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Personality - Cognitive Theories (Y1) - Coggle Diagram
Personality - Cognitive Theories (Y1)
Conceptual issue and the rise of cognitive psychology
Came about as a response to behaviourism - father of experimental psychology; William Wundt
Born in Neckarau, Baden in 1832
1868 - studied medicine in Berlin, gained doctorate
1875 - Leipzig Lab
1881 - started the Journal of Philosophy Studies
1883 - started experimental psychology
1894 - set up the first institute for experimental psychology
Widely recognised as first psychology lab in the world
5 rooms - an antechamber, a darkroom for psychological research on vision, two rooms with electromagnetic instruments for various experiments, particularly used for attention, anatomical reproductions and demonstration models, and a reading room with a library
Cognitive psychology develops with technology - theories change constantly as technology changes e.g. attention theories changed with eye tracking technology
Psychology as the science of immediate of experience:
break down immediate experience to their smallest constituents - emergent forms or qualities are characteristic of every mental event
Focus on apperception - we do not just perceive visual world, we apperceive because we interpret the world based on experience
Gain insight into processing by accessing through introspection
Unbiased - not affected by interpretation; asked people to tell people how they felt as they went, what the experience was and what the emergent event was
Aimed to understand based on understanding the smallest amount we can perceive
Social organisation of self observation in Wundt's psychology - experimenters were low status students or demonstrators handling equipment, and Wundt himself was the highest status person and was the subject - inverse of modern experiments
Wundt's thought metre - highest piece of equipment was a clock with a pendulum which hit a bell each side it swung - ask questions about whether the audio and visual is observed and perceived at the same time etc
However, gaining human universals as difficult as everyone has a subjective experience of stimuli
Social perception etc can impact introspection, making it a biased process
Wundt suggested that you could attend to the position of the pendulum or the position of the bell, it takes 1/10th of a second to register each attentional part - inherent bias
Cannot understand the mind without understanding the smallest parts
Gestalt Theory (1920s-1930s) - Root of cognitive approaches - focused on the whole processing, not just small parts
Perceive patterns and therefore can assign object names to blobs
Interpret information instantly
Rebellion against the storm
Max Werthiemer (1910) - Phi Phenomenon (apparent movement)
The whole is different from the sum of the parts
Holism v atomism - qualities that cannot be broken down into smaller, introspective elements
Critique of introspective methods - turn to visual illusions and experiments
Perceiving figure-ground relations - you perceive the whole, and the perception swaps the image (duck/rabbit, cups/faces, triangles/corners) - patterns suggest there should be something there, whole perception allows us to make a judgement on what it is
Gestalt laws of perception -
law of similarity (group by colour for example)
law of good figure / law of pragnanz
law of proximity
law of continuity
law of closure (form visual shape from arrows)
law of common region (separate by left and right based on regions they share)
Gestalt illusions -
see two different images in the same picture - perception only allows us to see one at a time; Zollner illusion (diagonal lines are parallel but look to not be)
Gestalt theory leads to Field theory
Field theory (Lewin, 1939) - importance of subjective perspective and meaning in determining behaviour
We have a psychological reality but it is social, subjective and changeable
To understand or to predict behaviour, the person and his environment have to be considered as a constellation of interdependent factors
Established the Centre for Group Dynamics at MIT in 1944 for applied research
Action research - applied research into ethnic housing discrimination and found effective integration could reduce prevalence of racism - racism can be uneearned and is simply a mistaken hypothesis
Minority problems are also the issues of the majority, resolved through social an economic equality
The balance between the forces which maintain the social self regulation at a given level has to be upset
Force field analysis - there are forces you want to change, or driving forces, and forces against change, or restraining forces, abd when the equilibrium no longer exists, change does or does not happen
First major systematic theory of social behaviour in psychology - B = f - behaviour is the function of a person in an environment, it is dynamic and emergent, and the person behaves in the context of the whole of the environment
The environment that matters is the environment as the person perceives it
Mathematial theory - like other Gestalt theorists, Lewin thought that social psychology could be made scientific by appealing to mathematics
Individual differences in field dependence (AKA Global and Local processing/ Left and Right brain) - embedded figures test, Witkin, 1949 - indicates personality
Field independent - autonomy, detached, analytic, engineering / maths, lower interpersonal skills
Field dependent - orienated towards others, more alternative to context, better interpersonal skills
Gestalt influence - going beyond information given - Toleman (1948) - cognitive maps rats and men
Rats learned a map of the maze without reinforcement and sometimes showed their use of it by escaping the maze
Rats experienced mental maps - hypotheses about where the food was located in the maze
Able to predict before it happened
Chomsky and development of linguistics - in 1959, Skinner published verbal behaviour, in which he claimed that all human language could be explained by operant conditioning - Chomsky criticised this heavily
Skinner suggested when you see a red chair, and hear it's called a red chair, you learn association - that's language
Chomsky - Skinner based association on response after the fact
Concludes we have universal grammar - we have an innate structure of the world, allowing us to process information with pre set rules, we have a natural need to communicate - Creole languages
Chomsky and psycholinguistics -
Language performance and competence are different - what you do / what you can say
Distinguished surface from deep structure and the transformational grammar between the two
Described all children are born with innate capacities for grammar and the capability to learn any language
There should be native language universals, common to all human languages
Turing machines to Turing tests -
Metaphor for the mind - imitation games
When the machine can trick the interrogator about the identity of the man and the woman, it has achieved human intelligence
Turing takes social question of gender imitation as marker on intelligence - most cognitive science quickly moves onto other questions of processing
Institutionalization of cognitive psychology - 1960; Bruner and Miller found Centre for Cognitive Studies at Harvard - pioneers of capacity of short and long term memory being +7/-2
Neisser - 1967 - cognition is all of the processes by which sensory input is transformed and used
Differences between cognitive psych and behaviorism
Behaviourism - stimulus -> black box (no idea what's happening) -> response behaviour
Cognitive - input in the environment -> mediational processes (mental event) -> output behaviour
Cognitive psychology focuses on what behaviorism states cannot be studied
In the 1990s, new brain imaging techniques and studies of neurological damage played an increasing role in adjudicating (judging) the value of different cognitive theories. US President George Bush (the 1st) called the 1990s “the decade of the brain”
By the 1990s, many of the early pioneers later critiqued the “information processing” approach to human meaning making, turning instead to narrative (e.g., Jerome Bruner), ecological sense-making (Ulric Neisser) or embodiment (Eleanor Rosch, Lawrence Barsalou)
Cognitive Psychologists were good at developing a lot of “competing theories” of cognitive phenomena (memory, attention, concepts, language, decision-making, stereotyping)
By the 1990s, brain studies were increasingly seen to be adjudicating debates about competing models of cognition
False dawn of neuroimaging -
Cotlheart (2005) - no functional neuroimaging research has yielded data that can be used to distinguish between competing psychological theories
Moran and Zoki (2013) - functional imaging has no utility and new approaches suggest efforts in these areas although not initially maximally relevant to psychology - can indeed be used to constrain and advance psychological theory
Cognitive psychology and personality
The role of cognitive processes - processes are channelled by the wats in which you anticipate events
Personal - environment - behaviour
People as naive scientists - people are not pushed into action by environmental or unconscious forces (diff to behaviourism and learning theories and psychodynamic)
We are like scientists in how we generate and test hypotheses about how the world works, predicting and controlling events under the effect of bias and emotions - not necessarily rational
Actor rather than reactor, do have free will
Free will - open to change (constructive criticism), subjective, error-prone, we all generate different hypotheses leading to different personalities, generating more sophisticated predictions as we develop
Personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955) - personal constructs - cognitive discriminations that we make when making sense of the world
Bipolar - good-bad, tall-short etc
Hierarchial - first apply one construct, then consider next
Used to understand and predict events to save time
We cannot know something unless we know what it contrasts with
Different sets of constructs manifest in different personality characteristics (friendly -> outgoing, unfriendly -> quiet)
Development of constructs - hypothesis testing - observe environmental responses
Situation
circumspection - consider all structures we have
pre-emption of picking the useful one
control - using the response in a way that is helpful
Kelly's corollaries - principles that govern the constructs
Construction
- construct meanings for events, building concepts not just through language but also through emotion and threat - constructions we make are not just equivalents to verbal labels we describe them with, but we use meanings to respond appropriately to situations; they represent the discriminations we make when we perceive events
-> Individuals facing psychological distress sometimes are unsure of how to construe situations and may need therapeutic help to interpret situations
Individuality
- constructions are subjective and inviidual - events are personal, and how we construct an event impacts our behaviour, and all constructs are individual based on experience and interests
Organisation
- constructs are hierarchical and prioritized differently to help us make choices
Dichotomy
- constructs are bipolar; allows for constructive alternativism
Choice
- we can choose alternatives that fit the specific situation best (not fixed and adaptable)
Range of convenience
- some constructs / broader v narrower in the way people apply them too - some only make sense when applied narrowly e.g. to a close friend, and some to have to be broader
Experience
- constructs change based on this and learning
Modulation
- some constructs / people are more fixed or flexible - how much change is possible in existing constructs
-> personal constructs define how we are - permeability determines how we can change and how much personal growth can happen
Fragmentation
- constructs may be inconsistent - from one another, between different and similar situations
Communality
- people with similar constricts = similar behaviour
Sociality
- we perceive others constructs and adjust accordingly - we have to understand the construct system of others in order to predict their behaviour and modify our own to match the situation
-> Also use social interaction to test our own personal constructs - much of our social behaviour requires mutual adjustment of our personal constructs to allow mutual understandings of our experiences; crucial for the smooth operation
Kelly's view of the person - individuals are scientists, construct hypotheses and explain events, test and change these to make sense of what is happening - in sharing perceptions, we realise we do not share the world views of others and so we can improve ours
Personal constructs - identification and categorisation of the perceptions we have - criteria used to perceive and interpret events, and by creating our own worldview we act according to these perceptions
These personal constructs create our personalities
Superordinate constructs - overarching construct
Subordinate constructs - the criteria within the superordinate construct used to make judgements e.g. friendly superordinate construct had subordinate constructs
These vary based on the person, their personality and interests
With experience, we develop structures within our construct system to help us deal with this complexity
Process of employing personal constructs explains why individual differences in behaviour arise, allowing for creativity in behaviour - we take on alternate interpretations, often when we discuss a situation with friends who have other perceptions
by listening to others constructs, we can adopt them and this can lead to us thinking they will be more successful, and this process also allows us to respond creatively in situations rather than our response being dictated by our own experiences
Concepts within Kelly's theory - ability to change our minds about situations is known as constructive alternativism
Kelly's assumption that we are all capable of altering our present interpretations of events, or even adopting new ones
We have free will ,but our thoughts and behaviours are sometimes determined by such things as our goals or views of others, and so free will and determinism are related in Kelly's eyes (interrelated)
Long term goals are superordinate constructs - freely chsen, but then our subordinate construct behaviour becomes determined - initial choice makes for later determinism
People are future oriented - identify goals and personal constructs used to interpret current events and then make behavioural choices to help in the achievement of these goals
If our strategies are unsucesscul, we may change our interpretation of events, which will involve changes in personal constructs
Attempt to anticipate future events - this is a fundamental postulate of his theories
Main difference to previous theories - motivation in Kelly's eyes comes from future events, not from past or our previous learning - future aims are both long term foals and current short term goals
When using personal constructs we are organising our experiences in terms of similarities and contrast
Constructs require two of at least three elements - two of which are similar and which contrast the third element - e.g. if someone is introverted, someone must be extroverted that you know
Identifying similarities necessitates identifying differences with some other person or situation
Kelly expanded on this fundamental postulate with his 11 corollaries describing how the interpretive processes operate to allow us to create our own personal constructs
Three types of constructs -
pre-emptive - specialized and contain only their own elements; rigid thinking, dogmatic views they stick too, not open to change
Constellatory constructs - cluster information in our own personal construct system - attribute characteristics to a group through stereotypes of one person (not open to change)
propositional constructs - flexible thinking; every element of the construct is open to change and the individual is open to new experiences, change and development - however, life would be impossible if we only used this as we require some certainty in order to cope with others and in order to predict outcomes of situations
Can make us indecisive, as we are continually interpreting and evaluating our experiences, and the individuals who cope best with the world know when to use pre-emptive and propositional thinking
Kelly's personality development - individual should maximise their knowledge of the world through development
Development is a dynamic process between individual and environment, and healthy development allows accurate system of personal constructs to view the world flexibly - individuals can adapt their constructs to meet new challenges
Personal construct system = personality = it determines how you view the world and behave
Continues throughout life - modifications to constructs
Does not address motivation directly but it is assumed as human beings we have an innate need to know about our world as we want to have an accurate perception of it
the more communality between constructs = more accurate world view = easier to predict situations
Development motivated by innate need to have accurate knowledge about the world around us
Environment is important but not determining - we construct environments through interpretation and reinterpretation of situations, allowing us to predict what will happen in the future - scientist analogy
As we develop, we receive feedback about the effectiveness and accuracy of our personal constructs by family and wider society through learning experiences
Kelly describes the way we behave when faced with a situation is known as the circumspection-preemption-control (CPC) cycle
-> We consider how we construct a situation, examine propositional constructs we already possess can be applicable
-> In pre-emptive phase - we weed out constructs less likely to succeed, reducing the amount available
-> Then consider which one is likely to produce the solution we want, take control and make the choice of alternative within a construct to maximise our chances of solving the problem
Assessing personality in personal construct theory
Based on samples of normally functioning individuals - most obvious way to understand perception is too ask people
Role construct repertory test (rep grid test) - clients are given a grid, and asked to list the important people in their lives by name, and then consider them in sets of three
Then in a constructs column, they circle the two similars and the one that is different, and how this is so
Circles being a new comparison - more similar in other ways, add a tick, depends on number of contrasts the individual sees as relevant and the comparisons they wish to make, participants dictates the number of constructs to be used
Intended to give insight to person's personal construct system
Spontaneous generation of constructs - asked to identify how groups are similar or different on the spot
If you have similar patterns, distinctions are not meaningful, if you do not, they are meaningful - also clear what constructs are applicable to the patient
Bieri (1955) - suggested that by examining the patterns across rows, an assessment of the individual's cognitive complexity can be made - if there are similarities in patterns, there is a lack of differentiation in how the client perceives others
Cognitive simplicity rather than complexity where many different patterns emerge
Bonarius (1965) - individuals demonstrating cognitive complexity are better at predicting behaviour outcomes and are more sensitive to other's views - cognitively simple individuals tend to be more egocentric
Cognitive complexity - different personality, more polarisations
Cognitive simplicity - little differentiation between self and others
Clinical applications of personal construct theory -
therapist has to be aware of the client's view of therapy; client enters with a conception of what is involved in therapy, and the therapist must expplore the conception
The client's idea of therapy and what they wish to gain from it may be different from the therapist, and so they have to negotiate this situation
Therapist understand individual's subjective worldview and works with it - they then challenge any maladaptive constructs they identify with demonstrating how the present system is not working and suggest changes, believing it essential that clients feel accepted by the therapist if major changes are going to happen
Encourages clients to think through problems with the therapist and make conclusions (Roger's similarity) - controlled elaboration
Therapists help client revise unhelpful constructs and replace them, to open up possibility of change
Therapists must known their own construct systems, and also be open and flexible so they can accept differences in their clients' construing without feeling threatened by it
Viewed the anxiety patient's experience over the change as motivation - verbally skilled, creative and energetic therapists are needed
Should not dwell on past, but it is important to understand construct origins and to examine how social and cultural experiences have impacted the development of the personal construct system - applications of rep grid test:
Bannister and Fransella (1966) - measured personal construct systems of schizophrenics, and compared their thought patterns to non-psychotic patients, such as patients with depression or other mild organic disorders and a healthy sample - demonstrated nature of thought disturbance
Applications of personal construct theory in business (Fransella et al, 2004), use of rep grids to improve group / team understanding (Casetllani, 2011), and to understand e shopping (Kawaf and Tagg, 2017)
Exploration of masculinity in school PE lessons - Campbell, Gray, Kelly and MacIsaac (2018)
Personal constructs and psychological health
Healthy structures of constructs are tested, validated through experience, and adjusted when necessary
Clinging onto outdated or rigid constructs, or testing unreasonable hypotheses, leads to psychological problems (thinking -> feeling)
Kelly (1955) -
Anxiety - awareness that events are confronted with are not explained by your construct system
Threat - awareness of imminent change in core structures
Fear - change in core structures
Hostility - continued effort to validate failing constructs
Depression - narrow world to avoid anxiety / fear, resulting in fixed and brittle constructs
Therapy focus - understand maladaptive personal constructs and try to challenge, revise or replace them
Led to cognitive behavioral therapy, based on psychological problems being from faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking
Psychological problems are based on learned patterns of unhelpful behaviour
People suffering from psychological problems can learn better ways of coping them, thereby relieving their symptoms and becoming more effective in their lives
Kelly stressed client-centered approach; not harsh and judgemental
Controlled elaboration - encouraged clients to elaborate constructively on their problems
Therapy techniques - fixed role theory - describe self in third person, therapist writes new role for client to enact for 2 weeks
Self characteristiation sketch and fixed role character - trying on different positive constructs to find one that helps psychological issues - personality is flexible, and uses constructs differently
However, this was not very researcher and Kelly relied on case study evidence
Explanatory style - attributions
Our attributions about the cases of events vary along three dimensions - these define our personality
Internal v external
Stable v unstable
Global v specific
Reflect self enhancement and self defence
Individual differences measured in the attributional style questionnaire (Abramson, Seligman and Teasdale)
Attributions and depression ->
Individuals suffering from depression chronically attribute negative life events to internal, global and stable causes and positive life events to external, specific and unstable causes
Attributional style - positive events; optimistic expectancies that fail and cause depression, if it is negative events it will cause depression
Attributions predict our mood and even disorders like depression
Past attributions affect our direct mood, but also through expectancies (attributions for positive / negative events) - internality, globality and specificity which includes emotions and future expectations
Learned helplessness - uncontrollable sitting - giving up and inappropriately generalise the feeling of helplessness to other situations
Dogs / people in lab (Seligman, 1975)
Older people in sheltered residencies (Langer and Rodin, 1976)
Victims of domestic abuse (Peterson and Seligman, 1983)
Depression (Seligman, 1975)
Can be reversed by external intervention (CBT can address negative attributions and helplessness beliefs)
Seligman and Abramson (1978) - once people perceive non-contingency, they attribute learned helplessness to a cause, which is stable/unstable, global or specific and internal/external which guides future experiences of helplessness being broad or narrow, leading to depression
Predictors of learned helplessness - attributional style - external and stable, self-efficacy - lower, locus of control - more external, more modern interpretations argue we enter a defensive state in the emergence of threats / aversive conditions (assume helplessness) - Seligman et al (2016)
Concept of free will -
learning theories - all behaviour is determined by environments
Psychodynamic - all behaviours are psychic determinism - unconscious motivation and desires
Kelly - have the free will to choose behaviour but determinism is present
Evaluation -
Does well to acknowledge the importance of individual differences in personality - provides a framework which personality evolves from, but explaining that there are differences still without fully being deterministic in its categorisation
Sees personality as flexible and under our own free will
How well does it explain human personality?
Allows for free will and deliberation
Debate with behaviourists: Are cognitions needed to explain behaviour?
No single framework; different terms used by different researchers (for different or same concepts?)
Rational; doesn’t account for emotion or biological influences
How empirically testable and valid is it?
Rigorous empirical study - testable, evidence based
Can be difficult to pin down some concepts to measure them
How well can it be applied?
Huge impact on research and therapy (e.g. cognitive)
