Operant Conditioning of Factor Analytic Personality Traits

Staats, Arthur W.; Staats, Carolyn K.; Heard, William G.; Finley, Judson R.

doi:10.1080/00221309.1962.9920499

Cited by 14 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Social behaviorism departed very early from standard behaviorism with respect to the consideration of personality. Thus, for example, traits were dealt with as classes of learned, interrelated behaviors (Staats, 1963;Staats, Staats, Heard, & Finley, 1962). The self-concept (Staats, 1963(Staats, , 1968a was analyzed as language and emotional responses to the stimuli of the self and was considered to have a causative effect on the individual's behavior and on the social environment-a view that, as will be shown later, is similar to the recent concept of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977a).…”

Section: The Personality Level Of Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social behaviorism has never followed that course. An early study, integrating behavioral principles and psychometric knowledge, suggested that measured personality traits involved learned behaviors (Staats, Staats, Heard, & Finley, 1962). Intellective and affective personality tests were analyzed in terms of the repertoires they measured (Staats, 1963), and a conceptual basis for behavioral assessment was provided (Staats, 1963, pp.…”

Section: The Personality Measurement Level Of Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paradigmatic behaviorism, unified theory, unified theory construction methods, and the Zeitgeist of separatism.

Staats

1981

American Psychologist

104

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Psychology is described as separatistic, divided into unrelated islands of knowledge even where unification would be possible. This separatism is seen as anachronistic, an indication of the preparadigmatic state of the science, Unresolved schisms in science help to perpetuate this divisivenessand incommensurability. The schisms are due in large part to the lack of unifying theory that would establish connections between presently unrelated bodies of knowledge. The author describes a method and philosophy of theory construction, the aim of which is the unification of various areas and theories of psychology as well as the resolution of traditional schisms in our science. He discusses the need to encourage efforts to create unified theory generally, such that additional examples of such theory emerge, as well as standards for evaluating these theories. Psychology has had the means for creating empirical knowledge in abundance, and it must now develop the conceptual tools to organize this knowledge.Looking back at the products of a science, one sometimes gets a picture of smooth, logical development. Looking ahead is another matter. Developments sometimes occur, at least at certain stages, that are not anticipated within the confining context of the contemporary science. Moreover, a new, advantageous development that opposes the accepted paradigm may go unseen or be rejected (Kuhn, 1962).It has been proposed (Staats, 1967(Staats, , 1968b(Staats, , 1975; Staats, Note 1) that our science is presently characterized by separatism, a feature that has a pervasive effect and that constitutes an obstacle to scientific progress. The concept of separatism describes our science as split into unorganized bits and pieces, along many dimensions. Divisions exist on the basis of theory, method, and the types of findings that are accepted, as well as on the basis of student training, organizational bodies such as divisions, journals, and individual strivings. Our field is constructed of small islands of knowledge organized in ways that make no connections with the many other existing islands of knowledge.

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Section: The Personality Level Of Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Personality Measurement Level Of Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradigmatic behaviorism, unified theory, unified theory construction methods, and the Zeitgeist of separatism.

Staats

1981

American Psychologist

104

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“…Using a stimulus-response concept of personality traits, Staats, Staats, Heard, and Finley (1962) reasoned that a test-inferred trait is measured by items forming a unified class of responses representing sets of behavior that have been learned under the same conditions of reinforcement. Subjects, who were low scorers on the Sociability scale of the Guilford-Zimmerman test, were verbally reinforced for sociable re-sponses.…”

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confidence: 99%

Conditioning of verbalization: A review.

Williams¹

1964

Psychological Bulletin

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Recent research in the conditioning of verbal behavior offers support to a learning-theory interpretation of changes that may occur in psychotherapy. Manipulation of awareness states, use of verbal conditioning as an independent variable, and effect of the reinforcement history of S in verbal conditioning experiments are being explored in relevance to controlled and measurable modification of verbal behavior. Evidence is accumulating that the generalization of an experimentally acquired verbal response is a function of the common cue-producing properties of the several classes of which it may be a member.

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Modifying a Response Class of Artistic Taste with Signal Light Reinforcers

Stalling

Tiller

1975

Psychol Rec

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Operant Conditioning of Factor Analytic Personality Traits

Cited by 14 publications

References 12 publications

Paradigmatic behaviorism, unified theory, unified theory construction methods, and the Zeitgeist of separatism.

Paradigmatic behaviorism, unified theory, unified theory construction methods, and the Zeitgeist of separatism.

Conditioning of verbalization: A review.

Modifying a Response Class of Artistic Taste with Signal Light Reinforcers

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