Chart of Theories - Social Learning Trait

Gordon Allport
Hans J. Eysenck
Raymond CattellThe Social Learning Theories are stated in a concise and comprehensive way that people would not have a difficult time understanding them. Though some may argue that the concepts are a bit complicated, the theorists have seen to it that they would make their points clear. Albert Banduras theory for example, is perfectly constructed and well-backed up with research and experiments. And the experiments are simple enough to be understood. The Bobo Doll Experiment was one of the highlights of Banduras contribution to Psychology (Bandura, 1963). It showed that children are most likely to imitate actions that they have observed in other people. The experiment alone explains clearly the principles of Social Learning Theory. Furthermore, theorists have laid down their arguments completely. They may have interpreted things differently but social learning theorists have arrived at a common proposition thus making the theory stronger, more valid, and most of all, comprehensible.

Unlike the other theories in Psychology, trait theories are a bit more difficult to grasp and fully understand. Each theorist in this area has their own proposition and so there is not one complete definition of the theory. Gordon Allport has his three levels of traits cardinal, central, and secondary Hans Eysenck has his three trait dimensions namely introversion-extraversion, neuroticismemotional stability, and psychoticism and Raymond Cattell summarized human personality into 16 personality factors or main traits including dominance, vigilance, sensitivity, among others. Individually they are easy to understand but it is confusing for the readers to connect the model of one theorist to the other, making trait theory a broad field of study which still needs to be simplified for purposes of comprehensiveness and brevity.Social Learning is a theory based on the social environment and to an individual. The social-cognitive theorists belief that the science of personality must focus on individual persons, (Cervone, John  Pervone, p 423). Though the findings can be useful to the culture that the researcher is studying it is more about the findings for the individual. Thinking develops in social
context in other words, people acquire their thoughts about themselves and the world through social interaction, (Cervone, John  Pervone, p 416). Due to the variances from one culture to another the findings are not easily applied to other cultures and are more focused on the individual.

The Trait Theories are theories that are useful to a broad range of cultures. Trait
theorists construe dispositions in terms of broad psychological tendencies
agreeable tendencies, conscientious tendencies, and so forth, (Cervone, John  Pervone, p 496). There are a number of labels that can be applied to numerous cultures. Someone in the American culture and the Indian culture  can be described as gentle, trustful, timid, cunning, calm, emotional, etc.

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