1. Social-Cognitive Perspective

2. Individuals & Environments
Specific ways in which individuals and environments interact
Different people choose different environments.
The school you attend and the music you listen to are partly based on your dispositions.
Our personalities shape how we react to events.
Anxious people react to situations differently than calm people.
Our personalities shape situations.
How we view and treat people influences how they treat us.

3. Personal Control Internal vs. External Loci of Control Self-control
Internal = control your own destiny
External = chance or fate
Internals seem to achieve more and be happier
Self-control
Ability to delay gratification & control impulses
Needs energy & focus

4. Learned Helplessness
When unable to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness.

5. Personal Control Freedom & Choice are good but…
Seem to have limits
Too much freedom affects overall happiness
Are you the generation of information/sensory/choice overload?

6. * Extreme optimism = invincibility & unnecessary risk
Optimism vs. Pessimism
An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style is your way of explaining positive or negative events.
* Extreme optimism = invincibility & unnecessary risk
Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive.
OBJECTIVE 22| Discuss the link between performance and optimistic or pessimistic attributional styles, and contrast positive psychology with humanistic psychology.

7. Assessing the Social-Cognitive Approach
Critics believe this approach largely ignores mental processes such as emotion and the unconscious
This approach draws heavily on the scientific research of cognition and learning.
The question remains how much of you is situation and how much is YOU.

8. Exploring the self

9. The Self The organizer of our thoughts, feelings, & actions
Taking stock of who you are
Spotlight effect – everyone will notice
Self-reference – we remember what has to do with us

10. Self-Esteem How do we determine Self-Esteem? High self-esteem
Valuing our skills (emphasize our strengths)
Attribution style
Comparison within your group of peers
High self-esteem
Correlates with success and happiness
Low self-esteem
Correlates with unhappiness
*chicken and the egg argument

11. Self-Esteem Self-serving bias Self disparaging Defensive Self-esteem
Good is because of us, bad is someone else
Better than average
Self disparaging
Seek disagreement (compliments)
Make possible failure OK
Past self versus present self
Defensive Self-esteem
Egotism that feels threatened
Leads to anger and violence when threatened
Secure Self-esteem
Not based on external judgment