CHAPTER 12

Question 1

Origins of social-cognitive theory and what it emphasizes now?

Answer 1

Social-Cognitive theory has it’s origins in “behavioural-” or “social-learning”

now “social–cognitive” to emphasize:
(1) cognitive processes in analyses of personality
and (2) the social context (situation)

We learn and acquire our own thoughts about ourselves (and others) through interaction with the environment

Question 2

For the social-cognitive psychologist: psychodynamic approaches are:

Answer 2

Psychodynamic approaches overemphasise the unconscious

Instead: SC  recognise “cognitive unconscious” but believe conscious processes are of greater importance

Question 3

For the social-cognitive psychologist: trait theories are:

Answer 3

Opposed to trait theories nomothetic nature

Instead SC  More important to study the variability in one’s actions (rather than an overall pattern)
e.g. if we are extroverted – in which situation are we not extroverted (and why)?

Question 4

For the social-cognitive psychologist: behaviourism are:

Answer 4

Behaviourism too focused on the external (stimuli) environments’ behavioural effect on people

instead SC  Behaviours don’t occur in a vacuum of cause and effect, our perception of the situation is what is more important to understand
Note the nod to phenomenology and the meaning of objects, people, situations and cognitions

Question 5

Who are the two main figures of the SC approach?

Answer 5

Walter Mischel & Albert Bandura

Question 6

Albert Bendura:

Answer 6

> David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University

> Over a career spanning almost six decades, Bandura has been responsible for groundbreaking contributions to many fields of psychology

> was influential in the transition between behaviorism and cognitive psychology

> A 2002 survey ranked Bandura as the fourth most-cited psychologist of all time, behind B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, and Jean Piaget

Question 7

What is Bendura known for?

Answer 7

> He is known as the originator of:
- social learning theory
theory of self-efficacy
the influential 1961 Bobo Doll experiment (i.e., observational learning)

Question 8

Walter Mischel (1930 – 2018)

Answer 8

Mischel was born in Vienna, Austria, a “stone’s throw from where Freud grew-up”
He grew up in Brooklyn, New York and studied under George Kelly and Julian Rotter
In 1968, Mischel published, Personality and Assessment
Mischel showed that an individual’s behavior, when closely examined, was highly dependent upon situational cues

Question 9

Mischel proposed what?

Answer 9

Mischel proposed that by including the situation (as it is perceived by the person) a person’s personality (the consistencies that characterize the individual) can be examined

> “if-then” situation-behavior leading to psychologically meaningful “personality signatures”

> e.g., “she does A when X, but B when Y”

Question 10

SCT’s view of the person- three essential qualities:

Answer 10

> Persons are beings that can reason about the world using language

> Persons can reason about the present, past and future (abstraction – learn & predict)

> The reasoning commonly involves reflection on the self (introspection, meta-cognition)

Question 11

SCT’s science of personality

Answer 11

> SCT tries to use all aspects of psychology and utilise all significant advancements

> Patchwork of developmental, neuroscientific, cultural, cognitive, social, etc. psychologies

> Uses both nomothetic and idiographic

> Pragmatic – utility in its application

Question 12

SCT Competencies & Skills

Answer 12

Differences and variations between and within people due to competency or skill on a task
e.g. a person may appear introverted because they lack social skills/competency

Competencies involve both thinking about (cognitive) the task and executing (behavioural)

Question 13

What is declarative knowledge?

Answer 13

Knowledge we can express in words
e.g. the names of all provinces and capital cities

Question 14

What is procedural (tactic) knowledge?

Answer 14

Cognitive and behavioural capacities that we cant articulate the exact nature of
e.g. walking, riding a bike, smiling…
e.g. but mental too… “gut-feeling” – how was this acquired? (e.g., 5% consciousness)

Question 15

Competencies are:

Answer 15

Competencies are context specific and can be changed or acquired (!!!)
because they are based on our beliefs, standards and goals…

Question 16

What are the three ways people think about and interact with the world?

Answer 16

1) Beliefs (e.g., “expectancies”)
> Beliefs about what the world is actually like
> Primary determinant of our actions
> A system of thoughts about the future that can vary across situations
> e.g. expect certain outcomes, rewards or punishments based on our behaviour
> We organise beliefs idiosyncratically by situation – ‘at home’, ‘at school’, ‘with friends’

2) Evaluative Standards (e.g., “standards”)
Beliefs about what the world should be like

3) Goals
Beliefs about what we can attain in the world

Question 17

What is the major factor in SCT?

Answer 17

The major factor in SCT is our beliefs about our Self and our expectations of our abilities and performance
i.e., Perceived self-efficacy:
our perceptions (not necessarily accurate) of our own capabilities for actions in future situations

Question 18

Why is self-efficacy so important?

Answer 18

Self-efficacy influences a number of important behavioural aspects important for achievement

1) Decisions – Decide to attempt difficult tasks
2) Persistence – Persist in your efforts
3) Affect – remain calm rather than anxious
4) Analytical thoughts – keep your thoughts organised and on task

Question 19

How does self-efficacy differ from self-esteem?

Answer 19

(1) Self-efficacy differs from self-esteem
Self-esteem is an ‘overall’ global affect
Self-efficacy is determined by the situation
It is a judgment of what we think we can do in that situation / or goal, task, etc

Question 20

Self-Efficacy Expectations (SEE) differ from Outcome Expectations (OE)- how?

Answer 20

Outcome expectations (OE) are beliefs about the rewards (or punishments) that will occur given a behaviour
Self-Efficacy Expectations (SEE) are beliefs of whether or not you can even perform the behaviour
e.g. being an NHL player (OE high; SEE low)

Self-efficacy expectations (SEE) predict the behaviour we will engage in more so than OE
Hence, I’m a professor, not an NHL player

Question 21

Self-efficacy and Performance

Answer 21

> Do Self-Efficacy Expectations (SEE) causally influence behaviour?
One can ‘anchor’ SEE with cognitive manipulations and observe the result on behaviour

> Your perception of your self-efficacy (performance or ability on a task) can also be manipulated

> Our actions and outcomes are highly influenced by our self-perceptions
We do what we think we can do and we don’t do what we think we can’t

Question 22

Generally research has shown that people with HIGH self-efficacy (e.g. high belief in themselves and their abilities) will differ from LOW self-efficacy person’s in the following ways:

Answer 22

(1) Selection
select more difficult and challenging tasks

(2) Effort, Persistence & Performance
show greater effort and persistence on task (don’t give up so easily)

(3) Emotion
approach task with less anxiety

(4) Coping
better at (emotional) coping with disappointments, setbacks and stress

Question 23

What is a goal:

Answer 23

> A goal is a mental representation of the aim of an action or course of actions

> Goals motivate us, help us select and make decisions that go beyond momentary influences

Question 24

How are goals organized?

Answer 24

Goals can be organised as hierarchical, time-related and varying focus

Question 25

What are Evaluative Standards

Answer 25

A standard is a criterion for judging the goodness of a person, thing or object

Question 26

What are self-evaluative reactions?

Answer 26

EVALUATE: We have internalised personal standards which we constantly evaluate ourselves on
We may have a personal standard on producing an essay; we evaluate the final product

REACT: These reactions constitute self-reinforcements (or self-punishments)
Especially in absence of external reinforcers (e.g. pats on the back, a good grade, etc.)

Question 27

What internal mechanism do we have ?

Answer 27

We have an internal mechanism of praise and guilt that we use to reward or punish ourselves
These correspond to our beliefs and “values” of moral and immoral, right and wrong

Question 28

SCT addresses the dynamics of personality process (motivations) in two ways:

Answer 28

1) General Theoretical Principles:
Reciprocal Determinism - the analysis of the causes of behaviour
Cognitive Affective Processing System (CAPS)

(2) Analysis of psychological functions
Observational learning (e.g. modelling)
Motivation
Self-Control

Question 29

What is reciprocal determinism?

Answer 29

Reciprocal Determinism (Bandura)
Each aspect influences the other – no direct causality
People as ‘active agents’

> considers the interplay of environmental factors, personal factors, and behaviour.

Question 30

What is Cognitive Affective Processing System (CAPS)

Answer 30

(1) Cognitive and Emotional personality variables are linked to each other
Thoughts about goals may trigger thoughts about skills …which triggers thoughts about self-efficacy …which affect emotions and self-evaluations in a situation

(2) Situations trigger varying cognitive subsets to be activated within the overall system
The ‘anxiety’ subset, the ‘conscientiousness’ subset, the ‘relationship’ subset, etc.

(3) The varying subsets will cause a variation in behaviour from situation to situation
e.g., “If X…then Y…” …but every X is slightly (or largely) different

Question 31

Mischel & Shoda (2008) view of personality

Answer 31

Mischel & Shoda (2008): Personality is a complex system (many parts working in a coherent way) (CAPS)

and they argue that this variation is what defines our personality

( how we differ from situation to situation and why! / How we perceive the variation is always uniquely our own)

Question 32

Mischel & Shoda suggest what about our variation?

Answer 32

Our variation is consistent

(1) We should investigate the ‘if…then…’ profiles of people (i.e., behavioural variation)
e.g. If X happens Johnny will do Y
He will consistently do Y given situation X
But he may consistently do Z given a different situation X (due to his self-perception of the differences in situation)

(2) We shouldn’t look at overall aggregate nomothetic consistencies…
We should investigate an individual’s behavioural signatures (i.e., idiographic)
i.e., situations in which their behaviour is different/varied
e.g. High in trait extraversion (aggregated)…
Extraverted in most situations (with friends, strangers, family, etc)
… but… Introverted at work/school (colleagues)
this important info would be lost in the aggregate

Question 33

Bandura proposed the process of what?

Answer 33

observational learning or modelling
> BOBO doll experiments

Question 34

What does the process of self regulation entail:

Answer 34

We regulate our behaviour by setting goals and evaluating our behaviour according to our evaluative standards of performance

Question 35

We may differ in our goals, standards and our self-efficacy but we are all:

Answer 35

Proactive – we are motivated by the anticipation of satisfaction (OE) with the accomplishment of goals (reward) or the dissatisfaction of failures (punishment)

Question 36

How does high-self efficacy affect motivation?

Answer 36

It is the most anxiety and trauma provoking when we have high self-efficacy for the task… This situation causes people to increase motivation to accomplish the goal

Question 37

How does low self efficacy affect motivation

Answer 37

low self-efficacy can lower motivation no matter how attractive the goal is

> e.g., I want a long term loving relationship (attractive goal, high OE) but I always screw it up somehow (low self-efficacy)

Question 38

So when you have a goal (something you would like/love to accomplish) but you just cant seem to get started towards it, ask yourself:

Answer 38

(1) Is the OE actually high for me (but remember short-term vs. long term)
(2) Is it just low self-efficacy, am I scared to try, because I may fail?

Question 39

What are smart goals?

Answer 39

> Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Realistic
Timebound

Question 40

Do we need to delay gratifications?

Answer 40

In life we often have to delay (or refuse) gratification in the present in order to obtain something better in the future
Defining quality of “work” - giving up present (short term reward) for future (long term) success
Not going out with friends the night before an exam
Turns out, we often need to delay our gratification

Delay of gratification is learnt by and is influenced by modelling
If you are unable to delay gratification it is likely that your parents or those close to you (e.g. your “models”) were not able to either!

Question 41

Mischel’s delay of gratification paradigm

Answer 41

The idea of this experimental paradigm is to see how people will reason, what mental strategies they might use and the choices they’ll make in delaying gratification

Longitudinal: Children that were able to delay gratification for long periods of time (high delay) were:
> (later in adolescence) found to be more attentive, able to concentrate, able to express ideas well, able to cope with stressors, etc…

Also manipulated if the child could see the marshmallow or not
This had a huge effect on the ability to delay gratification
Much harder to delay gratification if you can see and touch the object of your desires! (e.g., “bad” food in the house, when dieting…)

Found that if children were taught to utilise cognitive strategies they could better delay gratification (e.g., number counting, engaging in a simple cognitive task, etc.)

Question 42

Summary of social-cognitive variables

Answer 42

These Social-Cognitive variables contribute to enduring, consistent patterns of behaviour
Through interaction with our environment we form generalised knowledge structures of our ‘Self’ called Schemas…

Question 43

Are Competencies socially acquired?

Answer 43

YES