Behavioral and Social Learning Approaches Personality Assessment

Essay by deetwinUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, June 2009

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In an attempt to understand why people act and behave the way they do psychologists have come up with a number of theories to explain personality. Some of the most famous behaviorists include American psychologist B.F. Skinner and Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, known for their conditioned reflex experiments. While these psychologists focused on conditioned reflexes and other traits of behaviorism, social learning theory looks at behavior that is controlled by environmental influences rather than purely innate forces and conditioned reflexes. The paper that follows will outline the core differences between the behavioral approach to personality and the social learning approach to personality. This paper will also analyze one of my behaviors.

Behavioral theory approaches personality as being observable. That is, we can watch the way people act, respond, and live their lives and make a judgment about them based on those actions. Many behaviorists believe that psychology should only concern itself with these matters as objectively observable data and is the only data we can draw correct conclusions from.

Behaviorists also believe that behavior and learning can be linked to a response to certain stimulus; that is people and animals act the way they do and can be conditioned to respond in a certain manner because of stimuli (Behavioral Approach, n.d.). In contrast, the social learning approach to personality explains personality as more than just observable factors. Social learning adds a cognitive side to observing and says that while behavior is important thought processes and unobservable activities also need to be investigated.

Characteristics of Behavior and Social Learning ApproachesBehavior ApproachBehaviorists look at the causes of behavior in terms of conditioning. "According to behaviorists, if we are to understand the processes that shape our personalities as well as develop procedures for changing problem behaviors, we must examine basic conditioning...