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Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be
able to:
• Explain how Tolman’s concept of latent learn-
ing sparked a need for theoretical accounts
that went beyond basic classical and operant
conditioning models.
• Describe the beginning of the cognitive revo-
lution and the importance of George Miller’s
memory studies.
• Explain how the computer has been used as
a metaphor for the way the mind processes
information.
• Describe how the cognitive counterrevolution
was different from the behavioral revolution
before it.
• List and define some of the foundational
concepts of cognitive approaches.
• Characterize George Kelly’s personal construct
theory and his view of humans as scientists.
Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral
Approaches to Personality 6

Chapter Outline
Introduction
6.1 Metacognition: Thinking About Your
Thinking
6.2 Major Historical Figures and Theories
• Edward Tolman and Latent Learning
• Chomsky and the Role of Language in
Cognition
• George Miller: The Cognitive Revolution
• Von Neumann and McCulloch: A Conceptual
Leap From Computers to the Mind
• Describe the contributions of the social learning theorists
Julian Rotter, Albert Bandura, and Walter Mischel and
their contributions to such concepts as reward value, behavioral
expectancies, self-efficacy, self-regulation, self-verification,
and motivated reasoning.
• Describe the process of modeling in both human and animal
models.
• Compare and contrast the cognitive theories of Albert Ellis,
Aaron Beck, and Marsha Linehan.
• Name and briefly describe some of the more commonly
employed assessment tools used in the cognitive perspective.
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CHAPTER 6
Introduction
“There are no facts, only interpretations.” F. Nietzche
It’s December 14, 2012, at approximately 9:30 a.m. It’s an
otherwise normal day
at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the small town of
Newtown, Connecticut.
Then, 20-year-old Adam Lanza arrives on the scene carrying an
arsenal of high-
capacity weapons, and he proceeds to gun down 20 helpless
children and 6 adults
and terrorize many more. Authorities would later discover that
Lanza had also
shot and killed his mother prior to coming to the school.
Unfortunately, the mas-
sacre was not an isolated incident in American history, but it
was the second dead-
liest school shooting in American history. Some claim that this
incident points to
the disturbed nature of some individuals. Others point to the
need for stricter gun
control to limit access to high-capacity weapons. Still others
suggest that violence
in the media or video games were to blame. What was your take
on these events?
If the goal were to predict your behavioral response to this
event, could we do
so simply by understanding the environment in which you were
brought up in
and currently live, or would we also need to understand how
you cognitively pro-
cessed the event? Is it even possible to study and comprehend
all of the factors

that influence your interpretation and response? Given the
considerable interpre-
tive variability of the above example, let us consider something
far less complex:
a physical stimulus.
The simple, visual example shown in Figure 6.1 illustrates
variability in how peo-
ple interpret the world. Perceptually, you might detect a chalice,
where the white
Introduction
6.3 Areas of Specialization Within
Cognitive Psychology and Their
Relation to Personality
• Information Processing
• Pattern Recognition
• Schema
6.4 Cognitive and Social-Cognitive
Approaches to Personality
• George Kelly and Personal Construct
Theory
• Julian Rotter’s Model of Behavioral
Expectancy and Reward Value
• Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
• Walter Mischel’s Self-Regulatory
Theory
6.5* Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches
to Personality
• Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Therapy

• Beck’s Cognitive Theory and Therapy
• Linehan’s Cognitive-Behavioral Model
6.6 Assessment Strategies and Tools
From the Cognitive Perspective
• Kelly’s Repertory Grid
• Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
• Other Depression Inventories
• Anxiety Inventories
• Implicit Association Test
• Possible Selves and Self-Schemas
• Cultural Influences and Differences
Summary
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CHAPTER 6Introduction
image is the figure and the dark portions are the (back)ground.
However, you
might instead detect two faces looking at each other, where the
dark image is now
the figure and white is the (back)ground. Research indicates
that your previous
experiences and how you formed conceptual categories can
influence what you
see by, for example, priming you for certain perceptual
categories (e.g., Ashby &
Maddox, 2005). More importantly, perceptions are also
influenced by your beliefs,
biases, and both conscious and nonconscious goals (e.g., Tamir,
Ford, & Ryan,
2013). Even very simple behaviors like pointing and grasping at

objects, which
require us to “code” information in our environments, can be
influenced by our
intentions (i.e., our planned actions; e.g., Wykowska, Schubo,
& Hommel, 2009),
suggesting that even basic and seemingly automated behaviors
are not passive.
This suggests that decidedly internal events are important to
understanding how
we interact with our environments, which brings us to a crucial
question: To what
extent does your ability to think and experience emotions define
your character?
The cognitive movement emerged following the heyday of the
behavioral move-
ment. Like the behavioral perspective, the cognitive perspective
also emphasized
scientific rigor and tight experimental methodologies. However,
the constructs of
interest were now internal processes, with the primary impetus
for this perspec-
tive being the constructs that had been overlooked by
behaviorists (i.e., working
on the assumption that there is more to human personality and
functioning than
mere behavior). Thus, the unique and subjective perspective of
the individual is
here emphasized, and it is acknowledged that there may be an
infinite number of
possible perspectives on any one event.
In this chapter we will discuss the nature of cognition and its
influence on person-
ality. We will see how a cognitive revolution in psychology
created a new frame-

work for looking at human behavior and personality. The
cognitive perspective
has proven very useful for theorists, researchers, and clinicians
and has led to dif-
ferent models that have been applied to personality theory and
clinical treatment.
Figure 6.1: Figure-ground perception
Do you perceive faces or a vase? What you perceive in
this image is influenced by previous experience, beliefs,
biases, and both conscious and nonconscious goals.
Source: Science Source/Photo Researchers
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CHAPTER 66.1 Metacognition: Thinking About Your Thinking
6.1 Metacognition: Thinking About Your Thinking
Cognitive theories focus on how our thought processes impact
our personalities. There is an important concept related to this
called metacognition. This term literally means thinking about
our thinking, and while the term is not used widely by the
primary theorists in this
model, thinking about our thinking is exactly what they are
asking us to do. Unless we can take a
step back and analyze our thinking processes from almost a
third person perspective, we cannot
change faulty cognition. As you will read in the following
pages, analyzing and challenging our
faulty thinking systems is at the heart of cognitive theories.

We all view the world through the filter of our personal and
cultural experiences. This is human
nature. What speaks to us as true is often determined by our
cultural experience or our personal
frame of reference. People who practice metacognition
constantly assess how their experiences
and perspectives are affecting how they process information.
Metacognition means that they
understand themselves and know the dynamics at play within
their own psyche. Most people
simply assume that if they think that something is right (or
wrong), it is just that.
Akin to the idea of metacognition is the concept of critical
thinking. You have probably heard the
term before, but definitions vary. Stephen Brookfield’s (1987)
approach aligns with the underlying
concepts of cognitive psychology and metacognition. He
contends that critical thinking is a process.
Although his definition includes emotional as well as rational
components, and clearly acknowl-
edges the importance of culture and context, it contains the
following common characteristics:
1. Identifying and challenging assumptions.
2. Challenging the importance of context.
3. Trying to imagine and explore alternatives.
4. Reflective skepticism. (pp. 7–9)
Brookfield (1987) defines reflective skepticism as the act of
constantly questioning the status quo.
Just because something has been believed for years does not
necessarily mean that it is true. Just
because someone of perceived importance (like professors, for
example) says something is right,
that does not prove that it is right. As was discussed in the

introduction, reality is subjective, and
what we “think” we know is not always objectively accurate.
Can you see the parallels with the cognitive model? We should
make it a habit to challenge
assumptions (including our own) and to understand the cultural
implications that underlie our
interactions with others. For example, Ellis says that while it
would be nice to be loved by all
around us, it is not a catastrophe if we are not. We create the
catastrophe by failing to question
our assumptions; in this case, the assumption that we should be
loved by everyone. Understand-
ing the cultural contexts helps us to also recognize that often,
someone not liking us is not even
about us—it is about them.
It is helpful to examine thinking through the construct of
cognitive development theory, because
thinking about our thinking requires higher level thinking skills
and logic. Many cognitive theorists
believe that concrete logic is not possible until at least age six
or seven and that only in the highest
levels of cognitive development can critical thinking take place.
Jean Piaget, a noted psychologist
and developmental theorist, postulates the following stages of
development:
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CHAPTER 6 6.2 Major Historical Figures and Theories
1. Sensorimotor Stage: Birth to age 2 (approximately). Children
begin with no thinking

structures (called schema) and develop them through
exploration of their senses and
experimentation on the environment. Significant cognitive
development occurs, but
children in the sensorimotor stage are incapable of logical
thought.
2. Pre-operational Stage: Ages 2 to 7 (approximately). Children
rapidly develop language
skills and more sophisticated cognitive structures but are still
pre-logical. They are not
capable of conservation (the ability to understand that substance
does not change
although it changes shape or form). They are also incapable of
de-centering (the ability
to see things from another’s perspective). Conservation and de-
centering are prerequi-
site to logical thinking.
3. Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 7 to adolescence. Children
begin to grasp conservation
and de-centering. They begin to question: How does Santa
really get to all those houses
in one night? They can now reason logically but only on a
concrete level, not hypotheti-
cally or abstractly. They solve problems logically but
haphazardly.
4. Formal Operations Stage: Adolescence and above. The person
is now capable of sophisti-
cated logical thought. He or she can think in the abstract, can
think hypothetically and can
solve problems using the logic of combinations (Dworetzky &
Davis, 1989).
Piaget’s stages ended with Formal Operations, but Riegel

(1973) has postulated a fifth stage called
Dialectical Reasoning. This is a stage beyond logic where
metacognition and critical thinking can
take place. It is the ability to perceive the frequent paradoxes in
life (to see the dialectic) and to
question and analyze the assumptions that underlie the logic.
Dialectical thinkers “readily recog-
nize, accept, and even enjoy conflict and contradictions in
values and possible courses of action
because sorting out these conflicts forces them to grow
intellectually” (Dworetzky & Davis, 1989,
p. 360).
6.2 Major Historical Figures and Theories
Cognitive science, which emerged in the 1950s, was a
revolutionary development in the field of psychology. In 1977,
Mahoney used the term cognitive revolution in describing this
shift in the field of psychology—a shift that was partly driven
by dramatic advances in computer
science. The cognitive revolution reflected the notion that
consciousness is the ultimate product
of evolution. Consciousness is what allows us to reflect upon
ourselves and to wonder about the
nature, the origin, and the purpose of our existence. This
capacity for reflective thinking is con-
sidered the “essence of the self” (Corr, 2006, p. 563)—small
wonder that Descartes should have
accepted as proof of his existence the fact that he could think,
summarized in his immortal phrase,
“I think, therefore I am.”
The goal of cognitive approaches to psychology is to understand
how we think—that is, the goal is
to explain topics such as how we process information, how we
remember, how we perceive, how

we solve problems, and how we process language. This was a
radical departure from behaviorism,
which emphasized empiricism and insisted that psychology
should concern itself with the observ-
able, objective aspects of human behavior. Recall that it was
behaviorism’s avoidance of specula-
tion about the mind and mental processes that had fueled its
break from what was then main-
stream psychology. Now a new cognitive science was again
suggesting that psychology should
be concerned with some of the old challenges of psychology
that behaviorism had set aside. The
cognitive sciences were concerned with what occurs in the
mind. And this presented a strong chal-
lenge to the supremacy of behaviorism.
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Edward Tolman and Latent Learning
Ironically, the roots of the cognitive perspective can be traced
to learning theory, where a num-
ber of findings began to emerge from behavioral research that
undermined some of the domi-
nant beliefs within that tradition. One of the first was Edward
Tolman’s (1949, 1955) work that
introduced the concept of latent learning. Latent learning is a
special form of learning that is not
immediately evident or behaviorally observable. Moreover,
latent learning occurs in the absence
of any reinforcement of either the behavior or any associative
learning (which means any learn-
ing process in which a new response becomes associated with a

particular stimulus due to their
occurring at the same time).
In a classic demonstration of latent learning in animals, Tolman
(Tolman & Honzick, 1930) assigned
hungry rats to one of three experimental conditions that varied
with respect to the delivery of
food (a reinforcer). In one condition, the rats were given food
only when they reached the end of
a maze, and this resulted in improved maze running with each
attempt. In the second condition,
the rats were not reinforced with food after running the maze,
and consistent with traditional
learning principles, they failed to demonstrate learning of the
maze. A third condition also initially
received no food for maze running, and predictably they too
failed to learn the maze—at least as
indicated by their behavior. However, after a series of
unreinforced trials, the rats were then rein-
forced for their maze running. This resulted in a dramatic
improvement (learning), and the rate of
learning indicated that they were in fact learning the maze in
the earlier trials, despite the lack of
reinforcement. The acquisition of maze running was so
proficient that they even outperformed
the rats in the first condition who had been reinforced
throughout the task. Tolman concluded
that rats in all three conditions were learning the maze and were
forming internal cognitive maps
(i.e., mental representations) of the maze. However, they simply
failed to demonstrate the behav-
ior until such a time as they were reinforced, which is why
those in the third condition could do as
well and even outperform the rats in the first. In this respect,
Tolman reasoned that the rats’
behavior did not reflect their internal mental processes, they did

not demonstrate learning until a
later time, and they appeared to learn even in the absence of a
reinforcer (reflecting the features
of latent learning). Tolman’s findings were soon replicated both
in animals (e.g., Karn & Porter,
1946) and in humans (e.g., Postman & Tuma, 1954; Stevenson,
1954).
Tolman’s work sparked an inter-
est in understanding the role of
human thought in the process of
learning, but his was not the only
research to challenge one of the
most basic assumptions of learning
theory, and cognitive psychologists
now looked at topics like percep-
tion, attention, thinking, memory,
and language (Neisser, 1967).
Beyond the Text: Classic Writings
In this breakthrough paper, Tolman introduces the idea of
cognitive maps in animal and human models. Read it at
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Tolman/Maps/maps.htm
Reference: Tolman, E. C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and
men. The Psychological Review, 55(4), 189–208.
Lec81110_06_c06_163-194.indd 168 5/21/15 12:39 PM
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Tolman/Maps/maps.htm
Chomsky and the Role of Language in Cognition

A second, and somewhat independent, line of research that
further sparked the cognitive move-
ment was that of linguist Noam Chomsky (1972, 2000) who
noted that humans appear to have
a preparedness (a readiness) to learn and develop speech. Thus,
much in the way that fish have
a preparedness for swimming, monkeys for climbing, and birds
for flying, humans have a readi-
ness to acquire and use language. Chomsky believed that
language and mental processes develop
hand-in-hand, and that language can be used to access mental
constructs. Chomsky firmly
believed that the prevailing behavioral model, with its exclusive
use of learning theory, was unable
to explain the complexities of
language. Instead, he believed
that understanding thought pro-
cesses, which occur between the
stimulus and the response, is
necessary if one is to understand
language—a point with which
Skinner strongly disagreed (Skin-
ner, 1957; Chomsky, 1959).
Philosopher and cognitive psy-
chologist Jerry Fodor expanded
these ideas by suggesting that
beliefs and desires, which are
decidedly mental events, are
explained through what he
called the language of thought.
Fodor suggests that mental rep-
resentations are more than mere
explanatory tools; rather, they
reflect what has been codified in
the brain (e.g., Fodor & Pylyshyn,

1988). In Fodor’s model, con-
ceptual thinking is essentially an
internally represented language,
but it is not equivalent to lan-
guage. Rather, it exists in a for-
mat that reflects how the mind represents concepts using
symbols, which are organized as mental
sentences that follow the grammatical principles of language.
Much of Fodor’s theory was based
on the idea of computer intelligence, in which symbols are
manipulated by a computer following
basic algorithms to reflect psychological processes (e.g., Newell
& Simon, 1976).
Can cognition be shown to exist separate from behavior?
In a thought experiment (known as the Knowledge Argu-
ment) originally proposed by Frank Jackson (1982; see also
Jackson, 1986), the premise is that Mary is a brilliant neuro-
physiologist who studies vision, but must investigate the
world from a black and white room, with her only access
to the outside world being a black and white TV. She learns
everything there is to know about color, but she never expe-
riences color directly. The question posed is whether she
will learn anything once released from the room. Essen-
tially, Jackson uses this to illustrate that physicalism, which
is the thesis that everything is physical, and that everything
is necessitated by the physical, is false. For a summary of
the philosophical argument and counterviews, see http://
plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia-knowledge/.
Reference: Nida-Rümelin, M. (2010). Qualia: The knowl-
edge argument. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
E. N. Zalta (Ed.). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu

/archives/sum2010/entries/qualia-knowledge/.
Lec81110_06_c06_163-194.indd 169 5/21/15 12:39 PM
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia-knowledge/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia-knowledge/
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/qualia-
knowledge/
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/qualia-
knowledge/
George Miller: The Cognitive Revolution
Miller’s work focused largely on human memory. In a thought-
provoking and widely cited article,
Miller (1956) suggested that immediate memory is limited to
seven items, plus or minus two
items. That is, most people are able to keep in mind (be
immediately conscious of or think about)
approximately seven distinct items. However, he soon
discovered that these seven items did not
have to be single units such as seven letters, but could be
groupings of letters or other items,
which he labeled chunks. Because information could be grouped
in different ways by different
individuals, and because this chunking predicted how people
perceived the physical world, it
began to establish the supremacy of thought over the outside
world (and observable behavior).
In Miller’s work, there is an emerging
cognitive perspective that concerns
itself with how mental processes may
be structured and information pro-

cessed. What occurs in the human
mind no longer needed to be studied
using highly subjective speculation, but
could now be brought into the realm of
the scientific method.
Miller had a significant impact on the
field when he looked to computer pro-
grams as a form of simulated thought
processes. He believed that the com-
puter made an excellent metaphor for
how the brain processes information.
He thought that the computer could
provide cognitive psychology with an
enormously powerful tool for simu-
lating mental processes. After all, the
computer suggests an easy analogy
for human cognitive processes. In this
analogy, the computer’s hardware is equivalent to the brain, and
its software to the mind and
its mental processes. Carrying the analogy further, input
corresponds to stimuli, and output to
responses.
Von Neumann and McCulloch: A Conceptual Leap From
Computers
to the Mind
The development of computer science was crucial in the
cognitive revolution. Mathematicians
such as John von Neumann and Claude Shannon reasoned that
symbols such as numbers could be
substituted for letters and that mathematical computations could
be used to express relationships
among these symbols. This notion was developed into programs
in which information is repre-

sented by a 0 or a 1 (binary representation) and where that
information can be manipulated and
analyzed using rules of logic and algebraic equations (Corr,
2006; Newell & Simon, 1972). Simon
and a young graduate student, Allen Newell, took up the
challenge of developing a computer that
could reason.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock Hemera/Thinkstock
Since the 1950s, theoreticians and researchers have
considered the computer as a metaphor for the inner
working of the mind. Thus, computer chips would be akin
to neurons in both their complexity as individual units and
their interconnectedness.
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CHAPTER 6 6.3 Areas of Specialization in Cognitive
Psychology and Their Relation to Personality
As researchers began to model the association between
computers and thought, the term and
subdiscipline of artificial intelligence (AI) emerged, which
further positioned cognitive psychology
as the natural successor to behaviorism (e.g., Casti, 1987;
Sharples, Hogg, Hutchinson, Torrance, &
Young, 1989). This line of investigation has examined some of
the more rudimentary cognitive pro-
cesses, such as basic perception (or “bottom-up” processing;
e.g., Achler, 2012), as well as meta-
analytic (“top-down”) views of intelligence (e.g., Hutter, 2012).
Researchers have also attempted
to replicate with computers such human experiences as emotions

and social skills, which involve
the challenge of predicting and reacting to the emotions and
motivations of others (e.g., Minsky,
2006). Currently, the Human Brain Project (Chapter 4) hopes to
provide solutions to the many
mysteries of consciousness and brain disorders.
6.3 Areas of Specialization in Cognitive Psychology
and Their Relation to Personality
Cognitive psychologists believe that not all inferences or
hypotheses need be based only on direct observation. The
scientific method, they insist, can make inferences about unseen
events and states, and this parallels practices in other
disciplines of science. For example,
when physicists speculate about particles like quarks and
neutrinos, or when evolutionary theo-
rists describe long-extinct life forms on the basis of fossil
records, they are discussing concepts to
which there is no direct access. For their part, cognitive
psychologists make inferences about the
inner workings of the mind (Hunt, 2007).
Within cognitive psychology, several areas of focused research
have developed over the years,
such as information processing, pattern recognition, and
schema. Each of these areas will be
explored here.
Information Processing
Emerging from the use of the computer as a potential model for
how the mind works was an ever-
expanding field termed information processing. In everyday
usage, the term information may be
thought of as an ordered sequence of symbols that has a
meaning that can be transmitted and

understood. Data, on the other hand, consist of unorganized
symbols that are without meaning
in their current form. Think of the difference between a random
list of names and phone numbers
(raw data) and these names ordered alphabetically
(information). Information processing is what
happens when data are manipulated and transformed into
information. Information has a rela-
tional connection that distinguishes it from raw data and makes
it useful (Ackoff, 1989).
Computers and the brain share some complex information-
processing operations. In comput-
ing science, these are mathematical operations often in the form
of algorithms. In humans, our
information-processing processes are often not as certain as are
algorithms. Instead, they tend
to be more “rule of thumb” and are referred to as heuristics.
These include processes for which
we have a high degree of awareness, as well as those for which
we have limited awareness. As an
illustration, consider the availability heuristic, which is the
tendency to assume that some events
occur with greater frequency than they do in reality because
those events are readily available to
us. For example, because every airline crash receives so much
media attention, it fosters the idea
(and perhaps subsequently the fear) for some that air travel is
unsafe, though it is statistically far
safer than traveling by car.
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CHAPTER 66.3 Areas of Specialization in Cognitive

Psychology and Their Relation to Personality
Researchers have established that although there are some
common heuristics and biases that are
expressed by everyone (e.g., the availability heuristic, the
representative heuristic, etc.; see Kahne-
man & Tversky, 1973; Tversky & Kahneman, 1974; for a more
recent review, see Kahneman &
Tversky, 2000), individual differences can also dictate a
preference for some heuristics and biases.
For example, mood states appear to influence heuristics, such
that positive mood states increase
reliance on heuristics, resulting in an increased tendency to
make false racial identifications of
members of stereotyped groups (Park & Banaji, 2000).
Moreover, researchers have shown that
personality differences, such as sociability, can influence
heuristics (such as the representative-
ness heuristic), but only under specific conditions, such as when
sociability is relevant (e.g., judg-
ment problems dealing with rejection and abandonment; Moore,
Smith, & Gonzales, 1997). These
and other findings suggest that there is a complex interaction
between the use of heuristics, the
situational context, and longstanding personality differences;
with each of these factors contribut-
ing to the prediction of outcomes (e.g., Marszal-Wiśniewska &
Zajusz, 2010).
Information processing is cognitive …
PolkaDot/Thinkstock
Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be
able to:
• Describe the importance of behaviorism in the
development of scientific psychology.
• Discuss Edward Thorndike’s impact on psy-
chology, and explain his law of effect.
• Describe Ivan Pavlov’s discovery of classical
conditioning, and explain the learning model
he discovered in his studies on dogs.
• Explain the impact that John B. Watson and
his demonstrations with Little Albert had on
our understanding of the acquisition of fears
and other forms of learning.
• Describe B. F. Skinner’s view that psychology
should concern itself with what is observable
and the effect this notion had on the study of
consciousness and personality.
• Explain Skinner’s learning model of operant
conditioning and the importance of the sched-
ule of reinforcement.
Behavioral Models of Personality 5
Chapter Outline
Introduction
5.1 Major Approaches and Historical Figures
in the Development of Behaviorism
• Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

• Watson’s Application of Classical Condition-
ing to Humans
• Operant Conditioning
5.2 The Neobehaviorists
• Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism
• Skinner’s View on Personality
5.3 Theoretical Models Applied to Personality
• Salter’s Conditioned Reflex Theory
• Dollard and Miller’s Learning Theory
• Mowrer’s Two-Factor Theory
• Wolpe’s Behavioral Applications
• Applied Behavior Analysis
• Discuss how Dollard and Miller advanced behavioral theory
by explaining how personality can be conceptualized
using learning principles.
• Explain Wolpe’s systematic desensitization and how it can be
used for behavior change.
• Explain why some phobias/fears are more likely to be acquired
and maintained.
• Explain Martin Seligman’s concept of learned helplessness
and how it might be used to explain depression.
• Use behavioral principles, to describe how anxiety can affect
personality adaptation.
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CHAPTER 5
Introduction
In a disturbing but classic film, A Clockwork Orange (1971),
director Stanley
Kubrick depicts a gang of men who, in futuristic Britain,
terrorize others, savagely
beating men and raping women. The gang’s leader, Alex, is
apprehended, and
he volunteers for an experimental, government-developed,
aversion therapy. The
approach was modeled after the behavioral principles that were
quite popular in
the 1970s, and the intent was to eradicate society’s problem
with crime by asso-
ciating aversive responses (such as physical illness induced by
drugs) with aggres-
sive behavior.
Although this was a fictional account, it captured the belief and
some of the fears
associated with the assumption that controlling behavior using
scientific methods
would lead to the betterment of humankind. Of course,
subsequent research indi-
cated that such fears were not well-founded, as behavior is not
quite as pliable as
the filmmaker suggests. Nevertheless, many modern-day
applications of behav-
ioral principles are used to shape behavior. For example,
Antabuse (also known
as Disulfiram) is an FDA-approved drug used to create an
aversive association
(e.g., nausea, vomiting, headaches, syncope, vertigo, blurred
vision) with the con-
sumption of alcohol for those diagnosed with either alcohol

dependence or alco-
hol abuse (see Kitson, 1977; Rosenthal, 1973). More recent
research suggests that
naltrexone and especially acamprosate may be especially
effective at achieving
abstinence, though these compounds function in different ways
by altering brain
neurochemistry associated with addiction (see Rosenthal, 2006).
Buzzer pants are
used to help children with enuresis (bed wetting), by associating
the urge to uri-
nate with waking up prior to wetting the bed. Even outside of
the therapeutic
context, behavioral principles are widely seen, sometimes with
intentional pair-
ings, and sometimes not. If you enjoy McDonald’s, there’s a
good chance that you
might salivate when you see the golden arches or hear the
phrase, “I’m loving
it” (assuming that advertisers have done their job well). A pizza
box is also likely
to elicit the same salivation response. If you have a dog,
picking up the keys is a
surefire way to get him or her to the door. In all likelihood,
whatever tone or signal
your smartphone has to indicate an incoming text or email
results in what is now a
well-trained behavioral response by you (checking the device).
In fact, even if you
hear that tone from another source, you might find yourself
automatically check-
ing your own phone for a text out of habit.
Introduction
5.4 Component Subsystems of

Behavioral Theory
• Seligman’s Concept of Learned
Helplessness
• Goldfried and Merbaum: Changing
Behavior Through Self-Control
• Barlow: The Nature of Anxiety
5.5 Assessment Strategies and
Behavioral Tools
• Assessing With Applied Behavior
Analysis
• Behavioral Assessments of Children
and Adolescents
• Behavioral Assessments of Adults
Summary
Lec81110_05_c05_133-162.indd 134 5/21/15 12:39 PM
CHAPTER 5 5.1 Major Approaches and Historical Figures in
the Development of Behaviorism
Such attempts to modify or control behavior raise many
questions with regard to
personality, of course. Are we really completely controlled by
our environments?
Do we have any autonomy at all in terms of how we think, what
we value, who we
are? Does the very concept of personality exist at all? In
contrast to the psycho-

analytic and humanist perspectives (see Chapters 2 and 9,
respectively), behavior-
ism prompts us to look more closely at the world outside of
ourselves to see what
factors and conditions influence how we behave and who we
are.
This chapter provides an overview of behavioral theory, some of
its applications,
and the assessment tools commonly employed, as well the
research attempting
to evaluate its accuracy.
5.1 Major Approaches and Historical Figures in
When it emerged as a movement in psychology, behaviorism
(also referred to as learning theory) was not interested in the
mind or personality. What it offered was a radically different
approach to understanding behavior—an approach that was the
polar oppo-
site of the psychoanalytic model. Whereas the psychoanalytic
model dealt with invisible, internal
processes, behaviorism dealt with objective, observable events.
Not only was the emphasis on
behavior, but in its most radical formulations (see the work of
B. F. Skinner), cognition and affect
(thought and emotion) were essentially characterized as
epiphenomena—in other words, they
only exist secondarily, as effects of behaviors, rather than as the
causes of behaviors.
In general, the behaviorists rejected any formalized theory of
human behavior. There is inher-
ent tension in personality science related to the fact that
theorizing often seems to require that

theorists engage in speculation—that they move beyond
empirical and clinical data. However,
not everyone would agree that this endeavor is worthwhile.
Many believe that theorizing without
empirical support is pseudoscience. In fact, when the field was
dominated by psychodynamic the-
ory, many proponents of behaviorism would not consider
personality theory relevant and worthy
of scientific investigation. As a result, none provide a cohesive
explanation of personality.
Behaviorism has its roots in empiricism and animal behavior
because animals can be experimented
on and, therefore, yield more concrete data. It rapidly became
popular with the promise that it
would make a true science out of psychology (Hunt, 2007). As
an objective science concerned with
what could be observed and measured, behaviorism has largely
rejected the overly theoretical,
speculative thinking of other models of personality. Its
emphasis on studying only what is observ-
able has challenged psychology and personality researchers to
meet higher empirical standards.
This emphasis on science and on clear empirical standards is
vitally important to the development
of a science. In the absence of scientific evidence against which
to check our beliefs, there is a high
potential for error and bias (Lilienfeld & O’Donohue, 2007).
Behaviorism is based mainly on inductive reasoning: It starts
with data, often related to simple
relationships, and induces laws of human behavior from this
data. A simple example can illustrate
this form of reasoning. If you observe that every time you eat
shellfish you swell up and find it
hard to swallow (the data), you might conclude that you are

allergic to shellfish (the law). This
perspective seeks the simplest explanation for behaviors,
following the law of parsimony. Some of
the laws it has generated have proven to be fundamentally
important for understanding behavior.
Lec81110_05_c05_133-162.indd 135 5/21/15 12:39 PM
In fact, a great deal of behavioral
research has been designed spe-
cifically to explore various com-
ponent systems of personality,
such as learning, anxiety, learned
helplessness, and conditioning.
Results of this research continue
to influence our understanding
of how personality is formed and
how it can be modified by various
external factors.
The behavioral perspective can
be organized into two broad types
of learning: (1) classical condition-
ing and (2) operant conditioning. Classical conditioning
involves a simpler form of learning by tem-
poral association, and it focuses only on reflexive actions. In
contrast, operant conditioning involves
nonreflexive action and learning as a result of consequences
that are typically not occurring at the
same point in time (i.e., temporal associations are no longer
necessary). Both types of conditioning

can be referred to as forms of associative learning—that is, a
process by which an association is
made between two stimuli or between a behavior and a stimulus.
The next sections review methods
for the acquisition and maintenance of behavior.
Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
During the course of his research with dogs, Russian
physiologist Ivan Pavlov observed that dogs
would begin to salivate not only when they were being fed, as
would be expected, but even prior
to feeding, at the mere sight of the assistant who fed them. In
1902, Pavlov began to study this
occurrence, designing a demonstration of what may well be the
best-known of all phenomena
in psychology: classical conditioning. What he did was implant
a tube in one of the dog’s salivary
glands, connecting it to a mea-
suring device. The dog was then
placed in a harness and given a
small amount of food, often in the
form of food powder that could
be injected directly into the dog’s
mouth (see Figure 5.1). When
the food was delivered, the dog
would automatically begin to sal-
ivate. Pavlov termed this behav-
ior an unconditioned reflex (or
response) because it was a natu-
ral response wired into the ani-
mal’s physiological system (Pav-
lov, 1927).

In this early paper, John Watson, one of the founders of the
behavioral movement in the United States, writes about how
the process of learning in animals (and presumably some
understanding of their mental life) can be helpful to our
understanding of human behavior. Read it at http://psych
classics.yorku.ca/Watson/Animals/index.htm.
Reference: Watson, J. B. (1907). Studying the mind of animals.
The World Today, 12, 421–426.
Beyond the Text: Ethical Considerations
According to the American Psychological Association (APA),
7–8% of research in psychology uses animals as its subjects,
and the vast majority of these studies (90%) use rodents or
birds. The APA has published a position paper on the use of
animals in psychological research, and includes a discussion
of such issues as how animal models have helped inform our
understanding of human phenomena and the ethical issues
and safeguards in place for animal research. Read it at http://
www.apa.org/research/responsible/research-animals.pdf.
Lec81110_05_c05_133-162.indd 136 5/21/15 12:39 PM
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/Animals/index.htm
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/Animals/index.htm
http://www.apa.org/research/responsible/research-animals.pdf
http://www.apa.org/research/responsible/research-animals.pdf
CHAPTER 5
A device similar to the one shown here was used to
capture and quantify the saliva produced by a dog
in response to stimuli such as food. The saliva is
captured in the tube and a balancing mechanism is

activated, which in turn records the amount on the
revolving drum. The window was used to pair other
visual stimuli with the food.
5.1 Major Approaches and Historical Figures in the
Development of Behaviorism
Figure 5.1: Pavlov’s research documenting an unconditioned
reflex
In the next phase of the demonstration, Pavlov would present
the dog with a neutral stimulus
(one that would not create salivation in and of itself) such as a
bell or buzzer. When presented
alone, the neutral stimulus would produce only a raising of the
dog’s ears. When paired on sev-
eral occasions with the delivery of food (e.g., food-bell, food-
bell, food-bell), a conditioning (i.e.,
learning) process occurred. Following this, the sound (bell)
alone would now produce salivation.
At this point, the sound of the bell or buzzer has become a
conditioned stimulus (meaning that it
was learned), which now leads to the conditioned response
(meaning a learned response, which
Pavlov also called a conditioned reflex) of salivating to the
sound of the bell. See Figure 5.2 for an
illustration of this type of associative learning.
NS
Bell
BEFORE CONDITIONING
UCS

Food
UCR
Salivation
• elicits No response
(or neutral response)
• elicits
CS
Bell
AFTER CONDITIONING
CR
Salivation
• elicits
CS
Bell
CONDITIONING PROCESS
(REPEATED SIMULTANEOUS PAIRING)
+
UCS
Food
UCR
Salivation
• elicits

Figure 5.2: An illustration
of Pavlov’s classical
conditioning
The images in panel 1 illustrate that the
dog naturally salivates (unconditioned
response) to the food (unconditioned
stimulus), but does not salivate to the
handler (neutral stimulus). In panel 2,
we see the repeated pairings of the
food with the handler. In panel 3, the
dog eventually learns to salivate (now
a conditioned response) to the handler
alone (now a conditioned stimulus).
Pavlov noticed this association, and
it was considered a serendipitous
example of classical conditioning. He
recorded the same responses when
using bells and buzzers as the neutral
(and eventually conditioned) stimuli.
Lec81110_05_c05_133-162.indd 137 5/21/15 12:39 PM
Now that the bell is able to produce the salivation in the dog
(this is what makes the bell a condi-
tioned stimulus), it is possible to consider the consequence of
repeatedly ringing the bell and not
delivering any food. Eventually, the bell will stop producing the
salivation response, and at that
point in time, it can be said that the response has become

extinct. Therefore, extinction in this
context is defined as when the conditioned stimulus (the bell) is
no longer able to produce the
conditioned response (the dog salivating). Interestingly, it is
possible for the conditioned response
to reoccur, and this can happen even without having to again
pair the food with the bell. Instead,
sometimes the response will return even if the dog is simply
given a break from the conditioning
environment, and this is known as spontaneous recovery (i.e.,
the previously learned response,
which had become extinct, returns without any additional
pairing with the food).
So what other types of learning can occur from this basic
paradigm of classical conditioning? One
option is to pair the conditioned stimulus (in the current
example, the bell) with another neutral
stimulus (e.g., a light) until this neutral stimulus also produces
the conditioned response (bell-light,
bell-light, bell-light). Notice that the secondary stimulus is
never paired with the unconditioned stim-
ulus. This form of learning is termed higher order conditioning,
or secondary conditioning. Here,
a conditioned stimulus (the bell) is paired with a neutral
stimulus (e.g., a light), until that neutral
stimulus also becomes a conditioned stimulus by producing the
conditioned response (salivating).
Consider what would happen if Pavlov used a stimulus that was
similar to, but not exactly the same
as, the original conditioned stimulus. For example, if Pavlov
rang a bell that was pitched differently,
would the dog salivate? Discrimination occurs when the
conditioned response is only produced for
a very specific conditioned stimulus. In an example of

discrimination, the dog would only salivate in
response to the exact bell that was used originally, and no other
similar-sounding bells would pro-
duce a salivation response. Generalization is said to occur when
the conditioned response is pro-
duced in response to a similar conditioned stimulus. In a
situation of generalization, the dog would
also salivate to similar-sounding bells. Generalization can be an
adaptive function that allows an
organism to rapidly respond to new stimuli that are related in
some way to a previously learned
stimulus. In this way, an individual doesn’t have to experience
learning with every single stimulus,
and this means learning can be more efficient. However,
generalization can also be maladaptive.
For example, imagine a child who is viciously attacked by a
neighbor’s new pet Rottweiler. As a
result of this attack, the child is now afraid of all dogs. On the
surface, this might seem adaptive, as
the dog that attacked him was clearly a threat. However, being
afraid of familiar dogs, even docile
dogs, and perhaps even other pets (e.g., cats) represents a form
of generalization that is not adap-
tive. What would be more adaptive would be the child
generalizing his learning to a smaller range
of stimuli, such as a growling dog, or a dog that bares its teeth
and moves forward aggressively.
Unfortunately, we don’t get to choose when we generalize and
when we don’t.
The above-mentioned example also helps illustrate another
important concept in learning theory:
one-time conditioning. This refers to learning that occurs after
only one trial (as opposed to the
numerous trials needed to make an association in the typical
classical conditioning research). This

is a very unique type of learning because it involves more rapid
acquisition, and it tends to be
much more resistant to extinction. Returning to the dog-attack
example, the child did not require
repeated instances in order to acquire the fear of dogs (note that
this type of rapid learning can be
adaptive, as repeated trials would be life threatening), but now
it will take some time and effort
to extinguish the fear response.
Classical conditioning can therefore be a very powerful model
for explaining the development of
many maladaptive behaviors and clinical disorders, such as
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
For example, when fear is triggered in a truly threatening
situation, the stress-response system
may activate anxiety, which may later be triggered by
previously neutral stimuli (such as smells,
Lec81110_05_c05_133-162.indd 138 5/21/15 12:39 PM
sights, or sounds) that were present at the time of the threat.
The concept of generalization could
also be used to explain PTSD, as the individual might learn to
generalize a fear response to other
similar stimuli, even if they were never directly associated with
the initial learning experience.
Beyond the Text: Research Spotlight
How does the concept of generalization manifest in human

learning with respect to post-traumatic
stress disorder?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric illness
involving an acute and severe anxiety
response to a stressor. The stressor could result from a number
of experiences, including witness-
ing or experiencing some form of abuse, a physical assault,
disaster, or war. PTSD can involve such
symptoms as an exaggerated startle response, avoidance of
situations that are similar to the original
stressor/trauma, and the re-experiencing of the original
stressor/trauma in the form of flashbacks or
possibly nightmares; symptoms must last for at least one month
and result in some form of dysfunc-
tion (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). PTSD can also
be conceptualized as a form of general-
ization, as the individual experiences a generalized fear
response to situations/stimuli that are similar
to the original stressor/trauma.
In an interesting study, researchers examined whether heart rate
(HR) responses to trauma-related
pictures (i.e., a generalization response) can be used to
differentiate between trauma survivors with
and without acute PTSD (Ehlers et al., 2010). Participants were
162 individuals who had survived
either a motor vehicle accident (n 5 98) or a physical assault (n
5 64) and were recruited from the
emergency room of a major hospital between 2004 and 2006.
Sixty-six individuals (approx. 41%) met
PTSD criteria one month following the trauma (the acute PTSD
group) using the Structured Clinical
Interview for DSM-IV (SCID), an instrument discussed in
Chapter 1. Ninety-six individuals (approx.
59%) did not meet criteria for PTSD.

The PTSD group showed greater HR responses to trauma-related
pictures than those without PTSD
(less pronounced mean deceleration, greater peak response, and
a greater proportion showing HR
acceleration of more than one beat per minute). No group
differences in HR (i.e., fear) response
emerged for the generally threatening or neutral pictures (Ehlers
et al., 2010). The current findings
are consistent with research showing that HR acceleration to
trauma-specific cues (reminders) pre-
dicts the duration of PTSD symptoms (e.g., Elsesser, Sartory, &
Tackenberg, 2005).
This study illustrates both generalization and discrimination of
a fear response. First, it appears that
those with acute PTSD can be defined as showing generalization
(as measured by heart rate) to
threat-related stimuli relative to those who experienced trauma,
but did not meet criteria for PTSD.
However, both groups demonstrated discrimination in that they
did not show the fear response to
nonspecific stimuli or to neutral stimuli. The research also
offers some insights into potential inter-
ventions. For example, could repeated exposure to the threat-
specific (feared) pictures result in
extinction of the fear response when the participant habituates
to the image? Of course, because
researchers did not measure HR response to the stimuli prior to
the trauma and because group
assignment was not randomized, the findings are necessarily
limited.
Critical Thinking Questions:
• PTSD emerges from trauma exposure, but this study and

desensitization treatments treat
the disorder with further exposure. In what important ways do
the two forms of exposure
differ that results in such different outcomes? What do you
think are some of the personality
traits or other factors that determine who is more predisposed to
experiencing PTSD
symptoms after trauma exposure?
Lec81110_05_c05_133-162.indd 139 5/21/15 12:39 PM
Watson’s Application of Classical Conditioning to Humans
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own
specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random
and train him to
become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer,
artist, merchant-
chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors.
(Watson, 1930, p. 104)
The spread of behaviorism in the United States owes much of its
acceptance and popularity to the
efforts of John B. Watson, who applied Pavlov’s work to
humans. Watson believed that psychol-
ogy should deal only with actual behavior and not with mental
states, heralding a dramatic shift
away from the use of introspection and the study of
consciousness. As noted in the above quote,

Watson believed that the environment was the critical factor in
predicting behavior.
Watson and James R. Angell are both given credit for coining
the term behaviorist. But Watson’s
use of the label in the title of an article he published in 1913
(“Psychology as the Behaviorist
Views It”) was in essence a declaration that behaviorism was
independent of other schools of psy-
chology that were interested in the mental processes of
individuals (Hunt, 2007). The behaviorist
manifesto, as it later came to be known, made three
fundamentally important points: (1) that
psychology should concern itself with behavior, not
consciousness; (2) objective methods should
be used rather than introspection; and (3) the primary focus
should be the prediction and control
of behavior, rather than trying to understand the meaning of
mental events (Hunt, 2007).
Watson began studying conditioned reflexes in infants in 1916
while a professor at Johns Hopkins
University. Working at the Harriet Lane Hospital in Baltimore,
he observed over 200 babies, cata-
loguing their reflexes (for example, sneezing, sucking, grasping,
and reaching) and studying their
emotional responses (such as fear, rage, and love). Note that
each of these reflexes and emo-
tions has observable behavioral
components—such as crying and
cooing in the case of emotions.
The experiment that brought
Watson the greatest attention
was one he conducted with his
assistant, Rosalie Rayner. He and

Rayner attempted to produce a
conditioned fear response in an
11-month-old boy who became
known as Little Albert (J. B. Wat-
son & Rayner, 1920). First, they
placed a white rat near 9-month-
old Albert; he showed absolutely
no fear of the animal. Then they
hit a steel bar with a hammer
right behind little Albert, and the
sudden, very loud noise fright-
ened him. They repeated this
procedure a number of times on
Beyond the Text: Research Spotlight
There is no record that Watson and Rayner made any effort
to extinguish the experimentally produced fear they had cre-
ated. By today’s ethical standards for human experimenta-
tion, the type of experiment conducted on Little Albert would
never be approved. Now all institutions that conduct human
as well as animal research are required to follow strict ethi-
cal guidelines. All research proposals need to be approved
by a committee of peers, ensuring that harmful treatment
is avoided or at least minimized. Recently, a team led by
Dr. Sharman Levinson identified Little Albert as Douglas Mer-
ritte, who died at age 6 of acquired hydrocephalus, a condi-
tion unrelated to the conditioning experiments. For more
details, see “ ‘Little Albert’ Regains His Identity,” published
in the 2010 edition of the APA Monitor, available online at
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/01/little-albert.aspx.
Lec81110_05_c05_133-162.indd 140 5/21/15 12:39 PM
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/01/little-albert.aspx

different occasions, always pairing the rat with the frightening
noise. Within a very short period
of time, Albert’s behavior had changed drastically. Now,
whenever he saw the white rat, he would
begin to cry and attempt desperately to crawl away.
Thus, the conditioning of fear in Little Albert paralleled the
conditioning of salivation in the dog by
Pavlov. In this situation, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is the
loud noise. It is termed uncondi-
tioned because it reliably leads to a response (in this case, fear)
in the absence of any prior learn-
ing. For the same reason, the fear reaction in response to the
noise is an unconditioned response.
In this demonstration, the neutral stimulus (one that does not
elicit the unconditioned response
of fear) is the white rat. The neutral stimulus becomes a
conditioned stimulus (CS) as a result of
being paired with the US over a number of trials. It is now a
conditioned stimulus because it reli-
ably elicits the fear response after having been paired with the
loud noise. Fear of the white rat is
then defined as a conditioned response (a learned response),
which can be elicited by the condi-
tioned stimulus. Continued investigations showed that Albert
had developed conditioned fear to
a number of other furry white things, such as a rabbit and a seal
coat, or Watson wearing a Santa
Claus mask. Thus, they had demonstrated how generalization
might be used to experimentally
induce a form of “neurosis” or intense fear.

Watson (J. B. Watson, 1924, 1930) used the term “habit system”
to refer to various categories or
clusters of individual habits, which are the building blocks of
personality. Because he believed that
personality is largely learned (through conditioning), he …

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