Cognitive approaches to personality

Question 1

Learning theories of personality

Answer 1

• argue individual differences in thought and beh exist due to form of learning
• often involves reinforcement (punishments and rewards)
• childhood social experiences were positive so learned being around others is good thing

Question 2

Social Learning Theory - Bandura

Answer 2

• observational learning
• characteristics of the model
• attributes of the observer
• consequences of imitating a behaviour
• self-efficacy as a self-regulatory process
• increasing self-efficacy ratings

Question 3

Social Learning Theory - Bandura Reciprocol Determinism

Answer 3

overt behaviour
environmental influences
personal factors

Question 4

Theoretical Foundations of Social Learning Theory

Answer 4

Psychodynamic explanations of behavior are flawed:
- based on inferred drives/needs/etc., which can’t be tested
- ignore conscious cognitions
- ignore situational influences

Radical behaviorism is flawed:
- ignores cognition and emotion
- assumes that reinforcement is the only way to learn

Question 5

Beyond Reinforcement

Answer 5

• we can learn by observing, reading or hearing about other’s behaviours
• vicarious reinforcement: observe others’ behaviour and its outcomes, model for ourselves

Question 6

Basic Processes of Observational Learning

Answer 6

1) Attentional Processes (attend to and accurately perceive model’s behaviour)

2) Retention Processes (remember the model’s behaviour)

3) Motor Reproduction Processes (translate symbolically coded memories of the model’s behaviour into new response patterns)

4) Motivational Processes (if positive reinforcement is potentially available, enact the modelled behaviour).

Question 7

Bandura et al., 1963- Bobo doll study

Answer 7

• 48 boys and 48 girls attending nursery
• mean age 4.3 years
• Ss matched for agressive neh shpwn in nursery school
• 4 conditions of bobo doll
• either showed total agression or less agression depending on what shown

Question 8

Factors Influencing Tendency to Imitate

Answer 8

• characteristics of models: similarity, age, sex, status
• characteristics of observers: Low self-confidence, low self-esteem, reinforcement for imitation
• reward consequences of behaviour: Directly witnessing associated rewards

Question 9

Evidence of Observational Learning

Answer 9

Bandura & Huston, 1961
- children imitate a model’s aggressive behaviour in the presence of the model

Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961
- children imitate a model’s aggressive behaviour in a new setting, away from the model

Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1963
- children imitate a film-model’s aggressive behaviour

Question 10

Self-Efficacy

Answer 10

• perceived ability to cope with specific situations
• situational specificity varies according to situation
• based on past experiences and previous successes

Question 11

High self efficacy

Answer 11

• believe can deal effectively with life events
• confident in abilities
• expect to overcome obstacles effectively

Question 12

Low self efficacy

Answer 12

• feel unable to exercise control over life
• low confidence, believe all efforts are futile

Question 13

Self-Efficacy and Self Esteem

Answer 13

• perceived self-efficacy not global construct; different self-efficacy beliefs in different situations
• perceived self-efficacy not an abstract sense of personal worth, but a judgment of what one can do
• correlation between self-esteem and performance is weak
• correlation between perceived self-efficacy and performance strong

Question 14

Self-Efficacy + Education

Answer 14

• self-efficacy accounts for 14% variance in educational performance
• self-efficacy accounts for 12% variance in academic persistence
• suggestion that guided mastery (participant modelling), modelling, and feedback increase self-efficacy for learning

Question 15

Cognitive elements: Goals and standards

Answer 15

Goal- desired end point
Standard- reference point to complete performance

• motivation higher when have self efficacy
• beh maintained by anticipated consequences

Question 16

Fixed mindset (entity view)

Answer 16

• ability is a stable, uncontrollable trait of a person that can’t be changed

Question 17

Growth mindset (incremental view)

Answer 17

• ability is unstable and controllable , can be changed through hard work

Question 18

Locus of Control

Answer 18

• Internal versus external locus of control
• belief that your behaviour makes a difference

Question 19

Locus of control and behavioural outcomes

Answer 19

Suh & Suh (2006)
- internals more likely to get high school diplomas

Bender (1995)
- trying but continuing failure leads to external locus of control in educational settings

Anderman & Midgley (1997)
- external locus of control protects against repeated failure
- internals more likely to succeed due to motivation and higher self-expectations

Question 20

Cognitive theories of personality

Answer 20

• recognise active role by the individual in determining their own beh

Question 21

Cognitive approaches up to 1960s

Answer 21

• Psychoanalysis: Inner states and drives, emphasis on childhood experiences
• Trait theories: stable structures, descriptive approach
• Behaviourism (classic conditioning, operant conditioning)
  based on a stimulus-response paradigm

Question 22

Limitations of psychodynamic, trait, and behavioural approaches

Answer 22

Psychoanalysis: impossible to test
Traits: cannot explain development; just descriptive
Behavioural/learning: do not take in account the person

Question 23

George Kelly (1905 – 1967)

Answer 23

• Individuals act like scientists – generating hypotheses about the world and testing them
• our methods are biased by our subjective experiences
• we each have personal constructs
• we all create our own view of the world, then act according to our perceptions

Question 24

Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory

Answer 24

• Superordinate constructs and subordinate constructs
  -our perceptions are malleable
• we can change our minds as new evidence comes in (Constructive Alternativism)
• humans are oriented toward the future
  -main reason we generate personal constructs about the world is so we can predict what will happen later

Question 25

Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory: 11 collaries

Answer 25

The dichotomy corollary
- all constructs are based on dichotomies at the superordinate stage – person either friendly or unfriendly

The experience corollary
- the way we are able to change and adapt our constructs based on experience

The individuality corollary
- recognises individual differences in interpretations

Question 26

Assessing personality using personal construct theory: The Role Construct Repertory Test

Answer 26

• The Role Construct Repertory Test
• participants asked to complete a grid, featuring the most important people in their life
• characteristics (suggested by participant) listed at one side
• 3 people considered at once – participant must select two people for each characteristic, and one for the opposite

Question 27

Completed Role Construct Repertory Test – Scoring

Answer 27

• no standard way to score repertory grids
• interpretation by participant and/or researcher/therapist

Question 28

Construct Theory - evaluation

Answer 28

• provides over-arching framework whilst allowing for uniqueness
• too simple?
• more influential in therapy than in personality theorising
• lack of empirical support?
• descriptive – lack of explanatory power
• subjectivity in using the grid

Question 29

Walter Mischel and the Cognitive Affective Personality System

Answer 29

• are personality traits stable across situations?
• is our behaviour more determined by situations
• claimed correlation between traits and behaviour was at most r=0.3 (it may be more like r=0.4)

Question 30

Cognitive Affective Personality System

Answer 30

• Mischel and Shoda (1995)
• propose mental and emotional processes to situations need to be incorporated into any model of personality
• developed the Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) made up of cognitive-affective units (CAUs)
• include perceptions of self, others, situations, beliefs, goals, emotional states and experiences
• make up a complex inter-related system that ultimately determines behaviour

Question 31

Cognitive Affective Units of Personality

Answer 31

• encoding strategies – how people construe the world
• goals – what people are trying to do
• expectancies – what is expected to happen
• competencies – what a person is able to do
• self-regulation – maintaining the pursuit of goals
• emotion – feelings, emotions and affective responses

Question 32

Shoda et al., 1994

Answer 32

observed beh of boys at summer camp across 5 situations:
- when a peer initiated positive contact
- when a peer teased or provoked
- when an adult gave praise
- when an adult gave a warning
- when an adult gave punishment

• beh stable within situation categories but not across categories
• boys more consistent with behaviour in similar, rather than dissimilar, situations