive theory.
• Because of the importance of the expectancy
  concept, much SLT research has studied expectancy
  learning and expectancy change.
• An application of expectancy research to
  significant social behaviour the behavioural
  choices people make.

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• This is the concept of belief in the internal or
  external control of reinforcement.
• Internal control the generalized expectancy that
  ones own behaviour determines rewards and
  punishments
• External control the generalized expectancy that
  rewards and punishments are determined by
  powerful others or by luck or fate.
• Note that this is a continuous dimension, not a
  typology.
• These expectancies are acquired in the course of
  learning in a variety of situations (e.g.,
  school, social relationships).

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Questions from the Internal versus External
Control Scale

• a. Many of the unhappy things in peoples
  lives are partly due to bad luck.
• b. Peoples misfortunes result from the
  mistakes they make.

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• a. No matter how hard you try, some people just
  dont like you.
• b. People who cant get others to like them
  dont understand how to get along with others.

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• a. In the case of the well-prepared student,
  there is rarely if ever such a thing as an
  unfair test.
• b. Many times, exam questions tend to be so
  un-related to course work that studying is
  really useless.

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How Do Internal/External Beliefs Develop?

• Structured interviews with mothers of children
  who took the internal/external control scale were
  scored for several relevant variables.
• Results internal control in boys associated with
  early independence training and less maternal
  concern over controlling their childrens
  behaviour.
• In girls? No significant relationships found.

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• An observational study (home visits).
• Young adults had been studied when they were
  children, along with their parents.
• In young adulthood, they were given the
  internal/external control scale and the scores
  correlated with observational data from
  childhood.
• Results intentional early independence
  positively related to internal control maternal
  affection and approval negatively related!

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• An earlier study of internal/external control in
  children did find maternal affection/approval
  positively related to internal control.
• Perhaps, said the investigator, maternal
  affection is needed for internal control in
  childhood for it to become a lasting part of
  personality, early and consistent independence
  training is critical.

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• What are the consequences of internal or external
  beliefs in adults?
• Social action by black students in the U.S.
  South.
• Those with internal beliefs volunteered for
  social action or signed up to do so.

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• There are many other studies showing that people
  with internal beliefs take more responsibility
  for their health, are less likely to conform, are
  less easily influenced, tend not to submit
  unquestioningly to authority.
• These results are just what we would predict from
  this expectancy concept.
• Please note that internals are not inevitably the
  guys in the white hats.

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Social Learning Theory in Perspective

• SLT a model for other modern cognitive
  personality theories
• Introduced the expectancy concept to personality
  theory.
• Gave the psychological situation a central place
  in personality, influencing other cognitive
  personality theories.
• Broadened the concept of motivation, emphasizing
  goal-directed behaviour.

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• SLT research includes both basic investigations
  of expectancy and reinforcement value and
  applications to a wider range of social behaviour
  (e.g., the locus of control of reinforcement).
• The theory is clinically useful, providing
  effective approaches to a variety of problem
  behaviour.

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• There are a few criticisms
• SLT is a young theory, and there are questions in
  modern personality study it hasnt addressed.
• The genetics of behaviour and child development
  are examples.

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Take-Home Messages

• SLT is a learning-based theory concentrating on
  significant social behaviour.
• It is a cognitive theory, and it views motivation
  as goal-directed.
• Rotter was influenced by Adler, Lewin, Kantor,
  Tolman, Thorndike, and Hull.
• SLT has influenced other modern cognitive
  personality theories (e.g., Banduras Social
  Cognitive Theory).

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• Personal history
• Julian Rotter was born in Brooklyn, NY.
• BA, Brooklyn College
• Attended Adler lectures
• MA, State University of Iowa
• studied with Kurt Lewin
• PhD, Indiana University
• under J.R. Kantor

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• Ohio State University, 1946-63
• University of Connecticut, 1963-87
• Now Professor Emeritus
• Emphases in SLT
• A set of 7 postulates covering the basic approach
  and introducing concepts (psychological
  situation, expectancy, goal direction of
  behaviour).

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• An important emphasis on child development the
  learning of expectancies, and the childs
  situation in the family
• Major concepts of SLT
• behaviour equations spell out the variables of
  the theory and how theyre related
• BP f(E RV) (note that the relation between E
  and RV isnt specified)

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• NP f(FM NV), the formula for prediction of
  broader classes of behaviour (i.e., need-related)
• The implications of low Freedom of Movement
• conflict and avoidant, self-protective behaviour

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• Implications of SLT
• For neurotic behaviour
• For behaviour change (modify expectancies)
• 2 clinical examples
• The importance of the situation in individual
  prediction.

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• Research
• A major example belief in the internal or
  external control of reinforcement.
• Developmental studies of how control expectancies
  are learned.
• Social action research.
• Studies of conformity, resistance to influence,
  and health maintenance.

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• SLT in perspective
• A model for other cognitive social learning
  theories.
• The important concept of the psychological
  situation.
• Motivation as goal-directed
• A broadened approach
• Strong research basis.
• Significant clinical usefulness.

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• Criticisms
• A young theory.
• Needs to incorporate modern developments in
  personality.