For example, personal factors determine which behaviors in the environment a person chooses to imitate, and those environmental events in turn are processed cognitively according to other personal factors. ![]() We can see the principles of reciprocal determinism at work in observational learning. Through observational learning, we come to learn what behaviors are acceptable and rewarded in our culture, and we also learn to inhibit deviant or socially unacceptable behaviors by seeing what behaviors are punished. Drawing on the behaviorists’ ideas about reinforcement, Bandura suggested that whether we choose to imitate a model’s behavior depends on whether we see the model reinforced or punished. Just as we learn individual behaviors, we learn new behavior patterns when we see them performed by other people or models. He felt that this type of learning also plays a part in the development of our personality. We learn by observing someone else’s behavior and its consequences, which Bandura called observational learning. Finally, the context in which the behavior occurs refers to the environment or situation, which includes rewarding/punishing stimuli.īandura’s key contribution to learning theory was the idea that much learning is vicarious. Behavior refers to anything that we do that may be rewarded or punished. Cognitive processes refer to all characteristics previously learned, including beliefs, expectations, and personality characteristics. In contrast to Skinner’s idea that the environment alone determines behavior, Bandura (1990) proposed the concept of reciprocal determinism, in which cognitive processes, behavior, and context all interact, each factor influencing and being influenced by the others simultaneously (Figure 1). In social-cognitive theory, the concepts of reciprocal determinism, observational learning, and self-efficacy all play a part in personality development. He presented a social-cognitive theory of personality that emphasizes both learning and cognition as sources of individual differences in personality. He disagreed, however, with Skinner’s strict behaviorist approach to personality development, because he felt that thinking and reasoning are important components of learning. The Social-Cognitive PerspectiveĪlbert Bandura agreed with Skinner that personality develops through learning. In fact, Greta now describes herself as a cautious person. Speeding and extreme sports are no longer reinforced, so she no longer engages in those behaviors. But after she gets married and has children, the system of reinforcements and punishments in her environment changes. She drives fast and participates in dangerous sports such as hang gliding and kiteboarding. For example, consider a young woman, Greta, a risk taker. Our responses can change as we come across new situations therefore, we can expect more variability over time in personality than Freud would anticipate. He argued that personality develops over our entire life, not only in the first few years. Skinner disagreed with Freud’s idea that personality is fixed in childhood. ![]() We increase the behaviors that lead to positive consequences, and we decrease the behaviors that lead to negative consequences. ![]() In other words, we learn to behave in particular ways. Skinner, a strict behaviorist, believed that environment was solely responsible for all behavior, including the enduring, consistent behavior patterns studied by personality theorists.Īs you may recall from your study on the psychology of learning, Skinner proposed that we demonstrate consistent behavior patterns because we have developed certain response tendencies (Skinner, 1953). In other words, people behave in a consistent manner based on prior learning. Instead, they view personality as significantly shaped by the reinforcements and consequences outside of the organism. The Behavioral Perspectiveīehaviorists do not believe in biological determinism: They do not see personality traits as inborn. This illustrates one significant advantage of the learning approaches to personality over psychodynamics: Because learning approaches involve observable, measurable phenomena, they can be scientifically tested. In contrast to the psychodynamic approaches of Freud and the neo-Freudians, which relate personality to inner (and hidden) processes, the learning approaches focus only on observable behavior.
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