Lecture notes, lecture 11 - The Cognitive/Experiential Domain: Cognitive Topics in Personality PDF

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The Cognitive/Experiential Domain: Cognitive Topics in Personality...

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The Cognitive/Experiential Domain: Cognitive Topics in Personality Cognitive Approaches to Personality -

Cognition o Awareness, thinking, and specific mental acts Information processing o Objectifying Cognition  Telling what they are experiencing o Personalizing Cognition  Are reminiscing about past experiences

3 Levels of Cognition in Personality -

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Perception o How we impose order into the different things we take into our senses Interpretation o How we make sense of things that we experience, explanations we might give for different situations Conscious Goals o People’s goals and what they think about them, do they think it’s achievable

Personality via Perception: Field Dependence -

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Field-Dependent o People who are influenced by environmental cues o Tend to favour the social sciences, they pay attention to people’s social cues Field-Independent o People who are influenced by inner (self) cues o Favour the natural sciences, math, engineering and tend to be more interpersonally detached o Better able to screen out distracting info and focus on a task  Police officers higher in field independence tend to do better in shooting tasks and in chases

Personality via Perception: Pain Tolerance -

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Pain tolerance o Low pain tolerance  Augmented pain o High pain tolerance  Reduced pain Reducer-Augmenter Theory o The dimension on which we differ in our reaction to sensory stimulation (light, sound) Individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (unstable) to those with no diagnosis, pain tolerance was examined when calmed and stressed

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Those with BPD reported less physical pain when both calm and stressed than those without

Personality via Interpretation -

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Kelly’s contribution o Personal Constructs  A unique belief or concept summarizing a set of observations – one’s reality  Bipolar in nature o Post Modernism  Every person and every culture has unique version of reality Control o Locus of Control  One’s perception of responsibility for life events  Generalized expectancies  External o No control  Internal o Have control Learned Helplessness o When subjected to an unpleasant and inescapable (and continued) experience, one becomes passive, accepting and helpless in that situation  Reformulation  Focuses on how we think about events Explanatory Style o Tendency to adopt a set of explanations for life events  Internal vs External  Stable vs Unstable  Global vs Specific o Pessimistic Explanatory Style  Negative events: internal, stable and global causes  Positive events: external, unstable and specific causes o Optimistic Explanatory Style  Negative events: external, unstable and specific causes  Positive events: internal, stable and global causes o Research on explanatory style  Sex Difference  Males tend to have a more optimistic explanatory style  Pessimistic explanatory style is a risk for depression and physical health concerns

Personality via Goals -

Personal Project o Set of actions intended to achieve a goal Cognitive-Social Learning o Focus here is on cognitive and social processes involved in goals o Self-efficacy  Belief that people execute specific courses of action to achieve a goal  Influenced by modelling

Intelligence: Different Views -

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Achievement view of intelligence Aptitude view of intelligence o About your ability to learn  Processing speed  How quickly and effectively you can solve problems General Intelligence vs Multiple Intelligences o In all cases, it is critical to understand cultural context

Emotional Intelligence -

Awareness of own feelings and how to distinguish them Ability to regulate emotions Ability to control impulses Ability to read cues of others ad be empathetic Ability to be a strong, effective leader

Abuse, Suicidality, and Emotional Intelligence -

With low emotional intelligence, had stronger relation between abuse and suicidality High emotional intelligence, had no relation between abuse and suicidality o Protective factor...