Personality #2 Flashcards
A biophsychosocial approach to personality. Influenced by our biology. The world around us influences our social experiences. Our biology and our social experiences work together to form our personality
The Social-Cognitive Approach
Proposed by Bandura. The environment does not control behaviors. People influence the world around them, and the world influences people. Behaviors: we interact with our enviro, influences B
Social: rewards and punishment are in the social world
Cognitive: how we think about our situation, it changes our behavior and our psychological experiences
Triadic reciprocal determinism
Personality account of motive. Julian Rotter. Locus of control defines how we see ourselves - if we are in control or if the enviro is controlling us.
Personal Control
___ ____ of control. Situation, people see their own behaviors as leading to desire outcomes. What I do matters. With my behavior, I can achieve desired outcomes. A clear link between their actions and the outcomes.
Internal Locus of Control
____ ___ of control. Person thinks that nothing that they do leads to desired outcomes. the do not believe that they are in control of their destiny. Believe in fate, chance. I might as well give into chance. “Why bother, my life is a function of chance”
External locus of control
People tend to be happier if they have the mindset of internal. They act independently, enjoy better health outcomes. What I do matters. External: tend to be passive, unmotivated, “why bother,” more depressed and anxious.
Correlates of locus and control
Perceived independence of behaviors and outcomes. Social psych memory. When behavior is not contingently linked to outcomes, animals become hopeless. When people are exposed to unpredictable and uncontrollable events, they become helpless. When you believe that what you do does not matter, you have no will.
Learned helplessness
Experiment. Seligman and Meier (1970). Three groups of dogs. Control group placed in a harness then released, jumped over a partition. Second group: harness, shocks through the floor, they could stop it with a lever, jumped over partition Third: harness, shocks through floor, lever does nothing, lied down and accepted the
Learned helplessness
Shultz Study. Two groups of elderly residents in a nursing home. Residents the condition were told that they would have a visitor come at a certain time to do a certain activity (no control). Second group: what day/time/activities would you like? (control over outcomes)
after the period of time, those with control felt more alive and energetic, but after a year, those who had control felt less alive. Shows how much
Promotive Perceived Control
Langer and Rodin’s study. One group given choice: given a plant, your responsibility. See a movie? What time work better. Second group: we will take care of the plant for you, there is a movie at 6pm. First group does better, choice is conducive to health
Promotive Perceived Control
Measure how effective/helpless a person feels.____: they are effective,____: ineffective and helpless
Optimism vs Pessimism
Pessimistic attributional style. I am the cause of the negative event. It’s my fault I did poorly on the exam. More prone to depression. VS It’s the teacher’s fault for making it hard. Someone else, or another factor is the reason for the negative event.
Internal VS External pessimistic attributional style
Pessimistic attributional style. I am a poor student all the time. This wasn’t a one-time event. More prone to depression. VS this is the only time this has happened to me.
Stable vs unstable pessimistic attributional style.
Pessimistic attributional style.I am a poor student and also a failure at life and everything else that is important. Contributes to depression
Global vs specific
People will live a better life overall when they believe that they can control important outcomes.
Learned Outcomes
