Behaviorists are sometimes portrayed as aloof, data-oriented scientists more
concerned with how many times a rat presses a bar than with the people intheir lives. Although it ’s true that these researchers often attend to minute ex-
perimental details and theoretical issues that seem overly esoteric to an outside
observer, it is unfair to say they have lost sight of the human element or their
goal of improving the human condition. Even B. F. Skinner, who conducted
most of his research on rats, wrote extensively on how we can use the informa-
tion coming out of animal laboratories to overcome many of the problems fac-ing society today. This concern can be seen in each of the four research topics
reviewed in this chapter. Each has something to say about pressing social pro-
blems or personal lifestyle issues.
First, society ’s expectations for men and women have undergone a great
deal of reevaluation and change in the past few decades. In increasing numbers,women are abandoning traditional gender roles to take important positions inbusiness and government. Some men are experimenting with nontraditional
male roles, such as assuming child-rearing responsibilities. Understanding
why we make some of the gender-related choices we do requires an examina-tion of how operant conditioning and observational learning shape those
choices. We ’ll look at these processes and individual differences in masculinity
and femininity.
Second, in response to the ever-present issue of violence in our society,
many psychologists have focused their attention on the impact aggressive mod-
els have on aggressive behavior. Bandura ’s observational learning model helps
explain some of this process. We ’ll look at relevant research and the question
of how mass media violence affects the behavior of those who consume it.
Third, applying animal research findings to human beings is a standard
feature of the behavioral approach to personality. A particularly fruitful ex-
ample of this application is the work on learned helplessness. From some
surprising observations of dogs in a classical conditioning experiment, re-searchers have developed a theory with implications for depression and adjust-
ment among the elderly.
Fourth, we ’ll look at one aspect of Rotter ’s social learning theory. Individual
differences in locus of control have been the focus of an enormous amount ofpersonality research. Some of these findings provide important information
about how our expectancies are related to our well-being and our physicalhealth.
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN GENDER-ROLE BEHAVIOR
I would like to describe two friends of mine. The first is a very caring and
loving person. This friend never forgets my birthday, is sensitive to my needs
and moods, and is the person I seek first when I need someone to talkto. This friend also confides in me and is not afraid to share intimate feelings.
My other friend is on the way to becoming a leader in the business world. This
friend knows how to be assertive when necessary, how to express opinionsdirectly, and how to get others to do what is needed for the company.Individual Differences in Gender-Role Behavior 375