Personality, 9e

Jerry M. Burger

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 The Cognitive Approach: Theory,
Application, and Assessment
Chapter 15

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
 Chapter Outline
 Personal construct theory
 Cognitive personality variables
 Cognitive representations of the self
 Application: Cognitive (behavior)
psychotherapy

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 3
 Chapter Outline
 Assessment: Repertory grid technique
 Strengths and criticisms of the cognitive
approach

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 4
 Cognitive approach
 Differences in personality are differences in
the way people process information
 Kurt Lewin’s Field theory of behavior
(1938)
 Early predecessor
 Psychology of Personal Constructs
 Published by George Kelly
 Premise of many approaches identified as
cognitive
© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 5
 Personal Construct Theory
 Personal constructs: Cognitive
structures people use to interpret and
predict events
 People do not use identical personal constructs
 Individuals do not organize constructs in an
identical manner
 Bipolar
 Friendly–unfriendly
 Intelligent–unintelligent
© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 6
 Personal Construct Theory
 Application of first construct is followed by
other bipolar constructs
 Determines the extent of the blackness or
whiteness
 Differences in personality result from
differences in the way people interpret the
world

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 7
 Personal Construct Systems
 Initial thoughts of people to make sense of
others and their behavior
 Individuals may use the same constructs and
construe the world differently

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 8
 Inadequate Personal
Constructs
 People suffer from psychological problems
due to defects in their construct systems
 Past traumatic experiences are not the cause of
the problems
 People become anxious when personal
constructs fail to make sense of the events in
their lives
 People frequently generate a new construct
to replace the inadequate one
© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 9
 Cognitive Personality
Variables
 Elements between the stimulus and
response
 Constitute to individual differences in people
 Referred as cognitive-affective units
 Part of a complex system that links
situations people encounter with their
behavior

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 10
 Cognitive Personality
Variables
 Individual differences in cognitive
framework is due to difference in mental
representations of people
 Individuals differ in the manner they access
stored information
 People react to the same situation differently

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 11
 Table 15.1 - Cognitive-Affective
Units

Source: From A Cognitive-Affective System Theory of Personality: Reconceptualizing Situations, Disposition,

Dynamics, and Invariance in Personality Structure, by W. Mischel and Y. Shoda, Psychological Review, 1995, 102,
246–148. Copyright © 1995 American Psychological Association.

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 12
 Figure 15.1 - Cognitive Model
of Personality

Source: From A Cognitive-Affective System Theory of Personality: Reconceptualizing Situations, Disposition,

Dynamics, and Invariance in Personality Structure, by W. Mischel and Y. Shoda, Psychological Review, 1995,
102, 246148. Copyright 1995 American Psychological Association.

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 13
 Cognitive Representations of
the Self
 Mental representations are unique to
individuals
 Self-concept - Cognitive representation of
oneself
 Relatively stable over time
 Play a central role in the way people process
information

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 14
 Self-Schemas
 Cognitive representations of oneself that
one uses to organize and process self-
relevant information
 Consists of the important behaviors and
attributes

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 15
 Figure 15.2 - Example of a
Self-Schema Diagram

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 16
 Self-Schemas
 Trait concepts - Part of self-schema
 People behave differently due to individual
differences in self-schemas
 Provide a framework for organizing and
storing information
 Self-reference effect
 Easy remembering of self-referent words as
they are processed through self-schemas

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 17
 Possible Selves
 Cognitive representations of the kind of
person we might become someday
 Behavior is influenced by cognitive
representations of present and future self
 Provide incentives for future behavior
 Helps to interpret the meaning of behavior and
events in our lives

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 18
 Possible Selves
 Researchers use possible selves to study
varied behaviors
 Binge drinking, academic performance
 Weight loss, adherence to an exercise program
 Researches indicate gender differences in
the possible selves of young men and
women

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 19
 Self Discrepancies
 Self-discrepancy theory proposes cognitive
representations of the self
 Actual self - Contains the information you have
about the kind of person you are
 Ideal self - Mental image of the kind of person
you would like to be
 Ought self - Person you believe you should be

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 20
 Self Discrepancies
 Discrepancies between actual and ideal self
result in disappointment, dejection, and
sadness
 Discrepancies between actual and ought self
lead to agitation, anxiety, and guilt
 Comparison takes place outside of
conscious awareness

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 21
 Application: Cognitive
(Behavior) Psychotherapy
 Helps recognize inappropriate thoughts and
replace them with appropriate ones
 Cognitive psychologists teach clients how to
deal with future and recurring problems
 Limited to psychological problems that are
based in irrational and self-defeating
thinking

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 22
 Rational Emotive (Behavior)
Therapy
 Developed by Albert Ellis
 People become depressed, anxious, and
upset due to faulty reasoning and reliance
on irrational beliefs

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 23
 Rational Emotive (Behavior)
Therapy
 A-B-C process
 Activating experience
 Irrational belief
 Emotional consequence
 Goal of rational emotive therapy
 Clients must see their irrational beliefs and
identify the fault in reasoning
 To replace irrational beliefs with rational ones

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 24
 Assessment: Repertory Grid
Technique
 Developed by George Kelly and his
followers
 Procedure
 Test taker creates a list of elements
 Consists of specific people the test taker knows
 Test taker’s personal constructs are elicited by
comparing various elements on the list

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 25
 Assessment: Repertory Grid
Technique
 Role Construct Repertory Test
 Common version of the grid technique
 Referred as Rep Test
 Second step of the procedure creates a grid
 Allows the therapist and client to look for
patterns across a broad set of information

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 26
 Assessment: Repertory Grid
Technique
 Researchers employ grid technique to
study:
 Teaching effectiveness
 Profiles of specific criminal type
 Career counseling

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 27
 Assessment: Repertory Grid
Technique
 Limitations
 Does not generate a simple test score
 Several assumptions underlying the test
 Constructs elicited during test have some degree of
permanence

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 28
 Strengths of the Cognitive
Approach
 Ideas developed through empirical findings
 Subjected to extensive investigation in
controlled laboratory experiments
 Fits well with the current mood of
psychology
 Therapists from other approaches
incorporate aspects of cognitive therapy in
their practice
© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 29
 Criticisms of the Cognitive
Approach
 Concepts are too abstract for empirical
research
 Indecisive to introduce cognitive concepts
to account for individual differences in
behavior
 No single model to organize and guide
theory and research

© 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use. 15 - 30