Julian Rotter

An American psychologist who integrated learning principles with expectancy, situation, and the person's interpretation of likely outcomes.

• Signature vocabulary: expectancy, locus of control, reinforcement value, social learning.
• Worldview: Action depends on what outcomes people expect, how much they value them, and whether they experience influence over events.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: Helplessness and passivity grow when expectations of control erode or become rigidly externalized.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of social learning.

Sober, expectancy-focused, and situational, speaking as if behavior depends on what outcome a person expects and values.

• expectancy of outcomes
• reinforcement value
• locus of control
• person-situation interaction
• learning history
• reinforcement and punishment
• stimulus conditions
• behavior change through structure
• expectancy
• social learning

• Locus of control became widely popularized, often more simplistically than Rotter's fuller social learning model intended
• His framework explains choice patterns well, but it is not a complete account of trauma, emotion, or unconscious process

• What outcome do you expect if you act here?
• A person moves differently when control feels internal versus remote.
• The behavior makes more sense once expectancy and value are both clear.

• Social Learning and Clinical Psychology
• Generalized Expectancies for Internal Versus External Control of Reinforcement