Chapter 7: Cognitive & Social Cognitive aspects of personality

Cognitive Intervention

teaching people to change their thought processes

Julian Rotter

he suggested that the expected effect or outcome of the behavior influences the motivation of people to engage in that behavior, as well as created locus of control

personal construct theory

people actively endeavor to understand the world and construct their own theories about human behavior

schemas

A cognitive structure that organizes knowledge and expectations about one's environment. Determines how we think and act

Rejection Sensitivity

A personality variable capturing the extent to which an individual is overly sensitive to cues that he or she is being rejected by another

scripts

A schema that guides behavior in social situations.

Turing Test

A standard test by which to judge whether a computer can adequately simulate a human; in this test, first proposed by Alan Turing, a human judge interacts with two hidden others and tries to decide which is the human and which is the computer.

self-system

According to Albert Bandura, the set of cognitive processes by which a person perceives, evaluates, and regulates his or her own behavior so that it is appropriate to the environment and effective in achieving goals.

Secondary Reinforcement

According to Dollard and Miller, a conditioned reinforcement; a previously neutral stimulus that becomes a reinforcer following its pairing with a primary reinforcer.

Generalized Expectancy

According to Julian Rotter, expectancies that are related to a group of situations

Specific Expectancy

According to Julian Rotter, the expectancy that a reward will follow a behavior in a particular situation.

cognitive style

An individual's distinctive, enduring way of dealing with everyday tasks of perception and problem solving.

multiple intelligences

Howard Gardner's theory that claims that all human beings have at least seven different ways of knowing about the world and that people differ from one another in the relative strengths of each of these seven ways.

Contemporaneous Causation

Kurt Lewin's concept that behavior is caused at the moment of its occurrence by all the influences that are present in the individual at that moment

Learned Optimism

New ways of thinking can be trained

learned helplessness

a situation in which repeated exposure to inescapable punishment eventually produces a failure to make escape attempts

Situated Social Cognition

Social-cognitive processes that change with changes in the situation

learning style

The characteristic way in which an individual approaches a task or skill to be learned.

Outcome Expectancy

The expected consequence of a behavior that is the most significant influence on whether or not an individual will reproduce an observed behavior, in the view of Albert Bandura; also, the extent to which an individual expects his or her performance to have a positive result. (Person's expectation that his or her behavior will be reinforced)

Field Dependence

The extent to which an individual's problem solving is influenced by salient but irrelevant aspects of the context in which the problem occurs

Field Independence

The extent to which an individual's problem solving is not influenced by salient but irrelevant aspects of the context in which the problem occurs

social intelligence

The idea that individuals differ in their level of mastery of the particular cluster of knowledge and skills that are relevant to interpersonal situations. such as empathy, compassion, humor, etc.

categorization

The perceptual process by which highly complex ensembles of information are filtered into a small number of identifiable and familiar objects and entities. such as events, objects, and people

emotional intelligence

The set of emotional abilities specific to dealing with other people.

Reinforcement Value

Value of the expected reinforcer to the individual

self-efficacy

a belief about how competently one will be able to enact a behavior in a particular situation.

explanatory style

a characteristic way of interpreting life.

Albert Bandura

a social- cognitive theorist whose major work addresses the nature of observational learnign as well as the manner in which the inner person & the demands of a situation combine to determine a person's actions

who created self system?

albert bandura

life space

all the internal and external forces that act on an individual.

Jean Piaget

believed that children progress through a series of cognitive stages

Martin Seligman

created "learned helplessness". which is repeated exposure to unavoidable punishment leads to the acceptance of avoidable punishment

George Kelly

created the personal construct theory, in which people actively endeavor to understand the world & construct their own theories about human behavior

role construct repertory test

designed by george kelly, assesses personal construct systems, by making comparisons among triads of important people in the life of the person being assessed.

Gestalt Psychology

emphasizes the integrative and active nature of perception and thought suggesting that the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts. Its essence is the configuration of a complex stimulus

Advantages of cognitive approach

explains personality through uniquely human processes of cognition. captures active nature of human thought. differences in cognitive skills are viewed as central to individuality.

Kurt Lewin

focused his efforts in the area of personality and social psychology. He argued life space and contemporaneous causation

locus of control

julian rotters theory; beliefs about one's ability to affect outcomes; the variable that measures the extent to which an individual habitually attributes outcomes to factors internal to the self versus external to the self.

Field theory

kurt lewins approach to personality, suggesting that behavior is determined by complex interactions among a persons psychological structure. the forces of the external environment, and the structural relationships between the person and the environment.

observational learning

learning by observing others

behavior potential

likelihood that a behavior will be performed in a particular situation

self-regulation

people's control over their own achievements. Such as setting goals for themselves, evaluating their success, and rewarding themselves

Process Underlying Observational Learning

◦Attention ◦Retention ◦Motor reproduction ◦Motivation

external locus of control

◦Believe events are beyond their personal control ◦Includes components of chance and powerful others ◦More likely to suffer stress and depression

What does self-efficacy determine?

◦If we even try to act ◦How long we persist in our behavior ◦How success or failure affects future behavior

Limits of cognitive approach

◦Often ignores unconscious and emotional aspects of personality ◦Some theories tend to oversimplify complex thought processes ◦May underemphasize situational influences on behavior

Optimism and Pessimism

◦Optimistic style is generally associated with better outcomes ◦Implications for achievement

Factors that influence modeling

◦Outcome expectancy (People are more likely to imitate behaviors that they believe lead to positive outcomes) ◦Characteristics of the model (Age, gender, status, competence, etc) ◦Characteristics of the behavior (Simple and salient behaviors) ◦Attributes of the observer (Self-esteem, dependence, cognitive development)

internal locus of control

◦Outcomes are the result of one's own actions ◦More achievement-oriented

6 psychological needs

◦Recognition-status ◦Dominance ◦Independence ◦Protection-dependency ◦Love and affection ◦Physical comfort