Julian B. Rotter (October 22, 1916 – January 6, 2014) was an American psychologist known for developing social learning theory and research into locus of control.
A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Rotter as the 64th most eminent and 18th most widely cited psychologist of the 20th century.
He then earned a master's degree at the University of Iowa, studying there under Kurt Lewin, the renowned gestalt psychologist whose field theory of personality, with its emphasis on goals, valence, and barriers, clearly influenced Rotter's later theory-building.
While at Worcester State Hospital, David Shakow, Saul Rosenzweig, and Elliot Rodnick provided stimulation and training in research and practice.
At Iowa, he was also influenced by Wendell Johnson, a general semanticist, who impressed on him the need for careful definitions in psychology and the myriad of pitfalls involved in poorly defined and poorly operationalized constructs [6] He continued his graduate studies at Indiana University where he continued to study the effects of success and failure on subsequent performance using the level of aspiration paradigm, completing his doctorate there (under the direction of C. M. Louttit) in 1941.
Both the Incomplete Sentences Blank (1950) and Rotter's seminal work, Social Learning and Clinical Psychology (1954) were published during his tenure there; most of the crucial "locus of control" studies were also conducted while at Ohio State.
[11][12] During his military service, one of Rotter's tasks was to evaluate sick and injured soldiers for emotional fitness to return to active duty.
This system, which can be used to a high degree of reliability across raters and was validated in a number of studies, was an important exception to the often subjective use of so-called projective personality tests at the time.
He liked the methodological and theoretical rigor of behaviorists like Clark Hull, but found their mechanistic learning theories too limited for application to complex human social behavior.
He also found the gestalt "field theories" appealing, especially the work of his former professor Kurt Lewin, but was disturbed by their imprecision and failure to generate specific predictions.
For example, after acquiring considerable experience in a variety of sporting events, a person develops a generalized expectancy for success in athletic endeavors.
One may perceive Lewin's influence in all of this - and Adler's in the notion of a person discouraged after repeated failure experiences (i.e., having acquired a low expectancy of success).
What was remarkable about SLT was the fact that its principles could be represented as equations and used to generate relatively precise point predictions of behavioral choice.
[16] In addition to describing the theory and the results of numerous experiments verifying many of its hypotheses, Rotter's 1954 book contained many suggestions for clinical practice that anticipated cognitive-behavioral therapy.
The problem-solving generalized expectancy to which Rotter and his students devoted most attention during the next several years was the extent to which people believe that reinforcing outcomes are primarily dependent on their own efforts (internal) as opposed to being under the control of fate, chance, or powerful others (external).
In 1966, Rotter published his famous I-E scale in the journal "Psychological Monographs", to assess internal and external locus of control.