| PSYCHOANALYTIC | BEHAVIORISM | COGNITIVE | SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM | ROLE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CENTRAL METAPHOR | machine | Pavlov's dogs, consumer reasoning (exchange) | gestalt, computer | cryptography (encoding and decoding | theater |
| ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT HUMAN NATURE | Initially asocial infant learns to control its impulses & perhaps becomes altruistic, loving adult | People can be molded into almost any behavior pattern through reinforcements. | Human nature is active and purposive, seeking goals and self-improvement. | People act in response to the inferred meanings of others' acts | People act in response to the expectations for the roles they occupy. |
| HISTORICAL V. CONTEMPORARY CAUSES OF BEHAVIOR | Emphasis on historical but recognizes the contemporary | Contemporary, although concerned with behavioral antecedents | Contemporary, emphasis on attention, perception and judgment | Both with emphasis on the meaning underlying observed behavior | Contemporary, "You are the role you now hold" |
| INTERNAL V. SITUATIONAL CAUSES OF BEHAVIOR | Emphasis on the internal, types of people do distinctive types of things | Largely situational (emphasis on reward structure) but recognizes that internal factors may determine what is rewarding | Both internal and situational factors recognized | Both internal and situational factors recognized | Emphasis on roles and situational influences; internal factors ignored |
| CENTRAL PERSONAL NEED ADDRESSED | power, belonging, esteem, transcendence | safety, esteem | order, meaningfulness, control | meaningfulness, esteem | order, belonging, esteem |
| HOW SOCIAL CONTROL WORKS | workings of superego: guilt and repression | positive, zero or negative reinforcements; operant and classical conditioning | moral reasoning (Piaget, Kohlberg) | seeing self as others view it: generalized others, reference groups | people act in response to the role expectations held by self and other |
| UNITS OF ANALYSES | Personality traits and general characteristics | Specific response patterns and habits--each treated as unit | Orders inferred--the whole is greater than sum of parts | the social act (both overt and covert) | Definitions and responses to various situations |
| TYPICAL METHODS EMPLOYED | Rorschach, free associations, dream analysis | Classical experiments looking at frequencies of distinctive behavior | Experiments involving processes of decision-making and thought control | Semantic differentials | Direct and participant observation, 20-Statement test ("I am ...") |
| RELATED THEORIES | Theories of Erikson, Fromm, Jung; Learning | Exchange | Gestalt, phenomenology, field, attribution | Labeling, Whorf-Sapir | Dramaturgical |
| ILLUSTRATIONS OF INQUIRIES | Authoritarian personalities, psychobiographies, scapegoating | Token economies; aversion therapy; scheduled v. random reinforcements | Cognitive dissonance, halo effect, schematas and perceptual norms | Self-fulfilling prophecies, Pygmalion effect | Role conflict and strain, age and gender stratification of roles |
| CHANGE ACROSS THE LIFE COURSE | change is universal: age-intrisic, qualitative and discontinuous, with developmental endpoints | change is linear, quantitative & age extrinsic, linear accumulation of skills, no developmental endpoints | stages of logical (and moral) reasoning | learning to take perspective of increasingly generalized others: preparatory, play, and game stages | one moves through series of age-graded roles |
Adapted from Lawrence Wrightsman and Kay Deaux. 1981. Social Psychology in the 80s. Monterey, CA:Brooks/Cole, p.28.