Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

452 Chapter 
13 
Personality
ignored. Although the existence of personality is not denied, learning theorists say 
that it is best understood by looking at features of a person’s environment. 
SKINNER’S BEHAVIORIST APPROACH 
According to the most infl uential learning theorist, B. F. Skinner (who carried out 
pioneering work on operant conditioning), personality is a collection of learned 
behavior patterns (Skinner, 1975). Similarities in responses across different situations 
are caused by similar patterns of reinforcement that have been received in such situ-
ations in the past. If I am sociable both at parties and at meetings, it is because I 
have been reinforced for displaying social behaviors—not because I am fulfi lling an 
unconscious wish based on experiences during my childhood or because I have an 
internal trait of sociability. 
Strict learning theorists such as Skinner are less interested in the consistencies in 
behavior across situations than in ways of modifying behavior. Their view is that humans 
are infi nitely changeable through the process of learning new behavior patterns. If we are 
able to control and modify the patterns of reinforcers in a situation, behavior that other 
theorists would view as stable and unyielding can be changed and ultimately improved. 
Learning theorists are optimistic in their attitudes about the potential for resolving per-
sonal and societal problems through treatment strategies based on learning theory.
SOCIAL COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO PERSONALITY 
Not all learning theories of personality take such a strict view in rejecting the impor-
tance of what is “inside” a person by focusing solely on the “outside.” Unlike other 
learning approaches to personality, social cognitive approaches to personality empha-
size the infl uence of cognition—thoughts, feelings, expectations, and values—as well 
as observation of others’ behavior, on personality. According to Albert Bandura, one 
of the main proponents of this point of view, people can foresee the possible outcomes 
of certain behaviors in a specifi c setting without actually having to carry them out. 
This understanding comes primarily through
observational learning —viewing the 
actions of others and observing the consequences (Bandura, 1986, 1999). 
For instance, children who view a model behaving in, say, an aggressive manner 
tend to copy the behavior if the consequences of the model’s behavior are seen as 
positive. If, in contrast, the model’s aggressive behavior has resulted in no conse-
quences or negative consequences, children are considerably less likely to act aggres-
sively. According to social cognitive approaches, then, personality develops through 
repeated observation of others’ behavior.