Rogers' Person-Centered Theory of Personality PDF

Chapter 6: A phenomenological theory: Carl Rogers person-centered theory on personality - Early life reveals two main trends reflected in his later work - Concern with moral and ethical matters - Respects for the methods of science - After two years studying agriculture, entered...

Chapter 6: A phenomenological theory: Carl Rogers person-centered theory on personality - Early life reveals two main trends reflected in his later work - Concern with moral and ethical matters - Respects for the methods of science - After two years studying agriculture, entered the military - Although concerned about questions regarding the meaning of life for individuals, has doubts about specific religious doctrines - Left seminary to work in child guidance as a clinical psychologist - 1968, rogers and humanistically-oriented colleagues formed the Center of the Studies of the Person - Believed that most of physiological was surreal and generally felt alienated from the field - Yet the field valued his contributions… president of the american psychological association in 1946, was on of the first three psychologists to receive the distinguished scientific contribution award in 1947, The subjectivity of experience - The “reality” we observe is really a “private world of experience”… the phenomenal field Phenomenal field- the space of perception that make up our experience- is a subjective construction Emotions- anger, disappointment- are the reality that is experienced - Yet our seeing is not an objective recording of the world of reality, but a subjective construction that reflects our personal needs Feelings of authenticity - People are prone to the feeling that one's experiences and daily activities do not stem from ones true, authentic self - Individuals can realize a state in which their conscious experiences and goals are consistent with their inner,viscerally-felt values The positivity of human motivation - Our most fundamental motivation is toward positive growth View is contrary to: - Religions that teach us that we are basically sinful - Psychoanalysis, which teaches that our basic instinct are sexual and aggressive People can do and act in ways that are destructive, but when we are functioning freely, we are able to move toward our potential as positive, mature beings. A phenomenological perspective - Invigates peoples conscious experiences - Precursor to psychologists’ use the term in the work of the 18th century philosopher Kant - Kant distinguished the “noumenal world” (objects as they existed in and of themselves, independent of the observer) from the world if phenomena, that is, of conscious experience Structure The self= key structural aspect of phenomenological experience - The individual perceives external objects and experiences, and attaches meanings to them The actual self= self we believe we are now Ideal self= self we ideally see ourselves being in the future - Ideal self is the self-concept that an individual would most like to possess Personality and the brain: the intuitive self Rogers believed people possess a true self that they can experience at a deep, intuitive level - Brain image methods have tested whether different regions of the brain are active during intuitive versus non-intuitive thinking about the self Lieberman, Jarcho and Sapute (2004) conducted a study with two groups: 11 college soccer players and 11 improvisational actors - Both groups were shown words relevant either to (1) soccer (fit,agile) or to (2) acting (creative, quick-witted) - Participants should think intuitively only about words relevant to their own group - Upon presentation, participants judged whether the word “describes me” while brain scans were taken. As predicted, different parts of the brain are active during intuitive and non-intuitive thinking When people were thinking intuitively about themselves, the active brain regions were ones that were more connected to emotional life, including: - Amygdala (central to the emotional processing) - An area in the temporal lobe that is thought to contribute to the rapid processing of information - The posterior cingulate cortex Rogers distinction between actual and ideal self (which maps onto present- and future-oriented thinking about the self) implies that different brain regions may be active during different forms of thinking D’argembeau et al. (2010) tested this by showing participants a series of adjectives.  - In two experimental conditions, participants judged weather the words described (1) their present, actual self, or (2) their future self Process Self -Actualization: The most fundamental personality process is a forward-looking tendency towards personality growth. Actualization: - An organism's tendency to grow from a simple entity to a complex one - Move from dependence toward independence - Move from fixity and rigidity to a process of change and freedom of expression - Includes the tendency to reduce needs or tension, but emphasizes satisfactions derived from activities that enhance the organism One measure of self-actualizing motive involves a 15-item scale that measures - Ability to act independently - Self-acceptance or self-esteem - Acceptance of one’s emotional life - Trust in interpersonal relations Research on self-consistency and congruence Aronson and Mettee (1968): if people are tempted to cheat, they will be more likely to do so if their self-esteem is low than if it is high - Cheating is not inconsistent with low self-esteem,but is inconsistent with high self-esteem - Results suggested that weather or not an individual cheats is influenced by the nature of self-concept - People high in self-esteem are more likely to behave in ways they can respect - Low self-esteem individuals are likely to behave in ways that are consistent with that self-image People often behave in ways that will lead others to confirm the perception they have of themselves; a self-fulfilling prophecy. - People who believe they are likable may behave in ways that lead others to like them - Those who believe they are unlikeable may behave in ways that lead others to dislike them Process The need for positive regard - Needs to be accepted and respected by others  - So powerful that people can lose touch with their own true feelings and values in their pursuit of positive regard from others The need for positive regard is central to child development - Infant needs the parents’ love, affection, and protection - Parents provide information on what is “good” - If a child receives positive regard unconditionally, no need to deny experiences - If child experience conditions of worth, may then may cope by denying or distorting a feature of their true self (“we will only love you if…”) Growth and development Rogers’s work suggested that developmental factors must be considered at two levels of analysis - Parent-child interactions: do parents provide an environment that is optimal for psychological growth? - Internal psychological strictures; do individuals experience congruence between self and experience? Major developmental concern for Rogers is weather the child is free to be self-actualizing, or weather conditions of worth cause the child to become defensive and operate out of a state of incongruence Research and parent-child relationships - A variety of studies suggest that acceptant, democratic parental attitudes facilitate that most growth Coppersmith’s (1967) research on the origin of self-esteem - Provided information about perceptions of parents - Mother provided information about parental child-rearing attitudes, practices, and lifestyles Found that 3 parental attitudes and behaviors were important to the formation of self-esteem - Degree of acceptance, interest,affection, and warmth expressed by parents towards the child - Permissiveness and punishment - Whether parent-child relations were democratic or dictatorial Clinical applications - Psychopathology Self-experience discrepancy Where does psychological distress come from? - Healthy persons experience a congruence between self and experience - Neurotic person deny awareness of significant sensory and emotional experience  - Neurotic persons deny awareness of significant sensory and emotional experiences - Experiences that are incongruent with their self-structure are subceived; reality is denied or distorted - Distortion and denial results in self-experience discrepancy Rogers did not differentiate among types of pathology Rogers differentiated among forms of defensive behaviors - Rationalization, in which a persons distorts behavior in such a way as to make it consistent with the self - Fantasy; a man who defensively believes himself to be an adequate person may fantasize that he is a prince - Projection: people whose self-concept involves no ‘bad’ sexual thoughts may feel that others are making them have these thoughts Psychological change Therapeutic conditions necessary for change 1. Congruence or genuineness- therapist shares with the client genuine feelings, even negative ones 2. Unconditional positive regard- therapist prizes the client so he or she can explore inner self with confidence 3. Empathic understanding- therapist strives to understand the meaning and subjective feeling of events experienced by the client Related theoretical conceptions The human potential movement Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) Maslow's hierarchy of needs - Suggested a view of human motivation that distinguishes between such biological needs as hunger,sleep, and thirst and such psychological needs as self-esteem, affection, and belonging There is no need to restrict one’s study merely to - Everyday, normal personality functioning - Breakdowns in normal functioning that result in psychopathology Psychologist should attend to people who are exceptionally positive, usually high- functioning, self- actualized individuals Exceptional figures possess qualities that are informative because they tell us about human potentials Features include the ability to: - Accept themselves and others for what they are - Recognize the needs and desires of others - Respond to the uniqueness of people and situations - Form intimates relationships with at least a few special people - Be spontaneous and creative - Resist conformity and assert themselves The positive psychology movement Psychologists have tended to: - Examine individuals suffering from distress - Use those experiences as their foundation for theorizing about people - End up with theories that emphasize the negative while overlooking human strengths To rectify this, contemporary psychologists have tried to portray the nature of human strengths and virtues Introducing a new theory of well-being P- positive emotions E- engagement R- positive relationships M- meaning A- accomplishments The virtues of positive emotions - Psychologists commonly have studied emotions such as fear, anxiety, and anger - Have devoted lesser attention to the role of positive emotions- pride, love, happiness - in personality development and functioning Flow Developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi; describes a feature of conscious experience characterized by: - A perceived match between personal skills and environmental challenge - A high level of focused attention - Involvement in an activity such that time seems to fly by and irrelevant thoughts and distractions do not enter in consciousness - A sense of intrinsic enjoyment in the activity - A temporary loss of self-consciousness such that the self is not aware of functioning or regulating activity Existentialism  - Address the nature of the human experience and emphasizes Rogerian themes: “freedom, choice, authenticity, alienation” Defining elements: - Concern with existence - Significance of the individual, who is unique and irreplaceable - Emphasis on freedom, consciousness, and self- reflection - Concern with death Differentiates among different forms of despair, including the feelings that result from: - Failing to be one’s essential self - Concluding that one is not realizing one's potential - Questioning whether you really are an enduring “self” with a meaningful life and future Contemporary experimental existentialism - Experimental existential psychology addressed question involving the meaning of life, fears of death, and the nature of existence and personal responsibility - Existentialists such as Kierkegaard have long conjectured that thoughts of death are a central feature of human experience Experimental existential psychologists have turned this idea into specific, testable hypotheses Terror management theory (TMT) of Solomon, Greenberg, and Pyszynski examines the consequences of the combination of two factors: - People's desire to live (which people share with all other animals) - People's awareness of the inevitability of death (an awareness that is uniquely human) TMT posits that people's awareness of death makes the vulnerable to being completely overwhelmed by terrifying death anxiety Social and cultural institutions protect against terror by furnishing meaning in life - In many cultures, religious institutions teach that there is an afterlife, a belief that buffers against the terror of death - Other cultures emphasize that the individual is one component of a larger circle of persons: the family, the community, ect. - Thought one may die as an individual, there is a sense in which one lives on as in one’s the life of one’s offspring TMT’s implications: - Increasing mortality salience should result in a systematic variations in degree to which people need their cultural worldviews  - If cultural beliefs buffer against fear of death, and if people are induced to think about death, then they should display a stronger-than-usual need to posses, and to defend, their cultural beliefs To increase mortality salience, subjects are asked to respond to tasks such as: - “Describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouse in you” - “Write down what you think will happen to you as you physically die” - Viewing a film of a gory automobile accident - Responding to death anxiety scales - Being exposed to subliminal death primes In support of TMT’s hypothesis, such increases in mortality salience have been found to produce effects such as the following: - Greater fondness for members of one’s own group and rejection of members of different groups - Greater anxiety about a blasphemous attitude towards culture icons such as the american flag or symbols of one's own religion - Greater physical aggression toward those who attack one’s political orientation - Increased donations to charities the benefit one’s ingroup - Decreased interest in sex when sex is viewed as more of an animal act but to increase interest in sex when sex is view as an act of human love Self-esteem has been found to serve an anxiety-buffering effect in relation to death anxiety Discrepancies among parts of the self Rogers: psychological pathology results from discrepancies between self-concept and actual experience Tory Higgins works to address the relation between aspects of self-concept and emotional experience Higgins differentiates between two aspects of one’s future self - Ideal self: centers on hopes,ambitions, and desires - Ought self: an aspect of self-concept that is concerned with duties, responsibilities, and obligations According to Higgins theory - Discrepancies between actual self and ideal self lead to dejection-related emotions such as disappointment,sadness, or depression  - Discrepancies between self and ought self should lead to agitation-related emotions, such as fear,threat and anxiety Higgins,Bond,Klein, and Strauman (1986) found that: - People with large discrepancies between the actual self and ideal self were more likely to be depressed - People with large discrepancies between with actual-ought discrepancies were more likely to be anxious Self-determination theory Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory: people have an inherent psychological need for - Autonomy - Competence - Relatedness In support of self-determination theory, research suggests that: - People show greater effort and persistence in relation to autonomous goals than n relation to goals that are pursued only because of external pushes and internal sanctions - The pursuit of self-determined intrinsic approach goals is associated with physical health and psychological well-being in contrast with the deleterious effects of the pursuit of forced, extrinsic, avoidance goals Meta-analyses confirm the hypothesis that people make particularly good progress on personal goals when the goal are “self-concordant” (because they want to do it) Two caveats: It is not the goal itself that is important but why the goal is being pursued Carver & Baird (1998): endorsement of intrinsic reasons for a goal were associated with self-actualization in contrast with endorsement of extrinsic reasons for the same goals These principles of motivation may be culturally specific rather than “universal” features of human psychology - Iyengar & Lepper (1999) compared Anglo-American and Asian-American children in terms of their relative intrinsic motivation when choices were (a) made for them, verse (b) made by authority figures or peers - Anglo-American children showed more intrinsic motivation when they made their own choices  - Asian-American children showed greater intrinsic motivation when their choices were made for them by trusted authority figures or peers Cross-cultural research on the self Cultural differences in the self and the need for positive self-regard Rogers believed that - All people have a need for positive self-regard - In the absence of unconditional positive self-regard, the individual's need for a positive self- view may be unfulfilled, leading to psychological distress Cultural differences in the self and the need for positive self-regard - The very notion of “self” –of one’s identity, one’s role in family and society, one’s goals, one’s purpose in life – is acquired socially - People acquire a sense of self for interactions with the individuals who make up their family, community, and wider culture - A culture that values individual achievements may foster the belief that individuals should enhance their own well-being - Other cultures may teach people a different way of life that does not involve a striving for positive self-regard. Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama (1999) reviewed evidence that the basic patterns and functions to self-esteem seem to vary from one culture to another. - In the US, most people report having relatively high self-esteem - In Japan there is no sign whatsoever of this bias;many people report low self-esteem as high-self esteem Japanese culture makes one prone to self-criticism,which motivates people toward self-improvement that can benefit the individual and his or her society. Tendencies toward self-criticism and the experience of discrepancies between the actual and ideal self are predictive of depression in North America, but are less strongly related to depression in Japan. Contemporary developments in personality theory: personality systems interaction theory and the integrated self A criticism of Rogers theory is that he doesn't answer question about what the integrated self is, nor where it comes from Todays personality scientists can advance beyond the understanding of the self provided Rogers One advance is the Personality System Interaction (PSI) Theory of the german psychologist Julis Kuhl and his colleagues PSI identifies different types of mental systems with different functional properties - The system functions differently no matter what type of content go in them PSI: four functionally distinct personality systems: 1. Analytical Thinking System - Processes material in a logical, step-by-step manner, as when one talks to one self 2. Holistic Thinking-and-Feeling System - A parallel processing system - Thinking occur outside of consciousness - Different processes are interconnected - Interconnections are key to an organized, integrated sense of self 3. Intuitive Behavior Control System - Allows you to engage in behavior without paying attention to each step 4. Discrepancy Detection System - Sensitive to differences between sensory experiences and prior expectations or goals; enables one to change behavior PSI: implications of Roger’s Self Theory of Personality Scientific Basis of Holistic, Integrated Self - The concept of an integrated self is rooted in sound scientific theory - Parallel process support Rogers’s insight that the self is integrated Demystifying Processes of Change in Client-Centered Therapy - Clients entering therapy experience negative emotions - An encounter with a supportive therapist is likely to reduce these negative feelings because it is warm, positive and uplifting - This reduction of negative emotions likely enhances the functioning of holistic thinking- and-feeling system Chapter 7: Trait theories of personality: Allport, Eysenck and Cattell The Trait Concept Personality traits refer to consistent patterns in the way individuals behave,feel and think Two connections: - Constituency (trait describes a regularity in behavior) - Distinctiveness (trait theorists typically concerned with ways in which individuals differ from each other) Decision to build a personality theory on traits implies that individuals are consistent in spite of the changes presented by social life People possess psychological qualities that endure across time and place Scientific functions served by trait constructs Description - Traits summarize a person's typical behavior and thus describe what a person typically is like - Trait theories could be seen as providing basic descriptive facts that need to be explained by any theory of personality - Most traits theorists try to establish an overall descriptive scheme within which any and all persons can be described - They try to establish a personality taxonomy- a scientists way of classifying the things being studied Prediction - With traits, one should be able to predict things such as everyday behavior and aspects of personal environments - With traits, one can often make predictions that have important practical value- for example, predicting which applicant will be the most appropriate for the job Explanation - Most important challenge for a scientific theory; differs from prediction - Can predict without being able to explain and can explain without being able to predict - Some trait theorists confine themselves to using traits to describe and predict - Others treat traits as if they can explain by identifying biological factors that underlie traits - Most trait theorists believe that inherited biological factors are a primary determinant of individual difference traits The trait theory of Gordon W. Allport (1897-1967) - Harvard university psychologist  - Remembered for the issues he raised and principles he emphasized, more so than for a particular theory - Highlighted healthy and organized aspects of human behavior, which contrasted with the psychoanalytic emphasis on animalistic and neurotic aspects of behavior - A visit with freud early in his career solidified his view that psychoanalysis, “for all it’s merits,may plunge too deep, and that psychologists should do well to give full recognition to manifest motives before probing the unconscious” - Alport and brother Floyd: traits are basic units of personality and based in the nervous system - Traits defined by frequency, intensity, and range of situations Allport and Odbert’s (1936) analysis of personality descriptors - Differentiated personality traits from temporary states and activities - Identified three different kind of traits 1. Cardinal traits express dispositions that are so pervasive that virtually every act is traceable to its influence 2. Cardinal traits express dispositions that cover a more limited range of situations 3. Secondary dispositions are traits that are the least conspicuous, generalized and consistent Traits: personality structure in Allport's theory - Allport recognized the importance of the situation in explaining why a person does not behave the same way all the time - Felt that both trait and situation concepts are necessary to understand behavior - Traits a necessary to explain consistency, whereas situations are necessary to explain variability Comments on Allport - Did little research to establish the untilly of specific trait concepts - Believed many traits were hereditary, but did no research to substantiate this - No prediction, no explaintin, just did descriptions Identifying primary trait dimensions: factor analysis Factor analysis: a statistical tool for summarizing the ways in which a large number of variables are correlated - In a typical factor-analytic study, a large number of test items are administered to many subjects - Some items will be positively correlated with one another, other will be negatively correlated - These correlations might reflect the influence an underlying “factor” Factor analysis identifies patterns of covariation in test response but does not answer the question of why the responses covary It is researcher, using his or her knowledge of psychology and relying on his or her theatrical beliefs, who interprets the patterns of covariation The factor-analytic trait theory of Raymond B. Catell - Did personality research and acquired clinical experience in Britain - Was professor and director of the laboratory of personality assessment at the university of illinois for most of his career - Published more than 200 articles and 15 books, making him one of the most prolific and influential scientists of the 20th century - A background in chemistry caused him to recognize the importance of taxonomy of traits, much like the taxonomy of elements was foundational to the physical sciences - Judged factor of analysis to be the tool that could yield a set of basic “psychological elements” that would be foundational to personality psychology Surface and source traits: personality structure in Cattell's theory - Surface traits represent behavioral tenacious that exist on the surface and can be observed - Source traits represent behavioral tendencies that were the underlying cause of observed intercorrelations among surface traits - The factors that summarized the correlations among surface traits that are the source traits and are the core personality structures in Cattell’s theory Cattell identified 16 source traits which he grouped in 3 categories: - Ability traits- skills that allow the individual to function effectively - Temperament traits- traits involved in emotional life - Dynamic traits- traits involved in the motivational life Sources of evidence: Q-data and OT-data Cattell’s sixteen personality factor (16 P.F.) derived from factor analyses of Q-data (self-report questionnaire data) OT-data is objective data - Involves behavior in situations in which the subject is unaware of the relationship between the response and the characteristics being measured  - Assertiveness could be expressed in behaviors such as long exploratory distance on a finger maze test, fast tempo in arm-shoulder movement, and fast speed of letter comparisons Cattell concerned with problems of self-deception in questionnaire ratings with the utility of mental patients’ self-ratings on questionnaires. Later relied on OT-data for personality research: some relations but no direct one-to-one mapping of factors was possible. Stability and variability in behavior - Cattell did not view persons as static entities who behaved the same way in all situations He highlighted two determinants of social action: states and roles - States refer to emotions and mood that are partly determined by the immediate situation - Social roles determine certain behaviors more than traits do 16 PF continues to be widely used in applied settings Nothneless, his work exerts little impact in contemporary personality science - Thought he provided a theoretical system with a lot of personality factors (16), his approach is not persimmons - Based his theory on measurement, which is risky - Ones measurement system may not capture important qualities Three-factor theory of Hans J.Eysenck View of the theorist - Born in germany - Work was influenced by factor analysis - European psychologists who studied personality types (jung) - Research on the heredity of physiological characteristics - Experimental work on classic conditions by pavlov One of the most influential and cited psychosis of the 20th century; founded and edited Personality and Individual Differences Believed psychoanalysts failed to provide reliable measures of their constructs Believed that reliable measures of individual differences were necessary to identify biological foundations of each trait Recognized that without understanding the biology of traits, trait explanations could be circular "SUPERFACTORS". PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK'S THEORY Eysenck conducted factor analyses and "secondary" factor analyses Factors are commonly correlated; intercorrelations among factors can themselves be factor-analyzed Secondary factor analysis is used to identify a simple set of factors that are independent (ie., not correlated with each other) Introversion-extraversion: organizes lower-level traits such as sociability, activity, liveliness and excitability Neuroticism (aka emotional stability vs. instability): organizes traits such as anxious, depressed, shy, and moody PERSONALITY AND THE BRAIN: THE BIG FIVE Can personality psychologists find the Big Five when analyzing the brain? De Young et al. (2010) obtained Big Five scores for a set of 116 adult research participants, then used MRI images to look for variations in brain volume that might be linked to variations in big-five scores - Extraversion correlated with brain volume in a region of the frontal cortex that contributes to the processing of information about environmental rewards - Neuroticism correlated with great volume in brain regions known to be associated with the processing of environmental threats - Agreeableness correlated with brain volume in regions of the brain that contribute to people's ability to understand others' mental states - Conscientiousness correlated with volume in a region of the follow rules frontal cortex known to be active when people plan events and - Openness to experience was not significantly related to any of the examined brain regions Is it safe to conclude that these researchers have identified the neural origins of the big five traits? No, for at least three reasons - The study yielded a number of null results and unexpected results - Cause-effect relationships were impossible to determine with these data - The brains various regions are enormously interconnected; focusing on volume in one region of the brain may yield an incomplete portrait Early work by Norman (1963) indicated that five factors are necessary - Five-factor solutions were found repeatedly in a wide range of data sources,samples,and instruments  - All five factors shown to possess reliability and validity and to remain relatively stable throughout adulthood Big five model Evidence rests on factor analyses of: - Trait terms in the natural language - The relation of the trait questionnaires to other questionnaires Basic research procedure - Individual rate themselves or others on a variety of traits sampled from the dictionary - Ratings are then factor-analyzed to find how many factors are needed to understand the patterns of correlations THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY: RESEARCH EVIDENCE THE BIG FIVE IN PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRES The NEO-Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R) of Costa and McCrae and Its Hierarchical Structure: Facets - Measures five factors and six narrower "facets" - more specific components that make up each of the broad Big Five factors - Each facet measured by 8 items - All scales have good reliability and validity across different data sources, including ratings by peers or spouses - NEO-PI-R agrees with other Big Five instruments Integration of Eysenck's and Cattell's Factors Within the Big Five Scores on the NEO-PI-R correlate with Eysenck's inventories and Cattell's 16 factors These correlations allow one to integrate the older models within the Big Five - Eysenc's E and N virtually identical to the same-named dimensions in the Big Five - Eysenck's P corresponds to a combination of low Agreeableness and low Conscientiousness THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY: RESEARCH EVIDENCE Self-Ratings and Observer Ratings A strength of the NEO-PI-R is that forms are available for both self-report and ratings by others Three major findings have emerged from research using both self-report measures (S-data) and observer-report data (O-data) of the Big Five factors  - The same five factors are found in both self-reports and observer ratings - Observers agree reasonably well with each other about the standing of individuals on each Big Five dimension - O-data sometimes is a better predictor of performance than S-data Observer ratings and self-ratings on the big five traits differ when ratings are made with respect to traits that are not highly visible or socially desirable. DOES SOCIAL MEDIA LANGUAGE REFLECT PERSONALITY? IF SO, WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL IMPLICATIONS? One Study reported in the online journal PLOS ONE, 75 thousand volunteers filled out a personality inventory measure of the Big Five and gave permission for their social media communications to be analyzed. There was a strong relation between the language used and personality scores. - Individuals high on E used words such as party and weekend - Those low on E used words such as internet, computer, and reading - Individuals high on A used words such as amazing, awesome, and excited - Those low on A used words such as hate and jealous Analyses of social media language might be used to target ads to individuals with particular personality characteristics GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT AGE DIFFERENCES THROUGHOUT ADULTHOOD Research strategy: study people over long periods of time and administer the same personality trait measures at different time periods - Much stability; even over long periods, correlations between measures from one time to another remain GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT What explains differences across the lifespan? Could be due to historical factors rather than age factors McCrae and Costa and colleagues address this limitation by studying age differences in a wide range of cultures - Studied Conscientiousness across five cultures - Predicted increase was found in each culture, even though they differed in their political, cultural, and economic conditions - Changes in trait levels are said to reflect intrinsic systems maturation, just like other biologically-based What explains differences across the lifespan? Ravenna Helson and colleagues studied a group of women in northern California - First studied in 1960 when seniors in college, then again when they were 61 years old - Changes in personality across adulthood were found - Increased norm orientation, a quality correlated with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness - Decrease in social vitality (correlates with Extraversion) as they aged - Evidence that these changes were due to a major sociocultural factor: the women's movement STABILITY AND CHANGE IN PERSONALITY One view suggests that personality development is largely biologically determined and continuous Another view is that although there is evidence of trait consistency across the life course, it is not so high that change doesn't occur. Third view: although general trait structures and levels are stable, there is evidence of change - Parenting practices can impact personality development - Work experiences can impact personality development during young adulthood Data suggests: - Personality is more stable over short periods than long periods - Personality is more stable in adulthood than in childhood - There are individual differences in stability during development - The limits of environmental influence on change during childhood and adulthood remain to be determined McCrae and Costa's five-factor theory / model The five traits are more than mere descriptions of ways that people differ - Each trait is a universal psychological structure that everyone has in varying amounts that causally influence people's psychological development - Factors have a biological basis - Differences linked to the Big Five are determined by genetic influences on neural structures and brain chemistry - The five traits are not influenced by the environment; strongest "nature" position possible Problematic issues: Claim that traits are not affected by social factors  - Problem: research findings contradict this theoretical idea - Twenge (2002) examined mean-level scores on anxiety and neuroticism scales published in the 50s through 90s and found that sociocultural changes were associated with higher levels of anxiety - Found that extraversion also increased Five-factor theory daims that everyone has all five factors - When one examines populations, one finds that the five factors do a good job of summarizing individual differences - This finding does not demonstrate that each and every person possesses each of the factors - Constructs describe differences between people in the population; these person constructs cannot be assumed to also describe factors in the head of each person THE SIX-FACTOR MODEL - From 1980s to early years of 21st century, Big Five model was consensus - Recently, multiple data sets, from a variety of nations, suggest that trait psychologists have missed a sixth factor: honestly or honesty/humility - Findings across seven languages indicate that individual differences in the tendency to be truthful and sincere vs. cunning and disloyal are a reliable sixth factor - Six-factor model has yet to be incorporated fully into either basic theory or applied research THE FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY: RESEARCH EVIDENCE CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH, ARE THE BIG FIVE DIMENSIONS UNIVERSAL? Methodological issue with cross-cultural research of the Big Five - Languages may lack one-to-one translations; words that translate the same do not necessarily mean the same - Could lead researchers to question whether they have found the same factor in two languages - DeRoad and Peabody (2005) examined trait terms across 11 languages and concluded that "the Big Three - Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness - are cross-lingually recurrent" whereas "the full Big Five Model Is questionable" - Cultural and language variations suggest to some that there are culture-specific factors - South African social relational factors - "Tiname Big Two" two personality dimensions that did not correspond to any of the industrialized-world Big Five traits - Hindi big 3: restlessness, arrogance, prudishness, and disorganization CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS IN TRAIT THEORY: REINFORCEMENT SENSITIVITY THEORY Limitations of Classic Trait Theories: Personality Theory and the Classic Trait Strategy A psychological explanation of a person's behavior must identify psychological systems (and, potentially, their biological bases) that: 1. Are actually possessed by the given individual 2. Have causal force Trait theorists rely on factor analysis to summarize the main ways that people differ from one another Limitations of the classic trait theories: The risk of the Top-Down Approach A big risk is that the higher-level individual-difference variables will not correspond in any consistent manner to psychological structures that people actually possess Example: personal accomplishments vary; achievement in different domains may be positively correlated and thus form a “successfulness" factor Does one's standing on this factor explain people's achievements? Is successfulness a structure inside each person, such that people with similar scores are similar psychologically or biologically? Limitations of Classic Trait Theories: The RST Alternative Strategy: Bottom-Up Trait Theory RST theorists: "Hans Eysenck adopted a … top-down method. His search for causal systems was determined by the structure of statistically derived personality factors/dimensions" - The statistics came first; the hunt for underlying biological mechanisms came second - RST adopts a "bottom-up general approach" - "first identify the fundamental properties of brain-behavioural systems" and "then relate variations in these systems to known measures of personality" Goal: identify neural subsystems in the brain that correspond to universal types of motivation and emotion. Neural subsystems  - Not a single group of cells in one specific brain region, but an interconnected collection of mechanisms that may be located in different parts of the brain but that work together to carry out a function - Identifying neural subsystems puts one in a good position to explain individual differences Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory RST systems are not "global" traits; they respond to particular types of environmental stimuli Three RST Systems - Behavioral Approach System (BAS): responds to pleasurable stimuli and produces tendency to approach them; emotions include "anticipatory pleasure" (impulsive) - Fight-Flight Freeze System (FFFS): responds to aversive stimuli; generates 3 responses: fight flee, freeze; emotion is fear (phobias) - Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS): resolves goal conflicts by generating anxiety and "defensive approach" (anxiety) Exact biological underpinnings of the RST systems are reasonably well understood, which can't be said for the Big Five Implications of the trait theory: there is no one-to-one mapping of Big Five variables to underlying biology A high school counselor, pop singer, and auto mechanic may be equally successful yet have little in common psychology or biologically Fear and anxiety illustrate the point, as they have different biological underpinnings; active different systems (FFFS vs. BIS) Five factor variable of neuroticism combines anxiety (BIS) and fear (FFFS) together in one variable and impulsiveness (BAS) is also a facet There are distinct biological systems of personality; they don't correspond to the variables of the five- factor theory In five factor theory, factors refer to average levels of behavior and therefore cant speak to person-situation interactions Any given personality structure may be activated in any one situation and not another THE PERSON-SITUATION CONTROVERSY Two aspects of consistency need to be distinguished - Longitudinal stability = whether people high on a trait at one point in time are also high on that trait at another point in time - Cross-situational consistency = whether people high on that trait in some situations are high on that trait in other situations Trait theorists suggest both are true Degree of cross-situational stability is questioned by critics of trait theory, & results show: - Levels of cross-situational consistency were relatively low - People show extreme levels of variability - These variations are not described or explained by trait constructs - There is some evidence of trait consistency, but this appears to be more within domains of situations (e.g., home, school, work, friends, recreation) than across domains of situations Chapter 12: Social-Cognitive theory: Bandura and Mischel A VIEW OF THE THEORISTS ALBERT BANDURA (1925-2021) Grew up in northern Alberta, Canada; career at Stanford University Adolescent Aggression (Bandura & Walters, 1959) and Social Learning and Personality Development (Bandura & Walters, 1963) laid the foundations for the social-cognitive perspective on personality 1969, Principles of Behavior Modification, reformulated behavior therapy by directing therapists' attention to the thinking processes of their clients Addresses societal factors, such as social and economic conditions, that influence people's beliefs about their ability to influence events Has received numerous awards for distinguished scientific achievement - Was elected president of the American Psychological Association (APA) - Received APA's Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award - Received William James Award from the Association for Psychological Science for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology - In 2016, was the first figure in the history of personality to receive the US National Medal of Science WALTER MISCHEL (1930-2018) Born in Vienna and lived near Freud's house; worked at Harvard then Stanford then Columbia 1965 participated in a Peace Corps assessment project that had a profound influence on him - found that global trait measures did a poor job of predicting performance - skepticism of traditional personality theories, such as trait and psychoanalytic theory - arguments became the cornerstone of the "person-situation controversy" 1973, provided an alternative set of cognitive-social personal variables 1978, received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Clinical Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association 1983, cited by the Association for his outstanding contributions to personality theory and assessment 2002-2003, served as president of the Association for Research in Personality 2004, was elected as a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences - an exceptionally rare honor IMPACT OF THE THEORISTS Recent review assessed the scientific impact of the psychologists of the 20th century - Assessment included analysis of the frequency of citations in scientific journals and psychology textbooks - Bandura and Mischel ranked among the centuries' top 25 most impactful psychologists - Work of only three psychologists was ranked as more influential than Bandura's: Skinner, Piaget, and Freud - There are only four living individuals who were ranked among the 25 most eminent psychologists of the previous century SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY OF PERSONALITY: STRUCTURE Three psychological qualities are essential features of persons: 1. Persons are beings who can reason about the world using language 2. Persons can reason about not only on present circumstances, but events in their past and hypothetical events in the future 3. This reasoning commonly involves reflection on the self-the being who is doing the reasoning Four structural concepts are particularly noteworthy: 1. Competencies and skills 2. Expectancies and beliefs  3. Behavioral standards 4. Personal goals COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS Differences between people may reflect variations in people's skill (e.g., maybe introverts lack social skills) Competencies involve both ways of thinking about life problems and behavioral skills in executing solutions to them Competencies involve two types of knowledge: procedural and declarative knowledge - Declarative knowledge: knowledge we can state in words - Procedural knowledge: cognitive and behavioral capacities that a person may have without being able to articulate their exact nature A focus on competencies has two implications: - Context specificity (e.g., One may have excellent study skills, which are of little use when it comes to getting a date) - Psychological change (One lacking skills in a particular area can engage in new interactions to acquire new competencies) BELIEFS AND EXPECTANCIES Three different ways that people may think about the world - People have beliefs about what the world actually is like and what things probably will be like in the future (expectancies) - People have thoughts about what things should be like: evaluative standards; mental criteria for evaluating the goodness or worth of events - People have thoughts about what one wants to achieve in the future - goals When forming expectancies, people may group together situations in ways that are idiosyncratic - One person may group together situations involving school versus social life, and have high expectations in one domain and low expectations in the other - Another person may think of situations in terms of relaxing circumstances versus circumstances that make them anxious-where both relaxing and anxiety-provoking circumstances could occur both at school and in social life Essence of personality lies in differing ways in which unique individuals - Perceive situations - Develop expectations about future circumstances  - Display distinct behavior patterns as a result of these differing perceptions and expectations Social-cognitive theorists can explain why two people react differently to the same environment, unlike behaviourists BELIEFS AND EXPECTANCIES The Self and Self-Efficacy Beliefs Perceived self-efficacy = people's perceptions of their own capabilities for action in future situations People with a higher sense of self-efficacy are more likely to: - Decide to attempt difficult tasks - Persist in their efforts - Be calm rather than anxious during task performance - Organize their thoughts in an analytical manner People with lower sense of self-efficacy: - Often fail to attempt valuable activities - Give up when the going gets rough - Tend to become anxious during task performance - Become "rattled" and fail to think and act in a calm, analytical manner Perceived self-efficacy differs from self-esteem in two ways: - Perceived self-efficacy is not a global variable; instead, it is recognized that people commonly will have different self-efficacy perceptions in different situations - Perceived self-efficacy is not an abstract sense of personal worth, but a judgment of what one can do Relations between self-esteem and performance are often weak, whereas the relation between perceived self-efficacy and performance is strong. Difference between self-efficacy expectations and outcome expectations: - Outcome expectations: beliefs about the rewards and punishments that will occur if one performs a behavior - Self-efficacy expectations: beliefs about whether one can perform the behavior in the first place Efficacy expectations generally more important than outcome expectations as a determinant of behavior Bandura emphasizes a microanalytic research strategy  - People are asked to indicate their degree of certainty in performing specific behaviors in designated contexts - "Do you think you are a good basketball player?" vs. "How confident are you that you can make at least 75% of your free throws during a basketball game?" - Situation-specific measures are employed to capture variability in self-efficacy perceptions Self-Efficacy and Performance Self-efficacy perceptions are theorized to causally influence behavior However, skill levels could influence both self-efficacy perceptions and behavior, and account for the relation between them Social-cognitivists experimentally manipulate perceived self-efficacy while holding photos actual skills constant to see whether perceived self-efficacy causally influences - Influencing self-efficacy modifies task persistence - Provides strong evidence that people's subjective perceptions of themselves have a unique causal influence on their own behavior Cozzarelli (1993): women about to obtain abortion completed measures self-efficacy concerning post-abortion coping - Results supported hypothesis that self-efficacy was a key determinant of post-abortion adjustment (less depressed) Perceptions of self-efficacy have been shown to have diverse effects on experience and action, in the following ways: Selection - Self-efficacy beliefs influence the goals individuals select Effort, Persistence, and Performance - Individuals with high self-efficacy beliefs show greater effort and persistence, and perform better relative to individuals with low self-efficacy beliefs Emotion - Individuals with high self-efficacy beliefs approach tasks with better moods (i.e., less anxiety and depression) than individuals with low self-efficacy beliefs. Coping - Individuals with high self-efficacy beliefs are better able to cope with stress and disappointments than are individuals with low self-efficacy beliefs. GOALS Goal: mental representation of the aim of an action or course of actions Goals: - Contribute to the human capacity for self-control - Guide us in establishing priorities and in selecting among situations - Enable us to go beyond momentary influences and to organize our behavior over extended periods of time - May differ in their subjective meaning (e.g., "learning" vs."performance" goals) People's goals on a task may differ in a variety of ways: - Level of challenge (e.g., merely of passing a course vs. getting an A) - Proximity (e.g., losing 1 pound each week vs. 12 pounds in the next 3 months) Proximal goals often have a bigger influence on one's current behavior than do distal goals, which allow one to "slack off" in the present. EVALUATIVE STANDARDS How people acquire criteria for evaluating events and how evaluations influence their emotions and actions "Personal standards": evaluative standards concerning one's self; fundamental to motivation and performance - People familiar with morals, sometimes don't use them to regulate own behavior - Some selectively "disengage" moral standards when it is to their personal advantage Osofsky, Bandura, and Zimbardo (2005): How can people who, in general, believe that killing is bad, execute prisoners? - Personnel who were directly involved in executions displayed much higher levels of moral disengagement than did others The study of evaluative standards differentiates social-cognitive theory from behaviorism - In a behavioristic experiment, evaluative standards determined by the experimenter - Social-cognitive theorists note that evaluative standards are not always set by an outside agent People commonly acquire standards for performance by observing the performances of others Once acquired, standards and self-evaluative reactions serve as an "internal guidance system" Ongoing behavior determined by this internal psychological system, not by forces in the environment THE NATURE OF SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSONALITY STRUCTURES Cognitions about what the world is actually like (beliefs), about one's aims for the future (goals), and about how things normatively should be (standards) - Play distinct roles in personality functioning - Should therefore be treated as distinct personality structures A social-cognitive theorist would never assign to a person a single score that is supposed to represent "how much" of each variable they have. People have a large number of goals, a wide spectrum of beliefs, an array of evaluative standards, and a diversity of skills. Different personality structures come into play in different social situations RECIPROCAL DETERMINISM Behavior, personality characteristics, and the environment are causes of one another Personality, behavior, and the environment must be understood as a system of forces that mutually influence one another across the course of time Discourse about "inner versus outer" or "internal versus external" forces fails to recognize the person's internal psychology and the social environment influence one another reciprocally PERSONALITY AS A COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE PROCESSING SYSTEM (CAPS) Behavior reflects not only isolated parts, but ways in which the parts are interconnected Personality as a complex system: - Social-cognitive variables interact with one another in an organized fashion - As a result, there is an overall coherence to personality functioning Mischel and Shoda's 1995) cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) model of personality Three essential features - Cognitive and emotional personality variables are complexly linked to one another - Different aspects of social situations (situational features) activate subsets of overall personality system - If different situational features activate different parts of overall personality system, then people's behavior should vary from one situation to another Chapter 13 SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY: APPLICATIONS, RELATED THEORETICAL CONCEPTIONS, AND CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH Bandura Model Of Reciprocal Determinism 1. Person - Temperament /personality - Preferences - Intelligence (of all types) - Thoughts 2. Environment - Context / social networks - Culture - Other people 3. Behavior - Actions - Facial expressions - Verbalizations SCHEMAS - Self-Schemas are elements of our self knowledge - we use them to organise our information processing when we encounter situations - Similar to a "collection of constructs" - People, due to differential experiences with the environment, will have different self-schemas - My self-schema may have to do with pursuit of knowledge/learning... - I would interpret events from a "what new knowledge can I attain here" perspective - We become biased towards our self-schemas and more likely to pay attention and remember information that fils our self-schema (e.g., "resonation" in the phenomenological world) - e.g, similar to projection - except this is not unconscious in the sense we cannot or can never be aware of them - e.g., parts of this lecture may "fit" into your knowledge base more easily than other parts - Self-Schemas also motivate us to process information in two ways: - Self-enhancement - People are biased towards maintaining a positive view of the self - eg. if fall an exam its because the test was "unfair" [externalised - fundamental attribution bias]  - This may also causes us to overestimate our positive attributes (e.g., defensively, misattribution, and/or irrationally) - E.g, Raising our self-efficacy, despite performance - grandiosity in clinical narcissism as an extreme (internalised) - Self-verification - Very strong motive to be consistent in who we are (whether good or bad for us) to avoid threat/anxiety - i,e, can cause dogmatic thinking; lacking psychological flexibility (lack of assimilation of ideas; denial) - Sell-schema: "'m virtuous because i'm always honest: I tell it like it is, and some people can't handle it" - the person says hurtful things under a "veil of truth" - But is judgmental and biased to their own perception to reinforce their own behaviour/ values as a means of self-verification (i.., if I can verify that you agree with me then that reinforces/enhances my self-verification) - Therapeutic efforts are used to modify these self-schemas and challenge cognitive distortions - Eg, self-verification can also suffer from all or nothing (black and white) and catastrophic thinking (cog, distortions) SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY: LEARNING VS. PERFORMANCE GOALS Learning versus performance goals - We are motivated by our goals (as discussed earlier) - But we may have different types of goals and each person may have different interpretations of the same goal Dweck (1988, 1999) - Learning goals, more interested in what can be learnt - Performance goals, more interested in achievement - Low ability causes far greater anxiety and interference in learning goals completion' in those with performance goals compared to learning goals e.g, learning goal = more persistence on task, accepting failure, trying again STANDARDS OF EVALUATION SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY: Tory Higgins (2006)  - Individual differences on evaluation standards lead to different types of emotional experiences and motivation - Two people may evaluate a goal (or behaviour) in different ways: - Getting a B+ on an exam - catastrophic or amazing? - Discrepancies in self-standards cause different problems (covered in the phenomenological lecture) Actual - Ideal self (e.g. want to be) - Feelings of sadness - not achieving our own standards; hopelessness (with low efficacy) - Not living up to my 'ideal' - Clinical: Depressive disorders Actual - Ought self (e.g. should be - what I think others think I should be like) - Creates agitation and anxiety (fear of rejection from the 'tribe; fight or flight increases: potential danger) - " Not living up to others' 'ideal' - Clinical: Social Phobic and anxiety disorders (e.g., a person feels they"ought to be" better than they are) SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY CLINICAL APPLICATION Psychopathology and Change - Maladaptive behaviour (psychopathology) results from dysfunctional learning - Maladaptive responses can be learned from parents, or 'sick/bad' models - " e.g., Bandura's bobo doll - maladaptive coping/ stress: - positive reinforcement (add stimulus: self-medicating; alcohol, drugs, food, etc) - Forcing mood change artificially (replacing one emotion with another emotion) negative reinforcement (remove stimulus: avoidance of anxiety) - Manifestations of maladaptive coping seen in many anxiety disorders (e.g., related to worry), phobias (i.e., fear), substance-induced disorders, eating disorders, etc. - Dysfunctional expectancies (B's or dysfunctional beliefs in Ellis' REBT) - Erroneously expect that a negative (or positive) event will follow an event or situation - A→B→C - An (A)activating event leads to a particular perceived (Consequence (A → C) - Not so, our (B)elief about A will determine our response to C - E.g Client (over)reacts to perceived/expectant threat of harm (fight or flight)  - B's that cause psychological distress are irrational - e.g., abused child who believes its their fault - Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) attempts to make individuals aware of their irrationality ELLIS & REBT Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy - Albert Ellis (1997) - People respond to their beliefs about events, not the events themselves... - Negative self-defeating thoughts/behaviour → antecedents / belief - Indoctrinating ourselves with ideological (dogmatic/faith type assumptions; non-challenged) beliefs - Antidote: Constantly evaluating philosophical/ideological assumptions/beliefs → action/ practice - B's can also be significantly tied to worry (anxiety/ fear of future outcomes) - Research: 85% of what we worry about never come true; when it does, 80% of time we are able to deal with it with no complications Self-efficacy, Anxiety and Depression Threatening events cause anxiety - Not necessarily the event that causes anxiety but the perceived inefficacy in coping with the anxiety of the event - a "fear-of-fear" response (e.g., DSM5 - panic disorder; agoraphobia) Depression through standards - Unusually high standards - e.g. perfectionism Both these can lead to the development of avoidance or maladaptive coping strategies in a vicious cycle... - Our perceived self-inefficacy (and/or not living up to our own self-standards) can lead to avoidance (of failure) and prematurely quitting a task/goal - The avoidance strategy reduces/removes stress and anxiety (we feel better, yay, but wait...) - the neg, reinforcement of the strategy actually REWARDS us for avoiding/quitting and we get a dopaminergic release... that will strengthen/ reinforce our cognitive pathways for quitting and avoidance  - Antidote: self-compassion and try again, never quit - "constantly evaluating philosophical/ideological assumptions and beliefs → action / practice" - Why am I avoiding/ resisting? - write the reasons down - what is the worst thing that could happen → try to reason logically - Where is the actual evidence for your belief or thought? CLINICAL APPLICATION Therapeutic change: Modelling and Mastery (see CBT) - Desired goal: change self-efficacy in relation to event - This is done by actually performing the task that is causing anxiety - The overall task is broken down into small subs-kills that are produced and then performed - The difficulty of the skills gets progressively harder for the Client (e.g., threat scale) - Re-learn (re-model) the event and what the expectations are Example Social phobic teenager (anxious that people will ridicule them) 1) practice/rehearse (in office) ordering a donut at TH's 2) go to TH and accompany therapist while they order 3) next time client says what they want 4) next time client does the entire order * Reduces fear (of specific symptoms) and builds confidence (of global symptoms). Learning confidence on one task can often spill over into other areas they fear or avoid, without specific therapeutic intervention for it! Stress and Coping Lazarus (1990) - Stress occurs when the person views circumstances as exceeding their resources and endangering well-being (e.g., the task demands resources beyond your capacity) - Related to explanation of suffering' in existentialism Two ways of coping with a stressful situation: (1) Problem-focused (externalise) - Cope by altering aspects of the situation (external; reality) - e.g, change jobs e.g, bay-street lawyer - company valued only results; created mismatch) - e.g, distort reality - INCEL - e.g., Toronto Van Attacker Alex Minnassian (2) Emotion-focused (internalise)  - Attempt to improve internal emotional state - e.g, seek social support, talk it out, cognitive distancing, mindfulness, coping, etc.) - PTSD - Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) - deactivates amygdala BECK & CBT Cognitive Therapy - Aaron Beck (1987) CBT - Psychopathologies are due to automatic thoughts, dysfunctional assumptions (i.e., REBT) and negative self-statements (all or nothing thinking) - Beck's Cognitive Triad of Depression - Systematic misevaluation of core beliefs Cognitive Therapy - Designed to identify and correct distortions in thinking and beliefs - Help clients to monitor their own negative thoughts and to substitute more reality-orientated interpretations in their place I hate public speaking - Why is that? - I guess I'm scared people will laugh at me " Why would they do that? - Because they will think I'm stupid Do people often think you're stupid? - No, I guess not Well, why would they think that in this situation then? - Basically examine the logic and irrationality in a clients interpretation - Behavioural assignments (just as in - go to TH and order a donut) are used to help patient test certain maladaptive cognitions and assumptions CRITICAL EVALUATION OF SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THERAPIES: THE DATABASE? - Excellent. * Mischel, Bandura and colleagues built their theory on a systematic accumulation of objective scientific evidence - Very diverse - Correlational, laboratory and longitudinal studies - Looked at behavioural change - Ran clinical studies - Participants in studies have been every imaginable type - Along with Trait theory it is based on the largest databases of scientific knowledge  - And continues to grow! CRITICAL EVALUATION OF SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THERAPIES: MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS Current favourite among academic personality psychologists - Patchwork approach, taking in important aspects of all areas of psychology makes it extremely comprehensive and up to date - Open to change and dynamic - Mischel, and particularly Bandura, were extremely prominent and influential psychologists Nevertheless, I think it is important to note, from a clinical perspective, there are two reliable and relevant scientific findings when discussing psychological therapy: 1. People who actively engage in therapy typically improve, regardless of the "type" of therapy used 2. The therapeutic alliance (see Rogers) is the most important factor in therapeutic improvement CRITICAL EVALUATION OF PERSONALITY THEORIES: SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION The Database - Must be built on scientific observation that is diverse and large, that are objective and measurable, and shed light on the psychological aspects of: - Cognition (e.g. thoughts) - Affect (e.g, emotions) - Biological systems (e.g. genetic) Personality psychologists have employed all manner of research strategies and developed impressive databases to test their theories on a whole - Limitations - Idiographic methods in mainstream research - still most difficult to understand the 'whole' person while having a system capable of measuring others consistently (i.e., nomothetically) PERSONALITY THEORIES: COMPREHENSIVE? Theories all together were less comprehensive than would be ideal Freud was probably the most comprehensive But is it valid? testable? - In contemporary terms, Bandura, Beck and other SCT have applied social-cognitive theory to an impressive breadth of personal and social phenomena In clinical-oriented" personality theory, Jung and Rogers are stilly outstandingly comprehensive and creative agreed existence of: Mischel & Shoda (2008) have proposed an integrative approach, with the - dispositions due to biological factors and cognitive structures (trait and social-cognitive theory) AND - unconscious and motivated cognitive processes (psychodynamic theory) AND importance of perceptions of self and situation (phenomenology of Kelly and Rogers Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands A number of factors contribute to how well people adapt to adversities: - the ways in which individuals view and engage with the world (PERCEPTION & COGNITION) - the availability and quality of social resources and connections (BELONGINGNESS & PURPOSE) - specific coping strategies (MINDFULNESS & LIFE STRATEGY) Psychological research demonstrates that the resources and skills associated with more positive adaptation (i.e., greater resilience) can be cultivated and practiced - In other words, they can improve! Resilience is a process of adaptation - in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, or significant sources of stress and it can support profound personal growth - "That which does not kill me makes me stronger." Nietzsche - "Strength doesn't come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't.” - adverse events can help empower you to grow and even improve your life along the way Focusing on four core components - connection, wellness, healthy thinking, and meaning - can empower you to withstand and learn from difficult and traumatic experiences by improving resilience to the adverse effects of the experience FOUR CORE COMPONENTS OF RESILIENCE (1) Build your connections (social connection) - Prioritize relationships (eg. beneficial supportive, non-judgmental, unconditional positive regard and empathy)  - Join a group, belong, be social, be kind (e.g., Maslow - belongingness & responsibility) (2) Foster wellness (coping) - Take care of your body (e.g., exercise) - Take care of your mind (e.g, mindfulness) - Avoid negative outlets (e.g, maladaptive coping; short term gain; mood/emotion) (3) Find purpose (life strategy) - Look for opportunities for self-discovery (e.g, the obstacle is the way; enter the unknown) - Help others (o.g, empathy, active listening, and compassion - "be there") - Be proactive and move toward your goals (e.g, SMART goals, short and long term, baby steps - just start) (4) Embrace healthy thoughts (perception & cognition) - Keep things in perspective and use reason in addressing automatic thoughts (impression → reason →meaning) - Accept change (e.g, openness vs resistance); have the wisdom to discern what you can and can't control - Maintain a hopeful outlook (e.g, this too shall pass; amore fate - love fate)