Studied by 2 peoplecognitive-affective personality theory
holds that behaviour stems from relatively stable personal dispositions and cognitive affective process interacting with a particular sitaution
consistency paradox
observation that clinical intuition and the perceptions of laypeople suggest that behaviour is consistent, whereas research finds that it is not
person-situation debate
launched by Mischel’s critique of perosnality traits
fundamental attribution
individual's tendency to attribute another's actions to their character or personality, while attributing their behaviour to external situational factors outside of their control
trait psychologists have committed this in an attempt to explain the behaviour of others
situationism
behaviour is hihgly situation specific
person-situation interaction
Mischel argued that traits were unstable form one situation to another
behaviour is shaped by personal dispositions PLUS specific cognitive and affective processes
objected idea that traits are predictors of behaviour
“if I am in this situation, then I do X; but if I am in that situation, then i do Y”
people intuitively think this, upheld by the study about the girl who is either friendly, teachers pet, etc. and people thought she would act differently to different people
cognitive-affective personality system
accounts for variability across situations as well as stability of behaviour within a person
most sophisticated learning approach
apparent inconsistencies in behaviour are potentially predictable behaviours that reflect stable patterns of variation within a person
if-then profiles
behavioural signatures of personality
stable patterns of behaving differently in different situations
behaviour prediction
if personality is a stable system that processes the information about the situations, external or internal, then it follows that as individuals encounter different situations, their behaviours should vary across the situations
if-then theory
assumes some temporal stability of personality, but behaviours vary
situation variables
conditions that influence person’s choice of reward
8th grader reward experiment
8th grader situation variable experiement
those successful waited for valuable, contingent rewards
those who failed took immediate, less valuable rewards
those who got no information made decisions based on their expectancies
cognitive-affective units
psychological, social, and physiological aspects of people that cause them to interact with their environment in a relatively stable pattern of variation
encoding strategies
competencies and self-regulatory strategies
expectancies and beliefs
goals and values
affective responses
encoding strategies
(cognitive-affective unit)
people’s ways of transforming stimulus inputs into information about themselves, other people, and the world
same person may encode similar events in different ways depending on the situation
children can change the way environmental events are experienced by focusing on different aspects of stimuli
competencies and self-regulatory strategies
(cognitive-affective unit)
competencies: people’s cognitive and behavioural construction of what they can and cannot do, based on their observations of the world, themselves, and others
self-regulatory strategies: techniques used to control one’s own behaviour through self-imposed goals and self-produced consequences
this aspect is more stable
apparent consistency of traits may be rooted in intelligence, which is stable over time
expectancies and beliefs
(cognitive-affective unit)
how we behave in a given situation is closely connected to our specific expectancies and beliefs about the consequences of each behavioural possibility
behaviour outcome expectancy and stimulus outcome expectancy
behaviour outcome expectancy
we learn to behave in ways that will lead to valued outcomes or enact behaviours that were reinforced in the past
stimulus outcome expectancy
various stimuli that influence consequences of behaviour
goals and values
(cognitive-affective unit)
people do not react passively to situations but are active and goal directed
fairly stable, deeply connected with emotion
affective responses
(cognitive-affective unit)
emotions, feelings, and physiological reactions
interconnected with cognition
biochemical-genetic level
individuals differ in diverse biochemical-genetic-somatic factors that may be conceptualized as predispositions
predispositions
help to construe dispositions
influences personality relevant aspects of self
impacts psychological CAPS system
interacts with conditions throughout development and influence how person thinks, feels, and acts
marshmallow tests
wait: higher SAT scores, educational achievement, greater self-worth, better coping with stress
couldn’t resist: 30% more likely overweight, develop borderline personality disorder features
redirecting attention
looking away or attending to something other than the object
cognitive reframing
direct away from hot features (yumminess) and towards cold features (cylinder shape)
critique of CAPS
logical issues
research utility
how much info will we really gain from this?
Note
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