Personality, Perception and

Learning – Part 3
Chapters 2 & 3

Stelian Medianu, Ph.D.

Questions in today’s lecture
Personality
 What is personality and how is it relevant for organizational behaviour? Part 1

Perception
 What is perception?
 How do we perceive ourselves and others? Part 2
 What are some of the basic biases in person perception?
Learning
 What is learning?
 What do employees learn? Part 3
 How do people learn?
What is Learning?

 A relatively permanent change in behaviour potential that occurs due to practice or

experience
Questions in today’s lecture
Personality
 What is personality and how is it relevant for organizational behaviour?
Perception
 What is perception?
 How do we perceive ourselves and others?
 What are some of the basic biases in person perception?
Learning
 What is learning?
 What do employees learn?
 How do people learn?
What do people learn in organizations?

 Practical Skills
 Intrapersonal Skills
 Interpersonal Skills
 Cultural Awareness
Questions in today’s lecture
Personality
 What is personality and how is it relevant for organizational behaviour?
Perception
 What is perception?
 How do we perceive ourselves and others?
 What are some of the basic biases in person perception?
Learning
 What is learning?
 What do employees learn?
 How do people learn?
How do people learn?

 Operant learning theory

 Social learning theory
Operant Learning Theory

B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) investigated the way an animal learns by interacting with its
environment.

Skinner Box
Operant Learning Theory

 Learning by which the subject learns to operate on the environment to achieve certain
consequences
 Behaviour changes because of events that occur after the behaviour

Antecedent Behaviour Consequence

E.g., Manager sets specific Employee meets Employee receives a

and difficult goal assigned goal bonus
 Operant Learning Theory

Operant learning can be used to

increase the probability of desirable reduce or eliminate the probability

behaviours of undesirable behaviours
 Operant Learning Theory

Operant learning can be used to

increase the probability of desirable reduce or eliminate the probability of

behaviours undesirable behaviours

This can be done through This can be done through

• Positive reinforcement • Extinction

• Negative reinforcement • Punishment
 Operant Learning Theory

Operant learning can be used to

increase the probability of desired reduce or eliminate the probability of

behaviours undesirable behaviours

This can be done through This can be done through

• Positive reinforcement • Extinction

• Negative reinforcement • Punishment

Let’s look at these in more detail…

Operant Learning Theory

 Positive reinforcement:

Positive
Antecedent Behaviour Consequence
Added

E.g., Manager sets specific Employee meets Employee receives a

and difficult goal assigned goal bonus
Operant Learning Theory

 Negative reinforcement:

Negative
Antecedent Behaviour Consequence
Removed

E.g., Manager informs that Employees meet Manager informs

employees will have to performance levels in employee that
work Saturdays to 5 week days (instead Saturday work is no
achieve performance of 6 week days) longer necessary
levels
 Operant Learning Theory

Operant learning can be used to

increase the probability of desired reduce or eliminate the probability

behaviours of undesirable behaviours

This can be done through This can be done through

• Positive reinforcement • Extinction

• Negative reinforcement • Punishment

Let’s look at these in more detail…

Operant Learning Theory

 Extinction:

No consequences
Antecedent Behaviour

E.g., Manager sets specific Employee meets Manager no longer

and difficult goal assigned goal provides employee
with bonus
Operant Learning Theory

 Punishment:

Negative
Antecedent Behaviour consequence
Added

E.g., Manager asks Employee consistently Managers gives

employee to come on arrives late to work employee a written
time to work warning
Operant Learning Theory - Summary
 Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

 A theory that emphasizes the role of cognitive processes in learning. Albert Bandura
Social Cognitive Theory

Three components of social cognitive theory:

1. Observational Learning
2. Self-efficacy beliefs
3. Self-regulation
Social Cognitive Theory

Three components of social cognitive theory:

The process of observing and imitating

1. Observational Learning
the behaviour of others
2. Self-efficacy beliefs
3. Self-regulation

Example:

John, the new VP of Sales, learns how to run executive

meetings by modeling the behavior of Kathy, an experience
VP of sales
Social Cognitive Theory

Three components of social cognitive theory:

1. Observational Learning
Beliefs people have about their ability to
2. Self-efficacy beliefs successfully perform a specific task.
3. Self-regulation

Example:

John is confident running the executive meeting. He has high

self-efficacy regarding this task.
Social Cognitive Theory

Three components of social cognitive theory:

1. Observational Learning
2. Self-efficacy beliefs Self-efficacy is influenced by four sources of
information
3. Self-regulation
Social Cognitive Theory

Three components of social cognitive theory:

1. Observational Learning
2. Self-efficacy beliefs
The use of learning principles to regulate
3. Self-regulation
one’s own behaviour.

Basic process:

Self-observation

Self-evaluation

Self-reinforcement
End of Lecture