Chapter 18 Notes Flashcards
Overview of Cognitive Social Learning Theory
Julian Rotter and Walter Mischel each rest on the assumption that cognitive factors help shape how people will react to environmental forces
one’s expectations of future events are prime determinants of performance
object to Skinner’s explanation that behavior is shaped by immediate reinforcement
As an interactionist, he believes that neither the environment itself nor the individual is completely responsible for behavior
Rotter’s Social Learning Theory 5 hypothesis
- People’s reaction to environmental stimuli depends on the meaning or importance that they attach to an event
- personalities possess relative stability
- motivation is goal directed (rejects the notion that people are primarily motivated to reduce tension or seek pleasure)
- Rotter’s empirical law of effect, which “defines reinforcement as any action, condition, or event which affects the individual’s movement toward a goal”
- people are capable of anticipating events
Rotter’s behavior potential (BP) is
the possibility that a particular response will occur at a given time and place
Rotter’s behavior potential (BP) is a function of both:
expectancy and reinforcement value
Rotter’s 2 kinds of expectancy
Generalized - I went to see zeppelin and they were rock so I’ll go tonight to see bad company and expect to have fun too
Specific
Rotter’s Reinforcement Value
goals with the highest reinforcement value are most desirable / Desire alone, however, is not sufficient to predict behavior
Internal reinforcement is the individual’s perception of an event
external reinforcement refers to society’s evaluation of an event
Reinforcement-reinforcement sequences suggest that the value of an event is a function of one’s expectation that a particular reinforcement will lead to future reinforcements
Rotter’s four variables that must be analyzed in order to make accurate predictions in any specific situation
behavior potential
expectancy
reinforcement value
the psychological situation
Rotter’s Psychological Situation
interaction between person and environment is a crucial factor in shaping behavior
Rotter’s Basic Prediction Formula is
a hypothetical means of predicting specific behaviors
Rotter’s Needs
difference between needs and goals is semantic only. When focus is on the environment, Rotter speaks of goals; when it is on the person, he talks of needs
Rotter’s six broad categories of needs:
Recognition-Status Dominance Independence Protection-Dependency Love and Affection Physical comfort
Rotter’s A need complex has three essential components:
need potential
freedom of movement
and need value
Rotter’s Need potential is
analogous to the more specific concept of behavior potential.
The difference between the two is that need potential refers to a group of functionally related behaviors, whereas behavior potential is the likelihood that a particular behavior will occur in a given situation in relation to a specific reinforcement
Rotter’s freedom of movement (FM) is
Freedom of movement is the average “expectancy” that a set of related behaviors will be reinforced
how many alternative ways do you have of getting to your goal) is analogous to expectancy. If I have more FM then I’ll have more/higher Expectancy
a person with a strong need for dominance could behave in a variety of ways to satisfy that need. She might select her husband’s clothes, decide what college curriculum her son will pursue
Rotter’s need value (NV) is
the degree to which she or he prefers one set of reinforcements to another
Rotter’s Internal and External Control of Reinforcement
popularly called “locus of control scale”
I-E Scale attempts to measure the degree to which people perceive a causal relationship between their own efforts and environmental consequences
(popularly called “locus of control scale”)
Rotter’s Interpersonal Trust Scale
high trust is not only desirable but essential for the survival of civilization
Pair skating demands a high level of interpersonal trust
Maladaptive behavior in Rotter’s social learning theory is
any persistent behavior that fails to move a person closer to a desired goal
(1) conflict between goals, (2) destructive goals, and (3) unrealistically lofty goals.
maladjusted individuals are characterized by unrealistic goals, inappropriate behaviors, inadequate skills, or unreasonably low expectancies of being able to execute the behaviors necessary for positive reinforcement
It frequently, but not inevitably, arises from the combination of high need value and low freedom of movement
people generalize: a physically weak adolescent who lacks the skills to be an accomplished athlete
may erroneously see himself as unable to compete for a role in the school play
the overall goal of Rotter’s therapy is to
bring freedom of movement and
need value into harmony, thus reducing defensive and avoidance behaviors.
2 goals of Rotter’s psychotherapy
(1) changing or adjusting (too high/low) the importance of goals
(2) eliminating unrealistically low expectancies for success/low freedom of movement/generalization
more lessons of Rotter’s therapy
teach patients to look for alternative courses of action
teach these patients to look at ways in which they may
be contributing to the other person’s defensive or negative behavior
help patients look at the long-range consequences of their
Behaviors
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
characteristics of Rotter’s therapist
a therapist should be an active participant in
a social interaction with the patient. An effective therapist possesses the characteristics 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
Mischel’s Consistency Paradox
some basic traits do persist over time, but little evidence exists that they generalize from one situation to another
Mischel’s objection to the use of traits as predictors of behaviors rested
on their inconsistency from
one situation to another
Mischel proposed a set of five overlapping, relatively stable person variables that interact with the situation to determine behavior variables, which they call
cognitive-affective unit
5) cognitive-affective unit
(1) encoding strategies, or how people construe or
categorize an event;
(2) competencies and self-regulating strategies: that is, what
people can do and their strategies and plans to accomplish a desired behavior;
(3) behavior-outcome and stimulus-outcome expectancies and beliefs regarding a
particular situation;
(4) subjective goals, values, and preferences that partially determine selective attention to events
5) affective responses, including feelings
and emotions as well as the affects that accompany physiological reactions
Locus of Control and Holocaust Heroes
Being oriented more toward an internal sense of control was found to relate to
being a Holocaust hero
stronger sense of social responsibility, were more tolerant (less authoritarian),
were more empathetic, and exhibited higher levels of altruistic moral reasoning
outcome of events is not all chance, is a critical element to being able to
help others
Locus of control is
a generalized expectancy that refers to people’s belief that they can or cannot control their lives
Mischel’s Personality System
cognitive factors, such as expectancies, subjective perceptions, values, goals, and personal standards are important in shaping personality
behavior is best predicted from an understanding of the person, the situation, and the interaction
Discuss Mischel’s conditional view of personal dispositions
If personal traits were solely responsible for behavior, then a person would always respond in a consistent and characteristic fashion, even to different events. Because neither of these conditions is valid, something other than the environment or personal traits must shape behavior. Rotter’s social learning theory hypothesizes that the interaction between person and environment is a crucial factor in shaping behavior.
Discuss Mischel and Shoda’s cognitive-affective view of personality.
However, Mischel does not believe that inconsistencies in behavior are due solely to the situation; he recognizes that inconsistent behaviors reflect stable patterns of variation within a person. He and Shoda see these stable variations in behavior in the following framework: If A, then X; but if B, then Y. People’s pattern of variability is their behavioral signature, or their unique and stable pattern of behaving differently in different situations.
Name and briefly discuss Rotter’s two most famous scales for measuring generalized expectancies
Internal-External Control Scale and the Interpersonal Trust Scale
