Chapter 15: The Cognitive Approach Flashcards
the cognitive approach
explains differences in personality as differences in the ways that people process information
how does the personal construct theory begin?
with the man-the-scientist perspective
man-the-scientist perspective
argues that like scientists, people constantly generate and test hypotheses about their world in order to predict and control as many of the things in our lives as possible
how do we satisfy our need for predictability according to personal construct theory?
by engaging in a process similar to template-matching
Template-matching
our ideas about the world are similar to templates that we place over the events we encounter
what happens if our ideas match the template?
we retain the template
what happens if our ideas don’t match the template?
we modify them so that we have a better prediction for the next time and try to increase our repertoire of constructs
personal constructs
the cognitive structures we use to interpret and predict events
personal constructs among people
No two people use identical personal constructs or organize them identically
how are personal constructs described?
in a bipolar fashion
bipolar
classified in an either-or fashion (ex. Tall or short)
how does personal construct theory explain differences in personality?
Differences in personality result largely from differences in the way people construe the world
how do we organize personal constructs?
The ways we organize and use personal constructs are practically endless
George Kelly’s life
- Studied mathematics and physics
- Was an active member of an intercollegiate debate team and developed a keen ability to challenge arguments
- Described his first psychology course as boring and unconvincing
Was highly skeptical of Freud - When working with patients during the Great Depression, found that what they really needed was an explanation for what had happened to them and an ability to predict what would happen to them in the future
why did Kelly believe that people suffered from psychological problems?
Argued that people suffer from psychological problems because of defects in their construct systems.
Kelly on anxiety
- Placed anxiety at the heart of most psychological problems
- We become anxious when our personal constructs fail to make sense of the events in our lives
how should we understand personality and behaviour according to cognitive personality psychologists?
Cognitive personality psychologists maintain that the elements between the stimulus and response are key to understanding personality and behaviour
kinds of cognitive-affective units
- encodings
- expectations and beliefs
- affects
- goals and values
- competencies and self-regulatory plans
encodings
categories (constructs) for encoding information about one’s self, other people, events, and situations
expectations and beliefs
expectations for what will happen in certain situations, for outcomes for certain behaviours, and for one’s personal efficacy
affects
feelings, emotions, and emotional responses
goals and values
individuated goals an values, and life projects
competencies and self-regulatory plans
perceived abilities, plans, and strategies for changing and maintaining one’s behaviour and inner states
when do we develop a cognitive representation of ourselves?
at a very early age
function of cognitive representations
Cognitive representations of ourselves play a central role in the way we process information and interact with the world
self-schemas
cognitive representations of ourselves that we use to organize and process self-relevant information
what do self-schemas consist of?
behaviours and attributes that are most important to oneself
self-schemas across people
- Elements that constitute self-schemas vary from person to person
- Thus, we process information about ourselves differently
common elements of self-schemas
Basic elements like one’s name, information about one’s physical appearance, and information about significant relationships are present in nearly everyone’s self-schemas
athleticism and self-schemas study
Those who incorporate elements about being physically fit in their self-schemas are more likely to stick with regular exercise programs than those who do not
traits and self-concepts
Trait concepts can be part of one’s self-schema
prosociality and self-schemas study
Elementary school students with prosocial as part of their self-schema were more likely to give valuable tokens to others than children
sexual desire and self-schemas study
Men and women whose self-schemas included sexuality reported higher levels of sexual desire and stronger romantic attachments
simpatico and self-schemas study
Latin Americans were more likely than White Americans to include simpatico (an interpersonal style emphasizing hospitality and graciousness) in their self-schemas
how do psychologists determine a client’s self-schema
they look at how people perceive and use information presented to them
making schema judgments study
People with strong independence schemas were more likely to quickly agree with independence-related adjectives but took longer to respond to the dependence-related adjectives. People with strong dependence responded in the opposite pattern. Schematics showed no difference in making these judgments
function of self-schemas
Self-schemas provide a framework for organizing and storing schema-relevant information
self-reference study
when participants answered questions about themselves, they were more likely to remember the information than when the question was processed in other ways
what does the self-reference study provide evidence for?
a self-schema
the self-reference effect
we often relate new information we encounter to something about ourselves
example of the self-reference effect
students are more likely to remember friends’ birthdays if they’re closer to their own
possible selves
cognitive representations of the kind of person we might become someday
what do possible selves include?
roles and occupations we aspire to as well as the roles we fear we might fall into
Two functions of possible selves
- Provide incentives for future behaviour
- Help us to interpret the meaning of our behaviour and the events in our lives
possible selves and behaviour
- Behaviour is influenced by cognitive representations of the present and future self
- Provide incentives for future behaviour
- Helps to interpret the meaning of behaviour and events in our lives
- Researchers use possible selves to study varied behaviours
possible selves and juvenile delinquents study
more than ⅓ of juvenile delinquents had developed a criminal possible self, while very few of them possessed possible selves for more conventional goals
gender and possible selves studies
- Female high school and college students are less likely than males to see themselves in traditionally masculine roles in the future
- University women are less likely than men to have a possible self that includes a career in math, science, or business
- Male students are less likely than women to see themselves in careers related to arts, culture, and communication
combatting gender roles and possible selves studies
- High school girls who have female friends interested in science and who receive encouragement from their peers are more likely to develop a scientist possible self
- Having same-gender role models in a career helps students develop possible selves in that field
strengths of the cognitive approach
- Many of the ideas were developed through empirical research findings
- It fits well with the current mood of psychology
criticisms of the cognitive approach
- The concepts are sometimes too abstract for empirical research
- We might not need to introduce these concepts to account for individual differences in behaviour
- Lack of a general model
what influence the cognitive perspective?
Kurt Lewin’s Field of Theory of Behaviour
Kurt Lewin’s Field of Theory of Behaviour
argues that life space behaviour is a function of the person and their cultural environment
psychological field
the total sum of all forces and influences that can impact a person’s behaviour. It incorporates situational, cultural, and social elements
life space
represents a person’s unique experience and reality. It includes their feelings, thoughts, perceptions, goals, and experiences
psychology of personal constructs
- Published by George Kelly
- The premise of many approaches identified as cognitive
goals of the man/woman-the-scientist perspective
- Observe
- Explain
- Predict
- Control
Kelly on living things
emphasizes the creative capacity of living things to represent their environment, as opposed to simply reacting to it
constructs
patterns we create in our mind and attempt to fit over the realities of the world
why do we test constructs?
for the ability to predict what will happen in our lives
using constructs to evaluate the world
With sufficient time and experience, and if we are willing to learn from our mistakes, we can evaluate all of our interpretations of the world we live in
fundamental postulate
a person’s processes are psychologically channelized by how they anticipate events
individuality corollary
- People differ from each other in their construction of events
- Two people cannot play the same role in a situation
- They will therefore interpret the event differently
organization corollary
when faced with conflict, there may be solutions that contradict one another
how are constructs applied according to personal construct theory?
- Application of the first construct is followed by other bipolar constructs
- This determines the extent of the blackness or whiteness
how do people make sense of the world according to personal construct theory?
Initial thoughts of people to make sense of others and their initial behaviour
do people with the same constructs view the world the same way?
no, individuals may use the same constructs and construe the world differently
what do people do when they have an inadequate construct?
they general a new construct to replace it
cognitive-affective units
- Elements between the stimulus and response
- Constitute to individual differences in people
- Part of a complex system that links situations people encounter with their behaviour
what explains individual differences in cognitive frameworks according to the cognitive approach?
differences in people’s mental representations
accessing stored information & behaviour
- Individuals differ in the manner they access stored information
- Thus, people react to the same situation differently
self-concept over time
Relatively stable over time
self-concept and information processing
Plays a central role in the way people process information
self-schemas and behaviour
People behave differently due to individual differences in self-schemas
cogntive psychotherapy
Helps people recognize inappropriate thoughts and replace them with appropriate ones
goal of cognitive psychologists
to teach clients how to deal with future and recurring problems
limitation of cognitive psychotherapy
Limited to psychological problems that are based in irrational and self-defeating thinking
who developed rational emotive therapy?
Albert Ellis
rational emotive therapy
People become depressed, anxious, and upset due to faulty reasoning and reliance on irrational beliefs
A-B-C process
- Activating experience
- Irrational belief
- Emotional consequence
Goals of rational emotive therapy
- Clients must see their irrational beleifs and identify the fault in reasoning
- To replace irrational beliefs with rational ones
examples of obvious irrational beliefs
- Because I strongly desire to perform important tasks competently and successfully, I absolutely must perform them, well at all times.
- Because I strongly desire to be approved by people I find significant, I absolutely must always have their approval.
- Because I strongly desire people to treat me considerately and fairly, they absolutely must at all times and under all conditions do so.
- Because I strongly desire to have a safe, comfortable, and satisfying life, the conditions under which I live absolutely must at all times be easy, convenient, and gratifying.
examples of subtle and tricky irrational beliefs
- Because I strongly desire people to treat me considerately and fairly, and because I am almost always considerable and fair to others, they absolutely must treat me well.
- Because I strongly desire to have a safe, comfortable, and satisfying life, and because I am a nice person who tries to help others lead this kind of life, the conditions under which I live absolutely must be easy, convenient, and gratifying.
