Compass Personality Theory and Behavioral Personality Theory

Behavioral personality theory is the brainchild of Joseph Wolpe, B. F. Skinner, and Arthur Staats, among others. Also known as learning theory, it is the most empirically based approach ever devised to study human behavior. However, since scientific and laboratory studies aim at controlling all variables in order to discover objective information about how living organisms behave, the subjective self of human beings can be lost in the process. 

B. F. Skinner

Skinner articulates this perspective when he says:  

“There is no place in the scientific position for a self 

as a true originator or initiator of action.”

Behaviorism generates highly differentiated knowledge, such as how to extinguish a phobia or reinforce a target behavior, but this information is not well integrated with the self who lives as a complex person outside of the scientific experiment. Concepts that cannot be measured quantitatively—concepts like selfhood, free will, dignity, and openness to God—risk diminishment if the person is reduced to an experimental object, leaving a personality theory that mainly focuses on how changes in environmental stimuli elicit changes in behavioral response.

Behavioral theory produces significant quantitative data about the limits of human perception; for instance, the range of decibels required to hear a sound, the level of lumens required to perceive an image, or the amount of pressure needed to trigger a sensation. By treating the hypothetical “self” as a black box, the theory also answers questions about operant conditioning for use in controlling social behavior. 

Operant Conditioning

For example, the best way to manipulate a person to do something new is to reinforce the first appearance of that behavior with a massive schedule of reward. Then, as the behavior is repeated more often, the reinforcement is modified into an intermittent schedule of reinforcement. Before long, the human organism is hooked on the behavior, so to speak, because there is an unconscious quest for continuing the behavior with the hope of an occasional reward.

This objective knowledge of how to shape and control human behavior can be used benevolently or malevolently. In casino gambling the manufacturers of slot machines use the full power of behavioral theory so that the machines pay out in varying rhythms, ranging from several payouts in a row (which establishes motivation to stay at the machine), to one payout for every twelve or thirteen pulls (to maintain the addictive excitement). Of course, the odds are in the casino’s favor because human selfhood is bypassed through the use of contingency management, the dispensing or withholding of reinforcing stimuli designed to strengthen behavior at an instinctual and unconscious level.

In a more positive venue, behavioral personality theory makes many contributions to classroom discipline for teachers, showing them how to reinforce on-task behaviors such as silent reading or group cooperation by verbally rewarding proactive behavior, and ignoring or creating a “time out” to extinguish negative behavior. 

Behavioral principles are valuable in many situations where selfhood and personal choices need suppression in order to maintain a safe and organized environment. Jails, the military, business management, and caretaking for incapacitated persons all benefit from some form of token economy, or the exchange of cooperative behavior for tangible rewards that strengthen individual compliance and support group cohesion.

However, when it comes to the question of human worth, the development of autonomy, and self-actualizing choices, learning theory falters, since its primary view of Homo sapiens rests on an animal behavior paradigm that considers thoughts, feelings, and values as variables to be controlled, not inalienable rights for pursuit and fulfillment. 

Inalienable rights

Compass personality theory suggests that behavioral theory makes its most valuable contributions in building efficient social environments that support constructive interaction, as well as in helping persons whose judgment is impaired by disease, disability, or drugs to achieve a measure of self-control where none existed.

Yet for the bigger picture of actualizing human development, people’s interpersonal selfhood must come to the fore, working synergistically within environmental structures that foster safety and morality, while offering freedom for the development of individual identity, both of which contribute to the wellbeing of community.

For more, read:

CHRISTIAN PERSONALITY THEORY:

Compass Psychotheology Applied 

Christian Personality Theory