The Behavioral/Social Learning perspective on personality emphasizes the importance of environmental influences, especially social interactions and learned behaviors, in shaping one’s personality. This perspective stems from the work of theorists like B.F. Skinner, Albert Bandura, Walter Mischel, and Julian Rotter. Some of the core ideas of this perspective are:
Reinforcement and Punishment Shape Behavior
A key tenet is that people’s behaviors are influenced by the reinforcements and punishments they receive in response to those behaviors. Behaviors followed by a rewarding outcome tend to be repeated and strengthened, while behaviors followed by a punishing outcome tend not to recur (Ho et al., 2019). Parental approval, attention, praise, rewards, and affection serve as positive reinforcers for children that increase the likelihood of well-behaved, prosocial actions. In contrast, ignoring unwanted behaviors rather than giving any reinforcement is also an effective way parents can discourage negative conduct.
Imitation and Modeling
Children observe and imitate the behaviors of influential role models like parents and siblings. According to Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, much of human learning occurs through modeling – by observing others’ behavior and the consequences of that behavior. Parents serve as primary models for shaping patterns of behavior in areas like aggression, compliance, independence, and gender roles (Gowda & Rodriguez, 2019). Qualities like empathy, sharing, politeness, eating habits, coping strategies, and achievement orientation can be picked up by kids through modeling. As children’s first and most meaningful role models, parents’ actions and attitudes greatly influence the development of values, beliefs, ambitions, and behavior. Seeing parents exhibit kindness, honesty, perseverance, and tolerance of diversity promotes positive qualities in children. On the other hand, parents engaging in harmful behaviors like substance abuse, aggression, or irresponsibility can negatively impact child development. Overall, observational learning from parental role models lays a critical foundation for children’s lifelong development across cognitive, social, emotional, and moral domains.
Person-Situation Interaction
An individual’s behavior varies substantially between situations depending on the external stimuli or conditions. Walter Mischel argued that situations and one’s subjective construal of events powerfully influence behavior above and beyond one’s general traits or dispositions. A child may seem extremely extroverted at home but shy at school (Ruf, 2020). Parents who recognize this adaptability can arrange situations to evoke desired behaviors and qualities like deferred gratification, self-control, curiosity, and responsibility. Making expectations clear and using reminder systems can promote situational consistency.
Cognitive Factors Shape Learning
Classical and operant conditioning models were expanded to stress cognitive processes like goals, expectations, attributions, self-efficacy beliefs, and schemas that regulate which responses will occur. For example, Julian Rotter proposed that people differ in their locus of control – the degree to which we believe our actions or external factors cause outcomes. Parents can encourage an internal locus of control by linking children’s efforts and choices with outcomes and promoting problem-solving skills rather than fixing all difficulties for them (Klettner et al., 2023). Allowing appropriate risks and responsibility fosters this type of learned resourcefulness.
In terms of parenting, the social learning perspective emphasizes parents serving as models, reinforcing wanted conduct through praise and rewards while ignoring unwanted behaviors, directly instructing proper behavior, and thoughtfully structuring the home environment to elicit positive habits. For example, to encourage reading and literacy skills, parents can model reading daily, use reinforcement like allowing kids extra reading time when chores are done, directly assist with reading practice, and make books easily accessible around the home. Such an approach over the years can socialize attitudes, motivations, competencies, and self-perceptions around reading that become ingrained. While genetics surely play a role, such sustained, real-world conditioning shapes much of a child’s developing personality.
References
Gowda, A. S., & Rodriguez, C. M. (2019). Gender role ideology in mothers and fathers: Relation with parent-child aggression risk longitudinally. Child Abuse & Neglect, 96, 104087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104087
Ho, M. K., Cushman, F., Littman, M. L., & Austerweil, J. L. (2019). People teach with rewards and punishments as communication, not reinforcements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148(3), 520-549. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000569
Klettner, A. M., Luo, S., White, T. D., Elkin, T. B., Hersey, G. C., & Wu, H. (2023). Predicting Chinese adolescents’ depressive symptoms from their cultural orientations and perceived parental psychological control. Psychological Reports. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941231203576
Ruf, D. L. (2020). How parental viewpoint and personality affect gifted child outcomes. Gifted Education International, 37(1), 80-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261429420946072
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