Chapter 13 - Personality Processes: Learning, Cognition, Motivation, and Emotion

personality processes

the mental activities of personality including perception, thought, motivation, and emotion

learning

change in behavior as a result of an experience

behaviorism

branch of psychology that focuses on basic mechanisms of learning 

habituation

what happens when an organism begins to stop responding to a stimulus as it is repeated 

affective forcasting

people tend to overestimate the emotional impact of future events, both good and bad

classical conditioning

the process of learning what things or stimuli go together

learned helplessness 

belief that nothing one does matters, from unpredictable rewards and punishment, thought to be basis for depression 

operant conditioning

learning that involves acting upon the world in order to change it

wolfgang kohler

germen psychologist who studied chimps and social learning theory

insight 

burst of info that was not previously learned 

social learning theory

• made of three parts

• actions and consequences

locus of control

the more you think your actions will determine the consequences in your life

self-efficacy

the expectation that one can accomplish something successfully

self-concept

how you see yourself

observational learning 

learning a behavior be watching someone else do it 

operant 

when you go to the gym, you feel good and start going more often. what type of learning is this? 

cognitive affective personality system

• walter mischel

• situations are way more important than personality

• if… then contingency

• the most important aspect of personality and cognition is their interaction

beliefs, emotions, and actions tendencies

• carol dweck

• personality comes from a person’s mental representations of things that are relevant to their most important goals

• everyone wants three things: the be accepted, the predict the future, and to gain competence for life

cybernetics

study of systems that respond to changes in the environment in the pursuit of goals

cybernetic big five theory 

theory that addresses the connection between broad traits, behaviors, and goals 

motivation

what you want and how you will try and get it

idiographic goals

goals that are unique to the individuals who pursue them

current concern

ongoing motivation that persists in the mind until the goal is attained or abandoned 

personal project

group of effors people put into their goals

personal strivings

long-term goals that can organize broad areas of a person’s life

nomothetic goals

goals that are common to almost everyone 

achievement motivation

tendency to direct one’s thoughts and behavior toward striving for excellence

affiliation motivation

tendency to direct thoughts and behavior toward finding relationships

power motivation 

tendency to direct thoughts and behavior toward feeling strong and influencing others 

judgement goals

seeking to judge or validate an attribute in oneself

development goals

the desire to improve oneself

entity theories 

believe that personal qualities such as intelligence and ability are unchangeable

incremental theories

belief that intelligence and ability can change with time and experience

procedural knowledge

something a person knows but cannot really explain 

appraisal

when a stimulus is judged as emotionally relevant

physical responses

in reaction to emotion. examples are pulse changes, blood pressure

motives

desires to spread one’s joy or to harm someone

appraisal 

physical responses

facial expressions 

nonverbal behaviors 

motives 

what are the basic stages of emotion (there are 5)

affect intensity

people high in this experience more intense joy and more powerful sadness 

emotional intelligence

accurately perceiving emotions in oneself and others

cognitive control

using rational thinking to control how they feel and respond

1. overall satisfaction

2. domain satisfaction

3. high positive low negative

three components of happiness

hedonic 

well-being that is pleasure seeking 

eudaimonic

well-being that is seeking a meaningful life

self-determination theory

states that the more one seeks hedonically to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, the more one loses depth in their life

intrinsic goals

goals that are valuable in their own right e

extrinsic goals

goals that are a means to an end