THEORIES OF PERSONALITY Theories of Personality Type trait

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

Theories of Personality Type &trait NEOFREUDIAN Behavioural Theories of Personality Psychoanalytic Humanistic

Behavioural approach • importance to the internal dynamics of behaviour. • definable, observable, and measurable data • learning of stimulus-response connections and their reinforcement. • According to them, personality can be best understood as the response of an individual to the environment. • Different learning principles that involve the use of stimuli, responses, and reinforcement in different ways. • The theories of classical conditioning (Pavlov), instrumental conditioning (Skinner), and observational learning (Bandura).

Behavioural approach • For most behaviourists, the structural unit of personality is the response. • Each response is a behaviour, which is emitted to satisfy a specific need. • the core tendency that organises behaviour is the reduction of biological or social needs that energise behaviour. This is accomplished through responses (behaviours) that are reinforced.

i. Classical Conditioning • Ivan P. Pavlov : A Russian Physiologist was the first to study and write about the basic principles of classical conditioning. • Classical conditioning refers to “learning to make a reflex response to the stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex”.

Key Terms in classical conditioning • STIMULUS • RESPONSE • CONDITIONING • NEUTRAL STIMULUS • UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (UCS) • UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UCR) • CONDITIONED STIMULUS (CS) • CONDITIONED RESPONSE (CR)

PAVLOV & HIS SALIVATING DOGS -THE EXPERIMENT

Other Concepts in Classical Conditioning • Extinction • Spontaneous Recovery • Stimulus Generalisation • Stimulus discrimination

Case of “Little Albert”

REFLECTION SPOT… Are you classically conditioned with something?

ii. Operant Conditioning • B. F. SKINNER was the first to study and investigate the principles of Operant Conditioning. • Also called Instrumental conditioning. • Skinner studied the occurrence of voluntary responses when an organism operates on the environment which he called Operants. • OPERANTS • Conditioning of operant behaviour is called Operant conditioning. • It is a kind of learning in which behaviour is learned, maintained or changed through its consequences (Reinforcers). • Also termed as S-R conditioning.

Key Terms in Operant/Instrumental Conditioning • OPERANTS • REINFORCER/ REINFORCEMENT • POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT • NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT • PUNISHMENT

Skinner and his Skinner box

REFLECTION SPOT… How are you reinforced by your parents or teachers?

III. Observational/Social Learning/ Modelling/Imitation • Learning by Observation - Albert Bandura (1977) • Observational Learning – learning of a new behaviour through the observation of a model (watching someone else who is doing that behaviour) • Children observe adults’ behaviours at home, during social ceremonies and functions etc. • Children learn and develop various personality characteristics through observational learning. • Aggressiveness, prosocial behaviour, courtesy, politeness and diligence are acquired by this method of learning.

Bandura and the experiment…

Elements of Observational Learning Bandura(1986) concluded, that observational learning required the presence of four elements: • Attention: People pay more attention to those people they perceive as similar to them and to people they perceive as attractive. • Memory: The learner must also be able to retain the memory of what was done. • Imitation: the learner must be able of reproducing or imitating the actions of the model. • Motivation: the learner must have the desire to perform the action.

REFLECTION SPOT… Whom do you observe the most?