Final answer:
Skinner's view of personality is based on environmental conditioning without considering innate traits, while Rogers's humanistic approach emphasizes self-actualization, free will, and self-concept, asserting that individuals are central to their own personality development.
Step-by-step explanation:
B. F. Skinner and Carl Rogers offered distinct perspectives on human nature and personality development, primarily differing in the roles they attributed to the environment and individual agency.
Skinner, a behaviorist, saw behavior as a result of environmental conditioning. He believed that the environment solely shaped personality through reinforcements and punishments. Thus, personality was seen as pliable and could change with different environmental influences over a person's lifetime. Skinner's model did not consider innate traits, but instead focused on learned behaviors and response tendencies.
Rogers, on the other hand, was a humanistic psychologist who posited that people inherently strive for growth and fulfillment, which he called self-actualization. Rogers emphasized free will and the role of the self-concept, which includes the ideal self and the real self. He believed that personality development was influenced by the need for congruence between these two selves, with unconditional positive regard from parents and others aiding this process. In contrast to Skinner, Rogers saw the individual as the center of their own development.
While Skinner focused on the behavioral outcomes as a result of environmental contingencies, Rogers considered the individual's subjective experiences, desires, and feelings as central to personality development.