Personality Theories Pt.2

• For the behaviorist, personality is nothing more than a set of learned responses or habits.

• In the strictest traditional view of Watson and Skinner, everything a person or animal does is a response to some stimulus that has been either conditioned, or reinforced in some way.

Behavioral and Social Cognitive Views of Personality

Terms:

• habits - in behaviorism sets of well-learned responses that have become automatic.

• social cognitive view - learning theory that includes cognitive processes such as anticipating, judging, memory, and imitation of models.

• social cognitive learning theorists - theorists who emphasize the importance of both the influences of other people’s behavior and of a person’s own expectancies on learning.

• reciprocal determinism - Bandura’s explanation of how the factors of environment, personal characteristics, and behavior can interact to determine future behavior.

• ​Bandura believes that three factors influence one another in determining the patterns of behavior that make up personality: the environment, the behavior itself, and personal or cognitive factors that the person brings into the situation from earlier experiences.

• These three factors each affect the other two in a reciprocal, or give-andtake, relationship. Bandura calls this relationship reciprocal determinism.

​self-efficacy - a person’s expectancy of how effective his or her efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular circumstance (Bandura, 1998).

(Self-efficacy is not the same concept as self-esteem, which is the positive values a person places on his or her sense of worth.)

• ​locus of control - the tendency for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control over events and consequences in their lives.

• Julian Rotter - devised a theory based on a basic principle of motivation derived from Thorndike’s law of effect: People are motivated to seek reinforcement and avoid punishment.

• Thorndike and Rotter - viewed personality as a relatively stable set of potential responses to various situations.

​Expectancy (Rotter) - 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.

Multiple Choice

According to the behavioral theory, personality primarily consists of

• unconscious forces.

• learned responses.

• biologically driven traits.

• personal choices.

Multiple Choice

Albert Bandura considers ____________________ as a person’s expectancy of how effective his or her efforts to accomplish a goal will be in any particular circumstance.

• self-image

• self-awareness

• self-esteem

• self-efficacy

Multiple Choice

You have walked in late to class, and your psychology professor is explaining how one personality theorist sees personality as a relatively stable set of potential responses to various situations. You know immediately that your professor is talking about the theories of

• Julian Rotter.

• Albert Bandura.

• B. F. Skinner.

• John Watson.

Multiple Choice

Nina appreciates compliments about her new photography business but really values constructive criticism, as she can then address particular issues. According to Julian Rotter, Nina has a(n)

• strong self-concept.

• internal locus of control.

• real self.

• external locus of control.

​Humanism and Personality

• ​humanistic perspective - the “third force” in psychology that focuses on those aspects of personality that make people uniquely human, such as subjective feelings and freedom of choice.

• self-actualizing tendency - the striving to fulfill one’s innate capacities and capabilities.

• self-concept - the image of oneself that develops from interactions with important significant people in one’s life.

• Both Maslow and Rogers - believed that human beings are always striving to fulfill their innate capacities and capabilities and to become everything that their genetic potential will allow them to become. This striving for fulfillment is called the selfactualizing tendency. An important tool in human self-actualization is the development of an image of oneself, or the self-concept. The self-concept is based on what people are told by others and how the sense of self is reflected in the words and actions of important people in one’s life, such as parents, siblings, coworkers, friends, and teachers.

• ​self - an individual’s awareness of his or her own personal characteristics and level of functioning.

• positive regard - warmth, affection, love, and respect that come from significant others in one’s life.

• unconditional positive regard - referring to the warmth, respect, and accepting atmosphere created by the therapist for the client in person-centered therapy; positive regard that is given without conditions or strings attached.

• conditional positive regard - positive regard that is given only when the person is doing what the providers of positive regard wish.

​Some aspects of humanistic theory are difficult to test scientifically, and it has been suggested this viewpoint could be considered more a philosophical view of human behavior than a psychological explanation.

Despite the challenges, how people view themselves continues to be central to many aspects of psychology and the study of personality

Multiple Choice

In Rogers’s viewpoint, what is the striving to fulfill innate capacities and needs called?

• functioning fully

• self-actualizing tendency

• real self

• self-concept

Multiple Choice

What did Carl Rogers mean by the term “fully functioning person”?

• Someone who is working to discover his or her real self.

• Someone who is working to discover his or her ideal self.

• Someone who is experiencing a match between his or her real and ideal self and who is also trusting of their innermost intuitions and urges.

• Someone who has discovered his or her self-efficacy.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following statements concerning the self-concept is false?

• It is based on what people are told by others.

• It is a reflection of the sense of self in the words and actions of others.

• It is an important tool in human self-actualization.

• It is formed based solely on what a person believes about himself or herself.

Multiple Choice

Karen’s parents told her that they expected her to become a doctor, like her father and grandfather before her. They told her that if she chose any other career, they would no longer support her or respect her choice. According to Rogers, Karen’s parents were giving her

• unconditional positive regard.

• unconditional negative regard.

• conditional positive regard.

• conditional negative regard.

​trait theories - theories that endeavor to describe the characteristics that make up human personality in an effort to predict future behavior.

trait - a consistent, enduring way of thinking, feeling, or behaving.