Social-Cognitive Theory Psych 150 Final/midterm

Social cognitive theory (Basic Assumptions)

1. Cognitive processes (=thinking) (Kelly)

2. People as active agents (=doers) (Rogers, Kelly)

3. Social origins of behavior =Behaviorists (& Post-Freudians)

4. Behavior as situation specific =Behaviorists (anti-Trait theory)

5. Learning complex behavior without reward =Post-behaviorist: Tolman (also  Rogers: personal growth)

6. Emphasize empirical research

(CPSBLE)

Bandura’s equation of behavior

 B = f(P ↔ S)

Behavior influenced by the person and situation bi-directionally

Reciprocal determinism

Reciprocal determinism

Bandura, your behaviors, personal factors, and situation all influence each other

3 kinds of person-environment interactions

(RPE)

Reactive

Proactive

evocative

by Caspi and Bem

Reactive

Part of Person X environment (3)

Individuals exposed to the same "objective" environment perceive and react to that environment differently (Kelly)

EX: A person dies, I do not react, but my friend laughs

Proactive

Part of Person X environment (3)

We choose our own environments that influence our behavior

EX: I stay isolate in my room to study and this reinforces my isolationist mindset

evocative

Part of Person X environment (3)

Our attributes give reactions on others that reinforce our behavior

EX: A grouchy person will have people react negative to them, keeping them grouchy 

Stance on situational consistency of behavior

Social cognitive theorists believe behavior as situation specific

Key structural concepts for social cognitive (cognitive units)

competencies and skills

beliefs and expectancies

goals

(CS BE G)

Competencies and skills

Skills you can do

Effects how you behave in situation

(part of Key structural concepts for social cognitive) (3)

beliefs and expectancies

Our beliefs or expectancies of others.

effects our behaviors

(part of Key structural concepts for social cognitive) (3)

Goals

What we want to achieve

effects behavior and situation

we self regulate

(part of Key structural concepts for social cognitive) (3)

Attributions

By Weiner

Attributions are the explanations people give for why things happened (Causes)—especially successes and failures.

2 dimensions: Stable vs unstable and internal vs internal

Stable + Internal = (I did good on test because I am smart) (Traits, ability)

Stable +External= (I did good/bad because the task was hard) (task difficulty

unstable+ internal= (With effort I did good) (effort)

unstable + external= (luck chance)

Incremental beliefs

By carol Dweck

Belief that we can change attributes

Have a growth mindset

Entity beliefs

By carol Dweck

Belief that attributes are fixed, cannot be changed

Fixed mindset

Motivations in social cognitive

1. Goals and delay of gratification

2. Self efficacy (Bandura)

3. What we expect and value

Self efficacy

By Bandura

Self-perceived ability to perform specific behaviors, cope with specific situations, and reach goals

1. Selection: Which activities to engage in 

• (select more challenging/difficult goals) 

• 2. Greater effort, persistence, performance

• 3. Emotion in approaching situation 

  • (less anxiety and depression)

• 4. Coping--better able to deal with stress and disappointments

self efficacy in emotions

Self efficacy allows for less anxiety and depression because of better coping

Ideal self (Higgins)

by Higgins

• loss of potential positive outcomes makes us sad, or not being close to ideal self

• lead to sadness/dejection

Ought self

by Higgins

not achieving one’s obligations is an impending threat

lead to agitation/anxiety

Microanalytic research strategy

Bandura's suggested research strategy concerning the concept of self-efficacy in which specific rather than global self-efficacy judgments are recorded.

 Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS)

By walter Mischel

Believed people have behavioral signatures

Also that situations, traits, and person x enrionment effect CAPS

Delay of gratification

Delaying a task as the reward will be better

Done in marshmallow test

Marshmallow test

tested delay of gratification on kids

with marshmallows

Done by Mischel

Behavioral signatures

how a person behaves due to the situation, traits, and cross effects person x environment.