Personality: Behaviorist Perspectives Behaviorism – theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior.

Behaviorists Normally did not study personality…until… John Dollard & Neal Miller (1950) attempted to translate Freudian ideas into behavioral terms. Big idea people: Skinner, Bandura, Mischel

B.F. Skinner’s “Pure” Behaviorism Focus: how external environments mold overt behavior. Determinism: behavior is fully determined by environmental stimuli (free will is an illusion). Personality: a collection of response tendencies that are tied to various stimulus situations. – Environmental consequences determine responses. – Operant conditioning…reinforcement = strengthened – Development: Continuous, lifelong journey. – “Mechanic” conditioning without the person’s conscious participation.

Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory Added cognitive flavor to behaviorism. – Humans are conscious, thinking beings. Originally “social learning theory” now “social cognitive theory” Personality: largely shaped through learning. – People are not passive participants (not mechanical) Reciprocal Determinism – internal mental events, external environmental factors, and overt behavior all influence one another. – environment does determine behavior, but behavior also determines the environment.

Bandura’s Contributions Observational Learning (Not a new concept) When an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models. Model – person whose behavior is observed by another. Response tendencies are the product of imitation. Self-Efficacy (New) One’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes. – Subjective, task specific. – influences which challenges people take and how well they perform – people gauge reinforcement tendencies and adjust their behavior to the circumstances

Modeling UT5Mo

Walter Mischel – Person-Situation Controversy Focus: extent to which situational factors govern behavior. People make responses that they think will lead to reinforcement in the situation at hand. People will behave differently in different situations. – People are less consistent than assumed (ie. honesty).

Evaluating Behavioral Perspectives Pro Skinner: shed light on how environmental consequences and conditioning mold characteristic behavior. Bandura: expanded behaviorism to include a cognitive component. Mischel: situational influence awareness. Criticism Dehumanizing nature of radical behaviorism. Diffusion of the behavioral approach. – Are they behavioral anymore?