Cognitive Approach

Question 1

What is the definition of personality according to cognitive approach?

Answer 1

People have different ways of processing information

Question 2

What did Lewin do?

Answer 2

Described mental representations of important elements of our lives and how we organize them within our life space

Question 3

What was Lewin’s theory of behavior?

Answer 3

Life space is a function of the person and their cultural environment

Question 4

According to Lewin, what is the psychological field?

Answer 4

Total sum of all forces and influences that can impact a person’s behavior.

Question 5

According to Lewin, what is the life space?

Answer 5

Person’s unique experience and reality (feelings, thoughts, goals, experiences, etc.)

Question 6

What was Kelly’s theory?

Answer 6

Personal construct theory

Question 7

What is Kelly’s man-the-scientist approach?

Answer 7

People generate, test and change their hypothesis about the world

Question 8

What is the personal construct theory?

Answer 8

Idea that we attempt to predict and control as many life events as possible through template matching, which will be replaced, and they don’t match reality

Question 9

What are personal constructs?

Answer 9

Bipolar cognitive structures used to interpret and predicts events

Question 10

According to Kelly, what cause differences in personality?

Answer 10

Result of different ways people construe the world

Question 11

What is another way people differ in their constructs?

Answer 11

In the way they organize their constructs, there is a limitless number of constructs and ways to organize them

Question 12

According to Kelly, what is the cause of psychological disorders?

Answer 12

Defect in construct systems, not traumatic past events

Question 13

According to Kelly, what is the cause of most construct problem?

Answer 13

Anxiety

Question 14

What is Kelly’s treatment for psychological issues?

Answer 14

Help clients try on new templates and regain ability to make sense of their world

Question 15

What are cognitive-affective units?

Answer 15

Cognitive variables that account for individual different in the way people act?

Question 16

Cognitive-affective units were created in response to what other theory?

Answer 16

Behaviorism viewed the elements between the stimulus and the response as a black box (unknown and useless)

Question 17

What are the 5 cognitive-affective units?

Answer 17

1. Encoding: categories for encoding information
2. Expectation/belief: expectations for outcomes of behaviors and self-efficacy
3. Affect: feelings and emotions
4. Goals and values
5. Competencies and self-regulatory plan: perceived abilities and plans for changing one’s behaviors and internal stages

Question 18

Within the cognitive-affective units framework, how are individual differences explained?

Answer 18

Everyone possesses different set of mental representations and how easily certain information is depends on a person

Question 19

What is the most important cognitive structure?

Answer 19

Mental representations or self-concepts

Question 20

What are self-schemas?

Answer 20

Cognitive representation of ourselves that we use to process relevant information

Question 21

How do researchers determine what someone’s self-schema is?

Answer 21

They look at how long it takes to process a question asking about a certain trait. The faster the response, the more likely it is to be part of self-schema

Question 22

What is the self-reference effect?

Answer 22

It is easier to access and remember words/information that describe yourself

Question 23

What are possibles selves?

Answer 23

Cognitive representation of the kind of person we might become someday (future occupation, attributes we might possess, dreams, fears, etc.)

Question 24

What are two functions of possibles selves?

Answer 24

1. Provide incentives for future behaviors (will this take me closer to my future self)
2. Help interpret meaning of behaviors (stronger emotional reactions to events relevant to possible selves)

Question 25

Possibles selves also predict?

Answer 25

Future behaviors, since what is within our possible selves will most likely be future decisions

Question 26

What is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy?

Answer 26

Therapy that identifies inappropriate thoughts as the cause of mood disorders and self-defeating behaviors

Question 27

What is the goal of CBT?

Answer 27

Help clients recognize inappropriate thoughts and replace them with more appropriate ones

Question 28

What is one limitation of CBT? One strength?

Answer 28

It doesn’t work on everyone and limited to problems based on irrational thinking. However, it is very effective for depression/anxiety and less likely to have relapse

Question 29

What is Rational Emotive Behavior therapy?

Answer 29

Belief that people are depressed/anxious because of faulty reasoning and reliance on irrational beliefs?

Question 30

What is the A-B-C process?

Answer 30

A. Activating experiences (breakup)
b. Irrational Belief (unworthy of love)
C. Emotional consequence (depression)

Question 31

According to rational Emotive Behavior therapy, why does the ABC process cause problems?

Answer 31

Because people jump from A to C and don’t consider B as the source of negative reaction.

Question 32

What are the two goals of Rational Emotive Behavior therapy?

Answer 32

1. Clients must see how they rely on irrational beliefs and faulty reasoning.
2. Therapist works with clients to replace irrational beliefs with rational one

Question 33

What is repertory grid technique?

Answer 33

Way to measure personal constructs by creating a list of different people encountered in daily life and comparing the similarities/differences between them. This give researchers a list of main constructs

Question 34

What is a limitation of the grid technique?

Answer 34

Large degree of interpretations and assumptions