PSYC 305 FINAL

Personality is determined by environmental factors
Personality is the sum of observable behaviour
Personality must be assessed through the observation of behaviour

Classical conditioning (learning through repeated pairing a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that produces a response)

Instrumental (operant) conditioning (learning through reinforcement and punishment)

Instrumental (operant) conditioning

Positive reinforcement

Negative reinforcement

cognitions, drives, instincts, motives, needs, unconscious/conscious experiences

social cognitive theories

motivational state that creates readiness to respond and propels behaviour

a stimulus that has ability to elicit behaviour if accompanied by a drive; indicates what action should be taken at a given time

Response

reinforcement

R1 is the go to, dominant, most likely response

It is the most successful in achieving drive reduction in the past

If R1 not successful in achieving drive reduction, order of responses in habit hierarchy changes

Personality

observation of others

attention, retention, production, and performance

faccilitates observational learning

Extrinsic/social reinforcement

Reinforcement that is the natural outcome of a behavior (aspirin having biological effects in body that alleviate discomfort)

self reinforcement

Vicarious reinforcement

Subjective belief about one’s ability to successfully perform a behaviour

Varies across different scenarios that reflect one's own belief on how well they can do something

Phase 1: therapist teaches patient relaxation techniques
Phase 2: therapist has patient construct hierarchy of phobia stimuli – imagined scenarios
Phase 3: explain stimuli to peers on hierarchy going from bottom to top; using relaxation techniques to gradually getting over phobia

Really effective in treating war veterans with PTSD (e.g. Using VR to put them in scenes of combat linked with their PTSD)

through reason

schematic view of cognitive processing

Organized knowledge structure about a concept, its attributes, its relationships to other concepts

Idealized best member/most representative of the schema

schematic representations of temporally organized event sequences
(having a script for the action of going to the library, or going to watch a movie)

“association networks” of nodes (each node is a unit of info)

Increases likelihood that associated nodes will be activated

male

Intuitive processor
Conscious processor

Intuitive problem solving - rely on intuition
automaticeflexive behaviours
Outside awareness
“Experiential system” - reactive to experience
Quick and imprecise
Affected by emotion
“Reading”
“Hot” processing - emotional in nature
Reflects implicit (unconscious knowledge) knowledge
“System 1”

Effortful reasoning
Deliberate/controlled behaviour
Inside awareness
“Rational system”
Slow
Uses rules - logic
“Thinking” - deliberate approach
“Cool” processing - relies of facts, knowledge
Reflects explicit knowledge
“System 2”

Intuitive: lazy
Conscious: better, more smart

Individualist; sparser environment, less housing/infrastructure
Field independence gaze: spend more time looking at focal object

attributions are explanations for events

Locus (cause is external or internal)
Stability (cause is stable or unstable across time)
Globality (cause is specific or applicable to many other things)

depression

due to external, unstable, specific factors

due to internal, stable, global factors

stability

locus

globality

Number of self-aspects that are used to represent the self in the self schema
The degree of redundancy among these self-aspects

by preventing events that occur in one self from“spilling over’ and adversely affecting other self-aspects

thinking

they interact with environmental variables (situations) to determine behaviour

schemas

stimulus-outcome expectancies, response-outcome expectancies, self-efficacy, locus of control

Response-outcome expectancies

Competencies and self regulation skills

physicochemical force in the brain (biologically based)
organizes perception, intellection, action to transform unstasifying situation into more satisfying one

to get rid of tension, we get our needs, and feel satisfaction after

learning and socialization

parts of our environment that require needs

Motive

hunger

Thoughts can influence behaviour

situational factor that increases or decreases a motive, and consequently influences thought and behaviour

Presenting participants with images of ambiguous situations, assume that participants project their needs (apperception) onto the ambiguous situations
Participants create situations/stories after seeing images

accomplished by counting references to specific needs

what one person identities as a need someone else may not agree or not think about

Personality research form

Includes both a projective test and a self report test, and allows for assessment of both implicit and explicit needs, but does not assess all needs, only 3

Humans have freedom of will and can determine the course of events in their lives

Conscious experience is the primary determinant of behavior and personality

Humans are inherently good and innately strive for growth and improvement

motivational forces that determined behaviour

Physiological needs: biological maintenance
Safety needs: physical security
Belonging needs: affiliation
Esteem needs: public recognition and self-esteem
Self actualization needs: self-fulfillment

develop basic anxiety

Develop incapacity to love, avoidant dismissive style

Overly concerned with acceptance and approva

Esteem needs

Failure to self actualize has maladaptive psychological responses

Needs that are innate to us as human – biologically based needs, but can be overwritten by cultural/social factors

Belonging + self esteem

expression of natural human needs to learn, explore, discover, and create

Distinctive: perpetuate dysfunctional lifestyle, foster stagnation, contribute to pathology

Reaction: develop in an attempt to compensate for unsatisfied conative needs
- Compensate for unsatisfied conative needs

Mindfulness
Link past, present, future

Directed by their judgements, motives, morals, principles

Internal locus of control and higher environmental mastery

sociocultural constraints and self-constraints

All motives are subsumed by one master motive: to fulfill our potential at all levels (even physiological)

Organismic trust

Autonomy (Free to pursue interest that they have identified, take responsibility for their actions)

innate need for positive regard: to be accepted and receive love and affection from others

An individual who experiences positive regard in childhood develops unconditional positive self regard

fully functioning person

conditional positive regard

Inability to view self favourably regardless of what's happening

Need for positive regard → conditional positive regard (from caregiver in childhood – conditions of worth) → conditional positive self regard → positive characteristics that hinder self actualization

incongruities (inconsistency)

To minimize anxiety, we attempt to reduce incongruities between self concept and experience

Non fully functioning person reduces incongruities through use of defense mechanisms: Denial and distortion

Client-centered therapy, aka “nondirective therapy”

Therapist creates environment where patient is able to solve their own problems

Therapist congruence
- Therapist must be genuine and truthful; “act real”
Unconditional positive regard
- Therapist ensures client is sure that there are no conditions for approval, etc
Empathetic understanding; communicated by restarting comments and feelings shared by patient
- Feeling with the patient; feel in their psychological state while they experience psychological reactions
- Communicated when therapist restates to client their comments and feelings that have been expressed → client has to clarify comments and feelings to therapist → therapist = mirror; client hears their own emotions and fears expressed → client ponders and clarifies, resolving their own problem

People more likely to identify weaknesses in themselves to facilitate self improvement
In collectivist society, individuals less likely to identify weakness in themselves

Looking for direction from those with greater expertise to give them direction on how to cope (someone to tell them what to do/how to solve their anxiety)

alexithymia

Process is ambiguous → statements mirrored for you to decipher

Positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, positive institutions
- To improve quality of life and prevent pathologies

Hedonic happiness

self actualization (fulfillment)

Hedonic happiness and eudaimonic happiness are highly positively correlated

Desired/target value for happiness that we return to after events that can temp increase or decrease happiness

Return to set point because we adapt to our new conditions → hedonic/emotional adaptation to positive or negative novel events

capacity to fully feel, enjoy, and extend positive experiences

Each child born decreases happiness, lowest point when child in adolescent, happiness goes up when child leaves

Attribute success to internal, stable, global factors
Attribute failures to external, unstable, specific factors

belief that the future generally holds positive but not negative events

pursuit of intrinsic motivations; driven by personally internally guided goals and missions

Intense experiential involvement in moment to moment activity, focused attention, optimal functioning

Associated with clear goals, sense of control, distortion of time, balance between challenge of skill
- We feel we control outcome
- Time feels like its passing quickly
- We feel challenged, but that we have the skill to beat that challenge

Positive punishment → getting beat as a child
Negative punishment → getting taken out of school
Positive reinforcement → being good at stealing and gaining money

Watching his father: pursued same activism his father preached
Learning within the nation of islam

Once joining nation of islam, worked really hard to gain the “X” to rid himself of his slave name

Drug use – natural outcome of drug use = euphoria, relief, etc
Ability to love himself – associated with islam (?)

Reinforcement he received from his observation of other black people in Boston (wanted to be like other blacks that were not ashamed to be themselves)

Self approval → he died for what he believed in

Drive = need for belonging, cue = presence of white americans, how to fulfill need for belonging when there is a cue of white americans?
- Before prison, his R1 was to appease and emulate white americans (did slave jobs, tried to mimic white people hair, steered white men to black prostitutes, had white gf)

Found that this R1 did not work; was out with white girlfriends and got arrested, sentenced to jail for 10 years even though the girlfriends did not → jailed for being associated with white women, not for the actual crime

Years in boston was focused on pimping, thieving, drugs, to fund his party life in an attempt to fit in
One of his schemas was money → tied to criminal activities which could all be linked to survival → money as a source of happiness, acceptance, friends, belonging, love

Stimulus outcome expectancies (money → happiness)
Self efficacy → I can and have the skills to gain money

Money associated with happiness (positive affect)

Using money gained to further his goal of fitting in (?)

Incredible social prowess
Insane charisma
Effectiveness in social influence

Directing risking his safety needs (getting constant death threats)

Malcolm X did not align with Maslow's assumption that lower order needs are stronger than needs for self actualization

Perceived competence derived from material competence (what needs to be done to satisfy needs; what resources needed) and cognitive competence (belief that you can implement the resources and actions needed to satisfy need – self competence)

Maslow described self actualization as end state: only available after all other needs are met (1-2% of people achieve)
- Seeking to achieve final self actualization state

Rogers’ described self actualization as something that people will always reach for, always engage in the actualization tendency.
- Majority of us are engaged in process of self actualization

Need for Autonomy: internal locus of control (control over outcomes in ones life)
Need for Competence: capacity to learn and implement skills to produce desired outcomes
Need for relatedness: connection with others, personally and in community

External regulation → lock in in school
Introjected Regulation - Focus on approval of self → identify and trying to be like black youth in boston
Identified regulation → learning in prison
Integrated regulation → nation of islam; adopted their beliefs

creation of organization of afro-american unity

framework for understanding human motivation/personality

innate psychological needs and social-contextual influences

Organismic Metatheory

Autonomy

Competence

Relatedness

Need to feel volitional and self-endorsed in one’s actions

Need to feel effective and capable in interactions with the environment

Need to feel connected and cared for by others

Engaging in an activity for inherent satisfaction

Cognitive Evaluation Theory (CET)

Performing an activity to achieve separable outcomes

a continuum of extrinsic motivation internalization

External Regulation

Introjected Regulation

Identified Regulation

Integrated Regulation

Motivated by external rewards/punishments

Internalized but not fully accepted

Personally valued and deemed important

Fully assimilated into the self, aligning with other values

Amotivation

Autonomy Support

Controlling Contexts

Need-Supportive Environments

Environments that encourage choice, self-initiation, and minimize control (teachers, parents, managers)

Undermine autonomy (excessive rewards, threats, pressure)

Foster autonomy, competence, and relatedness, enhancing motivation and well-being

Linked to intrinsic motivation and integrated extrinsic motivation

Enhanced by satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness

Results from unmet psychological needs, leading to passivity or disengagement

Promoted by autonomy support, relatedness, and competence

autonomy

Need satisfaction

Controlling environments undermine these processes, resulting in alienation or diminished motivation

Pleasant Life

Engaged Life

Meaningful Life

Positive emotions and pleasure

Zest, gratitude, hope, and love (heart strengths)

hope, teamwork, and zest, appreciation of beauty and open-mindedness

Writing daily about positive events and their causes (effects lasted 6 months)

Using Signature Strengths

Writing/delivering a gratitude letter (large short-term effects, faded by 3 months)

need for longitudinal designs

amplify effects

Positive Affect (PA): Frequency of positive emotions

Negative Affect (NA): Frequency of negative emotions (independent of PA)

Life Satisfaction: Cognitive evaluation of one’s life as a whole

Purpose, growth, and autonomy

People adapt to life changes, returning to a baseline level of happiness

Strongly linked to Positive Affect

Strongly linked to Negative Affect

Extraversion and neuroticism

Integrates cognitive and affective processes to explain inter-individual differences + intra-individual variability in behavior

Personality Paradox

Personality Paradox

stable, unique patterns of behaviour exhibited by individuals in specific situations

How individuals interpret situations

Stimulus-outcome (e.g., "this cue predicts danger")

Response-outcome (e.g., "my effort leads to success")

Affects

Goals and Values

Competencies and Self-Regulation

Attractor State

habitual responses (rejection sensitivity)

stable situation-behavior patterns

Self-Efficacy

success strengthens efficacy, failure weakens it (if attributed to lack of ability)

Observing others' successes/failures

Encouragement from others

Affects goal-setting, effort, persistence, and problem-solving efficiency

Guided mastery (in vivo exposure).

Modeling (observational learning).

Cognitive reappraisal (reframing thoughts)

Shared belief in a group’s ability to achieve goals;

different from individual self efficacy, but interconnected

social cognitive theory - Humans actively shape environments (not passive reactors)