Cognitive Domain Chapters 12, 13, & 14

Cognitive Topics in Personality Chapter 12 Cognitive Topics in Personality

Introduction Cognitive approaches to personality focus on differences in how people process information Cognition ________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ All these mental behaviors add up to what is called information processing – _________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Introduction Four levels of cognition of interest to personality psychologists 1. Perception Process of imposing order on information received by our sense organs 2. Interpretation Process of making sense of, or explaining, events in the world 3. Goals Standards that people develop for evaluating themselves and others 4. Intelligence

Perception Field Dependence-Independence Pain Tolerance and Sensation Reducing-Augmenting

Field Dependence-Independence “Can’t see the trees for the forest.” Someone cannot look into the big picture to get the details about the situation ____________________ “Can’t see the forest for the trees.” Someone cannot look beyond the details to get the big picture about a situation Field independent (relative to field dependent) people have the ability to focus on details despite the clutter of background information (Witkin, 1954, 1962)

Embedded Figures Test Some have trouble locating simple figures embedded within the more complex surrounding figure (caught in the “forest” and cannot see the “trees”) Field dependent Some quickly spot many or all of the embedded figures (can see the “trees” within the “forest”) Filed independent

Field Dependence-Independence Field dependence-independence and life choices Education: Field independent people favor natural sciences, math, engineering, whereas field dependent people favor social sciences and education Interpersonal relations: Field independent people are more interpersonally detached, whereas field dependent people are attentive to social cues and oriented toward other people ____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pain Tolerance and Sensation Reducing-Augmenting Petrie’s reducer-augmenter theory of pain tolerance People with low pain tolerance had a nervous system that amplified or augmented the subjective impact of sensory input People with high pain tolerance had a nervous system that dampened or reduced the effects of sensory information Reducers seek strong stimulation, perhaps in order to compensate for lower sensory reactivity ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reducers may use substances (nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, other drugs) to artificially “lift” their arousal level

Interpretation Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory Rotter’s Locus of Control Seligman’s Learned Helplessness *Learned Optimism

Personal Construct Theory Kelly thought of each person as a scientist and an active agent in her own life People attempt to understand, predict, and control events The core of his approach was that ___________________ are the basic unit of personality Kelly and post-modernism: Post-modernism is an intellectual position grounded in the notion that reality is constructed, that every person and every culture has unique version of reality, with none having privilege

Personal Construct Theory ____________________________________________________ “Constructs… are used to make sense of the world, to try to predict events, and essentially to build one’s terrain map of the world and how to function within it.” We construe our own behavior – categorizing, interpreting, labeling, and judging ourselves and the world around us __________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ To understand the individual, one has to to understand her constructs

Personal Construct Theory ____________________________________ A person’s construction system can vary/change based on experience ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Stated differently: An interpretation of an event is open to alternative constructions, which may lead to different courses of action ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Threat is experienced when our central constructs fail to function (e.g., major life crises and traumas) Result is development of behavioral problems

Locus of Control External locus of control: Internal locus of control: Generalized expectancies that ______________________________ ________________ (one is not responsible for major life outcomes) Internal locus of control: ____________________(one is responsible for major life outcomes) In general, an internal locus of control is conducive to well-being (exception: situations truly out of one’s control) People who displayed an internal locus of control: At age 10 were found to have a reduced risk of obesity at age 30 Completed their degrees in a more timely manner Had higher credit ratings

Learned helplessness Learned helplessness – ___________________________ ____________________________________________________  expectations that one is helpless and encoding the self in helpless terms (Seligman, 1992, 1994) i.e., the tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation because of a history of repeated failures in the past In this state one also may become apathetic and despondent, which may generalize and persist  may lead to depression

Learned Helplessness

Learned helplessness Causal attributions are the explanations people make about the causes of events internal causes (e.g., high ability or hard work) external causes (e.g., the ease of the task or good luck) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Similarly, we feel worse (e.g., “shame”) when we perceive a failure as reflecting low ability than when it is seen as due to bad luck

Learned helplessness Three broad categories of attributions ____________ ______________

Learned helplessness Learned helplessness and a depressive attributional style for negative events (also known as pessimistic explanatory style) ___________________________ Negative outcomes are one’s own fault Believing future negative outcomes will be one’s fault Believing negative events will disrupt many life activities All three domains contribute to a sense of lack of perceived control over life events Those with a pessimistic explanatory style ______________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Learned Optimism Learned optimism – __________________________________ ________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Optimism is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes Effective functioning and work success Fewer physical symptoms Researchers have found that most psychologically healthy people have somewhat unrealistically positive self-views, whereas those who perceive themselves more accurately tend to be less mentally healthy

Goals Cognitive Social Learning Theory Bandura’s Self-Efficacy *Bandura’s Observational Learning Dweck’s Mastery Orientation Higgins’ Regulatory Focus

Self-efficacy Bandura (trained in classical behavioral psychology) argued that people have intentions and forethought; they are reflective and can anticipate future events; they monitor their behavior and evaluate their own progress; and they learn by observing others (i.e., observational learning) Helped start the social-cognitive movement

Self-efficacy Self-efficacy – _______________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ i.e., guides and directs one’s behavior The greater our perceived self-efficacy, the higher the goals we choose and the stronger commitment and perseverance (i.e., motivation) in pursuing them Those who view themselves as lacking self-efficacy are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression Low self-efficacy results in low motivation to set goals and low perseverance when faced with adversity Self-efficacy can also be influenced by ____________, by seeing others engage in the performance with positive results

Observational learning Bandura showed that much of social learning occurs cognitively through observation without any direct reinforcement administered to the learner Observational learning (modeling) – _________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Humans learn from what others say and do, and what they see, hear, and read, whether it is intended to be taught or not Other people act as “models” from whom we learn Our (efficacy) expectations about the outcomes of a particular course of action depend not only on what had happened to us in the past, but also on what we have observed happening to others

Mastery orientation Some students persist in the face of failure, whereas others quit as soon as they encounter difficulties or their first failure (Dweck, 1978, 1980) Students’ implicit beliefs about the nature of intelligence had a significant impact on the way they approach challenging intellectual tasks Students who view their intelligence as an unchangeable and fixed internal characteristic (“________________”) ____________ __________________________________________________________ Students who believe that their intelligence can be increased through effort and persistence (“______________________”) __________________________________________________________

Regulatory focus People regulate their goal-directed behaviors in two distinct ways that serve two different needs Promotion focus – ________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Prevention focus – ________________________________________________ Promotion focus correlates with extraversion and behavioral activation Motivated to not miss possible opportunities at the expense of making mistakes Prevention focus correlates with neuroticism, harm avoidance, and impulsivity (negatively) Motivated to not make mistakes at the expense of missing possible opportunities

Intelligence Achievement intelligence – _________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Aptitude intelligence – ______________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Traditional measures of intelligence (i.e., IQ tests) Used to predict school performance and educational selection General intelligence (“g”) versus domain-specific intelligences Widely accepted definition of intelligence (Gardner, 1983): ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Cultural context of intelligence – views intelligence as being those skills valued in a particular culture

Intelligence Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence

Triarchic Theory __________________________ – ability to process information at the metacomponent, performance, and knowledge-acquisition levels; ability to think abstractly and process information effectively Analytical/Conventional Intelligence (“_________________”) __________________________ – relationship between experience and intelligence; ability to formulate new ideas and new solutions to problems; ability to combine new information _______________________ __________________________ – contextually bound; ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to shape the environment; ability to understand people Practical Intelligence (“____________________”)

Triarchic Theory

Multiple intelligences Any set of adult competencies that are valued in a culture merit consideration as a potential intelligence 9 relatively independent “frames of mind” Verbal-Linguistic Logical-Mathematical ____________________ Visual-Spatial Naturalist Existential Not much research to support this theory; some research shows that separate abilities are correlated with each other

Emotional Intelligence Emotional intelligence was proposed to explain why some people with a lot of academic intelligence do not appear to have a lot of practical intelligence, people skills, or “street smarts” See Goldman’s (1995) book “Emotional Intelligence” Emotional intelligence includes a set of five specific abilities: 1. ______________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ 2. Ability to regulate emotions, especially negative emotions, and to manage stress 3. Ability to control one’s impulses, direct attention and effort, delay gratification, and stay on task toward goals 4. ______________________________________________________________ 5. Ability to influence and guide others without incurring anger, resentment; elicit cooperation; negotiation and conflict resolution

Emotional intelligence Traditional measures of intelligence predict school performance, but not outcomes later in life, such as occupational attainment, salary, professional status, and quality of marriage Emotion intelligence is a better predictor of these life outcomes

Summary and Evaluation Cognitive approaches to personality focus on differences in how people process information People differ in how they think, perceive, interpret, remember, believe, desire, and anticipate events in their lives. Personality psychologists are interested in these differences as well as characteristics of cognition that all humans share