cognitive perspective Flashcards
what is field dependance?
- sees the big picture
- ex: see the forest not the trees
- social people
- they look for context in confusing situations
what is field independance?
-sees the details
-ex: see the trees not the forest
- are more autonomous people
- can ignore distractions
- they look for details in confusing situations
what are the four approaches in interpreting the social world?
- Locus of control
- attributional style
- optimism/ pessimism
- mastery orientation
what is the personal construct theory?
- people develop theories about how the world works
- everyone has unique theories on interpreting world events
- ex: you get what you deserve, if you work hard good things will happen
what is the function of personal construct?
- it helps organize, interpret and predict people’s behaviours
what is locus of control?
- general tendency to explain events in your life
- do you take responsibility/ control or deny it?
what is internal locus of control?
- I believe I can control what happens in my life
- ex: I got a bad grade because I didn’t study
what is external locus of control?
- I believe that fate is in the hands of chance/ others
- ex: I failed my test because the teacher performs poorly in class
positive effects of locus of control:
more likely to:
- have better health
- follow what the doctor says
- have a better credit score
What is learned helplessness?
- if nothing goes my way I tend to believe that I am helpless
- perceive that there is not association between my actions and the outcomes
- ex: why should I try, it won’t work out anyways!
what are the 3 elements to look at in learned helplessness?
is cause Stable vs Unstable? (e.g., it’s not gonna change)
* is cause Internal vs External? (e.g., it’s about me)
* is cause Global vs Specific? (e.g., every part of my life)
– if for neg events answers are: Stable, Internal, Global,
then one feels helpless
Optimism/ pessimism
- concern’s about people’s expectancies for the future
people are motivated by what?
-goals
- how much effort you put into your goals are influenced by: the value of it (how much you want it) and How confident/ doubtful you are that you can achieve it
optimism is?
a general belief / confidence that things will turn out for the best
optimistic people are most likely to:
persevere, see challenges as an opportunity to grow, have more effective coping strategies
defence pessimism:
-are pessimists with a history of doing well
- very anxious prior to test situation
- use anxiety for better performance
optimists and defence pessimists have:
same goals, different expectancies and different strategies
- both are effective
- differ in how they interpret and respond to challenges
difference between: optimism/ pessimism and realism:
- positivism: Positive expectations for future: imagine desired outcome
- pessimism: Neg expectations for future: imagine undesired outcome
- Realistic Orientation: imagine mix of desired and
undesired possible outcomes
Defense pessimism vs realist
defence pessimist has negative expectation, which makes them anxious and then are motivated to avoid failure.
realists have both negative and positive expectations, are hopeful and anxious but they have a plan just in case
entity theorists believe that:
- intelligence is a fixed trait and it is a quality that cannot be changed
ex: failure means one is stupid - focus is on performance and avoid challenging tasks
incremental theories believe that:
- challenging situations are opportunities to learn
- if one fails they should work harder or try a different way
- focus on learning, prefer challenging tasks
( for personality) Entity theorists believe that:
believe traits are fixed
- Once an individual/group is labeled, new counter info is rejected/ignored
for personality) incremental theorists
believe people can change
- Behaviour seen as due to situations, goals, motivation
