The Social-Cognitive Perspective

Unit 10 PresentationsPersonality

DO-NOW

Locus of Control Testhttp://www.mccc.edu/~jenningh/Courses/documents/Rotter-locusofcontrolhandout.pdf

Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Proposed by Albert Bandura (1925-today)

• Emphasizes the idea of personality as the combination of our traits, mental processes, and environment.

Conditioning, modeling behavior, observing others

Thinking about a situation

Interpreting and responding to external events

• How do you and your environment interact?

Albert Bandura

• Canadian/American Psychologist

• Most well-known for creating the social learning theory, the social cognitive theory, and performing the Bobo Doll experiment.

• Emphasized Self-Efficacy, or one’s beliefs in one’s ability to achieve goals.

Reciprocal Influences

• Reciprocal Determinism: The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and the environment.

Our personalities are both the products and the creators of our environments.

Biopsychosocial Approach to Personality

ACTIVITY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFmFOmprTt0 (teacher)

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/how-seligmans-learned-helplessness-theory-applies-to-human-depression-and-stress.html#lesson (Seligman)

Personal Control

• Personal Control: The extent to which one believes they have control over their environment. The extent to which they are not helpless.

Learned Helplessness- When a person or animal feels as though they have no control over events, and come to feel helpless and hopeless.

Personal Control

• External Locus of Control: When you believe that chance or forces outside of your control determine what happens to you.

Tend to be more depressed, less successful, and less independent.

• Internal Locus of Control: When you believe that you control what happens to you.

Tend to achieve more, have better health and be less depressed.

Julian Rotter

• American Psychologist• Best known for his

ideas on social learning theory and creating the Internal-External Scale.

• Theorized that one’s expected outcome of a behavior affected their motivation to participate in that behavior.

Roy Baumeister

• American Psychologist• Studied Self-Control:

The ability of a person to control their actions and experience delayed gratification.

• Found that exerting control over impulses takes energy and must be strengthened through “exercise”.

Optimism vs. Pessimism

• How one explains positive and negative events can affect or demonstrate how in control or helpless they feel.

Students who are pessimistic would say that, after failing a test, they did so because “I’m stupid” or that “there’s nothing I can do about it”. (Lack of control, helplessness)

Students who are optimistic would say they failed a test because “I needed to study more” or “I didn’t make enough of an effort”. (In control of situation.)

Positive Psychology

• Positive Psychology: The scientific study of optimal human functioning. Has 3 pillars.

• Positive Emotions:

Pursuing happiness and satisfaction with life.

• Positive Character:

Creativity, courage, compassion, leadership, self-control.

• Positive Groups:

Healthy families, effective schools, civil dialogue, community

Review

• What is the Social-Cognitive Perspective on Personality?

Reciprocal Determinism?

• How does learned helplessness affect one’s optimism, feelings of self-worth, and sense of control?