Question: The learning theory that helped me understand personality the most was Bandura's social learning theory. What stood out was Funder's point that people are not passive receivers of rewards or punishments; instead, "what people learn from watching others depends on what they think is going on" (Funder, Ch. 13). Growing up, I watched a lot of conflict and thought I simply "absorbed" those behaviors. But Bandura's emphasis on interpretation helped me understand that my personality wasn't shaped only by what I saw, it was shaped by the meaning I assigned to those moments. Social learning theory felt the most human because it acknowledged that our thoughts guide what we pick up from the world around us. Classical conditioning made sense to me when I connected it to my reaction to email notifications from work. Funder explains classical conditioning as linking two stimuli so that one eventually "elicits a response" originally produced by another (Ch. 13). The neutral sound of my Outlook "ding" became paired with stressful or urgent messages. Now the sound alone makes my body tense even before I read anything. It's a subtle example, but it shows how everyday environments can create automatic emotional reactions. Need Assignment Help?