Personality Theories of George Kelly - Assignment Example

Personality theories Find two articles about George Kelly and/or his theories. Post the url for each of them as separate threads, and include a few sentences about each article and its source. George, A. K. (2012). Ecology of Mind. Retrieved Feb 12, 2013 from http://www.oikos.org/kelen.htm Apart from his bibliography, the article discuses George’s Personal Construct Psychology theory, which focuses on the effort a person, makes in order to build self. According to him, one has to face challenges and confusion while discovering life. In order to become successful, an individual needs to overcome the threats or challenges in order to become or identify self. George, A .K. (2012). Confusion and the Clock. Retrieved Feb 12, 2013 from http://www.oikos.org/kellyconfusion.htm In the article, Kelly focuses on the issue of anticipation with regard to unprompted interaction with fellow human beings. He argues that one’s anticipation is influenced by the unplanned interaction with peers, friends, and the society. 2a). Describe your thoughts about the validity of Skinners assertions regarding "free will." Give at least 2 reasons why you agree or disagree with his ideas about free will. I disagree with Skinner’s assertion on free will. This is because it disregards one’s ability to perceive, think, or experience observable emotions in making decisions in life (Weiten, 2009). Even though the current structure of a human being plays a role in determining his or her decisions, sometimes one’s perceptions or thinking might provide the opportunity to make decisions at free will after thorough thinking or weighing of various options. For instance, in normal life situations, one has the freedom to choose who to associate with, the type of clothing to put on, and the places to be visited among others. Consequently, there are some situations that one’s freedom of making decisions in life proves vital. For instance, when a dangerous animal such as a lion attacks a person, he or she will need the freedom to either escape from the beast or stand and wait for the beast to devour him or her. In most instances, an individual always thinks on means of escaping from the beast in order to save life rather than stand wait to be killed by the lion. Therefore, free will is present in daily human life since it assists in making vital decisions, which either improves or saves life (Nevid, 2013). b.) Do you agree or disagree that people can be "shaped" to behave in certain ways in the same way that animals can? Why or why not? How else do people learn behaviors? Give at least 2 reasons for your thinking. I partially agree that people can be shaped to behave in certain ways just like animals. This is possible in the childhood stage when parents have the opportunity to model the behavior of their kids while they grow up. For instance, when a child works hard in school and thus gets good grade in academics, his parents can encourage him to continue with the hard work by offering gifts to him. Such a child tends to grow up with the attitude of working hard in order to remain successful. Conversely, a child that does not work hard is denied the gifts, thus prompting him to work hard to get a gift next time (Weiten, 2009). Conversely, behavior change is only possible at some stage in life, for instance at childhood level but not when one attains adulthood. This is because when one becomes adult, there is no guarantee that any kind of manipulation can lead to a change of or shaping of behavior. This is because such manipulation may take a long time to be effective or it may lead to rebellion among the adults, since it is like a command or enforcement, and thus appearing dictatorial (Weiten, 2009). People also learn behaviors through the process of socialization. Socialization leads provides an opportunity to for people to interact, and thus learn how various individuals behave. This facilitates exchange of ideas and experiences and with time might cause a shift in ones behavior. Moreover, through socialization, peers have an opportunity to learn different kinds of behavior from one another (Shaffer, 2009). For instance, a person who interacts with humble people learns to remain humble while another that interacts with arrogant or chest thumping individuals tend to become boastful and arrogant. c.) What do you think Kelly would have said about Skinners theory? Which theory do you think has more validity? Radical behaviorism is a theory attributed to Skinner. It attempts to understand behavior as a role of environmental histories of emphasizing consequences (Nevid, 2013). Therefore, it shuns or rejects perceptions, thinking as well as unobservable emotions as contributors to an organism’s behavior. Moreover, it asserts that the current structure of an organism controls the manner it behaves. However, Kelly through his theory of Personal construct Psychology focuses on an effort a person makes in order to build self. Therefore, according to him, one has to face challenges and confusion while discovering life (George, 2012). Therefore, to become successful, the person needs to overcome the threats or challenges in order to identify self. With regard to Skinner’s theory, Kelly would have regarded it as incomplete since it does not explore or give opportunity to an individual to explore life to facilitate identification or self-realization. He could consider it as an hindrance to self-actualization since it does not recognize perceptions, thinking and observable emotions, which play a crucial role in promoting self-realization. d). Describe a behavior that you would like to change then describe how you might use reinforcement to change that behavior. The behavior I would like to change is procrastination. I do procrastinate a lot and this has caused a lot of loses and suffering in my life. this is because I normally miss my set targets and even forego doing some of the vital activities in life such as reading and revising my lecturer’s notes. In order to change this behavior, I would employ reinforcement by devising a feasible timetable with all the activities that I plan to undertake. Thereafter, I would reinforce discipline in ensuring that I follow the timetable to the later. This would enable me do things in time, and thus avoid time wasting in irrelevant activities. Through this, I am sure I will always perform better in my class work, thus reduce chances of failing my exams or registering low performance in academics. 3a). What influence do you think TV and video games have on peoples behavior? Explain your reasoning. What do you think should be done about these influences and why? Immoral TV programs and video games have negative influence on people’s behavior. For instance, when children watch pornographic films, they tend to become curious about their bodies and feelings, and this prompts them to engage in sexual acts while at a tender age (Sigelman & Rider, 2011). This contributes to a rise in teenage pregnancies and high abortion rates among the teens, and thus has a negative impact in their social and psychological development. Moreover, individuals who like watching wrestling or violent movies tend to be arrogant to in the society. Therefore, these negative influences erode societal values and norms and thus, affect the society. In situations that negative influences associated with the TV and video games become prevalent in the society, a lot of effort needs to be undertaken to control and discourage the influences (Julian, 2012). This is to reduce the negative impact such influences have on the well being of members of the society as well as protection of the various norms and code of conduct established in the society. Moreover, such TV programs and video games need to be disbanded in the society and any person found violating the rule be penalized heavily. b). Describe at least two ways in which Skinner and Banduras ideas about learning are alike or different. Explain your reasoning. Skinner’s ides about learning is different to that of Bandura by: a). Skinner attribute learning to the principles of operant conditioning while Bandura attribute learning to cognitive process such as reasoning and thinking. According to Skinner, one’s environment plays a vital role in determining the manner he or she behaves (Weiten, 2009). However, Bandura argues that models plays a vital role in the learning process since people tend to imitate moral role models while shun the bad or evil models (Shaffer, 2009). b). Moreover, Skinner argues that people tend to have consistent behavior patterns since they have certain types of response tendencies. Therefore, he claims that individuals learn to behave in a particular manner over a given period (Weiten, 2009). Additionally, he asserts that behaviors with positive consequences increase while those with negative influences decrease. However, Bandura rejects the notion that conditioning is an automatic mechanical process. Therefore, he advocates for social – cognitive learning behaviorism. Consequently, Bandura argues that for one to learn, he or she must engage the aspects of reasoning and thinking in order to come up with impressive and realistic results (Shaffer, 2009). c). What do you think needs to happen for people to develop self-efficacy? How important do you think self-efficacy is to a persons well-being? Why? What do you think happens to people when they dont have a sense of self-efficacy? Self-efficacy refers to one’s belief or confidence in his or her abilities to emerge successful with regard to a particular situation (Sigelman & Rider, 2011). Therefore, for one to develop self-efficacy, he or she needs to remain focused in life and be optimistic no matter the prevailing situation. Self-efficacy is very important to a person’s well being since it determines the manner by which he or she approaches the tasks, goals as well as the prevailing challenges in life (Sigelman & Rider, 2011). Therefore, people who lack self-efficacy normally fail in life since they lack an effective way of approaching set goals, tasks or in solving the prevailing challenges or circumstances. In order for a person to remain successful in life, he or she must develop self-efficacy since it will assist him in achieving the set goals or in solving various life challenges, which may hinder the achievement of such goals or tasks (Sigelman & Rider, 2011). d). Describe a situation where you think social modeling may lead to negative behaviors in society. What do you think could be done to counteract this effect? Social modeling may lead to negative behaviors when people imitate an immoral model who disrespects the norms of the society (Shaffer, 2009). For instance, when a musician who is model strips naked in public, it encourages his or her admirers to do the same since they might think that is the new fashion. Moreover, certain models abuse drugs such as heroin and bhang. Their admirers might imitate them as they might associate the drug with power or celebrity, and thus cause a negative influence in the society. However, this can be counteracted when the models are informed about the consequences of their behavior, thus encouraging them to behave modestly while in public limelight (Shaffer, 2009). Consequently, massive campaign needs to be undertaken to sensitize the public on the consequences of falling prey to the bad habits portrayed by the models. This can be significant in trying to reduce the negative influence of imitating the models blindly without consideration of the befalling consequences. 4). Find two articles about Rotter, Seligman or Zuckerman and/or their theories. Post the url for each of them as separate threads, and include a few sentences about each article and its source. Julian, B, R. (2012). The Social Learning Theory. Retrieved Feb 12, 2013 from http://psych.fullerton.edu/jmearns/rotter.htm The article focuses on Rotter’s biography, his life experiences, career, as well as his contribution to the social learning theory. His social learning theory has four major components and includes behavioral potential, reinforcement value, expectancy, as well as psychological situation. Changing minds Org. (2012). Locus of Control. Retrieved Feb 12, 2013 from http://changingminds.org/explanations/preferences/locus_control.htm The article focuses on the contribution of Rotter to the principle of Locus of Control. This occurred in 1954. It considers the predisposition of individuals to think that control dwells within them or that it is external within other people or with the prevailing situation. References Changing minds. Org. (2012) Locus of Control. Retrieved Feb 12, 2013 from http://changingminds.org/explanations/preferences/locus_control.htm George, A. K. (2012).Ecology of Mind. Retrieved Feb 12, 2013 from http://www.oikos.org/kelen.htm Julian, B. R. (2012). The Social Learning Theory. Retrieved Feb 12, 2013 from http://psych.fullerton.edu/jmearns/rotter.htm Nevid, J. S. (2013). Psychology: Concepts and applications. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2011). Life-span human development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Shaffer, D. R. (2009). Social and personality development. Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. Weiten, W. (2009). Psychology applied to modern life: Adjustment in the 21st century. Australia: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Read More