534 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
a 100% probability that the woman’s response will be followed by some sort of
reinforcement. Her expectancy of reinforcement, therefore, for the candy bar, corn
chips, potato chips, popcorn, tortilla chips, and Danish pastry are all equal. Her
response—that is, which button she presses—is determined by the reinforcement
value of each snack.
When expectancies and situational variables are held constant, behavior is
shaped by one’s preference for the possible reinforcements, that is, reinforcement
value. In most situations, of course, expectancies are seldom equal, and prediction
is difficult because both expectancy and reinforcement value can vary.
What determines the reinforcement value for any event, condition, or action?
First, the individual’s perception contributes to the positive or negative value of
an event. Rotter calls this perception internal reinforcement and distinguishes it
from external reinforcement, which refers to events, conditions, or actions on
which one’s society or culture places a value. Internal and external reinforcements
may be either in harmony or at a variance with one another. For example, if you
like popular movies—that is, the same ones that most other people like—then your
internal and external reinforcements for attending these types of movies are in
agreement. However, if your taste in movies runs contrary to that of your friends,
then your internal and external reinforcements are discrepant.
Another contributor to reinforcement value is one’s needs. Generally, a spe-
cific reinforcement tends to increase in value as the need it satisfies becomes
stronger. A starving child places a higher value on a bowl of soup than does a
moderately hungry one. (This issue is more fully discussed later in this chapter in
the section titled Needs.)
Reinforcements are also valued according to their expected consequences for
future reinforcements. Rotter believed that people are capable of using cognition
to anticipate a sequence of events leading to some future goal and that the ultimate
goal contributes to the reinforcement value of each event in the sequence. Rein-
forcements seldom occur independently of future related reinforcements but are
likely to appear in reinforcement-reinforcement sequences, which Rotter (1982)
referred to as clusters of reinforcement.
Humans are goal oriented; they anticipate achieving a goal if they behave in
a particular way. Other things being equal, goals with the highest reinforcement
value are most desirable. Desire alone, however, is not sufficient to predict behav-
ior. The potential for any behavior is a function of both expectancy and reinforce-
ment value as well as the psychological situation.Psychological Situation
The fourth variable in the prediction formula is the psychological situation (s),
defined as that part of the external and internal world to which a person is respond-
ing. It is not synonymous with external stimuli, although physical events are usu-
ally important to the psychological situation.
Behavior is the result of neither environmental events nor personal traits;
rather, it stems from the interaction of a person with his or her meaningful
environment. If physical stimuli alone determined behavior, then two individu-
als would respond in exactly the same way to identical stimuli. If personal