Personality Chapter 12 PDF

PERSONALITY Chapter 12  IN-CLASS WRITING This week’s question: A basic claim of social-cognitive theory is that self-efficacy perceptions are a cause of behavior. In what area of your life does high self-efficacy or low self- efficacy influence your behavior? ...

PERSONALITY Chapter 12  IN-CLASS WRITING This week’s question: A basic claim of social-cognitive theory is that self-efficacy perceptions are a cause of behavior. In what area of your life does high self-efficacy or low self- efficacy influence your behavior?  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Theorists Albert Bandura (bobo doll guy) Walter Mischel (started Freudian, then worked in NYC with inner city youths), then cognitive-social personal variables  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY View of the person People can reason about the world using language They can reason in the past, present and future Reasoning involves self-reflection This theory is purely human, whereas other theories could be applied to other animals  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY View of the Science of Personality Capitalized on other theories and other scientific advances Integrates knowledge from other branches of psychology Interested in practical applications  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Personality Structure: Competencies and Skills – These are the building blocks of how we handle the world. We may have differing abilities to handle the world Example: Conscientiousness – cognitive skills enable people to adhere to social norms For social-cognitive theories, problem solving skills and coping skills are key Skills can include ways of thinking about problems and skills to execute solutions Suicidal ideation as an example  SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY Skills and Competencies continued Some activities involve more than one competency Context specificity – different psychological structures are relevant to some situations/contexts but irrelevant to others Book example: Study skillz don’t help you get a date This differs from traits – different skills are present in different environments We acquire these skills through social interaction and observation (learning theory)  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Structure (continued) Beliefs and Expectancies Expectancies – beliefs about what the world is actually like and will probably be like in the future These can vary across situations We group situations in different way Evaluative Standards – what we think the world should be like Goals – what we want to achieve in the future  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Structure The Self and Self-efficacy Beliefs Self-efficacy is our expectancy of our own behavior Perceived self-efficacy is our perception of how capable we’ll be in a future situation This was our in-class writing. Thoughts? Higher self-efficacy = more likely to attempt difficult tasks, persist in efforts, be calm rather than anxious during performance, organize thoughts in an analytical manner Low self-efficacy = the opposite This is different than self-esteem. Self-esteem is more global and a measure of worth  SOCIO-CULTURAL THEORY Structure (continued) Self-efficacy expectations vs Outcome expectations Outcome expectations = beliefs about rewards and punishments due to behavior, while self-efficacy beliefs are whether one can perform the behavior to start with Assessment: Microanalytic Research strategy – Detailed measures of perceived self-efficacy are taken before performance, then followed up on. These measures are specific and may change over time  SOCIO-COGNITIVE THEORY Self-efficacy and Performance Perceptions of self-efficacy causally influence behavior? Let’s have this discussion! We know that self-efficacy is one cause of behavior, but not the only cause This also influences how we cope with disappointments and stress; it helps us feel in control  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Goals Mental representation of the aim of an action/course of actions These help us motivate and direct our behavior Example: Goal is to graduate, what’s the behavior? We each have a goal system and some are more central or important than others. There’s often a hierarchy (example on the board) These are not rigid or fixed! We select what’s most important at the time, what opportunities are present, and self-efficacy Goals can be proximal (close) or distal (far away) i.e. I’ll run 3 miles today, I’ll lose 10 pounds by June Proximal have a greater effect on our behavior Higher Self-efficacy – seeking more difficult goals  SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY Evaluative Standards Evaluate the goodness or worth of a person, thing or event So Self-evaluative standards are “personal standards”, which are fundamental to motivation and performance Our emotions related to this are self-evaluative reactions (feeling satisfied or dissatisfied toward ourselves) These act as reinforcers Our most central evaluative standards are our moralsi  SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY To review: Structure Beliefs and Expectancies Goals Evaluative Standards Competencies and skills Each describes a type of thinking/cognition  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Process Reciprocal Determinism – There are 3 things involved in behavior: the person, his or her behavior and the environmental setting. Which causes which? Bandura would say that it’s a 2-way street among all the factors. They cause one another. Example: The classroom  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) This is how modern cognitive scientists understand personality – as a system The system has a large number of highly integrated parts Three essential features Cognitive and emotional personality variables are complexly linked to one another Situational features can activate subsets of the overall system If different situational features activate different parts of personality, people’s behavior should vary from one situation to another Don’t worry too much about the further details about this. Just know that the way these factors interact are called our behavioral signatures  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Growth and Development There are two major psychological functions in this theory: Acquiring new knowledge and skills, and exerting control over (self-regulating) actions and emotions  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY The main way in which people acquire information and skills is observational learning This is the BoBo doll thing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqNaLerMNOE You’ve observed other people encounter rewards and punishments, and learned what behavior is most appropriate. We call the process of learning from watching modelling This is more than just imitation – we don’t parrot the exact behaviors. Instead we learn general rules Acquisition – we learn skills regardless of reinforcers Performance – we tend to only perform them in the presence of reinforcers We can learn emotional reactions through watching others – called vicarious conditioning  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY Self-regulation and motivation Life isn’t just about our skills/performance. There’s the internal portion of this General term for self-directed motivation is self-regulation The Marshmallow Experiment! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqNaLerMNOE Most of our behavior is cognitively produced, and it’s the anticipation of positive emotions/self-satisfaction that gives us motivation Self-efficacy perceptions, goals and self-evaluation contribute to self-regulation – let’s make an example!  SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY So what does good self-regulation help us do? Start things Stop things (internet) this is called delay of gratification. We learn some of this from modeling/observational learning If you see people who set high standards for self-reward, you’ll do the same Delay of gratification Kids and adults who are better at this can distract themselves from frustrating feelings (or find a way to hide the marshmallow!) Other techniques: imagery (“hot” vs “cool” impulsive emotional systems) As adults we can delay gratification with similar techniques: distracting ourselves, avoiding “hot” emotions, etc. How else?