Editing Personality psychology (section)

=== Behaviorist theories ===

[[Behaviorism|Behaviorists]] explain personality in terms of the effects external stimuli have on behavior.  The approaches used to evaluate the behavioral aspect of personality are known as behavioral theories or learning-conditioning theories. These approaches were a radical shift away from Freudian philosophy. One of the major tenets of this concentration of personality psychology is a strong emphasis on scientific thinking and experimentation.  This school of thought was developed by [[B. F. Skinner]] who put forth a model which emphasized the mutual interaction of the person or "the organism" with its environment.  Skinner believed children do bad things because the behavior obtains attention that serves as a reinforcer. For example: a child cries because the child's crying in the past has led to attention.  These are the ''response'', and ''consequences''.  The response is the child crying, and the attention that child gets is the reinforcing consequence. According to this theory, people's behavior is formed by processes such as [[operant conditioning]].  Skinner put forward a "three term contingency model" which helped promote analysis of behavior based on the "Stimulus - Response - Consequence Model" in which the critical question is: "Under which circumstances or antecedent 'stimuli' does the organism engage in a particular behavior or 'response', which in turn produces a particular 'consequence'?"<ref name=Cheney>{{cite book|last=Cheney|first=W. David Pierce, Carl D.|title=Behavior analysis and learning|year=2008|publisher=Psychology Press|location=New York, NY|isbn=9780805862607|edition=4th}}</ref>

[[Richard Herrnstein]] extended this theory by accounting for attitudes and traits.  An attitude develops as the response strength (the tendency to respond) in the presences of a group of stimuli become stable.  Rather than describing conditionable traits in non-behavioral language, response strength in a given situation accounts for the environmental portion.  Herrnstein also saw traits as having a large genetic or biological component, as do most modern behaviorists.<ref name=Cheney />

[[Ivan Pavlov]] is another notable influence. He is well known for his [[classical conditioning]] experiments involving dogs, which led him to discover the foundation of behaviorism.<ref name=Cheney />