Psychology of Personality - Cognitive/Experiential Domain

PSYC 3370

cognition

mental processes

• thinking, judging, awareness, perceiving, understanding, etc

personalizing cognition

relating something to what you have similarly experienced → higher empathy? self-centered? emotional?

objectifying cognition

thinking of something as just factual → lower empathy? rational?

compartmentalization

defense mechanism to separate conflicting thoughts

information processing

stimuli → cognition → reaction

personality helps shape your perception and behavior

perception

1st level

taking in stimuli, how experience it physically

interpretation

2nd level

finding meaning in the perception of stimuli

conscious goals

3rd level

levels we have for ourselves and others leads to judgments and behaviors

• perception → reaction

• emotion → behavior

cycle of cognition

nobody knows what comes first, but it depends on the scenario and personality. change in 1 affects all

• thoughts/cognition

• feelings

• behaviors

locus of control

attribution to self or environmental factors

self-serving bias tends to have us do internal for good and external for bad, but in general it all depends on balance

• internal: attribution to self

• external: attribution to environment

george kelly’s construct theory

constructs are ideas that an individual holds that help them interpret reality

they are bipolar and come with 2 opposite extremes

• postmodernism: reality is constructed, there is no true reality as it is all subjective

• ex: locus of control, first impressions

generalized expectancy

what you expect to happen rather than something you can tangibly know for sure

learned helplessness

conditioned into feeling powerless → expect helplessness even when given agency → giving up, external locus, lack of motivation, pessimism, frustration, depression

personal project analysis

goals and the relative actions needed to get there

depends on motivation, willpower, personality, experience, and outlook

albert bandura’s cognitive-social learning approach

bob doll experiments, observation of a person modelling a behavior causes us to imitate it

self-efficacy

your own belief/confidence in your ability to do something

intelligence

how smart someone is, many different dimensions

• achievement vs aptitude: outcomes, accomplishment vs raw abilities

• general/fluid/dynamic/verbal vs static/non-verbal: what can be learned vs what is inherent

• emotional intelligence: ability to understand and wield your and others’ emotions

self-concept

started by self-awareness and social comparison → are you better or worse than others in what regard?

• social comparison can lead to

  • maturation, pride, acceptance of loss, grace when winning

• lack of different outcomes can lead to loafing or slacking

self esteem

feelings on yourself, driven by social comparison and cognition

private self-concept

seeing the aspects of yourself that not everyone does

objective self-awareness

trying to see yourself the way other people do

• self esteem plays into how you deal with criticism and your defensiveness →

  • low → take it personally

  • high → able to take it in stride

schema

mental template that organizes your knowledge and your world view

self-schemata

self-view, cognition of self-concept in past, present, and even future

• possible self

• self-guides

  • ideal self

  • ought self

possible self (self-schemata)

the possibilities of who you could be in the future, changes

self-guides (self-schemata)

perspectives on yourself that help show you what you should do according to expectations from yourself and others

• creates guilt/moral compass if unaligned, which is not always bad but should be balanced

ideal self (self-guides)

who you want to be, your ambitions

ought self (self-guides)

who you believe other people want you to be, the expectations or responsibilities you take on

myths of self-esteem

self-esteem is subjective, reality is different than what you subjectively think of yourself

• high self-esteem is correlated to all objective positive traits

• high self-esteem promotes success in school/jobs

• high self-esteem makes someone more likable

• low self-esteem puts people at risk of early sexual behavior/drugs/alcohol: rather, high self-esteem can remove inhibitions

• only people with low self-esteem are aggressive: both can be

social identity

how you vs others see yourself, the comparison and balance of the two

• continuity vs contrast

• conflict between private and public self

self-monitoring

the ability to modify your behavior/self in social contexts

can be good/bad

identity defecit

not forming a solid identity/self-concept, particularly in teenage years