psych of personality: the cognitive perspective

attribution

the process of making a judgment about the cause or causes of an event

automatic thought

self-related internal dialogue that often interferes with behavior

behavioral signature

the pattern of situation-behavior links the person has established over time and experiences in some specific domain

cognitive assessment

procedures used to assess cognitive processes, mental structures, and contents of consciousness

cognitive restructuring or reframing

the process of taking a different and more positive view of your experience

cognitive therapies

procedures aimed at reducing cognitive distortion and the distress that results from them

cognitive triad

negative patterns of thinking about the self, the world, and the future

connectionism

an approach to understanding cognition based on the metaphor or interconnected neurons

default

something assumed to be true until you learn otherwise

dual-process models

models assuming two different modes of cognition-one effortful, one automatic

episodic memory

memory organized according to sequence of events

exemplar

a specific example of a category member

fuzzy set

a category defined by a set of attributes that aren’t absolutely necessary for membership

implicit knowledge

associations between things in memory that aren’t directly accessible

mirror neurons

neurons that are active both when perceiving an action and when doing the action

node

an area of memory that stores some element of information

personal construct

a personal mental representation used to interpret events

possible self

an image of yourself in the future (expected, desired, feared, etc.)

priming

activating an element in memory by using the info contained in it, leaving it partially activated

procedural knowledge

knowledge about doing, about engaging in specific behaviors and mental manipulations

prototype

the representation of a category in terms of the best member of the category

schema

an organization of knowledge in memory

script

a memory structure used to represent a highly stereotyped category of events

self-complexity

the degree to which your self-schema is differentiated and compartmentalized

self-schema

the schematic representation of the self

semantic memory

memory organized according to meaning

social cognition

cognitive processes that focus on socially meaningful stimuli

subliminal

occurring too fast to be consciously recognized