Theoretical Framework
This study was anchored on the following theories of
learning:
Edwin Thorndike’s Connectionism Theory (1910) as featured by
Pappas (2013), is a set of principles that was popularly known as
Thorndike’s Laws. According to these laws, learning is achieved
by an individual when he/she was able to make associations among
a particular stimulus and a response. These are known as
“habits”, and can either be stimulated or daunted by external
factors and the rate of recurrence an individual is exposed to
the stimulus and the response. In a learning environment,
Thorndike’s Laws highlights the significance of incentives and
stress on the need of practice and repetition.
Connectionism Theory encompasses the three laws of learning:
Law of Effect, Law of Readiness, and Law of Exercise. The Law of
Effect states that an individual's response to a specific
situation followed by an incentive will ultimately make those
responses stronger. Therefore, the responses become habits when
the individual is presented with that particular scenario again.
Additionally, if a response dissuades an individual from
achieving an incentive, or the “rewarding state”, then this
response becomes weaker. If the parents are able to provide the
needs for the personality development and for the learning of
their children then the effects of it was good enough to be a
reward or incentive for all the efforts and support of his/her
parents, the parents will continue their effort to support their
children’s needs.
On the other hand, the Law of Readiness states that a series
or a set of responses can be connected together in order to
accomplish a goal. If an individual is not paying attention from
achieving this goal, this will cause “annoyance” so, if the
parents are interested to get involved in the personality
development and for the learning of their children it can cause a
good impact to the performance of their children and they can be
motivated to do things well.
Furthermore, the Law of Exercise states that frequently made
associations become strengthened. Likewise, rare or irregular
associations become weaker. If the parents are always take part
in helping their children on learning activities at home and into
their children’s personality development and its outcome was very
satisfying, they will continue to exercise that thing.
Fiske and Taylor (1991) as featured by McLeod (2012),
“Attribution theory deals with how the social perceiver uses
information to arrive at causal explanations for events. It
examines what information is gathered and now it is combined to
form causal judgment.” Heider (1958) as featured by McLeod
(2012), people are simple psychologists trying to make sense of
the social world. Heider posed two main ideas and classification
of attribution: dispositional (internal cause) vs situational
(external cause) attributions.
Furthermore, the students’ personality development and the
parental engagement in working directly with their children at
learning activities at home may be attributed to their parent’s
educational attainment. On the dispositional attribution, parents
can be eager more to support their children and engage more on
developing their children’s personality and improve their
engagement in working directly with their children on learning
activities at home because either they experienced the same thing
before or else they want to experience it by their children
because they, the parents may not experience it during their
childhood days. Meanwhile, on the situational attribution, the
parents may be pressured by their surrounding or by their
children because their children demands support from their
parents because they see that other parents were giving their
full support to the academic performance and personality
development of their children.
Drive-Reduction Theory as Featured by Cherry (2019), is the
reduction of drives is the principal force behind the motivation
of an individual. The pressure from the environment and the
educational attainment of the parents are the main drives that
needs reduction and the principal force behind the motivation of
the parents to support the academic performance and personality
development of their children.
These aforementioned theories served as important basis of
determining the impact of parent’s educational attainment to
their engagement in working directly with their children and the
personality development of the students.
