Julian Rotter
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____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Subject PSYCHOLOGY Paper No and Title Paper No 5: Personality Theories Module No and Title Module No 27: Social Learning Theory: Julian Rotter Module Tag PSY_P5_M27 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Learning Outcomes 2. Introduction 2.1 Biographical Sketch 3. Social Learning Theory 3.1 Predicting Specific Behaviors 3.2 Basic Prediction Formula 3.3 Predicting General Behaviors 3.4 General Prediction Formula 4. Personality Development 4.1 Locus of Control 4.2 Interpersonal Trust 4.3 Maladaptive Behavior 5. Evaluative Comments PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 5: Personality Theories Module No 27: Social Learning Theory: Julian Rotter ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 5.1Contribution 5.2 Criticism 6. Summary PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 5: Personality Theories Module No 27: Social Learning Theory: Julian Rotter ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Learning Outcomes After studying this module, you shall be able to: • Know about Julian Rotter’s Social Learning theory • Learn the difference between Internal and External Locus of Control. • Identify the factors leading to maladaptive behavior. • Evaluate Rotter’s research in the light of current developments. • Analyze the role of different components in General and Specific behavior patterns. 2. Introduction Julian Rotter developed a Social Learning Theory of Personality based on the principles of learning. The basic assumption underlying this theory is that most behaviors are learned and are acquired through one’s experience with other people. Rotter emphasized that cognitive factors play a role in determining how people respond to the environment. Hence, his theory may also be called as Cognitive Social Learning Theory, which suggests that one’s expectations of future events are major determinants of behavior. As an interactionist, Rotter emphasized understanding the interaction of people with their meaningful environment as the best predictor of human behavior. He believed that the environment or the individual alone are not completely responsible for behavior; rather, it is people’s cognitions, past histories and expectations of future that play a key role in predicting behavior. 2.1 Biographical sketch Fig 1: Julian Rotter PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 5: Personality Theories Module No 27: Social Learning Theory: Julian Rotter ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Julian Rotter was born in Brooklyn, New York on October 22, 1916. He was the third child and oldest son to his parents, who were Jewish immigrants. His family was affected by the Great Depression in the 1930s and his father lost his wholesale stationary business to unemployment. That is when Rotter realized the influence of situational factors on human behavior. Rotter was an avid reader and was greatly influenced by Adler and Freud. He came to know Adler personally and attended meetings of the Society for Individual Psychology. He was also greatly impressed by Kurt Lewin’s field theory approach, which emphasized that behavior is interrelated and suggested that a number of factors are responsible for a behavior to occur. He completed his B.A from Brooklyn College in 1937 and his M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1938. He did his PhD. in clinical psychology from Indiana University in 1941. That same year, Rotter joined Norwich State Hospital in Connecticut as a clinical psychologist and trained interns and assistants. During the World War II, he worked as an army psychologist for more than 3 years. After the war, Rotter took a job at Ohio State University, where he met many outstanding graduate students, including Walter Mischel. Here, Rotter published one of his well-known works, Social Learning and Clinical Psychology in 1954.In 1963, he joined University of Connecticut as director of the Clinical Training Program till 1987, when he retired as a professor emeritus. Some of Rotter’s most important publications are: Applications of a Social Learning Theory of Personality, with J. E. Chance and E. J. Phares (1972) Personality, with D. J. Hochreich (1975) The Development and Application of Social Learning Theory: Selected Papers(1982) The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (1966)and The Interpersonal Trust Scale (1967). Rotter has also served as the President of the Eastern Psychological Association and as President of the divisions of Social and Personality Psychology and Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA). 3. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY Rotter’s Social Learning Theory attempts to predict human behavior on the basis of five basic assumptions: Human beings interact with their meaningful environments. The meaning people attach to an event is an important determinant of how they will react to environmental stimuli. Rotter believed that human behavior arises from an interaction of environmental and personal factors. For example, any kind of reinforcement attains meaning according to an individual’s personal needs or traits and also by external stimuli operating in that situation. Thus, both factors account for the behavior in a particular situation. PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 5: Personality Theories Module No 27: Social Learning Theory: Julian Rotter ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Human personality is learned. This means that personality is not fixed at any particular age of development, but it can be modified or changed through learning. In other words, the accumulation of past experiences gives rise to a stable personality, yet one can always change by exposure to new experiences. Personality has a basic unity or interdependence. (Rotter, Chance & Phares, 1972) This means that people have relatively stable personalities. They learn to evaluate new experiences on the basis of past experiences or interactions (that were reinforced). This leads to consistent evaluation and provides greater stability to one’s personality. For example, a student may refuse to accept helpful advice from a college counselor, because she had been consistently given poor advice by other counselors, in the past. Motivation is goal directed. Rotter assumed that most behaviors are motivated or goal-directed. Thus, human behavior can be explained by assuming that people expect that their actions advance them towards particular goals. This is in line with the empirical law of effect, which suggests that people strive to maximize rewards and minimize punishments. Generally, people are motivated to maintain behavior that makes them reach their desired goal. People are able to anticipate events. 3.1 Predicting Specific Behaviors The social learning approach to predict human behavior in specific situations is based on four concepts/ variables: Behavior potential- it is the probability of a particular behavior occurring in a specific situation. Expectancy- it is a cognition or belief (expectation) about some property of an object as reinforcing. Reinforcement value- it is an individual’s preference for a particular type of reinforcement, if all possible reinforcements have the same probability of occurrence. Psychological situation- it refers to a complex set of interacting cues that define an individual’s perception of a given situation. 3.1.1 Behavior Potential (BP) Behavior potential is the probability that a particular response will occur under specific environmental conditions at a given time. Many behavior potentials with varying degree of intensity exist in any given psychological situation. Some behaviors may have zero BP, some behaviors may be very likely to occur and some behaviors lie between the two extremes. For example, as Radha walks towards a restaurant, there are several possibilities/ behavior potentials: she might overlook it, stop by and order food, think about robbing the cashier, etc. PSYCHOLOGY Paper No 5: Personality Theories Module No 27: Social Learning Theory: Julian Rotter ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ The behavior potential in any given situation is a function of expectancy as well as the reinforcement value. Thus, a particular behavior potential will be activated if it has a greater likelihood to occur in the given situation and if it provides positive reinforcement. 3.1.2 Expectancy (E) Expectancy refers an individual’s expectation that a particular reinforcement or a group of reinforcements will occur in a specific situation. Expectancies vary from 0 to 100% and can be modified by experience. Expectancies can be of two types: . Generalized Expectancy (GE) -It is learned from past experience with a specific response or responses similar to the particular response. It affirms that a particular behavior will be followed by positive or negative reinforcement. For example, a student may have a generalized expectancy that high grades will follow hard work and effort in classes, as this had been the case in the past. Specific Expectancy (E’/ E prime) –It is the expectancy specific to a given situation. For example, a student who has been getting poor grades in French may believe that his hard work in French may go unrewarded. Thus, he may not study French but put his time and effort in other subjects. The amount of effort people put in to achieve their goals is determined by the total expectancy, which is a