Chapter 14 - Personality in context: interpersonal relations, culture and development across the course of life Flashcards
Contemporary research shows how personality can be understood by examining interactions between persons and the contexts in which they live. What are some examples of this?
The first example of this general point involved interpersonal relations, which in the context of romantic relationships was seen to elicit negative, pessimistic, and ultimately self-defeating thoughts among a group of people with the personality characteristic of rejection sensitivity. Other research showed how many people transfer thoughts and feelings from the past onto a new relationship partner.
Defensive pessimism
A coping strategy in which people use negative thinking as a way of coping with stress.
Hot versus cool attentional focus
The focusing of one thought on emotionally arousing (hot) versus less arousing (cool) aspects of a situation or stimulus.
Independent
Implicit belief about self-concept in which the self is viewed as possessing a set of psychological qualities that are distinct from other people.
Independent versus interdependent
Alternative implicit beliefs about self-concept in which the self is viewed as either as possessing a set of psychological qualities that are distinct from other people (independent self) or is viewed in terms of roles in family, social, and community relationships (interdependent self).
Interdependent
Implicit belief about self-concept in which the self is viewed as possessing a set of psychological qualities that are viewed in terms of roles in family, social, and community relationships.
Optimism
A coping strategy that features relatively realistic expectations about one’s capabilities.
Rejection sensitivity
A thinking style that is characterized by anxious expectations of rejection in interpersonal relationships.
Socioemotional selectivity theory
Theoretical analysis by Carstensen that examines the ways in which social motivations shift across the course of life.
What has research on the coping strategies of optimism and defensive pessimism shown?
Research on the coping strategies of optimism and defensive pessimism showed how people may address the same social stressor with very different yet sometimes equally effective strategies that involve optimistic versus pessimistic styles of thinking.
Are self-appraisals consistent in different settings?
Research on knowledge, appraisal, and cross-situational coherence illustrated how a given aspect of knowledge may come into play across seemingly diverse contexts and, thus, produce consistent self-appraisals in the different settings.
Can socioeconomic circumstances affect personality development?
Work on personality development in context illustrated how socioeconomic circumstances can affect personalty development.
Does the meaning of personality and of the self differ in different cultures?
Research on personality and culture shows how the meaning of personality and of the self may vary from one culture to another; major differences involve self-construals that are independent versus interdependent.
Personality architecture
A term to describe the overall design and operating characteristics of those psychological systems that underlie personality functioning.
Knowledge-and-appraisal personality architecture (KAPA)
Theoretical analysis of personality architecture that distinguishes two aspects of cognition in personality functioning: enduring knowledge and dynamic appraisals of the meaning of encounters for the self.
