Personality Psychology Chapter 11 PDF

Personality Psychology Chapter 11 Cognitive Theory  Question of the week:  Kelly sees people’s behavior as scientific exploration, which he calls “person- as-scientist. Do you agree or disagree with this? Name a time you were acting in this way. Cognitive Theory  Wha...

Personality Psychology Chapter 11 Cognitive Theory  Question of the week:  Kelly sees people’s behavior as scientific exploration, which he calls “person- as-scientist. Do you agree or disagree with this? Name a time you were acting in this way. Cognitive Theory  What makes George A. Kelly’s theory different from other theories?  It involves the whole person unlike Biological or Behavioral theories  It uses what’s called a “personal construct” – internal schemas that influence how you interpret and understand the world  The emphasis here is how and what we “know” and how we think  Kelly’s theories came out of his clinical work – largely with children/students and teachers  This theory is very pragmatic – it’s about how we can make thing work. It is rarely black or white (it’s flexible) Cognitive Theory  Kelly’s view of the science of personality  Psychologists may believe they’re pursuing truth, but Kelly believes that true vs false is NOT the right question to ask  Most theories will be true in some respects but not others (light as particles vs waves)  So the right question to ask: How is this theory useful? And how do we evaluate whether it is useful?  This leads to the big question: What important events can we predict using a given theory?  Therefore, different theories will make different predictions, and be useful for different things – constructive alternativism  Each theory has a range of convenience and a focus of convenience  What are some examples from what we’ve studied so far? Cognitive Theory  Structure  Personality is made of a construct system  Constructs – elements of knowledge that help interpret or construe the world  The core of the theory is that people anticipate events by looking for patterns/regularities subconsciously  Three elements are necessary to form a construct: Two similar elements and one different  Similarity pole – how 2 elements are similar  Contrast pole – how they are contrasted  Book example: watching 2 people be kind and 1 rude creates a kind/cruel dichotomy  We don’t understand a construct until we understand what a person sees as under the construct or opposed to the construct  Complex thinking involves multiple constructs Cognitive Theory  Interpersonal consequences of constructs  We learn more about the person holding the constructs than the things they’re judging from the construct  We each hold different aspects of our own constructs  We can be talking about different constructs  Example: how do we do this in politics?  Becoming aware of common constructs benefits communication  Cognitive Theory  Types of constructs:  Verbal – expressed in words  Preverbal – we don’t have words to express it (learned before we develop language)  Submerged – one end of a bipolar construct is not available for verbalization (“people do only good things”)  These constructs are organized in a system  Each construct has a range of convenience and focus of convenience  Some are more central to the person’s system (core constructs) and others are less so (and more easily changed) (peripheral constructs)  Examples from your life?  Constructs are arranged in a hierarchy and are interrelated  Broadest are superordinate, then subordinate, some are more complex than others Cognitive Theory  Assessment  How do we learn about constructs?  The Role Construct Repertory Test (Rep test)  Develop a list of people about whom the ratings will be made (Role Title List)  Elicitation of constructs  Let’s do this!  http://www.idiogrid.com/RRT_Original.htm  How similar is this to the Big Five? (research says 50%). What do you think?  Cognitive Theory  Process  Not concerned about motivation – the assumption is that people are basically active  Anticipating events  Our thoughts, feelings and behaviors are channeled by how we anticipate events  We get better at anticipating as time goes on  Sometimes our constructs are invalidated and we must re- experiment  We prefer those things which meet our expectations, even if it’s unpleasant – what’s an example of this?  We seek to anticipate events accurately, so we try to develop a consistent system  Cognitive Theory  More process  Anxiety, Fear and Threat  Anxiety is when the stuff around us does not fit inside the range of convenience of our construct system  Basically, we’re anxious if we have no constructs, or our constructs aren’t working  Some people broaden a construct  Others narrow their construct and focus on minute details  Fear – when a new construct is going to enter the system – sometimes we seek this out  Threat – awareness of imminent comprehensive change to our core system  Differences between anxiety, fear and threat? Examples? Cognitive theory  Growth and Development  Not very well developed here!  Our construct systems become more complex with age  We are more empathetic to others’ constructs as we age  Education can help us develop complex, flexible and adaptive construct systems  Cognitive theory  Psychopathology  This is a disordered response to anxiety and disordered functioning of the construct system  Only a poor scientist keeps his theory despite repeated failures, but this is how pathology develops  When we avoid anxiety (avoid situations where our constructs don’t make sense) and avoid threat (things that can change our core system)  We may submerge one end of a construct, or suspend elements that don’t’ fit well into a construct, or we force people to conform to our system  Cognitive Theory  Treatment/Change  Fixed-Role Therapy  The goal is to develop better construct systems  The psychologist comes up with a new person for the client to “try on”  These are new constructs that may even be the opposite of existing constructs  Goal isn’t always to get those new characteristics, it’s to learn and re-tool constructs Cognitive theory  Scientific Observation?  Systematic?  Testable?  Comprehensive?  Applicable?