Cognitive and social approaches to personality Flashcards
What idea to learning theories reject? What did they suggest instead?
The idea that our behaviour is directed by inner motives.
Suggested instead -> all behaviour is learnt and individual differences in behaviour are the result of the different learning experiences people have had
What is one of the major questions in personality theorising?
Whether inner or outer forces control our behaviour
Who are 3 key behaviourism theorists?
Pavlov, Watson and Skinner
What did Albert Bandura day about personality development?
Personality development is about how we learn to become the person we are -> explains why we behave as we do
What does Bandura see the individual as?
An active player responding to both inner stimuli and external environments and moving back and forward in a dynamic system
What is reciprocal determinism?
the idea that behavior is controlled or determined by the individual, through personal factors, behavioural factors, environmental factors
What experiment was Bandura famous for? (what did he do?)
Bobo doll
Tested 3-6yr old children - observational learning
Either saw an adult model behaving aggressively to a doll, playing quietly or a control
Children who observed aggressive model were more likely to behave aggressively to the toys in another room
What 3 factors are important in modelling?
Characteristics of model, attributes of observer, consequences of imitating behaviour
What type of studies did Julian Rotter and Bandura think were too simplistic to address the complexity of human behaviour?
Animal studies
What did Rotter claim we need to know to predict behaviour in a given situation?
What the options are
What we see as being the possible outcomes for each option
What is the equation for behaviour potential?
Behaviour potential = reinforcement value x expectancy
What is Rotter’s locus of control and what are the 2 types?
Our general expectancies in new situations
Internal - individuals who believe their behaviour does make a difference to the outcomes
External - individuals who believe that what they do does not influence the outcome
What are cognitive approaches to personality?
Assign a role to inner processes and the environment we operate in.
Inner psychological processes -> our unconscious thoughts (cognitions) about ourselves, other people and situations that influence how we perceive the world.
What is George Kelly’s theory of personal constructs?
Individuals act as scientists BUT unlike true scientists, we cont have objective data to work with.
Interpret events in the world according to our own theories of human behaviour.
Personal constructs: the criteria we each use to perceive and interpret events
What is Kelly’s fundamental postulate?
We create our own view of the world and then act according to our perceptions / we act in line with how we expect the situation to be based on past events
What is constructive alternativism? (George Kelly)
We all perceive the world differently and are all capable of changing our minds
What is George Kelly’s stance in the free will & determinism debate?
We have free will but our thoughts and behaviours can be determined by goals/the views of others etc.
What is a subordinate construct? (George Kelly)
Something chosen of your own free will
According to Kelly, are we past, present or future-oriented?
Future-oriented
According to Kelly, when using personal constructs, how do we organise experiences?
In terms of similarities and contrasts
How was Kelly’s theory of personal constructs organised?
Into a fundamental postulate and 11 corollaries
What are the 11 corollaries of Kelly’s theory of personal constructs?
(Outline how the interpretative processes operate and allow us to create our personal constructs)
Construction, Individuality, organisation, dichotomy, choice, range of convenience, experience, modulation, fragmentation, commonality, sociality
What approaches to personality did Kelly’s theory of personal constructs challenge?
Both the psychoanalytic and learning theory approaches
What did Kelly propose about personal constructs?
The criteria we each use to perceive and interpret the world are our personal constructs
- our motivation to act comes from future aims rather than past learning/early experiences/innate drives
In Kelly’s theory of personal constructs, what is the purpose of development?
For the individual to maximise their knowledge of the world via the development of their personal constructs
What was Albert Ellis interested in?
How our cognitions impact our emotions and behaviours - we create our own emotional responses inside our own brains
What 2 characteristics did Ellis believe to be innate in humans?
Rationality and irrationality
What type of therapy did Albert Ellis create?
Rational-Emotinal Behavioural Therapy (REBT) - interested in the nature of self-talk that we indulge in when we are interpreting events
What model did Ellis use in REBT?
ABC model - describes how emotional and behavioural responses occur
A - Activating event
B - Belief system
C - Consequences (emotional and behavioural) that occur as a result
Who coined The Dark Triad?
Paulhus and Williams
What are the 3 personality traits of the Dark Triad?
Machiavellianism
Narcissism
Psychopathy
Where did the term Machiavellianism come from?
Author Niccolo Machiavelli wrote ‘The Prince’ (1532) - contains advice on how to make others do what you want and how best to advance yourself
What are the characteristics of Machiavellianism?
Cynical, calculating, manipulative
What behaviours have Machiavellianism scales shown to predict? What is it correlated with?
Bullying/cheating
Negative correlation with agreeableness and conscientiousness (big 5)
Positively correlated with intelligence
What is narcissism?
Excessive interest in oneself - but also fragile and highly sensitive to threat
- some researchers have distinguished between grandiose and vulnerable forms but most measure typically measure grandiose narcissism
What is an example of a measurement of narcissism and what are they designed for?
NPI
Attempts to measure narcissism using items designed to capture the clinical narcissistic personality disorder
What is psychopathy?
Superficial charm, unemotional, good at lying, anti-social
What is psychopathy linked to?
Brain structure and/or function - individual differences in structure/function of the brain may be linked to psychopathy
Associated with low agreeableness and conscientiousness but high neuroticism
What 4th trait could accompany the dark triad?
sadism
What is essential for a scientific grasp of personality? Why?
Exploring basic mechanisms underlying traits
Without understanding how/why people develop particular levels of a trait, we are unable to explain personality, only describe it.
