Ch.16, Rotter's Social Learning Flashcards
Central Concepts, Rotter
MEANING OF ENVIRONMENT UNit of investigation in personality is the interaction of the individual and his meaningful environment
WHAT IS A MEANINGFUL SITUATION TO A PERSON? –Meaningful environment: some people will assign different meanings and assign more meaning to something than another
People are individuals (NOT A COLLECTIVIST PERSPECTIVE)
Human beings assign different meanings to different things in different contexts: typically done through language; human beings operate differently from animals through language
How is personality an independent psychological field?
INDEPENDENT Personality constructs are NOT dependent on constructs in any other field: concepts in personality are explanatory on their own, they don’t need to reference other domains of psychology/science in order to explain
Why did Rotter argue that personality constructs are not useful in infancy?
NOT APPLICABLE TO INFANTS Personality constructs are only useful for describing feelings, actions, and thoughts of people whose socialization has begun
What we learn in one situation influences how we think, feel, act; experience with past situations influence our perceptions of current situations and vice versa; personality has wholeness and unity
How are the past and present of an individual a two-way street?
TWO WAY STREET OF PRESENT/PAST Personality becomes coherent as present influences perception of past and past influences present
How is behavior goal-directed?
GOAL DIRECTED: Behaviour is goal directed, and the direction of behaviour is inferred from the effects of reinforcement (FUTURE ORIENTED/GOAL ORIENTED)
How did Rotter understand behavior?
FIRST ONE TO EMPHASIZE HISTORY OF LEARNING IN HUMANS, IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE’S BEHAVIOURS YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY HAVE LEARNED IN THE PAST
What is the problem with the way Rotter understands behavior?
^^Problem with this: you must figure out a person’s learning history which is difficult; Rotter said this could be determined by asking people (though their memory might not serve them well), and to see which situations they place meaning in^^
^^^^Interview is a co-created story between asker and responder: can you really ever learn a person’s history though? (working with children/teenagers, this can be easier to do)
Determinant of behavior
Occurence of a behavior in A person is determined in part by the person’s anticipation or expectancy that these goals will occur: WILL COME BACK IN ALL SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORYES
Behaviour Potential:
probability of behaviour occurring in specific situation (what are my choices of action? Choose not to go to an interview)
Expectancy:
Which reinforcement does a person believe they can actually attain? Governs behaviour accordingly
Specific Expectancies:
reflect an individual’s judgment of the likelihood that a behavior will lead to a particular outcome within a particular situation (can I get this job?
Generalized Expectancies:
subjective estimate of probability of reinforcement in a class of situations or a global belief about how reinforcements come about (IMPACT ON WHO YOU ARE/BECOME) (led to enormous amount of research)
VALUES Reinforcement Value:
what do i want/value? One’s particular interest in one reinforcement over another?
LISTS EVERYTHING Needs:
classes of reinforcement that affect behaviour; some needs are highly valued, others less so/DEPENDENT ON VALUES,
Need Potential
probability of ocucrency of a given set of behaviours direct toward a particular need (HOW WILL I GET IT?)
NEED VALUE/FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT:
Extent to which one believes they possess the abilities (knowledge/training/experience) and resources (time/money) to attain a certain group of reinforcements having a certain worth referred to as need value (18 yr old who didn’t graduate needs to sell drugs instead of taking another job
Implication of freedom of movement on pathology
LOW Freedom of movement = level of frustration anger and possible depression
Freedom of movement: Expectation that one’s behavior will have the desired consequences.
Minimal Goal and implications for psychopathology
: level of reinforcement that is barely rewarding, plays a major role in people’s lives (minimal goals are set too high, by yourself or others, you exhaust yourself trying to reach that minimal goal) too high or too low =psychopathology the point at which a person will be motivated to take action in order to achieve a desired result.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENERALIZED EXPECTANCIES AND PERSONALITY ADJUSTMENT/OR MALADJUSTMENT:
involves being able to assess as correctly as possible the degree of utility of one’s expectancies and the suitablity of one’s skill set and resources; PERSON HAS TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY CAN EXPECT FITS WITH THE SKILLS/RESOURCES THAT THEY HAVE/ HAVE FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT TO ACHIEVE IT
Formula
Behaviour potential is a factor of expectancy and reinforcement value; the more we expect to be reinforced and the higher the reinforcement value, the more likely we will behave accordingly
Locus of Control and cultural factors
Best known for/led to the most research
Type of generalized expectancy (global belief about how reinforcements come about)
Can be internal or external; related to culture, gender, child-rearing practices, socio-economic status
People with internal locus of control: have better healthm take more responsibility for their health, resistant to social pressure but remain cooperative, are higher achievers, often have better physical health,
Most people are on a spectrum between internal and external locus of control
Too external: you are a victim of everyone else deciding things for you
NOrth Americans value internal locus of control; other cultures value external control
Rotter’s personality assessment
Internal/External Control of Reinforcement SCale
Conditions for change/what a Social Learning therapist would be helping a client do
Learning to adjust minimal golas
Examining one’s goals: clarifying the difference between needs and wants and reviewing the reinforcement value of the rewards we seek
Modifying expectancies and changing faulty generalization of expectancies
Increasing one’s skills and resources to improve freedom of movement
Scientific overview of Rotter
Database: enormous amount of research, very good database; like Eyesneck
Very comprehensive
Very systematic but no structural concepts, all process
Testable in many ways
Applications: ROtter was a clinician and like manyother theorsists, his theory contributed to improving approaches to psychotherapy
CBT, Rotter was at the heart of CBT though he didn’t do it himself
