Chapter 18 Rotter and Mischel: Cognitive Social Learning Theory 547A second source of low freedom of movement is faulty evaluation of the
present situation. For example, an adult may lack assertiveness with her colleagues
because, during childhood, she was punished for competing with her siblings. This
patient must learn to differentiate between past and present as well as between
siblings and colleagues. The therapist’s task is to help her make these distinctions
and to teach her assertiveness techniques in a variety of appropriate situations.
Finally, low freedom of movement can spring from inadequate generaliza-
tion. Patients often use failure in one situation as proof that they cannot be suc-
cessful in other areas. Take the example of the physically feeble adolescent who,
because he was unsuccessful in sports, generalized his failure to nonathletic areas.
His present problems come from faulty generalization, and the therapist must rein-
force even small successes in social relationships, academic achievements, and
other situations. The patient will eventually learn to discriminate between realistic
shortcomings in one area and successful behaviors in other situations.
Although Rotter recognized that therapists should be flexible in their tech-
niques and should utilize different approaches with different patients, he suggested
several interesting techniques that he found to be effective. The first is to teach
patients to look for alternative courses of action. Patients frequently complain that
their spouse, parent, child, or employer does not understand them, treats them
unjustly, and is the source of their problems. In this situation, Rotter would simply
teach the patient to change the other person’s behavior. This change can be accom-
plished by examining those behaviors of the patient that typically lead to negative
reactions by spouse, parent, child, or employer. If the patient can find an alternative
method of behaving toward important others, then those others will probably
change their behavior toward the patient. Thereafter, the patient will be rewarded
for behaving in a more appropriate fashion.
Rotter also suggested a technique to help patients understand other people’s
motives. Many patients have a suspicious or distrustful attitude toward others,
believing that a spouse, teacher, or boss is intentionally and spitefully trying to
harm them. Rotter would attempt to teach these patients to look at ways in which
they may be contributing to the other person’s defensive or negative behavior and
to help them realize that the other person is not simply nasty or spiteful but may
be frightened or threatened by the patient.
Therapists can also help patients look at the long-range consequences of their
behaviors and to understand that many maladaptive behaviors produce secondary
gains that outweigh the patients’ present frustration. For example, a woman may
adopt the role of a helpless child in order to gain control over her husband. She
complains to her therapist that she is dissatisfied with her helplessness and would
like to become more independent, both for her sake and for the benefit of her
husband. What she may not realize, however, is that her current helpless behavior
is satisfying her basic need for dominance. The more helpless she acts, the more
control she exercises over her husband, who must respond to her helplessness. The
positive reinforcement she receives from her husband’s recognition is stronger than
her accompanying negative feelings. In addition, she may not clearly see the long-
range positive consequences of self-confidence and independence. The task of
therapists is to train patients to postpone minor contemporary satisfactions for more
important future ones.