cognitive perspective on personality (2)

the self-concept is comprised of various _____, including…

self-schemas; cognitive beliefs about the self that guide the processing of self-relevant information, include beliefs about one’s traits, competencies, social identities, and social roles, among other elements

effects of self-schemas

provides default information

can bias recall of past events

influences “acceptance” of self-relevant information (schematics less willing to accept incongruent information than are aschematics on a dimension)

self-schemas are ____ than other schemas

larger, more complex, and more emotionally laden

markus (1977)

independent/dependent schematics, independent-dependent aschematics completed a “physiologically based suggestibility test” - they assessed GSR (sweaty palms), heart rate, latency of responses to various instructions and questions

both independent and dependents received schematic inconsistent feedback

markus (1977) results

on these questions: how accurate is the assessment? would you take the test again? how would you rate your suggestibility?

schematics perceived test as less accurate, were less willing to take the test again, continued to evaluate their suggestibility consistent with their existing self-schema

self-complexity

the degree to which self-aspects overlap—your “family” of self-schemas; how much integration is there between schemas?

self-complexity overlap levels

greater overlap = less complexity

less overlap = greater complexity

implications of self-complexity

the greater the overlap in self-aspects, the greater the emotional spillover of events from one area of life to other areas

how do you acquire (or fail to acquire) self-complexity (nasby 1985)

the process of thinking about yourself enhances growth and articulation of self-schema

connectionism

parallel distributed processing, neural networks

cognition represents what

systems of simple, neuron-like units—processing constitutes passing activations from one unit to another

activation can have either ___ or ____ properties

excitatory; inhibitory

____ reflect simultaneous satisfaction of multiple constraints

decisions, perceptions (patterns of activation)

implications of connectionism

requires selection of one possibility of many

output takes the form of only one representation at a given time

patterned network can be destabilized by new inputs (e.g., ambiguous figures, self-concept)

perceptions and decisions can emerge that seem irrational and ill-founded (e.g., buying a house or car)

dual process models

cognition involves two kinds of thought rather than one

conscious processing

effortful, rational, deliberative reasoning—implements rules and carries out logical steps of inference and action; slower, conscious, rational, evolutionarily newer

intuitive processing

intuitive problem-solving, heuristic strategies, automated processes—operates in a connectionist mode; “insights” often shake out of the system; quick, schema-driven, automatic, experiential, evolutionarily older

evidence from everyday experience about dual process models

thinking with your head vs. your heart

superstitious thinking

ubiquity of religion

persuasive appeal of images over text

epstein’s cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST)

two major systems by which people adapt to the world—rational (cognitive) and experiential (intuitive) systems

kirkpatrick and epstein (1992) ratio-bias phenomenon

chance to win money by drawing a red jelly bean from one of two bowls—small bow: 10 beans, 1 red; large bowl, 100 beans, 10 red

majority of participants chose the large bowl and even paid to do so

CEST implications for personality

introduces an adaptive, dynamic unconscious that automatically organizes experiences and directs behavior

individual differences in intuitive (experiential) vs. analytical (rational) thinking style

mischel’s five classes of variables that must be taken into account for adequate personality theories

competencies

encoding strategies and personal constructs

expectancies

subjective values

self-regulatory systems and plans

competencies

social skills and problem-solving strategies

encoding strategies and personal constructs

schematic influences on individualized perspectives of the world

expectancies

important for understanding actions—expectancies involving sequential continuity in experience; behavior-outcome experiences (connections suggesting causal influence)

subjective values

reflected by the outcomes a person wants

self-regulatory systems and plans

setting goals, making plans, setting plans into action