essay

Maria Castro

PERPUZZ7_LecturePPT_Ch15.ppt

Home >Psychology homework help >essay

Chapter 15

Personality Processes: Perception, Thought, Motivation, and Emotion

Objectives

Discuss the history of research on personality processes
Discuss perception, thought, motivation, and emotion

Personality Processes

Includes perception, thought, motivation, and emotion
Understanding these will help us understand someone’s personality

Personality processes definition: the mechanisms that unfold over time to produce the effects of personality traits; a sequence of steps through which a personality trait produces an outcome

The Historical Roots of Research Into Personality Processes

Learning: but ignoring cognition is too limited
Social learning: focused on cognitive processes
Phenomenology: emphasizes importance of the way an individual thinks about the world

Focused on cognitive processes: such as interpretation, evaluation, and decision making

Emphasizes importance of the way an individual thinks about the world: for shaping personality and behavior

The Historical Roots of Research Into Personality Processes

Psychoanalysis: levels of consciousness and the need for compromise
Biological approach: how representations of the self may be organized in the brain
Trait approach: people have different traits based on different thoughts, feelings, and desires

Trait approach: and people see the world differently, which affects reactions to events and what people do

Perception

People are predisposed to perceive the world in different ways
Priming and chronic accessibility
Part of our personalities
May come from evolution, temperament, or experience

Example: dominant people are more sensitive to visual displays on the vertical dimension than on the horizontal dimension

Priming: activation of a concept or idea by repeatedly or recently perceiving it or thinking about it; affects speed at which concepts come to mind; helps to explain differences in perception

Chronic accessibility definition: the tendency of an idea or concept to come easily to mind

Part of our personalities: concepts that are constantly primed become part of our personalities

Evolution: recognition of gender, fear/dislike of spiders and snakes

Temperament: one tendency is to experience positive versus negative emotions

Experience: probably the biggest influence; based on importance of traits to others whom one is around frequently (for example, parents); may be related to culture

Perception

Rejection sensitivity
Affects interpretation of ambiguous signals
Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy
Can result in seemingly inconsistent behavior
Aggression: related to

perceptions of hostility

Rejection sensitivity definition: being especially aware of suggestions of impending rejection

Often creates a self-fulfilling prophecy: because high rejection sensitive people respond to ambiguous cues with anxiety and even panic

Can result in seemingly inconsistent behavior: depending on whether or not cues to rejection are present; another example is authoritarianism

Aggression: related to the tendency to perceive others as having hostile intentions or as a threat; memory may be related to hostile themes for hostile people (but this automatic perception could be overcome if someone slows down and thinks before responding, or is mindful)

Perception

Perceptual defense
Similar to psychoanalytic defense mechanisms
People can have physiological reactions to emotionally charged words before they are consciously aware of them
Implication
Vigilance and defense
Why do some people tend to see exactly what they fear most?

Perceptual defense definition: screening out information from consciousness that might make the individual anxious or uncomfortable

People can have physiological reactions to anxiety-provoking words before they are consciously aware of them: When the words were presented very briefly, people started sweating before they said they could see them.

Implication: We might be able to avoid conscious awareness of things we find threatening.

Why do some people tend to see exactly what they fear most? (shy and social rejection): Possible answers: their defense mechanisms don’t work well enough so they perceive the threatening stimuli consciously; people differ in the degree to which they are perceptually vigilant versus defensive

Thought

Determines many, but not all, actions
Not all thinking is conscious
Consciousness
Short-term memory (STM)
Limited capacity: 7 ± 2 chunks

Not all thinking is conscious: It’s possible to have thoughts you don’t know about.

Consciousness definition: whatever the individual has in mind at the moment

Short-term memory (STM) definition: where consciousness is located

Chunks: pieces of information that can be thought of as a unit; what a chunk is can vary with learning and experience

Thought: Consciousness

STM and thinking
Chunking can work with ideas
The purpose of education is to assemble new chunks
Consciousness and psychological health
Constructs, chunks, and consciousness

A person’s unique set of constructs or chunks influences how they think about the world

Purpose of education: by learning how small pieces of information form larger concepts; the only way to expand your ability to think

Consciousness and psychological health: don’t fill up consciousness with the wrong things (negative thoughts about worries); instead, use consciousness to appreciate the good things in life and for constructive planning

Constructs, chunks, and consciousness: The critical aspects of thinking are the constructs, or chunks, that make up your distinctive view of the world; people have different constructs and chunks, and this is another reason why everyone thinks differently; chunks can be influenced by culture

Consciousness, or STM, is the only part of the mind with a limited capacity (consistent with psychoanalytic theory).

Thought: Unconscious Thoughts

People can do things without knowing why, and know things without knowing they know
The unconscious is important
We can do many things without thinking or awareness
Consciousness is very small and life is more complicated than that
We sometimes do things without knowing why or have thoughts and feelings we don’t understand

People show a preference for objects they have only seen at an unconscious level (they were presented too quickly for people to be consciously aware of them).

We can do many things without thinking or awareness, such as digestion and eye pupil dilation or contraction.

Consciousness is very small and life is more complicated than that: so much more must go on mentally than consciousness can contain

Thought: Two Ways of Thinking

Dual-process models
Conscious thought is slower
Freud’s theory: rational and irrational thought
Reflective and impulsive

Two systems that can work at the same time

Dual-process models: contrast the roles of conscious and unconscious thought

Reflective (slow and largely rational) and impulsive (fast, almost automatic, and sometimes irrational)

Thought: Two Ways of Thinking

Cognitive-experiential self-theory (CEST)
Seeks to explain unconscious processing and the seemingly irrational, emotion-driven sectors of the mind
The rational system and the experiential system

The rational system and the experiential system: two major psychological systems that are used at the same time to adapt to the world

See Table 15.1 on the next slide.

Rational System

Is analytic

Resembles Freud’s “secondary process thinking”

Is logical: driven by what is sensible

Affects behavior through conscious appraisal of events

Thinks in terms of abstract symbols, words, and numbers

Operates at a slower speed, designed for deliberate action

Can be changed through logical decision-making

Is effortful and deliberate (e.g., sitting down to do some serious thinking)

Requires justification via logic and evidence

Produces knowledge

Experiential System

Is holistic

Resembles Freud’s “primary process thinking”

Is affective: driven by emotions

Influences behavior through “vibes” from past experience

Thinks in terms of vivid images, metaphors, and stories

Operates at a very high speed, designed for immediate action

Needs repetitive or intense experiences for change

Is effortless and automatic (e.g., being seized by a sudden Impulse)

Seems self-evidently valid: “experiencing is believing”

Produces wisdom

Table 15.1 on p. 556

Rational system: language, logic, and systematized, factual knowledge; dominates when you are calm

Experiential system: tied closely to emotion; assumed to be how animals think; dominates when you are emotional; useful for intuition and insight

Activity: Dual-Process Game

Thought: Two Ways of Thinking

CEST
Different systems may generate different decisions
The systems interact

The systems interact: The experiential system is needed for good judgments to be made.

Motivation

What do you want? How will you try to get it?
Goals and strategies
Goals drive behavior by influencing what you attend to, think about, and do
People do not always behave consistently with their stated goals

Goals definition: the ends that one desires

Strategies definition: the means used to achieve goals

Motivation: Goals

Short-term and long-term goals
Idiographic goals
Current concerns
Personal projects
Personal strivings

Being aware of long-term goals can help a person make better decisions and organize short-term goals

Short-term goals are needed to achieve long-term goals; being aware of connections between them gives life meaning and purpose; it’s good to be able to shift one’s focus between these types of goals

Idiographic goals definition: goals that are unique to the individuals who pursue them

Current concerns definition: an ongoing motivation that persists in the mind until the goal is either attained or abandoned

Personal projects definition: the efforts put into goals

Personal strivings: long-term goals that can organize broad areas of life; people can have strivings that are inconsistent with each other (career and family)

Motivation: Goals

Properties of idiographic goals
Conscious at least some of the time
Describe thoughts and behaviors that are aimed at fairly specific outcomes
Can change over time
Assumed to function independently
Limitation of idiographic goals
Goals are not theoretically organized

Assumed to function independently: the goals don’t necessarily affect each other; people can have goals that are inconsistent with each other

Motivation: Goals

Nomothetic goals
May bring order to idiographic goals
Number of goals
McClelland’s three primary motivations: needs for achievement, affiliation, and power
Emmon’s five: enjoyment, self-assertion, esteem, interpersonal success, avoidance of negative affect
Two: work and social interaction

Nomothetic goals definition: essential motivations that almost everyone pursues

Need for achievement definition: striving for excellence

Need for affiliation definition: finding and maintaining close, warm emotional relationships

Need for power definition: feeling strong and influencing others, seeking prestige and status

Motivation: Goals

Nomothetic goals
Judgment goals and development goals
Balance differs across people
Can change over time and across situations
Lead to different outcomes: mastery orientation and helplessness
Entity theories and incremental theories
Research

Judgment goals definition: seeking to judge or validate an attribute about oneself

Development goals definition: desire to improve oneself

Lead to different outcomes: academic example and response to failure

Mastery orientation: from developmental goals; trying harder after failing

Helplessness: from judgment goals; giving up after failing

Entity theories: beliefs that personal qualities are unchangeable; lead to judgment goals

Incremental theories: beliefs that personal qualities can change with time and experience; lead to development goals

Research: incremental theorists do better following failure and higher achievement; can affect relations with others; interventions and experimental manipulations can increase incremental theory; types of goals can be influenced by characteristic ways of pursing goals and by how a task is structured by others

Activities: Judgment and Development Goals: The Most Intelligent Prince, Goal-Setting Activity

Motivation: Strategies

Scripts and broad strategies

Strategies and traits
Traits can produce characteristic adaptations, or generalized scripts
The same strategy can result in different behavior patterns; different strategies can result in the same behavior
Different traits can lead to the same strategies

Strategies definition: this is a reminder; a sequence of activities that progress toward a goal

Broad strategies: rejection sensitivity; assessment versus locomotion

Different traits can lead to the same strategies: wanting to get ahead and get along may both lead to making lots of friends (but for different purposes)

Motivation: Strategies

Defensive pessimism (versus optimism)
Coping, performance, and success are similar to optimists
Find relief when the worst outcome doesn’t happen
Some consistency
Advantages and disadvantages to both strategies

Defensive pessimism: assume the worst will happen and use this assumption to motivate goal-seeking behavior; versus optimism: assuming that the best will happen

Find relief when the worst outcome doesn’t happen: even when some things do go wrong

Some consistency: whether a person uses an optimistic versus pessimistic strategy across situations has some consistency.

Advantages and disadvantages to both strategies: but optimists are generally happier

Emotion

A type of procedural knowledge
A set of mental and physical procedures

Procedural knowledge: knowledge that cannot be learned or fully expressed through words, but only through action and experience

A set of mental and physical procedures: How the body and mind respond is part of the emotion.

Emotion: Experience

Basic stages: appraisal, physical responses, facial expressions, nonverbal behavior, motives
Stages can happen at the same time or in a different order
Complex mixture of thought, physical sensations and motivations
Possible sources: immediate stimuli, classical conditioning, memories or thoughts

Appraisal: judging a stimulus as emotionally relevant

Motives: to perform a behavior based on the emotion

Stages can happen at the same time or in a different order: Physical responses may come before appraisal (our body responds before we know why).

Emotion: Varieties of Emotions

Core emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust
Some emotions may be universal because they were evolutionarily advantageous
It may be advantageous to be able to perceive these emotions accurately in others
Circumplex model

Core emotions have basically the same meaning and means of expression across cultures

Some emotions may be universal because they were evolutionarily advantageous: for example, anger.

Activity: Deriving the Emotions Circumplex

Emotion: An Emotions Circumplex

Figure 15.5 on p. 572

Assumes all emotions vary along two dimensions; aroused versus unaroused and negative versus positive, or excited versus bored and alarmed versus serene

Useful for comparing emotions to each other

Emotion	Typical Stimulus	Typical Responses	Adaptive Function
Anger	Threat, trespass	Threaten, attack	Protect territory, resources, or mates
Guilt	Harm to others that violates social code	Apologize, make amends	Obtain forgiveness from the offended party and reentry to the social group
Anxiety	Possibility of harm, danger	Worry, flee	Anticipate danger, escape harm
Sadness	Loss	Sad facial expressions, crying	Receive support from others, disengage from loss
Hope	Possibility of future gain	Continue effort, maintain commitment	Perseverance in the face of obstacles

Emotions have different stimuli, responses, and functions.

Table 15.2 on p. 573

Emotion: Individual Differences in Emotional Life

Differences are core aspects of personality
Emotional experience
Preference for emotions
Affect intensity
Rate of change
Emotional intelligence
Related to emotional expressiveness, quality of personal relationships, levels of optimism and cognitive control

Emotional experience: people differ in their tendency to experience various emotions; extraverts tend to experience more positive emotion than introverts; people differ in their desire to feel certain emotions

Intensity: some people experience emotion more strongly than others; women are generally higher than men; a risk factor for bad outcomes—depression, seeing one event as very positive can make other events appear to be negative, too much physiological arousal may harm the heart and immune system

Rate of change: higher rates are associated with being described by others as generally fearful and hostile

Emotional intelligence definition: accurately perceiving emotions in oneself and others and controlling and regulating one’s own emotions, cognitive control is used to control and regulate emotions

Emotion: Happiness

Three components
Overall satisfaction with life
Satisfaction with particular life domains
Generally high levels of positive emotion and low levels of negative emotion
The conception can vary with age
Hedonic and eudaimonic well-being
Positively related

The conception can vary with age: People in their teens and 20s associate happiness with excited emotions whereas older people associate happiness with peaceful emotions.

Hedonic: pleasure seeking

Eudaimonic: seeking a meaningful life

Emotion: Sources of Happiness

Three sources of happiness (Figure 15.7 on p. 577)

Individual set point: makes happiness moderately stable over time; genetically influenced and based partly on extraversion and neuroticism

Objective life circumstances (age, income, education, marital status)

What the individual does (intentional activity): being optimistic, making time for things that matter, working on important life goals, spending money on experiences, appreciating the good things in life, thinking like a political conservative (associated with fewer negative emotions) or liberal (experience more positive emotions)

Activity: Sources of Happiness

Emotion: Happiness

Consequences of happiness
Happiness may also be a cause of important outcomes
Happiness may have a dark side
Happiness is related to effective functioning in broad areas

Happiness may also be a cause of important outcomes: health, occupational success, supportive relationships, confidence, likeability, sociability, energy level, improved immune function, pain tolerance, and overall physical health

Happiness may have a dark side (negative outcomes): failure to recognize risky situations or to pour excessive energy into unproductive pursuits; if felt at the wrong time, can interfere with efforts to improve one’s situation; trying to be happy can be counterproductive if one cannot become happy enough; arrogant happiness can be harmful to others

Happiness is related to effective functioning in broad areas, including decision making, professional accomplishment, social support, and less drug use.

Activity: Inside-Out

Personality Is a Verb

Personality is something a person does

The things people do are personality processes.

Clicker Question #1

Which of the following statements about perception is true?

Everyone perceives the world in the same way.

Everyone has the same chronically accessible constructs.

Aggression is not related to perceptions.

People who are sensitive to rejection are more likely to think that a partner is rejecting them.

Correct answer: d

Clicker Question #2

Conscious thought

is more important than unconscious thought.

can happen at the same time as unconscious thought.

works the same way when people are emotional or calm.

has a large capacity.

Correct answer: b

Clicker Question #3

People are motivated

to achieve their goals.

only by short-term goals.

to always think of the best possible outcomes.

by the same basic goals as everyone else.

Correct answer: a; c is wrong because some people are defensive pessimists