Rotter Essay

Social learning theory (SLT), cognitive approach, behaviorist approach, humanistic approach, psychodynamic approach and biological approach.

This theory sees personality to be seen as having three different levels that linked to each other, these personality views are:

Burger (2008), says that there are many theories of personality and psychologists try to explain it with their own approaches. Discussed here will be the psychoanalytic approach, the trait approach, the biological approach the humanistic approach, the behavioural/social learning approach and the cognitive approach. They were devised to search for specific patterns in behaviour and ways of thinking about these

The learning theory selected for this essay is the social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura during the 1960s. The theory was influential in explaining how learning takes place in a social environment. This theory helped to emphasize the role of the social environment in the learning process. According to the social learning theory, an individual learns through the influences of the environment on the mind. The sense impressions from the environment are instrumental in shaping perceptions and connections that promote

Feist, J., Feist, G. J., & Roberts, T. (2013). Theories of personality (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from

The two theories discussed here will be the Psychodynamic Theory and the Social Learning Theory. Psychodynamic theories include the wisdom of Freud and Jung. Freud discusses, defense mechanisms, understanding the ego as it relates to rational thinking and the superego in regard to mortality. Whereas the Social Learning Theory includes those works from Bandura, Watson, and Piaget among others. This theory will focus on imitation, observation and modeling another’s behavior to achieve a certain desired outcome. Although their conceptual theories differ, they both reflect, shape, and interpret the very essence of the human psyche and how we have evolved and developed over the years.

Through the Social Learning Theory, one can absorb new behaviors from others or one can form attitudes toward something that can in turn influence behavior. The attitudes we acquire may sometimes be implicit or explicit and depending on the strength of these attitudes and environmental factors, behaviors may come about. If implicit attitudes are strong and an opposing explicit is weak, the behavior will portray the implicit attitude unconsciously.

Personality affects many aspects of life. It influences behavior and social relations. Erik Erikson is a theorist known for his stages of personality development. He explains that certain stages of development affect personality in separate ways. Abraham Maslow is a theorist known for his hierarchy of needs. He explains that fulfilling needs influences personality. This paper will discuss personality characteristics of both theories and how personality affects situational behavior and interpersonal relations.

George Lucas, an American filmmaker, is one of the most valued writers of all time for his American epic, “Star Wars”. He lived a good life, born in 1944 and getting into writing movies at a young age. After many award winning films, he wanted something that would be extraordinary, so he created Star Wars. Lucas spent long hours on the movie, working out every detail. He employs many archetypes throughout the movies to teach themes and lessons to its viewers. One of the most important that he implemented were archetypal conflicts. These show character development and hardships that we have to deal with in real life. In the original Star Wars trilogy, George Lucas employs the use of archetypal conflict of seeming vs being, head vs heart, and

Social learning theory, developed by Bandura, discusses how people learn from one another through observation, modeling, and imitation bridging an individual’s attention, memory and motivation. Social learning theory identifies the importance of cognition, observable behavior, individual self-efficacy, and the extent of how the events surrounding an individual affect them; their locus of control. Social learning theory also looks at individual problem behavior being influenced by positive or negative reinforcement (Ashford & LeCroy, 2012).

Albert Bandura’s social cognitive theory explains psychological functioning in terms of triadic reciprocal causation. Triadic reciprocal causation is a system assuming human action as a result of an interaction with the environment, behavior, and a person. Bandura explains "person" as being a cognitive factor such as memory, anticipation, and planning. It is because of these cognitive capacities that some people can select or restructure their environment.

Richard M.Ryckman , Theories of Personality, Ninth Edition. 2008, 2004 Thomson Wadsworth, a part of The Thomson Corporation

Parsimony is often regarded as one of the cornerstones in the evaluation of psychological constructs and theories. Importantly, the condition of parsimony in itself presents a risk, potentially placing an unnecessary limitation, when a more complex explanation may better reflect the overall complex nature of the fundamental underlying concept that is under scrutiny (Epstein, 1984). Albert Bandura 's social cognitive theory and B. F. Skinner 's theory of radical behaviourism have provided two of the most influential contributions to psychology, and when examining Skinner and Bandura 's theories, this notion of parsimony becomes highly prevalent, as it is the most significant way in which the two theories differ. This stark contrast in parsimony arises from the methodological differences between the two theories in their treatment of the role of cognition. Skinner 's theory asserts a situationalist perspective of personality which is underpinned by the idea that all behaviour is purely deterministic and solely caused by the environment, thus by consequence any learning of new behaviours or personality occurs independently of the learner (Murphy, Maltby and Cloninger, 2010; Skinner, 1950). By contrast, Bandura (Murphy, Maltby and Cloninger; 2010, Bandura, 2001, 2006) proposes a dynamic perspective of personality which underpins the notion of reciprocal determinism, encompassing a complex and dynamic interaction between personal factors (namely cognition), behaviour and the

In regards to social cognitive theory, one is looking at the fact that people learn by observing behavioral