The Cognitive Approach Flashcards
History of the Cognitive Approach?
Behaviourism
- Classical conditioning (Watson)
- Operant conditioning (Skinner)
Cognitive Revolution
- Social Learning (Bandura)
- Personal Construct (George Kelly)
- Social Cognition /Information processing
Personality Defined by a Behaviorist?
“Personality involves the discovery of the
unique set of relationships between the
behavior of an organism and its reinforcing or
punishing consequences”
– Skinner, 1974
Translation: Personality is a set of learned
responses to the environment
Skinner’s Approach? Method, Data, Subjects, Emphasis
Method: Systematic observation and
controlled experimentation
– No inferences into the “black box” of
personality
Data: Directly observable behavior that can be assessed objectively
Subjects: mainly lab animals (rats,
pigeons), but some humans
Emphasis: Environmental causes of
behavior and personality (i.e., nurture)
Behaviorist Approach?
- We can only study observable behavior
- ‘Mind” (spirit, motivation, soul) does not explain behavior
- Personality (behavioral tendencies) is shaped by what we learn from the environment
*Classical Conditioning
*Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning?
Classical conditioning works to train (shape) behaviors that cannot be controlled (e.g., drooling)
Operant Conditioning?
- This is the typical way that dogs, and humans, learn through
reinforcement - In Skinner’s view, reinforcement “shapes” behavior
The Essence of Behaviorism?
“The consequences of behavior
determine the probability that the
behavior will occur again”
– BF Skinner
- Anyone’s personality can be formed or changed through patterns of reinforcement and punishment
- If you are extraverted, that’s because extraverted behaviors were rewarded by the people who raised you
Classical Conditioning in A Clockwork Orange?
Alex injected with nausea drug (unconditioned stimulus) while watching violence
– Alex feels nauseous (unconditioned response)
Alex thinks about violence or acts violent (conditioned stimulus)
– Alex feels sick and avoids acting violent (conditioned response)
Would this approach work for real juvenile
delinquents?
Message of Movie: Society Can’t Produce Morality?
Satire about societal attempts to make
people good/moral
– Psychological conditioning can’t make people good
– People must choose to be good/moral
– Anthony Burgess wrote the book (which Kubrick’s movie was based on) in response what he saw as a Skinnerian threat to
humanity
Anthony Burgess on Skinner?
If humans can be conditioned, what happens to free will?
View of Skinner Today?
Not very good
– If we’re interested in HUMANS, it’s ok (and even good!) to study mental states
Yet, behaviorism remains an important part of personality, and psychology more generally
– Behavioral evidence considered strongest (Emotion expression research)
– Subjective reports (e.g., self-report data) often
suspect (Importance of O, T data)
Toward the Acceptance of Mental States: The Cognitive Perspective?
After Skinner, focus shifted from the
behavioral output of reward (dog sitting) to
what goes on between the environmental
trigger (bell) and reward (steak)
Social Learning
1. Observe behaviors of others being rewarded
2. Use your MIND to connect the two
3. Decide to behave similarly
Social Learning Perspective?
Observational learning (modeling)
– Acquire a behavior by watching someone else do it and observing the consequences
Bandura’s “Bobo” doll studies
– 1. Children observed an adult model attack
“Bobo”, play quietly, or saw no model
– 2. Children frustrated (toys taken away)
– 3. Children given opportunity to attack “Bobo”
- Those who watched model attack were more likely to attack
- Those who saw no model were more aggressive than those who saw a non-aggressive model
Social Learning Perspective? + 3 examples
Extension of basic conditioning principles
– Observational learning (modeling)
* Observed (vs. experienced) consequences
– Expectancies / Incentives (vs. deterrents)
* Anticipated (vs. experienced) consequences
Examples
– Altruism in young children
– Video games and violence
– Shaming prison sentences
Is altruism innate, or learned?
- Evidence for early emergence of prosocial behavior
- Cross-species evidence
– Warneken & Tomasello, 2006, Science - “Roots of altruism seen in babies:
Toddlers eager to help out, even with no
prospect of reward” - MSNBC
Roots of altruism? Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom (Nature, 2007)
– At 3 months, babies prefer helpers to
hinderers
Innate morality or…
– Direct reinforcement
* Play
* Past reinforcement for similar behaviors
– Observational learning (parent)
– Vicarious reinforcement (older sibling)
– No direct reward, but incentives and
expectancies
* Anticipated consequences
Violent Media?
Exposure to violent TV and video games:
- Increases aggressive behavior, thoughts, and feelings
- Increases physiology arousal
Decreases pro-social behaviors (e.g., helping)
Why does violent media increase aggression?
Classical Conditioning:
Video games are fun to play, pleasurable feeling associated with violence
Operant conditioning:
Video game player is directly rewarded for being violent (e.g. accumulate points)
Observational learning
- “Role models” (e.g., movie stars) rewarded for violence
Which films lead to violence?
- Gratuitous, realistic violence (martial arts films)
- Old Westerns don’t -> minimally violent
- Horror films don’t -> Violence seems face, observers can discount it
Shaming Prison Sentences?
- Date back to the Old Testament
- Common in the 17th century Puritanical society (e.g., the Scarlet “A”)
- Revival of shame punishments punishments
started in the late 1980s
Shaming sentences may deter crime through?
- Observational learning, observe someone else punished for antisocial act
- Expectancies of punishments, imagine self on billboard
Does shaming sentences actually work?
- Shaming sentences may backfire and cause more crime
- Shaming offenders will only make them feel bad about themselves, which may increase the likelihood that they will commit further crimes
- “The goal should be to rehabilitate offenders into
society, not embarrass them. Added humiliation may
accentuate the very root of their behavior.” -American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
The problem with shame?
- Motivates escape, hiding, avoidance
- Leads to blaming others, aggression
- More adaptive to feel guilt in response
to failure
– Guilt promotes reparation, apology, confession
– In guilt the focus is on what you did, not who you are
It matters who the shammers are? two examples of shaming, in-group and public?
- Is shaming more effective when the shapers are part of your community, or peers?
- Common Goods dilemma study, outdid the names of those who did not donate
- Negligent tax-payers shamed by IRS, posting a huge list online of people who did not pay their taxes
Early Cognitive Perspective?
More complex version of social learning theory
Led to two fundamental shifts in how we think about personality
- Our personality reflects how we process information about ourselves, others, and the world
– How we process information reflects our mental
representations of ourselves, other people, and the world
Mental representations work as filters or lens through which we experience reality
– Personal constructs, schemas, scripts
Personal Construct Theory George Kelly?
- Overarching perceptions shape interpretation of reality -> personality
- If your cognitive take on the world determines your personality, you can change you can change who you are by changing the way you see the world
- Beginning of post-modernism (there is no single reality; we create our reality)
Modern cognitive perspective?
People have different cognitions, which shape personality
Cognitions: (beliefs, attitudes, values, self/other schemas) constitutes the information that guides people’s behavior
Locus of Control Julian Rotter?
External Locus: Belief that fate, luck, or outside forces are responsible what happens
Internal Locus: Belief that one’s own ability, effort, or actions determine what happens
Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale?
Questionnaire, forces people to chose between one of the other of external and internal locus
Research Findings on Internal Locus of Control?
Internal Locus
- Increased academic performance
- More effective health-prevention behaviours
- Social/political activism
External Locus and learned helplessness?
Originated in research on dogs (Seligman)
- Exposure to unavoidable shocks
- Outcome not contingent on behaviour (external locus)
- Helpless dogs get depressed, give up
Learned helplessness = belief that outcomes can’t be controlled
Humans, too, show learned helplessness
But is there a downside to Internal Locus?
- Some things are truly outside our control
-> People who accept this may cope better with death, disease, etc.
Example, survivor guilt - Why not externalise negative events?
“It wasn’t my fault the team didn’t win”
Beyond Locus: Explanatory Style?
Explanatory style: The ways in which people habitually explains the causes of negative events
Locus:
- Internality, its me (Self-blame)
- Externality, its something in the environment
Stability
- Stable, it’s going to last forever (Fatalism)
- Unstable, it’s going to go away
Globality
- Global, it’s going to underminde everything (Catastrophizing)
- Specific, it’s effects are limited to this one domain
Explanatory Style and Relationships?
Locus:
Internality: It’s my fault [SELF-BLAME]
Externality: It’s his/her fault. OR: It’s difficult to make a relationship work because of the economic depression.
Stability:
Stable: Relationships just never work out [FATALISM]
Unstable: We just didn’t work well together as a couple
Globality:
Global: I am a bad person. My whole life is ruined [CATASTROPHIZING]
Specific: I can’t seem to make things work out in this relationship
Pessimistic Explanatory Style?
- Internal, stable, global
“I did it, I always do it, and I do it on everything” - People who tend to explain bad events in terms of internal, stable, global causes -> more depressed
- People who tend to explain bad events in terms of stable and global causes (internal or external) -> more health problems
Solution: internalize, but don’t globalize
- Internal, unstable, specific attributions
- It’s my fault, but it’s because I didn’t study hard this time
Evidence for importance of explanatory style? (Terman Longitudinal Study)
- Participants described theor responses to bad events
- Responses were coded for internality, stability, and globality
- Participants followed for decades
Catastrophizing (attributing bad events to global causes) was associated with increased mortality
– Especially accidental and violent deaths
Cognitive Therapy?
Recognise that thoughts (beliefs, expectations, explanations, thinking style) affect your feelings and behaviour
Try to change negative schemas
- Convert to positive schemas or compartmentalize
Try to change explanatory style
- I didn’t get the job because I didn’t prepare well
- He broke up with me because he didn’t want to be in a relationship
Interpret failure as an opportunity to learn
“Talk” to self differently before, during and after stressful situations
