Control, Competence, Self-Regulation (chpt. 13)

Question 1

Control and predictability

Answer 1

Control is obviously an important survival need.
Organisms either establish control or become controlled.
Being _________ usually does not lead to survival.
Except in, e.g., cattle.
When control does not exist (e.g., learned helplessness), it causes many health problems.
Health is better even in people _________ overestimate the amount of control they have.
Overestimation leads to less anxiety.
But it is hard to feel a sense of control if prediction accuracy is too poor.

Prediction: A survival need that allows control (and a sense of control).
Compare survival value of classical conditioning: The conditioned stimulus predicts the (survival important) unconditioned stimulus, e.g., food or predator.

Question 2

Control and predictability (cont.)

Answer 2

Humans must predict what will happen if, e.g., they plant crops or hunt for animals.
E.g., ‘being quiet’ implies prediction: ‘if the animal hears, I will succeed.’
Accurate predictions provide the ability to control,
and foster a sense of control.

Learning to predict occurs more with a ‘mastery motive’.
A mastery motive drives a person to go beyond current performance limits.
Practice to predict outcomes even in areas not currently crucial.

Question 3

Control and predictability

Answer 3

Predictive success, and control in a variety of areas, can foster ‘internal locus of control.’
Internal locus of control (in-lc): Person believes he or she has ability to control important outcomes.
External locus of control (ex-lc): Person believes important outcomes are controlled by external factors.

Question 4

Locus of control

Answer 4

Levenson altered the original lc model.
Ex-lc divides into:
‘Powerful others’: Outcomes are controlled by powerful others.
‘Chance’: Outcomes are controlled by chance

Importance of Levenson’s change:
Ex-lc ‘powerful other’ orientation does not mean that the self has no control.
–‘powerful others’ can still be influenced through skillful means.
With Levenson’s change, in-lc/ex-lc are no longer ‘opposites.’
A person can be both
–in-lc and
–ex-lc/’powerful others.’

Question 5

Locus of control (cont.)

Answer 5

Lc and the mastery motive are clearly related.
E.g., person with ex-lc/’luck’ orientation will not have a mastery motive.
In-lc = Bandura’s ‘cognitive control’ = belief that allows mastery learning.

Question 6

Locus of control (Bio. component)

Answer 6

Biological component: Lc is about 30% inherited.
Ex-lc/’luck’ is related to anxiety.
Having no produces anxiety.
But direction of effect may be opposite.
Being anxious may produce sense of no control.
Inherited aspect may derive from neuroticism/BIS inheritance.

Question 7

Locus of control (Learned Component)

Answer 7

In-lc may derive from success as reinforcement of attempts to control.
Also cultural factor:
In-lc reinforcement is from ‘changing the world.’
Western: Control dissatisfaction by changing world.
May lead to in-lc reinforcement.
Eastern: Control dissatisfaction by changing self (e.g., meditation).
No in-lc reinforcement.

Question 8

Locus of control (Learned Component)

Answer 8

Cognitive component: The serenity prayer.
Lc wisdom is:
a) Changing things that can be changed.
b) Not trying to change things that can’t be changed.
c) Knowing the difference between (a) and (b).

Question 9

Competence and achievement

Answer 9

Achievement motivation is the motive to become competent.

Competence is having sufficient ability to be _________ and successful.

Question 10

Competence and achievement

Answer 10

Competence is having sufficient ability to be effective and successful.
Closely related to achievement.
Achievement motivation: The ‘desire to strive to do something difficult, well and quickly.’
Atkinson’s (1957) ‘cognitive choice’ theory.
Included both achievement motive and fear-of-failure motive.
Achievement motive only drives behavior if fear-of-failure is not too strong.

Question 11

Competence and achievement (cont.)

Answer 11

Competence and effectance.
Competence is likely an innate need.
With basic needs met, infants explore and work towards competence.
White’s ‘effectance motivation’: Feeling of efficacy that comes from knowing that I can affect environment.
Survival adaptation: Motive to spend time exploring environment.
Fades once environment is explored.
Motive fades if other motives are engaged.

Question 12

Piaget’s theory

Answer 12

Accommodation (changing to adapt).
Main early motive: Fear at being unable to stop pain.
Assimilation (processing info. without changing).
These ‘cycle’ in Piaget’s theory until something like competence is achieved.

Question 13

Competence and achievement (Bio. component)

Answer 13

Biological component.
Behavioral activation and inhibition systems (BAS and BIS).
These ‘cycle’ in a way that enhances competence while maintaining safety.
E.g., new environment, more BIS; once familiar, more BAS.
The BAS can lead to impulsivity and distractibility.
The BIS can balance these effects.

Question 14

Competence and achievement (Learned component)

Answer 14

Learned component.
Social learning: If we see others reinforced for achievement, we tend to strive for achievement.
Parents: Encouraging independence and mastery fosters achievement motive.
Possible problem: Parents’ expectations can be too high.
McClelland: What children learn is “anticipatory feelings of satisfaction.”

Question 15

Competence and achievement (Cognitive component)

Answer 15

Dweck’s ‘cognitive competence’ theory.
Relates to people’s ideas of the origins of achievement & competence (a&c).
People either have:
‘Entity theory’: My a&c are what I can do now.
‘Increment theory’: Experience has shown me that my a&c continues to grow in increments.

Question 16

Dweck’s theory

Answer 16

Entity theory people are not inclined to challenge themselves.
Also: success/failure reflects ‘who I am.’
Failure can be devastating.
Increment theory people challenge themselves more
Failure can be ‘just practice.’

Question 17

Competence and achievement (Cognitive component cont.)

Answer 17

Mastery and performance, approach and avoidance.
Mastery ≈ competence.
One has mastered tasks that one is competent in.
Mastery: Learning for its own sake.
Approach: Motive to fully master a task area.
Avoidance: Motive to avoid mistakes due to lack of knowledge in task area.
May involve ‘perfectionism.’

Mastery and performance, approach and avoidance (cont.).
Performance: Learning to get approval.
Approach: Motive to be more competent than others in a task.
Avoidance: Motive to avoid bad effects of lack of competence.

Question 18

Competence and self-regulation

Answer 18

Involves a number of sub-skills.
E.g., finding task strategies, time management, figuring out how to self-monitor and self-evaluate.
Not based on ‘inborn capacities.’
Most people can learn these skills if they are willing to practice.

E.g., some people are not aware of some of their emotional states, or when they have raisedtheir voices.
Monitor the aspect as it changes.
E.g., people writing down how many times they raise their voice each day helps to change the behavior.

Question 19

Self regulation

Answer 19

Self-evaluation/judgment.
Most people have a lot of knowledge about what actions are best for them.
The knowledge comes from:
Significant others (family/peers), as considered in light of
personal experience.
This knowledge includes goals
Actions can be evaluated by judging how well they work to achieve these goals.

Self-reaction/incentive.
Self-judged success or failure; and
events in the environment (e.g., actions of others) lead to emotional reactions.
Paying—
large enough attention to our joy at success; and
small enough attention to our dismay at failure
—provides the best incentive to energize future good actions.

Question 20

Self-reaction/incentive

Answer 20

How much control do we actually have over the attention we pay to emotions?
A person with a ‘mastery motive’ and an ‘increment theory’ of competence would say that control can grow through practice.

Question 21

Setting goals

Answer 21

Main issues in motivation theory:
the energy driving behavior;
what the behavior is directed toward;
how persistent the behavior is.

Goals are important to motivation, because they:
arouse effort (energy),
provide direction, and
enhance persistence.
Goals also promote the ‘higher motivation’ of developing strategies.

Question 22

Two types of goals

Answer 22

Distal goal (d-g): What I want to accomplish in the end.
Proximal goal (p-g): What I want to do right now.
How the types of goals relate:
P-g without d-g are meaningless;
d-g without p-g are empty dreams.

Question 23

Proximal, distal goals

Answer 23

With no d-g, a person is ‘at the whim’ of momentary impulses (a type of p-g).
Can be a slave to appetite.
‘If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.’
D-g without p-g ‘all talk and no action.’
Compare procrastination.

Question 24

Setting goals cont.

Answer 24

Goal factors influencing motivation–more motivation with:
Difficult but attainable vs. easy goals.
People will not usually pick challenging goals if just told to ‘do their best.’
Suggestions of specific hard goals usually allow people to have the most motivation.

More motivation with:
Goals with feedback vs. without.
Note: ‘Flow’ state only occurs when goal-related feedback is very clear.
Self-assigned vs. other-assigned goals.
Exception: Strong commitment can bring high motivation to goals assigned by others.

Question 25

Self-efficacy Theory

Answer 25

Outcome expectation (o-e): E.g., if I attain the goal, how good will I feel?
Self-efficacy (s-e): How effective do I feel I am in this type of situation?
If both o-e and s-e are strong, I will find the task highly motivating.
Original s-e research:
Raising a person’s skill level (by practice) raises the person’s s-e.
So: Practice increases not only confidence, but also motivation.

Question 26

Basic issues in self-regulation

Answer 26

Using imagination.
Mental stimulation.
E.g., representing later reinforcement.
Mental practice(e.g., in sports).

Question 27

Basic issues

Answer 27

Conscious intentions and automaticity.
Much self-regulation is ‘automatic.’
But this is the result of practice that originally included conscious intents.
Compare learning to drive a car.
To implement new intentions one must:
Start the planned actions in a specific way, at a specific time.

Rational vs. intuitive judgments.
Closely related to consciousness vs. automaticity.
Intuitive judgments often need rational guidance.