1. Behaviorist View of Personality

2. Behaviorist View of Personality
Behaviorist view of personality = habits
Everything a person does is a response to some environment stimulus that has been reinforced by reward in some way

3. Behaviorist View of Personality
Explanation of a shy personality
In childhood, parent had harsh disciplinary style
Child is negatively reinforced to keep quiet
Later child may have generalized their approach to other adults (maybe teachers)
Thus…..the habit of shyness develops and continues

4. Bandura is Back! Social Cognitive Theory
How does
our environment (physical surroundings including people)
interact with
our behavior (intensity, frequency, influence from and on our environment)
our cognition (previously reinforced responses and processing)

5. Social Cognitive Theory
Reciprocal Determinism: the interacting influences between personality, environmental factors and internal cognition.
FOR EXAMPLE:
Internal Cognitive Factor: talkative, confidence
Behavior: Volunteering your answers
Environmental Factors: getting feedback from teacher, doing better next time, thus increasing your confidence
Internal Cognitive Factors
Behavior
Environmental Factors

6. Personal Control
Our sense of controlling our environment rather than the environment controlling us.
Exercising will power actually depletes mental energy and blood sugar
Gaining self control in one area of life tends to spill over into other areas
Control impulses, delay gratification
Option of controlling environment is correlated with improved health and high morale
Excessive freedom leads to decreasing life satisfaction

7. External Locus of Control
The perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate.
Can be healthy at times, but often leads to learned helplessness (once you have the option to control, you don’t take it)

8. Internal Locus of Control
The perception that one controls one’s own fate.

9. External vs. Internal
You did well on a test, how would you explain it?
External: you got lucky, the teacher made an easy test
Internal: your hard work, good study habits, and interest in the topic

10. The belief that you are likely to be successful at something
Self-efficacy
The belief that you are likely to be successful at something
If I believe I am likely to be successful in math, I may choose to take more math classes, and actually become a better math student.
Self-efficacy is a powerful determinant of future success, but…
…be wary of overconfidence.
It can lead students to perform lower (“I don’t need to study”) and may encourage unwise risks (“I can drive on ice.”)

11. What would you attempt to do, if you knew you could not fail?