Chapter 16 The Cognitive Approach: Relevant Research

Cognitions and Aggression

The role of cognitions in aggression According to the cognitive perspective, exposure to violent images activates corresponding cognitions. Aggressive behavior scripts (for example, a fistfight) Aggressive interpretation of ambiguous situations (for example, teenage boys in the park) Crick and Dodge (1996). Hypothetical scenario study of aggressive and non-aggressive boys. The aggressive boys perceived more aggressive intent than the non-aggressive boys did. Metropolitan Area Child Study (2007). Children attended 40 one-hour sessions over two years. Compared to children in the control group, those in the aggression intervention group became less aggressive in their response to hypothetical provocation scenarios as they got older.

Gender, Memory, and Self-Construal

Studies of differences in what men and women recall In a study asking men and women to recall either personal events from the past three years or events from American history, the women recalled more personal events whereas the men recalled more impersonal events (Seidlitz & Diener, 1998). Two differences between men’s and women’s recall help to explain this finding: Men and women differ in the extent to which self-relevant (i.e., personal) information is associated with emotions. Men and women also differ in the extent to which information about themselves is associated with information about their personal relationships.

Gender differences in the recall of emotional memories Because females in our culture are socialized to pay attention to their own emotions and other people’s emotions from an early age, women should be more likely than men to pay attention to and process information about emotions. Memories for both positive and negative emotional events should therefore be more accessible for women than for men. This prediction was confirmed in a study by Davis (1999). The participants in this study were cued with a series of emotional words and phrases such as “feeling rejected” and “getting something you really wanted.” In response to these cues, women were able to remember more childhood events relevant to the emotions than men were.

Number of emotional childhood memories recalled (Davis, 1999)

Gender differences in self-concept and in memories about relationships Because females in our culture are socialized to develop more interdependent self-construals than males, the content of women’s self-concepts should reflect this difference. In a study by Mackie (1983) that used the “Who Am I?” test, women’s spontaneous self-descriptions included more statements than the men’s about their role relationships as parents and family members. In a study by Clancy and Dollinger (1993), women and men were given 12-exposure cameras and asked to use them to “describe who you are as you see yourself.” The women’s photos more often showed self with others than self alone, whereas the men’s photos more often showed self alone than self with others.

Who Am I? 1. I am: 2. I am: 3. I am: 4. I am: 5. I am: 6. I am:

Gender differences in self-concept and in memories about relationships Because females in our culture are socialized to develop more interdependent self-construals than males, the content of women’s self-concepts should reflect this difference. In a study by Mackie (1983) that used the “Who Am I?” test, women’s spontaneous self-descriptions included more statements than the men’s about their role relationships as family members, friends, etc. In a study by Clancy and Dollinger (1993), women and men were given 12-exposure cameras and asked to use them to “describe who you are as you see yourself.” The women’s photos more often showed self with others than self alone, whereas the men’s photos more often showed self alone than self with others.

Number of photographs used to portray self with others versus self alone (Clancy & Dollinger, 1993)

Gender differences in self-concept and in memories about relationships In a study by Josephs, Markus, and Tafarodi (1992), the researchers manipulated the schemas through which a set of stimulus words were processed. When the participants were later asked in a free recall test to remember as many of the stimulus words as possible, the women remembered more of the words processed through best friend and group schemas than the men did.

Cognitions and Depression

The depressive cognitive triad (Beck,1972) Depressed people: typically have negative thoughts about themselves. are pessimistic about the future. tend to interpret ongoing experiences in a negative manner. In other words, depressed people look at the world through very dark glasses.

Depressive schemas In a study by Derry and Kuiper (1981), depressed patients and two groups of nondepressed individuals responded to a list of adjectives by pressing a YES or NO button to indicate if the word described them or not. Half of the words were related to depression (bleak, dismal, helpless), whereas the other half were not. The researchers then surprised the participants by giving them 3 minutes to recall and write down as many of the stimulus words as they could. As predicted, the depressed patients remembered the depression-associated words better, whereas nondepressed patients and normals remembered the other words better, suggesting the operation of a depressive schema in the depressed patients.

Proportion of self-descriptive words recalled (Derry & Kuiper, 1981)

Depressive schemas Pace and Dixon (1993) compared the tendency to recall depression-related words before and after receiving cognitive therapy for depression. They found that the treatment resulted in a reduced recall of depression-related words, and this effect was still evident one month after the completion of therapy. Clark and Teasdale (1982) gave depressed clients a series of words such as train and ice and asked them to recall real-life experiences that each word brought to mind. Each client was tested twice, once when feeling particularly depressed and once when feeling less depressed. Significantly more of the experiences recalled during the depressed period were unhappy ones.

Percentage of depression-related words recalled by therapy clients (Pace & Dixon, 1993)

Depressive schemas Pace and Dixon (1993) compared the tendency to recall negative words before and after receiving cognitive therapy for depression. They found that the treatment resulted in a reduced recall of depressing words, and this effect was still evident one month after the completion of therapy. Clark and Teasdale (1982) gave depressed clients a series of words such a train and ice and asked them to recall real-life experiences that each word brought to mind. Each client was tested twice, once when feeling particularly depressed and once when feeling less depressed. Significantly more of the experiences recalled during the depressed period were unhappy ones.

Percentages of happy and unhappy experiences recalled (Clark & Teasdale, 1982)

Learned Helplessness Revisited: Attributional Model and Explanatory Style

Examples of attributions by a failing student (Abramson et al., 1978) Internal External Stable Unstable Global Lack of general intelligence Laziness Exhaustion I was ill and couldn’t think clearly ETS gives unfair tests ETS tests for boring, useless information Bad luck: today is Friday the 13th The new proctor is inexperienced and gives confusing instructions Specific I lack ability in mathematics Math always bores me I got fed up doing the math items I confused sines with cosines just long enough to miss all the trigonometry items ETS gives unfair math tests Math tests are hard for most people My copy of the math test was numbered 13 The copies of the math test were blurred