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.