Learning Theory and Personality

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with what one kind of psychological theory may have to contribute to another. The two types of theories, of learning and of personality, provide many contrasts that will be profitable to consider if attempts to integrate them are to be understood in proper perspective. Examination of the methodological orientation of the stimulus-response (S-R) behaviorist may thus serve as an introduction to the contributions of those who find value in the principles of learning in understanding personality and to distinguish them in several basic respects from certain other types of approaches. While the methodological views accepted by S-R behaviorists have been extensively treated by philosophers of science and, as these views affect their own scientific discipline, by psychologists, restatement of certain basic tenets seems to be in order. Accuracy of prediction about a particular situation or individual is thus achieved by combining specific data about that situation or individual with the general propositions of a theory.

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