Discuss Dollard and Miller's concept of habits and the four elements of learning that govern these habits; and explain, from a behavioristic view, how and why feeding, toilet training, sex training, and learning to express anger or aggression are particularly important to personality formation

What will be an ideal response?

Answer will include that behaviorists view habits, or learned behavior patterns, as making up the structure of personality. Habits are governed by four elements of learning: drive, cue, response, and reward. A drive is any stimulus strong enough to goad a person to action, such as hunger, pain, lust, frustration, or fear. Cues are signals from the environment. These signals guide responses (actions) so that they are most likely to bring about reward (positive reinforcement). John Dollard and Neal Miller agree with Freud that the first six years are crucial for personality development, but for different reasons. Rather than thinking in terms of Freudian psychosexual urges and fixations, Dollard and Miller asked, "What makes early learning experiences so lasting in their effects?" Their answer was that childhood is a time of urgent drives, powerful rewards and punishments, and crushing frustrations. Also important is social reinforcement, which is based on praise, attention, or approval from others. These forces combine to shape the core of personality. Thus, Dollard and Miller believe that during childhood, four critical situations are capable of leaving a lasting imprint on personality. These are (1) feeding; (2) toilet or cleanliness training; (3) sex training; and (4) learning to express anger or aggression. Feeding affects a child's basic active or passive orientation since children who are fed when they cry learn to actively manipulate the parents and the world, while a child that is allowed to cry without being fed learns to be passive. Feeding also affects later social relationships because the child learns to associate people with pleasure or with frustration and discomfort. Toilet training encourages attitudes toward cleanliness, conformity, and bodily functions. Permissiveness for sexual and aggressive behavior in childhood is linked to adult needs for power. This link probably occurs because permitting such behaviors allows children to get pleasure from asserting themselves. Sex training involves learning socially defined "male" and "female" gender roles, which also affects personality.