Lecture 3 -> Behavioural, social, cognitive approaches to personality

Question 1

Behavioural approach

Answer 1

Personality is the result of learning
- observational learning
- operant conditioning

Question 2

Observational learning

Answer 2

Personality devlops as a result of mimicry of others
Particularly effective among young children
Bodo doll experiment
Gender roles
- biological differences between the sexes (debated)
- lifelong process of gender-role socialisation (likely)
TV as a source of aggression?
- studies find viewing aggression increases the likelihood not acting aggressively
- frequent exposure to aggressive models on tv increases aggressive behaviour over the short term and many years
~ this effect is seen much higher in males
What about violent video games?
- actively engaged in violence
- violence typically rewarded
- desensitisation to violence
Studies have found that those who witness nonviolent behaviour have the lowest aggression score, those who witness violent behaviour that is punished have slightly higher aggression scores and those who witness violent behvaiyr that is rewarded have significantly highest aggression score

Question 3

Video games and personality

Answer 3

Studies have found that video games are likely not the sole cause of aggression
Other issues such as:
- physical abuse
- verbal abuse
- exposure to domestic violence
are also likely to be seen alongside these issues

Question 4

Law of effect

Answer 4

Behaviours are:
- more likely to be related if they lead to satisfying consequences
- less likely to be repeated is they lead to unsatisfying consequences
One study trapped cats in a puzzle box, and the timer in which is took for the cats to escape significantly decreased each time in successive trials

Question 5

Operant conditioning

Answer 5

Personality devleops from conditioning
- rewards = behaviours likely to be repeated
- punishments = behaviours unlikely to be repeated
- this is demonstrated in BF Skinner’s famous experiment where he trapped rats in boxes with a lever. when pushing the lever resulted in receiving food, the behaviour was repeated and when the behaviour resulted in receiving an electric shock, it stopped

Due to punishment (electrical shock)
- red light = do not press lever
Due to reward (food)
- green light = press lever \
or
Due to punishment (embarrassment)
- change personality
Due to rewards (social gains)
- solidify personality
Generalisation
- generalising a response to a specific stimulus to another stimulus
Discriminate:
- differentiation between rewarding and non-rewarding stimulus

Question 6

Behavioural approach evaluation

Answer 6

Strengths
- based with empirical research
- explains external influence on personality
Limitations
- tends to view human behaviour as simple
- assume individuals are born “blank slates”

Question 7

Explaining behaviour

Answer 7

• Agression -
  Biological
• genetics -> inherited aggressive trials
  Behavioural
• observational learning -> views others being aggressive and mimicked those behaviours
• Anxiety -
  Biological
• brain activation -> high frontal lobe activity
  Behavioural
• conditioning -> anxiety as fear of expecting punishment for behaviour

Question 8

Social and cogntive approaches

Answer 8

Social approach
- how social processes and interactions, along with the environment, shape personality
Cogntive approach
- how mental representations and cognitive processing shape personality

Question 9

Social learning theory

Answer 9

Individuals generate their own reinforces
- create expectancies of what will happen if we act a certain way (e.g. will it be rewarded or punoshed?)
- also learn from watching others (observational learning)
Behavioural potential
- different behaviours have a different likelihood of occurring
- depends on anticipated and earned reward/punishments

Question 10

Social-Cognitive Theory

Answer 10

Reciprocal determinism
- external and internal interactions influence personality
- personality is influences by
~ external factors = rewards, punishments
~ internal factors = beliefs, thoughts, experiences
Loop of:
- behaviour
- internal factors
- external factors

Question 11

Social norms

Answer 11

Unwritten rules of how to behave
- ethical/moral behaviour
- peer or family expectations (e.g. go to university)
- provide “blueprint” for behaviour
Gender roles
- social pressure to act “like a man” or “like a woman” prevalent
- norms to act as either masculine or feminine roles likely shape personality

Question 12

Stanford Prison Study

Answer 12

Philip Zimbardo (1971)
- ppts were randomly assigned to be a prisoner or guard
- the guards became more aggressive, prisoners became submissive
- personality changed on their expectations of that social role

Question 13

Cognitive approach

Answer 13

Differences in personality are differences in the way people process and store information
Personality due to mental representations and how these are accessed and stored
- people react tp the same situation differently based on how they process the situation

Question 14

Semantic network model

Answer 14

• mental links form between concepts
• common properties provide basis for mental link
• shorter path between concepts = stronger association in memory
  Spreading activation
• concept in activated in semantic network, spread in any number of directions, activating other nearby associations in network
• nearby activate concepts inform behaviour

Question 15

Self Schema

Answer 15

Cogntive representations of oneself that one uses to organise and process self-relevant information
Consists of the important behaviours and attributes, e.g.:
- parents
- clothing
- school
- religion
- interests
- hobbies
People behave differently due to indivudal differences in self-schemas
Provide a framework for organising and storing information about our personality
Self-reference effect -> easy remembering of self-referent words as they are processed through self-schemas