Julian B Rotter
Brandi L. Johnecheck
The Art Institute of Portland & The Art Institute Online
About the Man
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Born in Brooklyn in 1916, the third son of a pair of Jewish immigrants.
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Father ran a profitable business until the Great Depression.
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Became interested in psychology during high school, but got his first degree in chemistry.
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Received a B.A. from Brooklyn College, an M.A. from the University of Iowa, and a psychology Ph.D. from Indiana University.
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Heavily influenced by Alfred Adler, along with Lewin, Thorndike, Tolman, and Hull.
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Was a psychologist and personnel consultant to the U.S. Army during World War II.
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Has worked in professor and department/program director positions at Ohio State University and the University of Connecticut.
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Has credit with the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology, the Eastern Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Association.
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Writings include “Social Learning and Clinical Psychology”, “The Development and Application of Social Learning Theory”, “Applications of a Social Learning Theory of Personality” (co-author),”Personality” (co-author), and is presumably still writing.
Notes
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“His father operated a profitable business until it ran into trouble during the Great Depression. The economic downturn greatly affected Rotter and his family, and made him realize how strongly people are affected by their environments.”
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“He attended Brooklyn College, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry in 1937. While in college he started going to seminars given by Adler as well as attending meetings of Adler's Society of Individual Psychology.”
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“He minored in speech pathology and studied with Wendell Johnson, a linguist whose work focused on meanings in language. Johnson's ideas had a great influence on Rotter in terms of his coming to believe that language should be used very carefully in psychology in terms of how one defines terms and theoretical constructs.”
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“Rotter received his master of arts in psychology degree in 1938. Rotter then did a one-year internship in clinical psychology at Worcester State Hospital in Massachusetts. At that time there were very few internships in clinical psychology available.”
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“He received his B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1937, his M.A. from the University of Iowa in 1938, and his Ph.D. in psychology from Indiana University in 1941.”
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“...greatly influenced by neoanalyst Alfred Adler and by Kurt Lewin, a prominent social psychologist.”
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“After serving as a psychologist and personnel consultant to the U.S. Army during World War II, Rotter accepted a position at Ohio State University, where he eventually became director of the psychological clinic.”
- "During World War II Rotter entered the United States Army and served as a personnel consultant in the armored force before becoming an aviation psychologist in the Air Force. In 1946 he joined the faculty of Ohio State University and served as director for its clinical psychology training program from 1951 to 1959, and in 1962 to 1963."
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“In 1963, Rotter left Ohio State and accepted a position as a full professor in the department of psychology at the University of Connecticut, where he also served as director of the clinical-psychology training program. Rotter is a diplomate in clinical psychology of the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology.”
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“In 1976–1977 he served as president of the Eastern Psychological Association, and in 1988 the American Psychological Association honored him with an award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology. Although Professor Rotter retired in 1987, he continues to be actively engaged in writing and research work in the social-learning area.”
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“During his stay at Ohio State, he published Social Learning and Clinical Psychology (1954), in which he presented an extended treatment of his social-learning theory of personality.”
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“He coauthored Applications of a Social Learning Theory of Personality (1972) with two former students, J. E. Chance and E. J. Phares, and Personality (1975) with colleague Dorothy Hochreich. In 1982, Rotter published The Development and Application of Social Learning Theory, a compilation of his most important theoretical and research papers.”
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So far as I saw, he's still alive, despite having been born nearly a century ago.
About the Theory
According to Rotter's theory, most behavior is learned from around us - from other people and from our situations. Behavior can be conditioned internally or externally, with a general goal of maximizing rewards or minimizing/avoiding punishments. The condition works on expediencies or expectations, altering how much we expect a given thing to go a given way, and make decisions accordingly. The theory considers both what has happened to the person and how the person perceives any given situation for a more complete picture.
To understand an individual's present behavior, the past events in that person's life should be considered. Rather than digging into the deep and buried past as some do, though, Rotter believes more recent events can be used. An example from the book explained that poor grades in high school and poor SAT scores are sufficient evidence to expect an individual to fail in college. Just as the past can be used to create expectations, the present can change how the past is viewed; as new experiences and knowledge come, feelings about past events are updated to reflect the new feelings.
Notes
- “He credits Adler with focusing his attention on the goal-directedness of behavior and on the unity of personality.”
- “…also was influenced by Lewin's field-theory approach, which emphasizes the interrelatedness of behavior, and postulates that multiple factors are responsible for the occurrence of any behavior. Rotter accepted these assumptions, as well as the view that behavior must be described from the perspective of the person whose behavior is under scrutiny.”
- “…Rotter reports being influenced by the writings of a number of learning theorists, including Thorndike, Tolman, and Hull. In general terms, his social-learning position is an attempt to integrate two major trends embodied in the work of these theorists: a reinforcement approach and cognitive or field theory.”
- “… a person might believe initially that a woman could never be elected President of the United States (an expectancy of 0 percent) but, as a result of the women's movement and extensive media coverage of the number of women who have entered politics and been elected—like Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Olympia Snowe—this expectancy could change radically and even approach absolute certainty (100 percent).”
- “… three different kinds of expectancy (Rotter, 1982, pp. 243–244): (1) simple cognitions or labeling of stimuli (“I think that is a painting by Picasso”), (2) expectancies for behavior-reinforcement outcomes (“If I wear my Tommy Hilfiger sports jacket, my friends will compliment me”), and (3) expectancies for reinforcement sequences (“If I graduate from college, I will probably get a high-paying job and become wealthy and respected”).”
Terms to Know
- Behavior potential - "Probability that a particular behavior will occur, as a function of the person's unique expectancies and the perceived value of the reinforcer secured by the behavior in a given situation."
- Expectancy - "A cognition or belief-held with a higher or lower degree of certainty-about the property of some object or event."
- Reinforcement value - "The importance of a given reinforcer to an individual in relation to other reinforcers if the probabilities of attaining all of them are equal."
- Psychological situation - "The meaning of the situation as it is defined by the person." How a given person perceives their environment and the situation they are in."
- Freedom of movement - "The individual's expectancy that his or her behaviors will generally lead to success (high freedom of movement) or failure (low freedom of movement) in a given life area."
- Minimal goal - "Dividing point between those outcomes that produce feelings of satisfaction and those that produce dissatisfaction."
- "Internal/external control of reinforcement / locus of control (of reinforcement) - The individual's belief that his or her behavior is self-determined (internal control) or determined by outside factors (external control)." / "Term that refers to people's beliefs about the location (internal/external) of controlling forces in their lives."
Personality Development
Rotter's theory does not have clearly defined stages, but instead is based upon the various interactions an individual experiences through life, all of which will vary to some degree from one person to another. Early on, most of these interactions primarily involve our parents. As we grow, others are added, and the stimulus generalization, wherein we associate certain situations with others we have previously experienced, grows more complex.
Rotter also considered language development highly important, as words are powerful tools for guidance and expression of feelings (affection, irritation, etc).
Notes
- "Since the effect of language is to classify, to categorize, or to abstract similarity in events, it serves, therefore, to determine and enhance the nature of generalization. If an event is symbolized, it will increase generalization to other events that are similarly abstracted. Not only does language determine generalization … on the basis of the subject's implicit categorizing, … the language of others may be used by the observer as a stimulus to determine, control, or enhance generalization."
- "He minored in speech pathology and studied with Wendell Johnson, a linguist whose work focused on meanings in language. Johnson's ideas had a great influence on Rotter in terms of his coming to believe that language should be used very carefully in psychology in terms of how one defines terms and theoretical constructs."
Pathological Behavior
- Neglect or rejection in the home may damage a child's ability to adjust to school and society.
- Children who are over-protected or over-indulged may also have trouble adjusting, finding the change traumatic.
- Teachers and others must help the child adjust, or issues may develop.
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"Rotter defined maladaptive behavior as any persistent behavior that fails to move a person closer to a desired goal. It is usually the result of unrealistically high goals in combination with low ability to achieve them."
Methods of Assessment
- One of the first things to determine is whether a person focuses on skill (internal control) or fate/chance (external control). Those with internal control tend to be more successful.
- Rotter used a variety of methods for assessment, each with a different strength and focus.
- Interviews are good for determining personality traits and for counseling.
- Projective tests are good for clinical diagnostics.
- Controlled behavior tests check the individual's response to certain situations in a controlled environment.
- Questionnaires are useful for checking social-learning hypotheses.
Notes
- "Rotter notes the potential usefulness of five major techniques for the clinical measurement of personality: (1) the interview, (2) projective tests, (3) controlled behavioral tests, (4) behavioral observation methods, and (5) the questionnaire."
- "Projective tests such as the Rorschach, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and his own Incomplete Sentences Blank, Rotter believes, can be used to advantage in clinical diagnostic work. While he finds the Rorschach of relatively little use in measuring social-learning concepts (Rotter, 1954, p. 289), the TAT can be used to advantage, because the social-learning position is concerned with the individual's reactions to stimuli such as mother and father. The incomplete-sentences method can also be used to measure freedom of movement. In this technique, people are asked to finish sentences after the investigator provides the first few words—for example, “I like ...,” “I suffer ...,” “I wish ...,” “My father ...,” “Sometimes I feel....” Responses are assumed to indicate underlying conflicts that determine expectancy levels of failure in given situations."
Types of Therapy
- Rotter believes therapy to be a learning process, and that the problem is in the individual's relations with others rather than in their own mind.
- Because different individuals have different needs, the therapist must be flexible about treatment, and must have an evolving relationship with the client.
- Therapy should involve helping the individual to understand what behaviors are causing problems, and how to change them. It may also involve teaching the individual to better discriminate what is acceptable in different situations.
- Sometimes, the individual may need to change careers, home life, or school situation.
- Sometimes, the individual may mostly just require reassurance.
- In addition to working away maladjusted behaviors, the therapist should help the individual to learn positive behaviors.
Notes
- "In general, adjusted individuals experience satisfactions growing out of the performance of behaviors that are seen as constructive by society; maladjusted people, in contrast, are perpetually dissatisfied with themselves and behave in ways that precipitate punishing responses from society. Furthermore, Rotter believes that maladjusted people are often characterized by low freedom of movement and high need value (Rotter & Hochreich, 1975, p. 106). Such individuals are convinced that they are unable to obtain the gratification they desire. As a result, instead of learning how to achieve their goals, they learn how to avoid or defend themselves against actual or anticipated failure."
- "In helping clients change low expectancies of success, Rotter uses a variety of approaches, including reinforcing positive behaviors, ignoring inappropriate behaviors, giving advice, modeling appropriate behaviors, and pointing out the long-range consequences of both positive and negative behaviors."
References
- Ryckman, R. M. (2008). Chapter 16: Rotter's expectancy-reinforcement value model. In Theories of personality (9th ed.). Thomson/Wadsworth.
- Doorey, Marie. (2001) Julian B. Rotter. Gale encyclopedia of psychology. 2001. Retrieved April 17, 2013 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406000557.html
- McGraw-Hill Higher Education (2002). Theories of Personality: Chapter Outline. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072316799/student_view0/part3/chapter12/chapter_outline.html
Julian B Rotter Brandi L. Johnecheck The Art Institute of Portland & The Art Institute Online
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