Approaches to Understand Personality - Essay Example

? Introduction to Psychology 102 Learning Theory Introduction There are varying approaches to understand personality. One of them is in line with thelearning theory of understanding personality. Learning theory is authored by major theorists such as Skinner and Bandura, and it has the assumption that one could acquire or develop personality due to environmental influence or factors outside one’s control (Feldman, p.344). Based on this assumption, the environment plays a crucial role in the formation of one’s personality, so it disregards both conscious and the unconscious. Since learning theory of personality strongly focuses on the environment, it identifies personality to be both resilient and flexible throughout the entire life of a person. This means, an individual can be influenced a lot by what is outside of the environment. In other words, personality would change over time depending on the person’s environment. Skinner’s Operant Learning Theory For Skinner, the internal forces such as instincts, drives or biological processes have nothing to do with the development of individual’s personality (p.46). Instead, Skinner’s operant learning theory tries to emphasize external stimuli such as reinforces and punishers, which must have critical functions in the development of human personality. This information was supported by Skinner’s observation with how the animals develop personality due to external stimuli such as rewards and punishment. In this sense, the operant learning theory may best applied with animals. Bandura’s Cognitive Social Learning Theory Just like Skinner, Bandura also agrees individual acquired personality based on learning from the outside environment due to external stimuli. However, he also argued that operant learning theory may not necessarily apply with humans because of their ability as active information processors (p.46). This means Bandura is implying that operant learning theory may only best apply with animals but not on humans. For him, humans must have been involved in observational learning that assumes people develop personality and behavior because of what they also observe from other people. This is the reason why Bandura rejected the idea of operant learning theory and stick to his cognitive social learning theory. Learning Theory Both operant and cognitive social learning theory emphasize that the external environment plays a crucial role in the development of one’s personality. The learning theory in general tries to elaborate the fact that humans are subject to what they see or experience from their immediate environment. For Skinner, even though humans are socially and intellectually aware compared to their animal counterpart, reward and punishment may still apply in the development of personality. In this case for instance, a promising job offer with substantial amount of compensation may eventually create a dynamic change on an individual’s personality. However, for Bandura, it is not just enough to stick to this belief. So he extended his idea about learning theory by emphasizing that humans have the capacity for social and cognitive functioning. In this case for instance, Bandura tries to justify that it is not just enough to be bonded with the idea of operant learning, but it is necessary to understand that humans have the potential to intellectualize things and so even develop a high level of skills for observing things from the outside environment. The two theorists in learning theory have one thing in common they believe about and that is the great role played by the environment in honing the human personality. For them, the environment is dynamic and continuously changes, and so with the personality of an individual. In other words, personality is dynamic, flexible and continues to change through time as individual has continuous exposure to outside environmental factors. There is therefore a tendency that a personality would improve or decline depending on the actual experience of an individual with the immediate outside environment. If an individual would want to target for improvement, based on the cognitive social learning theory, it is possible to come up with a model. So in various cases, trending associated with social concerns has never become hopelessly outmoded based on the learning theory. My View At this point, I would like to present my view on learning theory. Skinner and Bandura made a remarkable contribution in psychology and in understanding human personality in particular. The following are some justifications on why certain principles associated with their theory may significantly apply at present. Based on operant learning theory, individuals may significantly develop personality through reward and punishment system. Personality in this case proceeds to development as a response to specific stimuli. This approach mostly works in dealing with people and how to motivate them in particular. Report shows that reward and punishment behaviors provide essential impact on employees’ attitudes, perceptions and measures of job performance (Podsakoff, Podsakoff & Kuskova, 2010, p.291). If summed up, these all boil down to the identification of personality, which has essential formation through the presence of reward and punishment systems. Integrating the concept of cognitive social learning theory, the reward and punishment approach must have been essentially effective among humans due to the presence of intelligence. In fact, this could be proven by a certain study showing how human intelligence associates itself with learning and vice versa (Lozano, Hernandez, Rubio, & Santacreu, 2011, p.585). In other words, in the presence of human intelligence, learning from the immediate environment has become possible for the development of personality. Learning has become possible due to human capacity for cognitive development and this is what the theory of Bandura covers. On the other hand, the reward and punishment approach could also work best to its highest potential because of human intelligence. In other words, what makes learning effective among humans when exposed to outside environment is the presence of human intelligence. At this point, both theories of Skinner and Bandura are not in conflict with one another, but instead compliment each other. In addition, the two theories in general provide a remarkable explanation why each individual even if some of them are twins will still have unique personality. In the case of identical twins having different personalities for instance, each of them must have been exposed to external environment, but because each of their intellectual capacity may probably vary, their understanding of things around them may also result to a specific variation. Thus, based on Bandura’s argument, the presence of intelligence and when an individual is exposed to outside environment will make a distinct personality of a person. The theory of Skinner would somehow support Bandura’s argument. Each individual may not necessarily learn from reward and punishment behavior, but because of cognitive development, learning from it has become possible and even the development of personality. It is therefore important to understand that the theories of Bandura and Skinner are not in conflict with each other, but complimentary in a sense that each one should support the idea that personality development has become possible through constant exposure to external and immediate environment. Conclusion In conclusion, learning theory in explaining personality development is an important idea in order to understand the uniqueness of each individual. The idea of Skinner and Bandura is not hopelessly outmoded due to the fact that their theories are still remarkably referenced at present as justified in some studies aimed at understanding human personality development. Although their theories might have substantial loopholes or drawbacks, it could not be contested that they have laid the foundation in understanding the complex human personality. Since human personality might be complicated at some point, relying therefore on one theory may not substantially efficient. Thus, in the case of Skinner and Bandura, combining their ideas would make a remarkable understanding of human personality development based on the context of influence from external environment. References Feldman, R. S. (2006). Essentials of Understanding Psychology (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Lozano, J. H., Hernandez, J. M., Rubio, V. J., & Santacreu, J. (2011). Fluid intelligence and discriminative operant learning of reinforcement contingencies in a fixed ratio 3 schedule. Learning and Individual Differences. 21, 585-589. Podsakoff, N. P., Podsakoff, P. M., & Kuskova, V. V. (2010). Dispelling misconceptions and providing guidelines for leader reward and punishment behavior. Shaffer, D. R. (2008). Social and Personality Development (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning. Read More