Julian Rotter Social Learning Theory

            Julian Rotter is known for his development of the social learning theory, which is a marriage of the learning theory and personality theory.

Apart from this, he is also known for advocating against the misuse of language in psychology and its influence on understanding, he also spoke up for a particular way in which psychologists should be trained at the doctoral level, stating they should not be trained by psychiatrists. His work is still relevant to this date (Rotter, 1993). Economic problems during the great depression greatly affected Rotter’s family growing up, and influenced his ideas of how people are affected by their environments (Doorey).

          Unlike Freud who believed that people’s behaviour was motivated by unconscious drives, which he called drive theory, Rotter argued against this and said that people’s motives were known to them and that they were driven by a need to seek out positive experiences (Arnold). According to Rotter, behaviour patterns of response are environmentally related and could be predicted using four dimensions of observation, which include ‘the behaviour potential’ which is the probability of a behaviour in a given situation. ‘Expectancy’, which is what the given individual hopes a behaviour will lead to, the outcome. ‘Reinforcement value’, which is the desirability of the outcome and predictive formula/ psychological situation which can be described as behaviour potential being a function of probability that behaviour will lead to a given outcome and the desirability of that outcome (Rotter, 1993).

          Another factor that played into the predictive formula/ psychological situation was the element of locus of control, Rotter believed this also greatly affected the individual’s pattern of behaviour. According to Schultz & Schultz (2013), during his research, Rotter found out that some individuals believed in an internal system of reinforcement, meaning the control of their actions was in their hands, while others believed in an external system of reinforcement, meaning other people and outside forces were in control of their behaviour. He called this locus of control. Because of these differences in perspective, individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to take charge of the situation they find themselves in, and in doing so, place a greater value on their skills, and are more alert to environmental cues that they use to guide behaviour. While those with an external locus of control are less likely to exert any effort to improve their situation.

         How a person reacts to their environment depends partly on their learning experience, life history and locus of control, i.e. their responses are shaped by the person’s experiences. Rotter stressed that learning took place in social situations with other people; his theory was the first to integrate cognition (expectancy) and motivation (reinforcement), (Doorey). It should also be made clear that in Rotter’s theory, locus of control is considered a spectrum with some people fully internal and others fully external, however, many people have a balance between the two views, but may vary depending on their situation (Changing Minds).

The Role of Expectancy           

        According to Heffner, the role of operant and classical conditioning did not shade enough light into the motives of behaviour as behaviourism suggested, which, at the time were the dominant explanation of behaviour before Rotter’s social learning theory. These ideas suggested that only external forces played a role in the actions a person performed. Sometimes people’s behaviour is exhibited without any external reward or reinforcement, this led Rotter to the idea that internal thoughts were playing a role in the determination of behaviour. This is because Rotter believed that humans were more complex than animals, as used in operant and classical conditioning. Human expectancy works in a way that allows the human to either perform a given behaviour or not, depending on the value of the potential reward for performing a given behaviour. This means that if a person believes that doing a specific task will result in a reward that is of no value or little meaning, they have the option of not performing it. However, in new situations where the expectations are less obvious, trial and error is used as part of the learning experience (Heffner).

Reinforcement in Social learning 

        The role of reinforcement is to strengthen a desired outcome, it is a stimulus that strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response (Heffner). Like B.F. Skinner’s experiment on Operant conditioning, which is based on the Law-of-effect by Thorndike, behaviour that is reinforced will be repeated unlike behaviour that is not reinforced (McLeod, 2015).

There are four types of reinforcers. Positive reinforcement, which is the act of bringing in/adding/giving something to increase the probability of a given response, e.g. buying your child a bicycle when they do well in school to reinforce the behaviour of hard work. Negative reinforcement, which involves the removal of a negative stimulus so as to increase a response, e.g. when a wife stops nagging her husband when he finally fixes the problem she asked him to, this will likely increase the probability that he will fix the problem sooner next time to avoid the nagging. Punishment involves adding an aversive in order to decrease a behaviour, e.g. spanking a child when they misbehave, while extinction is the removal of something in order to decrease a behaviour e.g. taking away a child’s toy when they misbehave. However, positive reinforcement has been shown to be the most powerful reinforcer (Heffner).

Internal-External Locus of control scale

            Locus of control can be described as where a person places the primary causation of events in their life. This means, if a person for example gets robbed on the street, do they account it to their own lack of awareness? Perhaps by feeling that they should have used a safer street, or have used it at a safer time (internal locus of control) or, do they feel that those events were beyond their control and that the world is against them (external locus of control) (Halpet & Hill, 2011)

The locus of control scale “is a 29-item forced-choice test including six filler items intended to make the purpose of the test somewhat more ambiguous, is the most widely used and cited measurement of Locus of Control (LOC)”, (Wang & Meizhen, 2017).

Using the Social learning theory

            The social learning theory can be used when dealing with various kinds of clients/patients. One of the types of clients it can help one understand is the deviant/ criminal client. Sutherland pointed out several points that explained how crime was learnt behaviour. He suggested that crime was learned from others who were from intimate personal groups during a process of communication (Nicholson & Higgins).

 Using this point of view, we see how individuals are shaped by their environments and social circles, and, how this sometimes means that the shaping of their behaviour is beyond their control. However, because Rotter’s theory includes a locus of control, it negates the notion that change is out of the client’s hands.

In order to help such a client, it would be best for one to begin by giving the client the Locus of control scale to complete, so as to determine what sort of effort the client will exert towards change, once they have found the motivation to do so. For motivation, one would have to ensure that a more positive behaviour is reinforced and expectancies about life changed. By doing this one is likely to change the potential of unwanted behaviour.

By Simon Karanja – 2017

Reference List

Arnold, G. Julian B. Rotter: Social Learning Theory & Locus of control. Study.com. Retrieved from: http://study.com/academy/lesson/julian-b-rotter-social-learning-theory-locus-of-control.html

Changing Minds. Locus of control. Retrieved from: http://changingminds.org/explanations/preferences/locus_control.htm

Doorey, M. Julian B. Rotter. Retrieved from: http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/550/Julian-B-Rotter.html

Halpert, R. & Hill, R. (2011). 28 measures of locus of control.

Heffner, C.L. Chapter 8: Section 4: Social learning theory. Allpsych. Retrieved from: https://allpsych.com/personalitysynopsis/social_learning/

Heffner, C.L. Chapter 4: Section 3: Reinforcement and Reinforcement schedules. Retrieved from: https://allpsych.com/psychology101/reinforcement/

McLeod, S. (2015). Skinner – Operant Conditioning. Simplypsychology. Retrieved from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html

 Nicholson, J. & Higgins, G.E. Social structure social learning theory: Preventing crime and violence.

Rotter, J. The social learning theory of Julian B. Rotter. Retrieved from: http://psych.fullerton.edu/jmearns/rotter.htm

Schultz, D.P. & Schultz, S.E. (2013). Theories of personality. 10^th Edition