Is an individual behavior explained by the situation they find themselves in, or is it by their personality, that guides the behavior no matter what the circumstances is? For example an individual who is passive in most things that they do, but when they play a sport they become more aggressive based on the circumstances of the sport. This example implies that behavior can be understood by the individual personality, and also the environment and situations they are in. This can be classified as a situational view of personality.The dispositional approach to personality, by definition, tried to identify those psychological characteristics which remain relatively stable for a person over time and across situations (Unknown, 2003). Dispositional can affect the behavior in the individual almost immediately, and most times it is in an unconscious way.
It can be understood that individuals that use the dispositional approach when dealing with certain situations tend to react the same regardless of the circumstance because their behavior is usually consistent.An individual’s personality can include mental characteristics that reflect the way the individual thinks, act and feels. Many have heard the saying “you act just like your mother or father”. The individual usually behaves this way is because of how they were brought up, which is a learned behavior. An individual environment determines in most situations how they react to certain circumstances. Cultural values earned by someone learned during the time of the individual’s life, especially during the time the individual personality is formed.
Julian Rotter theory of Social Learning Theory is that personality represents and interaction of the individuals with his or her environment Rotter, J. B. (1971). Rotter felt that personality and behavior is always changeable, because the person can change the way they think, the environment they are in, and how they respond to different situations based on life experiences. Rotter had four main objects to his theory which are Behavior Potential, Expectancy, Reinforcement Value and Psychological Situation.
Behavior potential is described when an individual behavior in a particular situation is similar, for instance for each situation a behavior is exhibited and a potential behavior. Expectancy is the subjective probability that a certain behavior leads to a particular outcome. Reinforcement value is the outcome of the individual’s behavior. For example a high reinforcement value is something that an individual wants, and a low reinforcement value happens when the individual wishes something not to happen.Psychological situations are how different people interpret the same situation differently.
Take for example how one person reacts to them losing their job is very upset, yet another person in the same situation may feel that it works out better for them personally because they can pursue something they always wanted to do. A dispositional approach to describe an individual’s characteristics is explained in terms of how it is biologically determined. You could say that the individual would look at the world in a pessimistic outlook.The individual’s views on life may feel that they have no control over their behavior and wants, dreams are difficult to obtain. Fritz Heider argued that, as an active perceiver of the events, the average person continuously or spontaneously makes casual inference on why the events occur (Heider, Fritz (1958).
Fritz used two attributions to describe his theory which are internal and external attributions. Internal attribution is the individual’s personality, character or disposition caused by a given behavior.External attributions is caused by the individuals environment or social situations which they have previous learned. In most case’s individuals learn how to react to situations based on what they were taught by their parents or associates. When I was younger my mother didn’t like to argue with my father in front of us, so now that I am older I feel uncomfortable around couples who argue in front of me. This behavior could be consider and external attribution, based on what I learned at a younger age.
Interpersonal relationship is important to our existence, happiness, and the way we live our lives; whither it is learned or dispositional. Interpersonal aspect has multiple affects on the dispositional theory from how the individual makes decisions to their cultural background. There is a difference between individual’s culture difference that can be described as individualism and collectivism. There is a strong relationship of dispositional affect wither if it is positive or negative, experience in the individuals general life.It may variance between different cultures how behavior may result in different citations. You can take in consideration how the individual was raised in order to determine how they react in most situations, but at the same time the individual up bringing can also cause them to react differently because they do not want to betray the same behaviors that they saw when they were growing up.
Individual’s morals can affect their interpersonal behavior based on what they believe in. or example and person who is catholic may not look at adultery the same way a person who does not believe in God; however each individual described in this example will have a dispositional reaction towards the situation. One could be appalled and that reaction is consistent; yet the other may not have any feelings about adultery at all and that behavior is consistent. Decision making when dealing with something of interest to the individual their outlook may have high levels of positive affectivity, which cause their decision process to be more efficient and creative.How we relate to people is usually a learned behavior based on the individual’s surrounds.
Having a since of security, which could be described as shelter, sleep, love and food are behavior that are learned from previous experience’s. In most case individuals can relate to interpersonal aspect of behavior, by showing it in their actions when certain situations arises. Individuals learn how to deal with feelings from something they were taught and how we should behave accordingly in different circumstances.Individuals tend to try and create the learned interpersonal experience they had in early childhood, but in some cases the learned experience may have nothing to do with the current or ongoing relationship they are trying to induce from previous experiences. Learned interpersonal can take place in a variety of contests that can range from family, friends co-workers and church. Individuals take connections between other individuals that may influence certain types of behavior and it usually involves some sort of interdependence, that may change or impact of the individual’s reaction.
These intimate relationships are only a small part of the interpersonal relation. Both dispositional and learned theory takes in consideration the individual’s personality, in order to determine how they will behave in any given situation. They both also take in consideration of how the individual view is either positive or negative, and how they respond to the situations is determined on their outlook on the world. If the individual has a negative way at looking at life then in most cases they will think that something bad will happen, but if the individual looks at life in a positive way then of course they will see the positive spect of life. This way of looking at life can be taught, but in some situations it can also be an innate behavior. In conclusion, each individual takes their prior experiences they have had in their lives; even if it was learned based on their environment or culture and react to situations based on this.
We like to describe ourselves as being unique because of our personalities and our experience, but in some situations we are all the same. We all take our experience that we have had in our lives even if they are good and bad, and base our behavior and characteristics from it.Some individuals look at life dispositional and feel that being pessimistically allows them to focus more on possibilities of what could happen instead of a “matter of fact” way of thinking, but it is still a learned behavior. Depending on how an individual’s was raised, their environment, and culture can describe their personality traits. Scientist continue to try to explain why we behave certain ways, and what causes certain behavior in different situations; yet even with all the evidence found there still leaves the subjective possibilities that the same situation will not hinder the same behavior.