There are 2 explanations for social learning approach to the development of personality by Bandura and Mischel.

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One or more social learning approach to the development of personality.

There are 2 explanations for social learning approach to the development of personality by Bandura and Mischel.

Bandura’s personality theory is based on the principles of social learning theory. He suggests that all aspects of personality are learned. A child may learn behaviour through direct and indirect reinforcement and through punishment. Direct reinforcement is when the child does something good then they will be reward by their mother by giving money or sweets, as a result they are likely to repeat that behaviour again in the future. Indirect reinforcement is when a child sees someone else being rewarded; they are likely to imitate that behaviour. Punishment reduces the probability that behaviour will be repeated.

This means that personality characteristics in child’s may be strethened or weakened depending on whether the child is directly or indirectly rewarded or punished.

Bandura’s Bobo doll studies are evidence, which suggests behaviours through observation and reinforcement. He found that child repeated the model’s behaviour when they were rewarded. This suggests that what is learned is the expectation of reward or punishment. The concepts of Bandura’s are reciprocal determinism and self-efficacy. Reciprocal determinism gives the idea that both learning and social theory shows the individual as being controlled by their environment. He believes that as the individual acts, this change environment, thus affecting subsequent behaviour. Individuals are reinforced by themselves and they are capable of making their own choices and this affects what they imitate. And self-efficacy gives the idea that person’s sense of their own effectiveness influences what they ultimately achieve.

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Mischel theory is quite different from Bandura as he suggests that personality is not consistent at all. He believed that people are only consistence in the same situations, and their behaviour varies from one situation to another. Behavioural differences are due more to situational rather than individual dispositional differences. The notion of consistency gives the perception about others and ourselves, and predictions about subsequent behaviour. However, Mischel suggests that this is a ‘personality paradox’, because we think that others and we have consistent personalities but this is not true.

Mischel used the term behaviour specifity to describe how ...

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