Bill Cosby's Theory Of Personality Essay

Personality is defined as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character. Our personality has a huge influence on our enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors which influence how we adapt to our world. It’s how we define ourselves, and how others view you. Many psychologists have faced the challenge of trying to determine where our personality is derived from. Four main theories have been established on personality including psychodynamic, humanistic, trait, and social-cognitive. Using these theories, you can often better understand why people are the way that they are, such as Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby is an American actor, comedian, and producer who is associated with

Social cognitive theory states that behavior and personality is mostly influenced by the person, their thinking, and their social context. People often learn certain behaviors through conditioning and imitation of others, creating a personality that is strongly influenced by something other than their self. Bandura also emphasized that in social cognitive theory, we focus on how we interact with our surrounding environment, rather than how the environment controls us which is better known as reciprocal determinism. Julian Rotter also created a theory about how we have a generalized disposition to believe that our rewards based on past experiences comes from our internal and external locus of control, often referred to as attributional style. Internal meaning that you are in charge of your fate, which creates a self bias, causing you to feel as if you are better than you actually are. Whereas external locus, your rewards are determined by outside forces, leading to learned helplessness because there is nothing you can do to control your fate. Bill Cosby relied solely on his external locus of control, for he doesn’t attempt to prevent his harsh behavior from being seen. However, his behavior expresses the idea that Cosby exists in a world of self bias, and thinks that he is better than he actually is, causing him to attempt to shape the environment to like him in that ideal way. Bill Cosby also may see himself as controlling or out of control , rather than being controlled by the environment, which helps explain why he might of felt the need to take advantage of