Psychology Notes pt. 8

Question 1

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Answer 1

A perspective stating that understanding personality involves considering how people are affected by a particular situation by what they have learned, by how they think, and by how they interact socially

Question 2

Albert Bandura

Answer 2

Psychologist who developed the social-cognitive perspective and believes that to understand personality, one must consider the situation and the person’s thoughts before, during, and after an event

• People learn by observing and modeling others or through reinforcement

Question 3

Reciprocal Determinism

Answer 3

The mutual influences between personality and environmental factors

• An interaction of three factors:
• Thoughts or cognition
• The environment
• A person’s behaviors

Question 4

External Locus of Control

Answer 4

The perception that change, or forces beyond your control, determine your fate

Question 5

Internal Locus of Control

Answer 5

The perception that you control your own fate

Question 6

Optimistic Explanatory Style

Answer 6

• When something goes wrong the person explains the problem as:
• Temporary and not their fault
• Something limited to this situation

Question 7

Pessimistic Explanatory Style

Answer 7

• When something goes wrong the person tends to:
• Blame themselves
• Catastrophize the event
• See the problem as beyond their control

Question 8

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective

Answer 8

• Based on a scientific approach
• Doesn’t include the role of emotions, unseen motives, and the role of consistent traits