Psychology2016

Theories of Personality 517

Like Bandura, Rotter (1978, 1981) also believed that an interaction of factors would
determine the behavioral patterns that become personality for an individual. For Rotter,
there are two key factors influencing a person’s decision to act in a certain way given
a particular situation: expectancy and reinforcement value. Expectancy is fairly similar
to Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy in that it refers to the person’s subjective feeling
that a particular behavior will lead to a reinforcing consequence. A high expectancy for
success is similar to a high sense of self-efficacy and is also based on past experiences
with successes and failures. Reinforcement value refers to an individual’s preference for a
particular reinforcer over all other possible reinforcing consequences. Things or circum-
stances that are particularly appealing to us have a higher reinforcement value than other
possible reinforcers.

CURRENT THOUGHTS ON THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE LEARNING
VIEWS

13.6 Evaluate the strengths and limitations of the behavioral and social cogni-
tive learning views of personality.

Behaviorism as an explanation of the formation of personality has its limitations. The
classic theory does not take mental processes into account when explaining behavior,
nor does it give weight to social influences on learning. The social cognitive view of
personality, unlike traditional behaviorism, does include social and mental processes
and their influence on behavior. Unlike psychoanalysis, the concepts in this theory can
and have been tested under scientific conditions (Backenstrass et al., 2008; Bandura,
1965; Catanzaro et al., 2000; DeGrandpre, 2000; Domjan et al., 2000; Skinner, 1989).
Some of this research has investigated how people’s expectancies can influence their
control of their own negative moods. Although some critics think that human person-
ality and behavior are too complex to explain as the result of cognitions and external
stimuli interacting, others point out that this viewpoint has enabled the development
of therapies based on learning theory that have become effective in changing undesir-
able behavior. to Learning Objective 15.4.

expectancy

a person’s subjective feeling that

a particular behavior will lead to a

reinforcing consequence.

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Learning Perspectives

for behaviorists, personality is a set of

learned responses and habits, gained

through classical and operant

conditioning

social cognitive learning

theorists emphasize both the

influences of other people’s

behavior and of a person’s

own expectancies on learning;

observational learning,

modeling, and other cognitive

learning techniques influence

personality

Rotter: theory based on principles of

motivation derived from Thorndike’s law

of effect; personality is set of potential

responses to various situations,

including one’s locus of control (internal

vs. external), sense of expectancy, and

preference for particular reinforcers.

Bandura: concept of self-efficacy;

believed three factors were important:

the environment, the behavior itself,

and personal or cognitive experiences

from earlier experiences; each affect the

other two in a reciprocal way—reciprocal

determinism (see Figure 13.2)

in Bandura’s social cognitive

view, both learning (individual

and through imitation of models)

and cognitive processes (such as

anticipation, judgment, and

memory) are important

Concept Map L.O. 13.5, 13.6

Interactive

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