548 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
Another novel technique suggested by Rotter is to have patients enter into a
previously painful social situation, but rather than speaking as much as usual, they
are asked to remain as quiet as possible and merely observe. By observing other
people, the patient has a better chance of learning their motives. Patients can use
that information in the future to alter their own behavior, thereby changing the
reactions of others and reducing the painful effects of future encounters with those
other persons.
In summary, Rotter believed that a therapist should be an active participant
in a social interaction with the patient. An effective therapist possesses the char-
acteristics of warmth and acceptance not only because these attitudes encourage
the patient to verbalize problems but also because reinforcement from a warm,
accepting therapist is more effective than reinforcement from a cold, rejecting one
(Rotter, Chance, & Phares, 1972). The therapist attempts to minimize the discrep-
ancy between need value and freedom of movement by helping patients alter their
goals or by teaching effective means of obtaining those goals. Even though the
therapist is an active problem solver, Rotter (1978) believed that eventually patients
must learn to solve their own problems.Introduction to Mischel’s
Personality Theory
In general, personality theories are of two types—those who see personality as a
dynamic entity motivated by drives, perceptions, needs, goals, and expectancies
and those who view personality as a function of relatively stable traits or personal
dispositions. The first category includes the theories of Adler (Chapter 3), Maslow
(Chapter 9), and Bandura (Chapter 17). This approach emphasizes cognitive and
affective dynamics that interact with the environment to produce behavior.
The second category emphasizes the importance of relatively stable traits of
personal dispositions. The theories of Allport (Chapter 12), Eysenck (Chapter 14),
and McCrae and Costa (Chapter 13) are in this category. This approach sees peo-
ple as being motivated by a limited number of drives or personal traits that tend
to render a person’s behavior somewhat consistent. Walter Mischel (1973) origi-
nally objected to this trait theory explanation of behavior. Instead, he supported
the idea that cognitive activities and specific situations play a major role in deter-
mining behavior. However, more recently, Mischel and his colleagues (Mischel &
Shoda, 1998, 1999; Mischel, Shoda, & Mendoza-Denton, 2002) have advocated a
reconciliation between the processing dynamics approach and the personal disposi-
tions approach. This cognitive-affective personality theory holds that behavior
stems from relatively stable personal dispositions and cognitive-affective processes
interacting with a particular situation.Biography of Walter Mischel
Walter Mischel, the second son of upper-middle-class parents, was born on Feb-
ruary 22, 1930, in Vienna. He and his brother Theodore, who later became a phi-
losopher of science, grew up in a pleasant environment only a short distance from
Freud’s home. The tranquillity of childhood, however, was shattered when the Nazis