Chapter 15: Cognitive Approach Flashcards
man-the-scientist perspective
people constantly generate and test hypotheses about the world
personal constructs
cogntive strucutres we use to interpret and predict events
What did George Kelly believe was at the heart of most psychological problems?
anxiety
Why did George Kelly reject the notion that psychological disorders are caused by past traumatic experiences?
thought it was due to defects in cognitive systems
cognitive personality variables (def)
parts of a complex system that links situations to behaviour
cognitive personality variables (list)
encodings
expectations and beliefs
affects
goals and values
competencies and self-regulatory plans
encodings (variable)
categories/constructs for encoding information about one’s self, other people, events, and situations
expectations and beliefs (variable)
expectations for what will happen in certain situations, for outcomes, for certain behaviours, and for one’s personal efficacy
affects (variable)
feelings, emotions, and emotional responses
goals and values (variable)
individual goals and values, and life projects
competencies and self-regulatory plans
perceived abilities, plans, and strategies for maintaining one’s behaviour and internal states
self-schemas
cognitive representations of ourselves that we use to organize and process self-relevant information
(consists of behaviours and attributes most important to you)
self-reference effect
people recall things better when its related to themselves
possible selves
cognitive representations of the kind of person we might become somday
What function do possible selves serve?
provide inventives for future behaviour and interpret meaning of our behaviour and meaning in our lives
Strengths of Cognitive Approach
empirical basis
fit with current models of psychology
Criticisms of Cognitive Approach
- concepts can be too abstract
- do we need to introduce concepts to account for individual behaviour
- no single model for organization
psychological field
total sum of all forces and influences that can impact a person’s behaviour
- incorporates situations, culture, and social social elements
Personal Construct Theory
no individual uses identical personal constructs or organizes them in an identical manner
Describe the nature of Personal construct theory
Bipolar in a dichotomous way
(ie. Friendly-Unfriendly)
fundamental postulate
a person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events
individual corollary
persons differ from each other in their construction of events
organization corollary
when faced with conflicts, there may be solutions that contradict each other
life space
representation of a person’s unique experience and reality
- includes feelings, thoughts, perceptions, goals, and experiences
