The Social-Cognitive Perspective

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The Social-Cognitive Perspective
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Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Perspective stating that understanding
  personality involves considering the situation
  and thoughts before, during, and after an event

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Social Cognitive differs from Humanistic
Psychoanalytic Perspectives in Three Ways

1. It relies heavily on experimental findings
2. It emphasizes conscious, self-regulating behavior
3. It emphasizes that our sense of self can vary,
   depending on our thoughts, feelings, and
   behaviors in a given situation.

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Albert Bandura (1925- )

• Developed the social-cognitive perspective, which
  suggests that to understand personality, one must
  consider the situation and the persons thoughts
  before, during, and after an event
• People learn by observing and modeling (Bandura)
  others or through reinforcement (Skinner)

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The Social-Cognitive Perspective Interacting
with Our Environment
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Social Cognitive PerspectiveKey Terms

• Reciprocal determinism - explains personality as
  the result of behavioral, cognitive, and
  environmental interactions
• Self-efficacybelief that people have about their
  ability to meet demands or control aspects of a
  specific situation

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Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Play The Social-Cognitive Model (543) Segment
  27 from Psychology The Human Experience (543).
• Albert Bandura explains his theory.
• Social-Cognitive Model is used to explain the
  personality of Nelson Mandela.

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Reciprocal Determinism Three Factors Shape
Personality

• The mutual influences among personality and
  environmental factors
• An interaction of three factors
• Thoughts or cognitions
• The environment
• A persons behaviors

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Reciprocal DeterminismAlbert Bandura
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Reciprocal Determinism
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Self-Efficacy

• We develop this in childhood but it continues as
  a lifelong process.
• A persons cognitive skills, abilities
  attitudes create our self-system
• Self-system is influenced by self-efficacy the
  degree to which we are convinced of our own
  capabilities and effectiveness in dealing with a
  new situation.
• We develop new behaviors and strengthen our
  self-efficacy by observing others and through
  mastery experiences.

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The Social-Cognitive PerspectivePersonal Control
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External Locus of Control

• The perception that chance, or forces beyond a
  persons control, control ones fate

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Internal Locus of Control

• The perception that we control our own fate

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Learned Helplessness

• The hopelessness and passive resignation an
  animal or human learns when unable to avoid
  repeated bad events
• Martin Seligman studied dogs that were unable to
  escape a painful stimulus and eventually stopped
  trying to escape.

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Learned Helplessness
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Learned Helplessness
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Optimistic Explanatory Style

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

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Pessimistic Explanatory Style

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

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Positive Psychology

• A movement in psychology that focuses on the
  study of optimal human functioning and the
  factors that allow individuals and communities to
  thrive
• Lead by Martin Seligman

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The Social-Cognitive PerspectiveAssessing
Behavior in Situations
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Assessing Personality

• Social-cognitive perspective would stress putting
  people into simulated actual conditions to
  determine how they would behave

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The Social-Cognitive PerspectiveEvaluating the
Perspective
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Evaluation of Social Cognitive Perspective

• Well grounded in empirical, laboratory research
• However, laboratory experiences are rather simple
  and may not reflect the complexity of human
  interactions
• Ignores the influences of unconscious, emotions,
  conflicts instead placing responsibility of
  behavior firmly on ourselves.

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Freud vs. Bandura on Human Aggression

• Freud Human aggression is a universal
  unconscious instinct controlled by the superego
  and restraints of society.
• Bandura All behavior is driven by conscious
  goals and motives. Aggression is the result of a
  deliberate, rational choice in a particular
  situation.