Personality as a Cognitive-Affective Processing System (Smith & Shoda)

Question 1

HOW DOES CAPS WORK

Answer 1

The system operates via reciprocal determinism (Bandura): person, environment, and behaviour influence each other.

Question 2

What is the personality paradox?

Answer 2

• In defining personality, there is an implication of stability in personal functioning, and that consistencies in behaviour should result
• But global scales show inconsistencies - particularly in aggregate behavioural responses
• This presumption of a stable dispositional structure, combined with little evidence for behavioural consistency was dubbed the ‘personality paradox’

Question 3

Cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) - Different Parts

Answer 3

1. Encoding
2. Expectencies and beliefs
3. Affects
4. Goals and values
5. Competencies and self-regulation skills

Question 4

Encodings

Cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) - Different Parts

Answer 4

• what constitutes a psychological situation depends on the acquired meanings of the stimulus elements for the person, as well as the specific aspects of the situation that are selectively focused upon (which people differ in)

Question 5

Expectancies and beliefs

Cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) - Different Parts

Answer 5

• People’s belief systems help confer meaning on events and are involved in selecting goals, planning behavioural strategies and understanding oneself and others.
• Among the individual’s beliefs are situationally-specific and more global expectations of ‘what leads to what’
• Encodings frequently evoke expectancies

Question 6

Affects

Cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) - Different Parts

Answer 6

• Affective responses can influence a wide range of behaviours, including evaluative responses and social behaviour, in a preconscious fashion that occurs automatically and outside of awareness
• People exhibit stable individual differences in emotionality.

Question 7

Goals and values

Cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) - Different Parts

Answer 7

• Emotions are aroused when personally significant goals are attained, threatened or frustrated.
• Each emotion thus has an underlying ‘relational theme

Question 8

Competencies and self-regulation skills

Cognitive-affective processing system (CAPS) - Different Parts

Answer 8

• People’s cognitive, affective and behavioural capabilities are key factors in how they are influenced by, respond to, and influence their environments.

Question 9

How do encoding

Answer 9

• The encoding units respond to specific aspects of the situation (producing the psychological situation) and the encodings both influence and are affected by other units (expectancies, goals, affects)
• Individuals differ stably and uniquely in this network of interconnections or associations, and such differences constitute a major aspect of personality
• Thus, the CAPS model posits an internal set of if … then … relations as well the external situation-behaviour if … then …relations

Question 10

One property of dynamic networks is the emergence of distinctive sets of activation patterns into which the network settles over time

Answer 10

• Called attractor states, these stable patterns are analogous to the shapes that straw hats can snap into.
• These shapes represent ‘stable’ states because the hat takes on, and remains in, one of these shapes when it is let go after being distorted.

Question 11

How do units interact in CAPS?

Answer 11

• It’s about how units interact, not just how much of a trait a person has.
• These interactions can be stable, automatic, and situation-specific.