Assignment Task
Do you love parties and never miss one, or do parties make you anxious so that you avoid them if possible? What causes these differences? The concept of personality, as we have seen, is used to help explain such differences in behaviour between individuals. The theories that we have previously examined suggest that differences in the personality structures that are said to exist within each individual interact to produce differences in behaviour. Our behaviour is driven by inner motives such as instincts, unconscious drives, feelings of inferiority and so on, that all shape our personality. Based on what we have read so far, we might well claim that the person who enjoys parties and interacting with others does so because they have an outgoing, sociable personality. They are driven by an inner need to be with other people and are not so comfortable in their own company. There are alternative explanations for personality, and this discussion is about a series of theoretical approaches that adopt a radically different view. These theories reject the idea of our behaviour being directed by inner motives, suggesting instead that all our behaviour is learned. Individual differences in behaviour are the result of the different learning experiences that people have had and the situations in which they find themselves. To understand why someone behaves in a particular way, you need to examine carefully the situation they are in and to explore their past experiences in similar situations, rather than explain differences in behaviour as resulting from differences in personality. No underlying personality structure like Jung’s psyche is thought necessary; rather, individuals have learnt to behave in certain ways because in the past they have been rewarded or they have avoided discomfort or punishment by doing so.
These approaches to understanding the individual are based on theories of how we learn. The learning theory explanation of the happy party-goer would suggest that such individuals have learnt to enjoy parties. Their first experience of a party as a child was wonderful. They were given presents, everything went well and they had a good time. This initial positive party experience has been followed by others, so that the individual looks forward to parties as pleasant experiences because of their learning history of parties. By contrast, the individual who dreads parties will have had some initial bad experiences of parties. Perhaps they were made to share their special toys with other children, or the other children broke their presents, or they did not get what they wanted or they were punished for being rude and so on. Learning theory would suggest that this negative experience can lead the individual to dread parties, especially if the negative experience is repeated. These examples are somewhat simplified, but we hope they have got the point across. The contention is that your attitudes to events like socialising are dictated not by your personality but by the past experiences of parties and similar events that you have had. As we mentioned earlier, these approaches are based on learning theory, and they vary in terms of how radical they are. We shall begin by looking briefly at the history of learning theory and outlining the major concepts that you need to understand. Early learning theory developed primarily in the United States. The roots of the psychoanalytic schools.
Questions
- Are learning theories only about forms of reward and punishment? Please use this week’s lecture and textbook chapter to support your answer you may also incorporate journal articles if you wish, but they are not necessary. :
- Are learning theories only about forms of reward and punishment?
