Using the behavioristic view of development, explain how and why feeding, toilet training, sex training, and learning to express anger or aggression are particularly important to personality formation

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER: Answer will include Dollard and Miller's explanation of how the critical situations affect personality formation. 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.