Topic 3: The social cognition view of traits

Question 1

Social cognition

Answer 1

• cognitive processes that focus on socially meaningful stimuli
• people form schemas in social contexts
• differ in content and complexity in schemas, depending on what they have experienced and how often

Question 2

Conceptual similarity

Schweder and D’Andrade

Answer 2

conceptual: i.e. semantic
- co-variation in memory-based ratings of people’s behavior is determined more by the semantic relations between behavior categories than by actual co-occurrence

-claim that the existence of personality traits is mainly a fiction supported by our conceptions rather than by reality

• issue is whether trait ratings are accurate reflections of real trait co-occurrence or systematic distortions of reality to conform to pre-existing beliefs about trait co-occurrance
• -> systematic-distortion hypothesis: reality is fiction- traits do not exist

Question 3

Illusory correlation

Answer 3

if two concepts are more similar, then higher correlation is attributed, regardless of actual observations

co-occurrence leads to systematic distortion because you have an existing schema blurring your interpretation of trait/situation

Question 4

Traits as prototypes

Answer 4

prototype:

• the sense of the category as a whole is captured in an idealized best member of the category
• in some theories it is the best actual member, in others it is the idealized member

Question 5

Traits as prototypes

Answer 5

prototype:
-the sense of the category as a whole is captured in an idealized best member of the category

-in some theories it is the best actual member, in others it is the idealized member

Question 6

Traits as natural categories

Cantor and Mischel

Answer 6

-basic personality categories exist that social perceivers use to facilitate information processing about other people

• people do not simply store specific, concrete items of information about others, but they routinely form abstract, prototypical representations
  e. g. when given traits about a person suggesting extroversion (friendly), people will later erroneously recall that they were given other traits (energetic) that fit the prototype of extroversion

-people are economical in in their mental storage of information about others, relying on prototypes to influence the interpretation and accurate memory of specific personality trait information

Question 7

An alternative interpretation of behavioral consistency

Buss and Craik (1989)

Answer 7

The act-frequency theory
-attempts to state the conditions that constitute a certain personality trait and attempts to thoroughly list all the acts that identify a bearer of a trait have not been very successful in providing exact definitions for trait-related terms (creative, humorous, ambitious)

• the question of what exactly defines an individual as being- e.g. courageous- is an open one
• another difficulty is measuring how strongly a trait is pronounced in an individual

Question 8

Prototype theory

Buss and Craik (1980)

Answer 8

• proposed to induce prototype theory into personality psychology
• traits represent only individuals’ tendencies to show a high frequency of those acts that are prototypical instances of the respective trait
  1. people are asked to list acts that a person bearing a specific trait would show
  2. a different group is asked to name from that list those acts that are the most typical for the trait
  3. the measurement is conducted by counting the number of times a subject being studied performs the typical acts within a given period
  e. g. mary arrogant means that during the period of observations, mary showed arrogant acts more frequently relative to average of that act category

Question 9

Criticism of act-frequency interpretation of traits

Answer 9

• concrete acts are difficult to recall because of many distorting and biasing effects
• the context of the act is ignored
• circular reasoning: what acts pertain to a particular category? it’s defined by the disposition itself.

Question 10

Cognitive person variables

Mischel

Answer 10

Mischel proposed that an adequate theory of personality must take into account 5 classes of cognitive variables within the person, replacing the place of traits in personality psychology
= cognitive social learning person variables

Question 11

1. competencies

Answer 11

• the person skills that develop during life experiences (social skills, problem solving strategies, tools for analyzing the social world)
• not static knowledge, but active processes that people bring to bear on situations they confront
• people all differ in competencies (e.g. some are more emotional in tuned with others)

Question 12

2. encoding strategies and personal structures

Answer 12

• the unique worldview that each person develops
• people notice and categorize events and people differently, depending on the schema they are using
• it is not the objective situation that determine how you react, but how you construe (analyze) it
• 2 people react differently to the same situation because they literally experience it differently

Question 13

3. expectancies

Answer 13

2 types:
1. anticipation: one event is typically followed by another (you hear a siren, you expect to see a police car)
provide continuity in experience, play large role in scripts

2. behavior outcome expectancy: what we belive will be the outcome. if the belief match the reality, your actions will be effective.
   the belief that certain acts produce certain outcomes
   e.g. enter restaurant (behavior), greeted and seated by waiter (outcome).

Question 14

4. subjective values

Answer 14

people do what produces the outcome they want.

this is followed by peoples incentives, which they use to decide what actions to take to produce the desired outcome

Question 15

5. self-regulatory systems and plans

Answer 15

people have to set goals, and make plans before they take action.