Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 17. Rotter and Mischel:
Cognitive Social Learning
Theory(^534) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
Finally, low freedom of movement can spring from inadequate generalization.
Patients often use failure in one situation as proof that they cannot be successful 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 reinforce 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 pa-
tients 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 accomplished 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 be-
having toward important others, then those others will probably change their behav-
ior 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, be-
lieving 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 com-
plains 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 ex-
ercises over her husband, who must respond to her helplessness. The positive rein-
forcement she receives from her husband’s recognition is stronger than her accom-
panying 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.
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 peo-
ple, the patient has a better chance of learning their motives. Patients can use that in-
formation 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.
528 Part V Learning Theories