Module 2 - Psychoanalytic and Neo analytic Theories: Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney,

Erikson, Rollo May, Rotter, Bandura, Skinner, Rogers, Maslow, Indian Perspective of
Personality

2.1.1 Sigmund Freud (PDF)

2.1.2 Carl Jung

Carl Jung’s personality theory focuses on the interplay between the conscious and unconscious
mind, universal archetypes, the process of individuation, and psychological types. The theory
emphasizes the integration of various aspects of personality to achieve self-realization and
encompasses universal and individual dynamics.

● Personal Unconscious
The personal unconscious, a concept developed by Carl Jung, refers to all the information and
experiences of an individual’s lifetime that have been forgotten or repressed but continue to
influence their behavior and attitudes on an unconscious level.

This aspect of the unconscious mind contains memories, perceptions, and thoughts that may not
be consciously accessible but can potentially become conscious. It also includes complex
combinations of such contents, which Jung referred to as “complexes”. These are emotionally
charged associations or ideas that have a powerful influence over an individual’s behavior and
attitudes. For instance, a person might have a fear of dogs due to a forgotten childhood incident.
This fear, while not consciously remembered, is stored in the personal unconscious and could
cause an irrational response whenever the person encounters dogs.

● Collective Unconscious
The collective unconscious, a concept by Carl Jung, refers to shared, inherited unconscious
knowledge and experiences across generations, expressed through universal symbols and
archetypes common to all human cultures.

The collective unconscious consists of pre-existent forms, or archetypes, which can surface in
consciousness in the form of dreams, visions, or feelings, and are expressed in our culture, art,
religion, and symbolic experiences. These archetypes are universal symbols and themes that are
shared across all human cultures and epochs. Some examples of these archetypes include the
Mother, the Hero, the Child, the Wise old man, the Trickster, and so on. Each archetype
represents common aspects of human experience.

The collective unconscious is a universal version of the personal unconscious, holding mental
patterns, or memory traces, which are shared with other members of the human species (Jung,
1928). These ancestral memories, which Jung called archetypes, are represented by universal
themes in various cultures, as expressed through literature, art, and dreams.
 ● Jungian Archetypes
Jungian archetypes are defined as images and themes that derive from the collective
unconscious, as proposed by Carl Jung. Archetypes have universal meanings across cultures and
may show up in dreams, literature, art, or religion.

According to Jung (1921): ‘the term archetype is not meant to denote an inherited idea, but rather
an inherited mode of functioning, corresponding to the inborn way in which the chick emerges
from the egg, the bird builds its nest, a certain kind of wasp stings the motor ganglion of the
caterpillar, and eels find their way to the Bermudas. In other words, it is a “pattern of behaviour”.
This aspect of the archetype, the purely biological one, is the proper concern of scientific
psychology’.

Jung (1947) believes symbols from different cultures are often very similar because they have
emerged from archetypes shared by the whole human race which are part of our collective
unconscious. For Jung, our primitive past becomes the basis of the human psyche, directing and
influencing present behavior. Jung claimed to identify a large number of archetypes but paid
special attention to four.

● The Persona
The persona (or mask) is the outward face we present to the world. It conceals our real self and
Jung describes it as the “conformity” archetype. This is the public face or role a person presents
to others as someone different from who we really are (like an actor). The Persona, as explained
by Carl Jung, is the aspect of our personality that we present to the world as a means of social
adaptation and personal convenience.

The term originates from the Greek word for the masks that ancient actors used, symbolizing the
roles we play in public. You could think of the Persona as the ‘public relations representative’ of
our ego, or the packaging that presents our ego to the outside world. A well-adapted Persona can
greatly contribute to our social success, as it mirrors our true personality traits and adapts to
different social contexts. However, problems can arise when a person overly identifies with their
Persona, unable to differentiate between their professional role and their authentic self.

● Psychological Types
Carl Jung’s psychological types theory suggests that people experience the world using four
principal psychological functions – sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking – and that one of
these four functions is dominant for a person most of the time.
Each of these cognitive functions can be expressed primarily in an introverted or extroverted
form. Let’s delve deeper:
1. Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F): This dichotomy is about how people make decisions. ‘
Thinking individuals make decisions based on logic and objective considerations, while
‘Feeling’ individuals make decisions based on subjective and personal values.
2. Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N): This dichotomy concerns how people perceive or gather
information. ‘Sensing’ individuals focus on present realities, tangible facts, and details.
They are practical and literal thinkers. ‘Intuitive’ individuals focus on possibilities,
interconnections, and future potential. They are often abstract and theoretical thinkers.
 3. Extroversion (E) vs. Introversion (I): This pair concerns where people derive their
energy from. Extroverts are oriented towards the outer world; they tend to be more
outgoing and sociable, deriving energy from interaction with others and the external
environment. Introverts are oriented towards the inner world; they tend to be quiet and
reserved, deriving energy from reflection, inner feelings, ideas, and experiences.

In the context of these pairs, everyone has a ‘dominant’ function that tends to predominate in
their personality and behavior, along with an ‘auxiliary’ function that serves to support and
balance the dominant. The other two functions are less prominent and constitute the ‘tertiary’
and ‘inferior’ or ‘fourth’ functions. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality
inventory based on these ideas of Jung. The MBTI uses a questionnaire to measure psychological
preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions, assigning a type composed of
four letters, like ‘INFJ‘ or ‘ESTP‘, based on their answers.

● The Ego
The ego is the center of consciousness, the part of the psyche concerned with perceiving,
thinking, feeling, and remembering. It is our awareness of ourselves and is responsible for
carrying out all the normal everyday activities of waking life. The ego acts in a selective way,
admitting into conscious awareness only a portion of the stimuli to which we are exposed.

● The Attitudes: Extraversion and Introversion

Much of our conscious perception of our environment, and how we react to it, is determined by
the opposing mental attitudes of extraversion and introversion. Jung believed that psychic energy
could be channeled externally, toward the outside world, or internally, toward the self. Extraverts
are open, sociable, and socially assertive, oriented toward other people and the external world.
Introverts are withdrawn and often shy, and tend to focus on themselves, on their own thoughts
and feelings.

According to Jung, all of us have the capacity for both attitudes, but only one
becomes dominant in our personality. The dominant attitude then tends to direct our
behavior and consciousness. The nondominant attitude still remains influential, however,
and becomes part of the personal unconscious, where it can affect behavior. For example,
in certain situations, an introverted person may display characteristics of extraversion,
and wish to be more outgoing, or be attracted to an extravert.

2.1.3 Alfred Adler

Adler believed that inferiority feelings are a constant motivating force in all behavior.

“To be a human being means to feel inferior,” Adler wrote. Because this condition is common to
all of us, then, it is not a sign of weakness or abnormality. Adler proposed that inferiority
feelings are the source of all human striving. Individual growth results from compensation, from
our attempts to overcome our real or imagined inferiorities.

● The Inferiority Complex

Suppose a child does not grow and mature as it gets older. What happens when the child is
unable to compensate for those feelings of inferiority? An inability to overcome inferior feelings
intensify them, leading to the development of an inferiority. complex. People with an inferiority
complex have a poor opinion of themselves and feel helpless and unable to cope with the
demands of life. Adler found such a complex in the childhood of many adults who came to him
for treatment.

● The Superiority Complex

Whatever the source of the complex, a person may attempt to overcompensate and so develop
what Adler called a superiority complex. This involves an exaggerated opinion of one’s abilities
and accomplishments. Such persons may feel inwardly self-satisfied and superior and show no
need to demonstrate their superiority with actual accomplishments. Or the person may feel such
a need and work hard to become extremely successful. In both cases, persons with a superiority
complex are given to boasting, vanity, self-centeredness, and a tendency to denigrate others.

● Birth Order

One of Adler’s most enduring contributions is the idea that order of birth is a major social
influence in childhood, one from which we create our style of life. Even though siblings have the
same parents and live in the same house, they do not have identical social environments. Being
older or younger than one’s siblings and being exposed to differing parental attitudes create
different childhood conditions that help determine different kinds of personalities.

1. First-Born Child
Adler's birth order theory suggests that firstborns get more attention and time from their parents.
New parents are still learning about child-rearing, which means that they may be more rule-
oriented, strict, cautious, and sometimes even neurotic. Firstborn children are often described as:
● Leaders
● High achieving (or sometimes even over-achieving)
● Structured and organized.
● Responsible
● Mature

2. Middle Child
Adler suggested that middle children tend to become the family’s peacemaker since they often
must mediate conflicts between older and younger siblings. Because they tend to be
overshadowed by their eldest siblings, middle children may seek social attention outside of the
family.
Middleborns are often described as:
● Independent
● Peacemakers
● People pleasers
● Outgoing
● Adaptable

3. Last Child
Last-borns, often referred to as the "babies" of the family, are often seen as spoiled and
pampered compared to their older siblings. Because parents are more experienced at this point
(and much busier), they often take a more laissez-faire approach to parenting.
Last-born children are sometimes described as:
● Outgoing
● Fun-loving
● Charming
● Free-spirited

4. Only Child
Only children are unique in that they never have to share their parents' attention and resources
with a sibling. It can be very much like being a firstborn in many ways. These kids may be doted
on by their caregivers, but never have younger siblings to interact with, which may have an
impact on development.
Only children are often described as:
● Mature
● Diligent
● Thoughtful
● Perfectionistic
● High achieving

2.1.4 Karen Horney

A powerful critique of Freudian theory who, among other things, stressed socio-cultural
influences on personality development and neurosis

During the course of development and the emergence of the real self, children may experience
basic anxiety and in some cases may develop neurotic trends or irrational strategies of coping
with it. She believed that neurosis resulted from basic anxiety caused by interpersonal
relationships.

Neurosis (plural: neuroses) is a non-clinical term describing a spectrum of mental disorders that
cause significant anxiety or distressing emotional symptoms. These include irrational fears,
obsessive thoughts, compulsive acts, or dissociation (disconnection from yourself or the world
around you). Neurosis is an inability to adapt and a tendency to experience excessive negative or
obsessive thoughts and behaviors. The term has been in use since the 1700s. In 1980, the
diagnosis was removed from the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders." While
no longer a formal diagnosis, the term is still often used informally to describe behaviors related
to stress and anxiety

Two major components of Karen Horney’s “person” psychology were the twin notions of basic
anxiety and basic hostility.

● Basic anxiety is what arises in childhood when the child feels helpless in a threatening
world. Children learn that they are basically weak and powerless, dependent on their
 parents for safety and satisfaction. Loving and reliable parents can create a feeling of
security and serenity; indifferent, erratic, or rejecting parents may sharpen the child’s
sense of helplessness and vulnerability, thereby setting the stage for basic anxiety.
● Basic hostility is what usually accompanies basic anxiety and grows out of resentment
over parental behaviour, that led to the anxious behaviour in the first place. This hostility
is typically suppressed. Children caught in the bind – dependent on their parents, anxious
of their parents, hostile towards their parents – tend to rely on one of the three masks of
social behaviour, each of which might well carry on to adulthood:

1. Moving towards others: These neurotic needs cause individuals to seek affirmation and
acceptance from others. People with these needs are often described as needy or clingy as they
seek out approval and love.

2. Moving against others: These neurotic needs result in hostility and a need to control other
people. These individuals are often described as difficult, domineering, and unkind.

3. Moving away from others: These neurotic needs create hostility and antisocial behavior.
These individuals are often described as cold, indifferent, and aloof.

Neurotic people tend to use two or more of these ways of coping, which then creates conflict,
turmoil, and confusion.

2.1.5 Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson divided the growth of the personality into eight psychosocial stages. The first four
are like Freud’s oral, anal, phallic, and latency stages. The major difference between their
theories is that Erikson emphasized psychosocial correlates, whereas Freud focused on biological
factors. The stages that make up his theory are as follows:

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy from birth to 18 months)

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Toddler years from 18 months to three years)

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool years from three to five)

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority (Middle school years from six to 11)

Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion (Teen years from 12 to 18)

Stage 6: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young adult years from 18 to 40)

Stage 7: Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle age from 40 to 65)

Stage 8: Integrity vs. Despair (Older adulthood from 65 to death)

Basic Strengths
Erikson also proposed that each of the eight psychosocial stages provides an opportunity to
develop our basic strengths. These strengths, or virtues, emerge once the crisis has been resolved
satisfactorily. He suggested that basic strengths are interdependent in that one strength cannot
develop until the strength associated with the previous stage has been confirmed.

1. Trust versus Mistrust

Erikson’s oral-sensory stage of psychosocial development, paralleling Freud’s oral stage, occurs
during our first year of life, the time of our greatest helplessness. The infant is totally dependent
on the mother or primary caregiver for survival, security, and affection. During this stage, the
mouth is of vital importance. Erikson wrote that the infant “lives through, and loves with, [the]
mouth” (1959, p. 57). However, the relationship between the infant and the world are not
exclusively biological. It is also social. The baby’s interaction with the mother determines
whether an attitude of trust or mistrust for future dealings with the environment will be
incorporated into his or her personality.

Hope

The basic strength of hope is associated with the successful resolution of the crisis during the
oral-sensory stage. Erikson described this strength as the belief that our desires will be satisfied.
Hope involves a persistent feeling of confidence, a feeling we will maintain despite temporary
setbacks or reverses.

2. Autonomy versus Doubt and Shame

During the muscular-anal stage at the second and third years of life, corresponding to Freud's
anal stage, children rapidly develop a variety of physical and mental abilities and can do many
things for themselves. They learn to communicate more effectively and to walk, climb, push,
pull, and hold on to an object or let it go. Children take pride in these skills and usually want to
do as much as possible for themselves. Of all these abilities, Erikson believed the most important
involved holding on and letting go. He considered these to be prototypes for reacting to later
conflicts in behaviors and attitudes. For example, holding on can be displayed in a loving way or
in a hostile way. Letting go can become a venting of destructive rage or a relaxed passivity.

Will

The basic strength that develops from autonomy is will, which involves a determination to
exercise freedom of choice and self-restraint in the face of society’s demands.

3. Initiative versus Guilt

The locomotor-genital stage, which occurs between ages 3 and 5, is like the phallic stage in
Freud’s system. Motor and mental abilities are continuing to develop, and children can
accomplish more on their own. They express a strong desire to take the initiative in many
activities.

Purpose
The basic strength called purpose arises from initiative. Purpose involves the courage to envision
and pursue goals.

4. Industriousness versus Inferiority

Erikson’s latency stage of psychosocial development, which occurs from ages 6 to 11,
corresponds to Freud’s latency period. The child begins school and is exposed to new social
influences. Ideally, both at home and at school, the child learns good work and study habits,
which Erikson referred to as industriousness, primarily as a means of getting praise and
satisfaction from successfully completing a task.

Competence

The basic strength that emerges from industriousness during the latency stage is competence. It
involves the exertion of skill and intelligence in pursuing and completing tasks.

5. Identity Cohesion versus Role Confusion

Adolescence, between ages 12 and 18, is the stage at which we must meet and resolve the crisis
of our basic ego identity. This is when we form our self-image, the integration of our ideas about
ourselves and about what others think of us. If this process is resolved satisfactorily, the result is
a consistent and congruent picture.

Fidelity

The basic strength that should develop during adolescence is fidelity, which emerges from a
cohesive ego identity. Fidelity encompasses sincerity, genuineness, and a sense of duty in our
relationships with other people.

6. Intimacy versus Isolation

Erikson considered young adulthood to be a longer stage than the previous ones, extending from
the end of adolescence to about the age of 35. During this period, we establish our independence
from our parents and quasi-parental institutions, such as college, and begin to function more
autonomously as mature, responsible adults. We undertake some form of productive work and
establish intimate relationships, typically close friendships, and sexual unions.

Love: The basic strength that emerges from the intimacy of the young adult years is love, which
Erikson considered to be the greatest of all human virtues. He described it as a mutual devotion
in a shared identity, the fusing of oneself with another person.

7. Generativity versus Stagnation

Adulthood, approximately ages 35–55, is a stage of maturity in which we need to be actively

involved in teaching and guiding the next generation. This need extends beyond our immediate
family. In Erikson’s view, our concern becomes broader and more long-range, involving future
generations and the kind of society in which they will live. One need not be a parent in order to
be able to display generativity, nor does having children automatically satisfy this urge. Erikson
believed that all institutions—whether business, government, social service, or academic—
provide opportunities for us to express generativity. Thus, in whatever organizations or activities
we are involved in, we can usually find a way to become a mentor, teacher, or guide to younger
people for the betterment of society at large. When middle-aged people cannot or will not find an
outlet for generativity, they may become overwhelmed by “stagnation, boredom, and
interpersonal impoverishment”. Erikson’s depiction of these emotional difficulties in middle age
is similar to Jung’s description of the midlife crisis. These people may regress to a stage of
pseudo-intimacy, indulging themselves in childlike ways. And they may become physical or
psychological invalids because of their absorption with their own needs and comforts.

Care

Care is the basic strength that emerges from generativity in adulthood. Erikson defined care as a
broad concern for others and believed it was manifested in the need to teach, not only to help
others but also to fulfill one’s identity.

8. Ego Integrity versus Despair

During the final stage of psychosocial development, maturity, and old age, we are confronted
with a choice between ego integrity and despair. These attitudes govern the way we evaluate our
whole life. Our major endeavors are at or nearing completion. We examine and reflect on life,
taking its final measure. If we look back with a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction, believing we
have coped with life’s victories and failures, then we are said to possess ego integrity.

Simply stated, ego integrity involves accepting one’s place and one’s past. If we review our life
with a sense of frustration, angry about missed opportunities and regretful of mistakes that
cannot be rectified, then we will feel despair. We become disgusted with ourselves,
contemptuous of others, and bitter over what might have been.

Wisdom

The basic strength associated with this final developmental stage is wisdom. Deriving from ego
integrity, wisdom is expressed in a detached concern with the whole of life. It is conveyed to
succeeding generations in an integration of experience best described by the word heritage.

2.1.6 Rollo May

Much of May’s thinking can be understood by reading about existentialism in general, and the
overlap between his ideas and the ideas of Ludwig Binswanger is great. Nevertheless, he is a
little off of the mainstream in that he was more influenced by American humanism than the
Europeans, and more interested in reconciling existential psychology with other approaches,
especially Freud’s. May uses some traditional existential terms slightly differently than others,
and invents new words for some of existentialism’s old ideas. Destiny, for example, is roughly
the same as thrownness combined with fallenness. It is that part of our lives that is determined
for us, our raw materials, if you like, for the project of creating our lives. Another example is the
word courage, which he uses more often than the traditional term "authenticity" to mean facing
one’s anxiety and rising above it
Modes of Being- In- The- World
Existential analysts recognize three modes of being-in-the-world. There is the Umwelt, or
biological environment. This is the natural environment for animals and humans. It is the world
that includes biological needs, drives, and instincts—a world that would still exist if we had no
self-consciousness. This is primarily what Freud investigated. In addition to our physical
surroundings, it includes the state of need into which every person is cast by birth: hunger, thirst,
sleep, and so forth. The conditions into which we are born, such as having instinctual needs, a
genetically predetermined height, and a culture with certain expectations, represent the few
aspects of existence that we cannot control through our own choices. This circumstance is
sometimes referred to as thrownness, or facticity. But this is only one world, according to May,
and to focus only on understanding this realm would be highly limiting.

The second mode of being-in-the-world is Mitwelt. This is the world of interrelationships. It

includes the meanings of things that we share with others. Thus, love can never be totally
understood by focusing only on its connections with the biological world of lust and sex. It also
depends upon such Mitwelt factors as personal decision and commitment to the other person.
The Mitwelt involves our inherent need to form personal relationships for their own sake, rather
than to sublimate some instinctual drive. No one can achieve a meaningful existence in isolation,
as stressed by such theorists as Adler, Fromm, Horney, and Sullivan.

The final mode of being-in-the-world is Eigenwelt, our own world; it is the self in relation to
itself. Eigenwelt involves self-awareness and self-relatedness. It occurs when I become aware of
the impact that another person has on me, or aware of what a flower means to me. Without
Eigenwelt, the world would be intellectually arid and impersonal. In contrast to Erikson’s
construct of identity, Eigenwelt and Dasein do not depend on the opinions and expectations of
other people. “If your self-esteem must rest in the long run on social validation, you have, not
self-esteem, but a more sophisticated form of social conformity.” According to May, human
beings live in all three worlds simultaneously. Any complete understanding of the personality of
the individual would have to examine all three modes of being-in-the-world. Existentialists seek
to understand the unique problems of human beings without fragmenting their humanity.

Stages of Development
1. Innocence
The pre-egoic, pre-self-conscious stage of the infant. The innocent is premoral, i.e. is neither bad
nor good. Like a wild animal who kills to eat, the innocent is only doing what he or she must do.
But an innocent does have a degree of will in the sense of a drive to fulfill their needs.
● The pre-self-conscious stage when you are an infant
● Only doing what he or she must do in order to survive.
● Mostly thought of as children but can happen with adults who are not caught up in the
drama of life.
● This is a stage beyond ego or self-actualization
● This person accepts destiny and faces anxiety with courage and isn't afraid to be a little
different.
● It's during this stage that you will grow most as a human being.
2. Rebellion
The childhood and adolescent stage of developing one’s ego or self-consciousness by means of
contrast with adults, from the “no” of the two-year-old to the “no way” of the teenager. The
rebellious person wants freedom, but has as yet no full understanding of the responsibility that
goes with it. The teenager may want to spend their allowance in any way they choose -- yet they
still expect the parent to provide the money, and will complain about unfairness if they don't get
it.
● Applies to any stage of life when a person is developing an ego and becoming more self-
aware.
● Someone who is rebellious wants freedom but does not understand the responsibility that
comes with it.
● Mostly happens when a child learns to say "no" or the teenage years.

3. Ordinary
The normal adult ego, conventional and a little boring, perhaps. They have learned
responsibility, but find it too demanding, and so seek refuge in conformity and traditional values.
● The normal adult ego
● By adulthood they have learned functionality and responsibility.
● To escape insecurity many seek refuge in conformity and traditional values.
● Considered to be life's most boring stage.

4. Creative
The authentic adult, the existential stage, beyond ego and self-actualizing. This is the person
who, accepting destiny, faces anxiety with courage

These are not stages in the traditional sense. A child may certainly be innocent, ordinary or
creative at times; An adult may be rebellious. The only attachment to certain ages is in terms of
salience: Rebelliousness stands out in the two-year-old and the teenager.

On the other hand, he is every bit as interested in anxiety as any existentialist. His first book,
The Meaning of Anxiety, was based on his doctoral dissertation, which in turn was based on his
reading of Kierkegaard. His definition of anxiety is “the apprehension cued off by a threat to
some value which the individual holds essential to his existence as a self” (1967, p. 72). While
not “pure” existentialism, it does obviously include fear of death or “nothingness.” Later, he
quotes Kierkegaard: “Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."

2.1.7 Julian B. Rotter

Julian Rotter (1966, 1978, 1981, 1990) devised a theory based on a basic principle of motivation
derived from Thorndike’s law of effect: People are motivated to seek reinforcement and avoid
punishment. He viewed personality as a relatively stable set of potential responses to various
situations. If in the past, a certain way of responding led to a reinforcing or pleasurable
consequence, that way of responding would become a pattern of responding, or part of the
“personality” as learning theorists see it. One very important pattern of responding in Rotter’s
view became his concept of locus of control, the tendency for people to assume that they either
have control or do not have control over events and consequences in their lives. People who
assume that their own actions and decisions directly affect the consequences they experience are
said to be internal in locus of control, whereas people who assume that their lives are more
controlled by powerful others, luck, or fate are external in locus of control (MacDonald, 1970;
Rotter, 1966). Rotter associated people high in internal locus of control with the personality
characteristics of high achievement motivation (the will to succeed in any attempted task). Those
who give up too quickly or who attribute events in their lives to external causes can fall into
patterns of learned helplessness and depression (Abramson et al., 1978, 1980; GongGuy &
Hammen, 1980). Like Bandura, Rotter (1978, 1981) also believed that an interaction of factors
would determine the behavioral patterns that become personality for an individual. For Rotter,
there are two key factors influencing a person’s decision to act in a certain way given a particular
situation: expectancy and reinforcement value. Expectancy is fairly similar to Bandura’s concept
of self-efficacy in that it refers to the person’s subjective feeling that a particular behavior will
lead to a reinforcing consequence. A high expectancy for success is similar to a high sense of
self-efficacy and is also based on past experiences with successes and failures.
Reinforcement value refers to an individual’s preference for a particular reinforcer over all other
possible reinforcing consequences. Things or circumstances that are particularly appealing to us
have a higher reinforcement value than other possible reinforcers.

Rotter has four main components to his social learning theory model predicting behavior. These
are behavior potential, expectancy, reinforcement value, and the psychological situation.

➔ Behavior Potential.

Behavior potential is the likelihood of engaging in a particular behavior in a specific situation. In

other words, what is the probability that the person will exhibit a particular behavior in a
situation? In any given situation, there are multiple behaviors one can engage in. For each
possible behavior, there is a behavior potential. The individual will exhibit whichever behavior
has the highest potential.

➔ Expectancy.

Expectancy is the subjective probability that a given behavior will lead to a particular outcome,
or reinforcer. How likely is it that the behavior will lead to the outcome? Having high or strong
expectancies means the individual is confident the behavior will result in the outcome. Having
low expectancies means the individual believes it is unlikely that his or her behavior will result
in reinforcement. If the outcomes are equally desirable, we will engage in the behavior that has
the greatest likelihood of paying off (i.e., has the highest expectancy). To have a high
expectancy, people must believe both (a) that they have the capacity to enact the behavior
effectively and (b) that that behavior will result in reinforcement.

Expectancies are formed based on past experience. The more often a behavior has led to
reinforcement in the past, the stronger the person's expectancy that the behavior will achieve that
outcome now. In addition, people do not need to have direct experience with reinforcement of a
particular behavior. Rotter wrote that our observations of the outcomes of others' behaviors
affect our own expectancies. If we see someone else being punished for a particular behavior, we
don't have to experience punishment personally to form an expectancy that this behavior is likely
to be punished.
 ➔ Reinforcement Value.

Reinforcement is another name for the outcomes of our behavior. Reinforcement value refers to
the desirability of these outcomes. Things we want to happen, that we are attracted to, have a
high reinforcement value. Things we don't want to happen, that we wish to avoid, have a low
reinforcement value. If the likelihood of achieving reinforcement is the same (i.e., expectancies
are equal), we will exhibit the behavior with the greatest reinforcement value, the one directed
toward the outcome we prefer most. As the name social learning theory suggests, the social
environment is of primary importance in shaping our behavior. Social outcomes, such as
approval, love or rejection, are powerful influences on our behavior. For people, the most
important reinforcers are often social reinforcers.

As with expectancy, reinforcement value is subjective, meaning that the same event or
experience can vastly differ in desirability, depending on the individual's life experience.
Punishment from a parent would be negatively reinforcing to most children and something to be
avoided. However, children who get little positive attention from parents can seek out parental
punishment because it has a higher reinforcement value than neglect.

The value of any given reinforcer is determined in part by other, future reinforcers it might lead
to. For example, doing well on an exam in a particular class would have a heightened
reinforcement value, if you believe that doing well in that class will lead to being able to work in
your professor's lab. Therefore, even an apparently trivial event can have a very strong
reinforcement value, either positive or negative, if the individual sees it as leading to other
strongly valued reinforcers.

➔ Psychological Situation.

The psychological situation represents Rotter's idea that each individual's experience of the
environment is unique. Although the psychological situation does not figure directly into Rotter's
formula for predicting behavior, Rotter believes it is always important to keep in mind that
different people interpret the same situation differently. Different people will have different
expectancies and reinforcement values in the same situation. Thus, it is people's subjective
interpretation of the environment that is meaningful to them and that determines how they
behave.

One very important pattern of responding in Rotter’s view became his concept of locus of
control, the tendency for people to assume that they either have control or do not have control
over events and consequences in their lives. People who assume that their own actions and
decisions directly affect the consequences they experience are said to be internal in locus of
control, whereas people who assume that their lives are more controlled by powerful others,
luck, or fate are external in locus of control (MacDonald, 1970; Rotter, 1966). Rotter associated
people high in internal locus of control with the personality characteristics of high achievement
motivation (the will to succeed in any attempted task). Those who give up too quickly or who
attribute events in their lives to external causes can fall into patterns of learned helplessness and
depression (Abramson et al., 1978, 1980; GongGuy & Hammen, 1980).
2.1.9 Albert Bandura
Social Learning Theory is often described as the ‘bridge’ between traditional learning theory
(behaviorism) and the cognitive approach. This is because it focuses on how mental (cognitive)
factors are involved in learning. Social learning theory, proposed by Albert Bandura, emphasizes
the importance of observing, modeling, and imitating the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional
reactions of others.

Social learning theory considers how both environmental and cognitive factors interact to
influence human learning and behavior. Observational learning is the learning of new behavior
through watching the actions of a model (someone else who is doing that behavior). Sometimes
that behavior is desirable, and sometimes it is not, as the next section describes.

Bandura and the Bobo Doll

Albert Bandura’s classic study in observational learning involved having a preschool child in a
room in which the experimenter and a model interacted with toys in the room in front of the child
(Bandura et al., 1961). In one condition, the model interacted with the toys in a nonaggressive
manner, completely ignoring the presence of a “Bobo” doll (a punch-bag doll in the shape of a
clown). In another condition, the model became very aggressive with the doll, kicking it and
yelling at it, throwing it in the air and hitting it with a hammer. When each child was left alone in
the room and had the opportunity to play with the toys, a camera filming through a one-way
mirror caught the children who were exposed to the aggressive model beating up on the Bobo
doll, in exact imitation of the model. (See Figure 5.12 on the next page.) The children who saw
the model ignore the doll did not act aggressively toward the toy. Obviously, the aggressive
children had learned their aggressive actions from merely watching the model—with no
reinforcement necessary. The fact that learning can take place without actual performance (a
kind of latent learning) is called learning/performance distinction.

In later studies, Bandura showed a film of a model beating up the Bobo doll. In one condition,
the children saw the model rewarded afterward. In another, the model was punished. When
placed in the room with toys, the children in the first group beat up the doll, but the children in
the second group did not. But, when Bandura told the children in the second group that he would
give them a reward if they could show him what the model in the film did, each child duplicated
the model’s actions. Both groups had learned from watching the model, but only the children
watching the successful (rewarded) model imitated the aggression with no prompting (Bandura,
1965). Apparently, consequences do matter in motivating a child (or an adult) to imitate a
particular model. The tendency for some movies and television programs to make “heroes” out
of violent, aggressive “bad guys” is particularly disturbing in light of these findings. In fact,
Bandura began this research to investigate possible links between children’s exposure to violence
on television and aggressive behavior toward others.

In one nationwide study of youth in the United States, it was found that young people ages 8 to
18 spend on average almost 7.5 hours per day involved in media consumption (television,
computers, video games, music, cell phones, print, and movies), 7 days a week. Furthermore,
given the prevalence of media multitasking (using more than one media device at a time), they
are packing in approximately 10 hours and 45 minutes of media during those 7.5 hours! (Rideout
et al., 2010). While not all media consumption is of violent media, it is quite easy to imagine that
some of that media is of a violent nature.

Correlational research stretching over nearly 2 decades suggests that a link exists between
viewing violent television and an increased level of aggression in children (Bushman &
Huesmann, 2001; Huesmann & Eron, 1986). to Learning Objective 1.9. While correlations do
not prove that viewing violence on TV is the cause of increased violence, one cannot help but be
curious as to the effects, especially given the continuing rise of media consumption in young
people, coupled with the multiple ways young people interact with media. As such there has
been an ongoing debate as to the validity of the links between aggression and exposure to media
violence (primarily focusing on television, movies, video games, and music). Although still a
topic of debate for some, there appears to be a strong body of evidence that exposure to media
violence does have immediate and long-term effects, increasing the likelihood of aggressive
verbal and physical behavior and aggressive thoughts and emotions—and the effects appear to
impact children, adolescents, and adults (Anderson et al., 2003).

The Four Elements of Observational Learning

Bandura (1986) concluded, from his studies and others, that observational learning required the
presence of four elements.

1. Attention
To learn anything through observation, the learner must first pay attention to the model. For
example, a person at a fancy dinner party who wants to know which utensil to use has to watch
the person who seems to know what is correct. Certain characteristics of models can make
attention more likely. For example, people pay more attention to those they perceive as similar to
them, and to those they perceive as attractive.

2. Memory
The learner must also be able to retain the memory of what was done, such as remembering the
steps in preparing a dish that was first seen on a cooking show.

3. Imitation
The learner must be capable of reproducing, or imitating, the actions of the model. A 2-year-old
might be able to watch someone tie shoelaces and might even remember most of the steps, but
the 2-year-old’s chubby little fingers will not have the dexterity* necessary for actually tying the
laces. A person with extremely weak ankles might be able to watch and remember how some
ballet move was accomplished but will not be able to reproduce it.

4. Desire
Finally, the learner must have the desire or motivation to perform the action. That person at the
fancy dinner, for example, might not care which fork or which knife is the “proper” one to use.
Also, if a person expects a reward because one has been given in the past, or has been promised a
future reward (like the children in the second group of Bandura’s study), or has witnessed a
model getting a reward (like the children in the first group), that person will be much more likely
to imitate the observed behavior. Successful models are powerful figures for imitation, but rarely
would we be motivated to imitate someone who fails or is punished. (An easy way to remember
the four elements of modeling is to remember the letters AMID, which stand for the first letters
of each of the four elements. This is a good example of using a strategy to improve memory.

2.1.10 B. F. Skinner

The term learning is one of those concepts whose meaning is crystal clear until one has
to put it in actual words. “Learning is when you learn something.” “Learning is learning
how to do something.” A more useful definition is as follows: Learning is any relatively
permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice.

There are two kinds of behavior that all organisms are capable of doing: involuntary and
voluntary. If Inez blinks her eyes because a gnat flies close to them, that’s a reflex and to-
tally involuntary. But if she then swats at the gnat to frighten it, that’s a voluntary choice.

The heart of operant conditioning is the effect of consequences on behavior. Thinking back to the
section on classical conditioning, learning an involuntary behavior really depends on what comes
before the response—the unconditioned stimulus and what will become the conditioned stimulus.
These two stimuli are the antecedent stimuli (antecedent means something that comes before
another thing). But in operant conditioning, learning depends on what happens after the
response—the consequence. In a way, operant conditioning could be summed up as this: “If I do
this, what’s in it for me?”

Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning, but his work was based on
Thorndike’s (1898) Law of Effect. According to this principle, behavior that is followed by
pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant
consequences is less likely to be repeated. Skinner introduced a new term into the Law of Effect
– Reinforcement. Behavior that is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e., strengthened); behavior
that is not reinforced tends to die out or be extinguished (i.e., weakened).
Skinner (1948) studied operant conditioning by conducting experiments using animals which he
placed in a “Skinner Box” which was similar to Thorndike’s puzzle box.

A Skinner box, also known as an operant conditioning chamber, is a device used to objectively
record an animal’s behavior in a compressed time frame. An animal can be rewarded or punished
for engaging in certain behaviors, such as lever pressing (for rats) or key pecking (for pigeons).

Skinner identified three types of responses, or operant, that can follow behavior.

● Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease
the probability of a behavior being repeated.
● Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a
behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.
● Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a behavior
being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is a term described by B. F. Skinner in his theory of operant conditioning.
In positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is strengthened by rewards, leading to the
repetition of desired behavior. The reward is a reinforcing stimulus.
Primary reinforcers are stimuli that are naturally reinforcing because they are not learned and
directly satisfy a need, such as food or water. Secondary reinforcers are stimuli that are
reinforced through their association with a primary reinforcer, such as money, school grades.
They do not directly satisfy an innate need but may be the means. So a secondary reinforcer can
be just as powerful a motivator as a primary reinforcer.

Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement is the termination of an unpleasant state following a response. This is
known as negative reinforcement because it is the removal of an adverse stimulus which is
‘rewarding’ to the animal or person. Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it
stops or removes an unpleasant experience.
For example, if you do not complete your homework, you give your teacher £5. You will
complete your homework to avoid paying £5, thus strengthening the behavior of completing your
homework. Skinner showed how negative reinforcement worked by placing a rat in his Skinner
box and then subjecting it to an unpleasant electric current which caused it some discomfort. As
the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever.

Punishment
Punishment is the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to weaken or eliminate a
response rather than increase it. It is an aversive event that decreases the behavior that it follows.
Like reinforcement, punishment can work either by directly applying an unpleasant stimulus like
a shock after a response or by removing a potentially rewarding stimulus, for instance, deducting
someone’s pocket money to punish undesirable behavior.
1. Positive Punishment:
● Positive punishment involves adding an aversive stimulus or something unpleasant
immediately following a behavior to decrease the likelihood of that behavior happening
in the future.
● It aims to weaken the target behavior by associating it with an undesirable consequence.
● Example: A child receives a scolding (an aversive stimulus) from their parent
immediately after hitting their sibling. This is intended to decrease the likelihood of the
child hitting their sibling again.

2. Negative Punishment:
● Negative punishment involves removing a desirable stimulus or something rewarding
immediately following a behavior to decrease the likelihood of that behavior happening
in the future.
● It aims to weaken the target behavior by taking away something the individual values or
enjoys.
● Example: A teenager loses their video game privileges (a desirable stimulus) for not
completing their chores. This is intended to decrease the likelihood of the teenager
neglecting their chores in the future.
Operant conditioning is based on the work of B. F. Skinner. Operant conditioning is a form of
learning in which the motivation for a behavior happens after the behavior is demonstrated. An
animal or a human receives a consequence after performing a specific behavior. The
consequence is either a reinforcer or a punisher. All reinforcement (positive or negative)
increases the likelihood of a behavioral response. All punishment (positive or negative)
decreases the likelihood of a behavioral response. Several types of reinforcement schedules are
used to reward behavior depending on either a set or variable period of time.

2.1.11 Rogers & Maslow (PDF)

2.1.12 Indian Perspective of Personality: Concept of Swabhav, Levels of Consciousness,

Triguna Theory (PPT)