1 Psychology 305A: Personality Psychology March 20 Lecture 18

A little R&R …. (Review and Reflect) 2

3 1. What is the schematic view of cognitive processing? (continued) The Cognitive Perspective 3 2. Do we process information at two levels? 3. Can personality be described in terms of “cognitive styles?”

1. review the functions of schemas discuss the effects of spreading (partial) activation. By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 5. discuss dual-processing models of cognitive processing. 2. define the term script. 3. describe how schemas are represented in memory.

5 5 7.identify the correlates of field dependence/ independence, a pessimistic attribution style, and self- complexity. 6.describe the constructs field dependence/ independence, pessimistic attribution style, and self- complexity.

6 6 What is the schematic view of cognitive processing? (continued)

7 A father and his son were involved in a car accident in which the father was killed and the son was seriously injured. The father was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident and his body was taken to a local mortuary. The son was taken by ambulance to a hospital and was immediately wheeled into an operating room. A surgeon was called. Upon seeing the patient, the attending surgeon exclaimed, “Oh my God, it’s my son!” Can you explain this? 7

Medicine Successful Surgeon Caring Admired Knowledgeable Rich Male Hardworking Educated Female Surgeon Schema Dedicated 8

9 We have schemas for:  the sexes (e.g., females, males).  occupations (e.g., surgeon, accountant).  social groups (e.g., ethnic groups, political groups).  objects (e.g., boats, houses).  personality types (e.g., introverts vs. extraverts).  relationships (recall internal working models).  our own self. 9

Self-Schema 10 Kind Adventurous Honest Thoughtful Gives money to charities Cultured Likes Shakespeare Runs 5 km daily Athletic Lives in Richmond Volunteers at Richmond food back Attends live theatre Travels Self

11 Schemas may also take the form of scripts: schematic representations of temporally organized event sequences. Like other schemas, scripts act as cognitive filters: 11

12 The procedure is actually quite simple. First arrange things into different bundles depending on makeup. Don’t do too much at once. In the short run this may not seem important, however, complications easily arise. A mistake can be costly. Next, find facilities. Some people must go elsewhere for them. Manipulation of appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory. Remember to include all other necessary supplies. Initially the routine will overwhelm you, but soon it will become just another facet of life. Finally, rearrange everything into their initial groups. Return these to their usual places. Eventually they will be used again. Then the whole cycle will have to be repeated. 12

13 Schemas are represented in memory as “association networks” of nodes (i.e., units of information). Nodes are connected; activation of one node increases the likelihood that associated nodes will be activated. The stronger the association between nodes, the greater the likelihood that activating one will activate the other. 13

“Spreading (Partial) Activation” in an Association Network of Nodes 14

15 Spreading (partial) activation is thought to account for priming effects. Examples: 15

 Tools  Shelf  Book  Car  Motorcycle  Sports  Truck Is this individual male or female? 16

17 Bargh, Chen, & Burrows (1996) Participants completed a scrambled-sentence tasks containing words relevant to elderly stereotypes (e.g., careful, retired, wrinkle). Timed how long participants took to walk down a corridor after exiting the lab. Participants in the elderly priming condition walked slower than participants in a neutral priming condition. 17

18 Do we process information at two levels? Some theorists have suggested that cognitive processing is characterized by two modes rather than one. Specifically, these theorists have proposed dual-process models of cognitive processing. The two modes of processing may be summarized as follows: 18

Conscious Processor  Effortful reasoning.  Deliberate/controlled behaviours.  Inside awareness.  “Rational system.”  Slow.  Uses rules, logic.  “Thinking.”  “Cool” processing.  Reflects explicit knowledge.  “System 2.” Intuitive Processor  Intuitive problem solving.  Automatic/reflexive behaviours.  Outside awareness.  “Experiential system.”  Quick & imprecise.  Affected by emotions.  “Reacting.”  “Hot” processing.  Reflects implicit knowledge.  “System 1.” 19

20 17 x 24 Intuitive ProcessorConscious Processor

21 Can personality be described in terms of “cognitive styles?” Many theorists suggest that individual differences in “cognitive styles” or variables may be used to describe personality. Among the cognitive variables that have been used to describe personality include the following: 21

Instructions: Describe what you see. 22

23 1.Field Dependence vs. Field Independence  A construct that been studied extensively by cultural psychologists (e.g., Ji et al., 2000; Masuda et al., 2008; Masuda & Nisbett, 2001). 23

24  Field dependence: Reflects a tendency to attend to the context that surrounds the focal object and the relationships among the objects in the environment. Correlated with extraversion.  Field independence: Reflects a tendency to separate the focal object from its environment and attend to the attributes of that object. Correlated with introversion. 24

How does the boy in the center feel? 25

Field-Independent Gaze Field-Dependent Gaze 26

27 2.Attributional Style  Refers to individual differences in the attributions that are made to explain events.  Attributions for events vary on 3 dimensions: locus (internal or external to the individual), stability, and globality. 27

28  Individual who display a “pessimistic attribution style” are prone to depression (e.g., Abramson et al., 1995): Success: due to external, unstable, and specific factors. Failure: due to internal, stable, and global factors. 28

Attributions for SuccessAttributions for Failure LocusThe exam was easy.I’m not smart. StabilityThis was one in a million. This will happen on all of the exams in this course. GlobalityThis doesn’t mean I’ll do well in my other courses. I won’t succeed at anything in my life. A Pessimistic Attribution Style: After an exam … 29

3.Self-Complexity  Refers to: (a) the number of self-aspects that are used to represent the self in the self schema. (b) the degree of redundancy among these self-aspects.  High self-complexity: many nonredundant self-aspects. Low self-complexity: few redundant self-aspects. 30

31  Research (e.g., Campbell, 2004; Constantino, et al., 2006; Linville, 1987; Luo et al., 2009) has shown that self-complexity buffers against the harmful effects of stress by preventing events that occur in one self- aspect from “spilling over” and adversely affecting other self-aspects. 31

1. review the functions of schemas discuss the effects of spreading (partial) activation. By the end of today’s class, you should be able to: 5. discuss dual-processing models of cognitive processing. 2. define the term script. 3. describe how schemas are represented in memory.

33 7.identify the correlates of field dependence/ independence, a pessimistic attribution style, and self- complexity. 6.describe the constructs field dependence/ independence, pessimistic attribution style, and self- complexity.