Social Cognitive Theory

Question 1

Why “social-cognitive” ?

Answer 1

Emphasizes (1) cognitive processes in analyses of personality and (2) the social context/situation

Question 2

Social cognitive theory

Answer 2

We learn and acquire our own thoughts about ourselves (and others) through interaction with the environment

Question 3

Social cognitive perspectives

Answer 3

Psychodynamic approaches overemphasize the unconscious
SC → recognize “cognitive unconscious” but believe conscious processes are of greater importance

Opposed to trait theories nomothetic nature
SC → More important to study the variability in one’s actions (rather than an overall pattern)

 Behaviourism too focused on the external (stimuli) environments’ behavioural effect on people
SC → Behaviours don’t occur in a vacuum of cause and effect, our perception of the situation is
what is more important to understand
 Note the nod to phenomenology and the meaning of objects, people, situations and cognitions

Question 4

Social cognitive approach

Answer 4

Similar to phenomenological approach and kelly’s personal construct theory
Emphasis on:
- people as active agents
- social origins of behaviors
- cognitive processes
- collective behavioral tendencies and variability in behavior
- the learning of complex patterns of behavior in the absence of objective rewards

Question 5

SCT’s view of the person

Answer 5

 Persons are beings that can reason about the world using language
 Persons can reason about the present, past and future (abstraction – learn & predict)
 The reasoning commonly involves reflection on the self (introspection, meta-cognition)

Question 6

SCT’s science of personality

Answer 6

 SCT tries to use all aspects of psychology and utilise all significant advancements
 Patchwork of developmental, neuroscientific, cultural, cognitive, social, etc. psychologies
 Uses both nomothetic and idiographic
 Pragmatic – utility in its application

Question 7

SCT Competencies and skills

Answer 7

 Differences and variations between and within people due to competency or skill on a task
 e.g. a person may appear introverted because they lack social skills/competency
 Competencies involve both thinking about (cognitive) the task and executing (behavioural)

 Competencies are context specific and can be changed or acquired because they are based on our beliefs, standards and goals…

Question 8

Declarative knowledge

Answer 8

Knowledge we can express in words

Question 9

Procedural (tacit) knowledge

Answer 9

Cognitive and behavioral capacities that we cant articulate the exact nature of

Question 10

Three ways people think about and interact with the world

Answer 10

Beliefs: a system of thoughts about the future that can vary across situations

Evaluative standards: beliefs about what the world should be

Goals: Beliefs about what we can attain in the world

Question 11

self-efficacy beliefs

Answer 11

our expectations of our abilities and performance

Question 12

Perceived self-efficacy

Answer 12

our perceptions of our own capabilities for actions in future situations

Question 13

Why is self-efficacy important?

Answer 13

It influences:
1)Decisions – Decide to attempt difficult tasks
2) Persistence – Persist in your efforts
3) Affect – remain calm rather than anxious
4) Analytical thoughts – keep your thoughts organised and on task

Question 14

self-efficacy vs self-esteem

Answer 14

self-esteem is an overall global affect whereas self-efficacy is determined by the situation
e.g. I have a high self-efficacy that I can publish a particular research paper but low self-efficacy
that I could learn a foreign language BUT, neither of these would necessarily effect my self-esteem (pos. or neg.)

Question 15

Self-efficacy expectations vs outcome expectations

Answer 15

 Outcome expectations (OE) are beliefs about the rewards (or punishments) that will occur
given a behaviour
 Self-Efficacy Expectations (SEE) are beliefs of whether or not you can even perform the
behaviour

Question 16

High self-efficacy means:

Answer 16

(1) Selection
 select more difficult and challenging tasks
(2) Effort, Persistence & Performance
 show greater effort and persistence on task (don’t give up so easily)
(3) Emotion
 approach task with less anxiety
(4) Coping
 better at (emotional) coping with disappointments, setbacks and stress

Question 17

goal

Answer 17

 A goal is a mental representation of the aim of an action or course of actions
 Goals motivate us, help us select and make decisions that go beyond momentary influences
 Goals can be organised as hierarchical, time-related and varying focus

Question 18

SCT addresses personality in 2 ways:

Answer 18

(1) General Theoretical Principles:
 Reciprocal Determinism - the analysis of the causes of behaviour
 Cognitive Affective Processing System (CAPS)

(2) Analysis of psychological functions
 Observational learning (e.g. modelling)
 Motivation
 Self-Control

Question 19

Reciprocal determinism (Bandura)

Answer 19

 Each aspect influences the other – no direct causality
 People as ‘active agents’
 e.g. a basketball star that always plays great at
“home”

Question 20

Cognitive affective processing system (CAPS)

Answer 20

 Mischel & Shoda (2008): Personality is a complex system (many parts working in a coherent way)
 (1) Cognitive and Emotional personality variables are linked to each other
 Thoughts about goals may trigger thoughts about skills …which triggers thoughts about selfefficacy …which affect emotions and self-evaluations in a situation
 (2) Situations trigger varying cognitive subsets to be activated within the overall system
 The ‘anxiety’ subset, the ‘conscientiousness’ subset, the ‘relationship’ subset, etc.
 (3) The varying subsets will cause a variation in behaviour from situation to situation
 e.g., “If X…then Y…” …but every X is slightly (or largely) different
 Importantly, M & S argue that this variation is what defines our personality
 how we differ from situation to situation and why!
 How we perceive the variation is always uniquely our own

Question 21

observational learning (modelling)

Answer 21

We can learn complex forms of behaviour by simply observing it
 People (especially children) can learn by observing the behaviours of others

E.g., We already know (for the most part) how to drive before we ever attempt it

Question 22

SMART goals

Answer 22

Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Realistic
Timebound

Question 23

Schemas

Answer 23

Self-Schemas are elements of our self knowledge
 we use them to organise our information processing when we encounter situations

 People, due to differential experiences with the environment, will have different self-schemas

 We become biased towards our self-schemas and more likely to pay attention and remember
information that fits our self-schema

Question 24

self-schemas motivate us to process info in 2 ways:

Answer 24

self-enhancement
self-verification

Question 25

Self-enhancement

Answer 25

 People are biased towards maintaining a positive view of the self
 e.g. if I fail an exam its because the test was “unfair” [externalised – fundamental attribution bias]
 This may also causes us to over-estimate our positive attributes (e.g., defensively, misattribution, and/or irrationally)
 e.g., raising our SEE, despite performance – grandiosity in clinical narcissism as an extreme [internalised

Question 26

self-verification

Answer 26

 Very strong motive to be consistent in who we are (whether good or bad for us) to avoid threat/anxiety
 i.e., can cause dogmatic thinking; lacking psychological flexibility (lack of assimilation of ideas; denial)
 Self-schema: “I’m virtuous because I’m always honest: I tell it like it is, and some people cant handle it”
 the person says hurtful things under a “veil of truth”
 But its judgmental and biased to their own perception to reinforce their own behaviour/values as a means of
self-verification (i.e., if I can verify that you agree with me then that reinforces/enhances my self-verification)
 Therapeutic efforts are used to modify these self-schemas and challenge cognitive distortions
 E.g., self-verification can also suffer from black or white (all or none) and catastrophic thinking (i.e., cog. distortions)

Question 27

Learning vs performance goals

Answer 27

Learning: more interested in what can be learnt
Performance: more interested in achievement

Question 28

Ellis and REBT

Answer 28

People respond to their beliefs about events not the events themselves

Question 29

2 ways of coping with stress:

Answer 29

(1) Problem-focused (externalise)
 Cope by altering aspects of the situation (external; reality)

(2) Emotion-focused (internalise)
 Attempt to improve internal emotional state
 e.g., seek social support, talk it out, cognitive distancing, mindfulness, coping, etc.)

Question 30

Cognitive therapy

Answer 30

 Designed to identify and correct distortions in thinking and beliefs
 Help clients to monitor their own negative thoughts and to substitute more reality-orientated interpretations in their place

Question 31

The database?

Answer 31

 Excellent.
 Mischel, Bandura and colleagues built their theory on a systematic accumulation of
objective scientific evidence
 Very diverse
 Correlational, laboratory and longitudinal studies
 Looked at behavioural change
 Ran clinical studies
 Participants in studies have been every imaginable type
 Along with Trait theory it is based on the largest databases of scientific knowledge
 And continues to grow

Question 32

systematic?

Answer 32

Not very good.
 No over-arching network of assumptions that tie together all theoretical elements
 More of a strategy for studying personality than a full theory
 Theory could indicate the sort of things we should assess, but too diverse to collate it
all together
 The SCT approach prides itself on assessing the whole person – no easy feat

Question 33

Testable?

Answer 33

Yes, highly.
Clear concepts that can be measured

Question 34

Comprehensive?

Answer 34

 SCT have addressed:
 Motivation
 Development
 Self-concept
 Self-control (gratification delay)
 Psychopathologies
 Behavioural change
 But…
 Biological aspects as synergistic elements (cause and effect, neuromodulator roles
in bx, etc)
 Temperament? (genetic; attachment theory; Eysenck P-E-N)

Question 35

Applications?

Answer 35

Excellent. CBT considered the gold-standard in clinical approaches
 Most commonly used in modern day psychological therapy
 But, the “gold-standard” is denoted for its empirical evidence (testable) (reliability>validity)
 Do CBT ‘tasks’ really address the underlying problem? (neurotic; anxiety disorders)
 Behavioural change is important but what caused the anxiety in the first place? (e.g., Neuroticism)
 CBT process → identifies negative/distorted thoughts (and bx) and develops strategies to
address those thoughts
 But where do these maladaptive thoughts and behaviours come from – and why?

Question 36

Resilience

Answer 36

the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands

Question 37

4 components of resilience

Answer 37

(1) Build your connections (social connection)
 Prioritize relationships (e.g., beneficial/supportive, non-judgmental, unconditional positive regard and empathy)
 Join a group, belong, be social, be kind (e.g., Maslow - belongingness & responsibility)
(2) Foster wellness (coping)
 Take care of your body (e.g., exercise)
 Take care of your mind (e.g., mindfulness)
 Avoid negative outlets (e.g., maladaptive coping; short term gain; mood/emotion)
(3) Find purpose (life strategy)
 Look for opportunities for self-discovery (e.g., the obstacle is the way; enter the unknown)
 Help others (e.g., empathy, active listening, and compassion – “be there”)
 Be proactive and move toward your goals (e.g., SMART goals, short and long term, baby steps – just start)
(4) Embrace healthy thoughts (perception & cognition)
 Keep things in perspective and use reason in addressing automatic thoughts (impression → reason → meaning)
 Accept change (e.g., openness vs resistance); have the wisdom to discern what you can and can’t control
 Maintain a hopeful outlook (e.g., this too shall pass; amore fate – love fate