Attribution Theory - MR. Jayachandran

Attribution Theory
People are motivated to understand the causes of behavior. Attribution theory seeks to explain how and why people make these causal attributions.
Why is this baby smiling?

Fritz Heider argued that there are two general types of attributions that people make:

Personal attributions
Situational attributions
Personal attributions
Explanations in terms of personal characteristics. For example:
“The baby must be a happy baby.”
Other examples:
“He scored well on the exam because he is smart.”
“She tripped because she is clumsy.”
Situational attributions
Explanations in terms of situational factors. For example:
“Someone must have just played with the baby .”
Other examples:
“He scored well because it was an easy test.”
“She tripped because a squirrel ran in front of her.”

Why do people make the fundamental attribution error?
The situation is not salient when people make attributions for the behavior of others, but the situation is salient when making attributions for one’s own behavior.
Thus, people are more inclined to take the situation into account when explaining their own behavior.
Self-serving bias
People do not make objective analysis to situational / personal attributions for their own behavior.
They tend to attribute their successes to dispositional factors, and their failures to situational factors.
For example: “I did well on the test because I am smart,” or “I did poor on the test because I didn’t get enough sleep.
Example
An Individual asked to make opinion on Smoking!

If the Individual himself is a smoker?

If the Individual has never smoked??
How do people make attributions?
Kelley argued that people take three factors into account when making a personal vs. situational attribution:
Consistency: Is the baby always smiling?
Distinctiveness: Are there occasions [on which] the baby doesn’t smile?
Consensus: Do all babies smile?

If consistency is high, and distinctiveness / consensus are low, then a personal attribution is more likely:
“The baby is always smiling, never displays other emotions (like crying), and this is not typical of babies in general. Therefore, this baby must have a happy disposition.”
If consistency is high, and distinctiveness / consensus are also high, then a situational attribution is more likely.
“The baby is always smiling when tickled, but displays different emotions in other circumstances. Smiling when tickled is typical of all babies. Therefore, this baby is smiling NOW because it was tickled”
Example
A researcher assigned participants to read out loud either a pro-Castro essay or an anti-Castro essay. A group of listeners rated the extent to which the reader held pro-Castro or anti-Castro beliefs.
Even though the listeners knew that the readers had no choice in which essay to read, the raters judged the pro-Castro readers as being more pro-Castro than the anti-Castro readers.
The listeners failed to take into account the strong situational factor present (that the readers had no choice about which essay to read).

Cognitive dissonance theory
People strive for consistency in their thoughts.
Seems simple, but this idea lead to very counter-intuitive findings.
Festinger and Carlsmith had participants complete a very boring task (turning screws ¼ turn at a time, for a long time). One group was paid $1 to do this, and a separate group was paid $20. Which group should like the task more?
Result:
Participants paid $1 enjoyed the task more than participants paid $20. The $20 group had consistent cognitions (“This is stupid, but I’m being compensated for doing it.”). The $1 group had inconsistent cognitions (“This is stupid, and I have no reason to do it.”).
Participants in the $1 group resolved the dissonance by changing their attitude about the task (“I’m not being adequately compensated for this, but that’s OK. This is actually fun!”).
Self-perception theory
Bem suggested that another way to think about this research is in terms of attribution.
All participants observed their behavior (doing the boring task) and made a causal attribution for their own behavior. Participants in the $20 group observed their own behavior and thought (“I’m doing this task because I’m getting paid.”). Participants in the $1 group observed their own behavior and thought (“I’m doing this task because I must enjoy it.”).
A TASK- How will YOU commend?
INDIVIDUAL: STRONGLY AGAINST USING HIGH FUEL CONSUMING VEHICLE.
Situation-1: The other person (using Fuel Consuming vehicle) is his VERY CLOSEST Friend.
Situation-2: He is leaving for ever to settle in another country.

"By altering actors and observers perspectives through videotape replays, mirrors, or other methods, one can correspondingly alter the actors' and observers' causal assessments."
- Human Inference
Nisbett & Ross 1980

Early Childhood - Mrs. Prabha Ranganathan, Consultant Psychologist

CHILDHOOD
Childhood begins when the relative dependency of babyhood is over, at approximately the age of two years, and extends to the time when the child becomes sexually mature, at approximately thirteen years for the average girl and fourteen years for the average boy. After children become sexually mature, they are known as adolescents.

During this long period of time-roughly eleven years for girls and twelve years for boys marked changes take place in the child both physically and psychologically.
Because cultural pressures and expectations to learn certain things at one age are different from the pressures and expectations at an­other age, a child in the early part of childhood is quite different from a child in the latter part of the period.

Childhood should be subdivided into two separate periods early and late childhood.
Early childhood extends from two to six years, and late childhood extends from six to the time the child becomes sexually mature.
Thus early childhood begins at the conclusion of babyhood the age when dependency is practically a thing of the past and is being replaced by growing independence and ends at about the time the child enters first grade in school.

In a culture where the law requires that children must begin their formal education when they reach their sixth birthday, social pressures and social expectations play an important role in determining how children differ before they enter school from those who have already been subjected to school experiences.
If formal entrance into school came a year earlier or a year later, the dividing line between early and late childhood would be at five years in the former case and at seven years in the latter case.

The new pressures and expectations that accompany the child's formal entrance into school result in changes in patterns of behavior, interests, and values.
As a result, children become "different" people from what they were earlier. It is this difference in their psychological makeup rather than the difference in their physical makeup that justifies dividing this long span of years into two subdivisions, early and late childhood.
CHARACTERISTICS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
Names Used by Parents Most parents consider early childhood a problem age or a troublesome age. The reason that behavior problems dominate the early childhood years is that young children are developing distinctive personalities and are demanding an independence. They are obstinate, stubborn, disobedient, negativistic, and antagonistic. They have frequent temper tantrums, they are often bothered by bad dreams at night and irrational fears during the day, and they suffer from jealousies.
Because of these problems, early childhood seems a less appealing age.

Parents often refer to early childhood as the toy age because young children spend much of their waking time playing with toys


Names Used by Educators
Educators refer to the early childhood years as the preschool age to distinguish it from the time when children are considered old enough, both physically and mentally, to cope with the work they will be expected to do when they begin their formal schooling.
Names Used by Psychologists: One of the most commonly applied names is the pre-gang age, the time when children are learning the foundations of social behavior as a preparation for the more highly organized social life they will be required to adjust to when they enter first grade.



Because the major development that occurs during early childhood centers around gaining control over the environment, many psychologists refer to early childhood as the exploratory age, a label which implies that children want to know what their environment is, how it works, how it feels, and how they can be a part of it. This includes people as well as inanimate objects. One common way of exploring in early childhood is by asking questions:- thus this period is often referred to as the questioning age, imitative age , creative age.
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT
Growth during early childhood proceeds at a slow rate as compared with the rapid rate of growth in babyhood. Early childhood is a time of relatively even growth, though there are seasonal variations; July to mid-December is the most favorable time for increases in weight, and April to mid-August is most favorable for height increases.

There are individual differences in all aspects of physical development. Children of superior intelligence, for example, tend to be taller in early childhood than those of average or below-average intelligence and to shed their temporary teeth sooner. While sex differences in height and weight are not pronounced, ossification of the bones and shedding of the temporary teeth are more advanced, in girls than in boys. Because children from higher socioeconomic groups tend to be better nourished and receive better prenatal and postnatal care, variations in height, weight, and muscular development are in their favor.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
Height
The average annual increase in height is three inches. By the age of six, the average child measures 46.6 inches.
Weight
The average annual increase in weight is 3 to 5 pounds. At age six, children should weigh approximately seven times as much as they did at birth. The average girl weighs 48.5 pounds, and the average boy weighs 49 pounds.
Body Proportions
Body proportions change markedly, and the "baby look" disappears. Facial features remain small but the chin becomes more pronounced and the neck elongates. There is a gradual decrease in the stockiness of the trunk, and the body tends to become cone-shaped, with a flattened abdomen, a broader and flatter chest, and shoulders that are broader and squarer. The arms and legs lengthen and may become spindly, and the hands and feet grow bigger.
Body Build
Differences in body build become apparent for the first time in early childhood. Some children have an endomorphic or flabby, fat body build, some have a mesomorphic or sturdy, muscular body build, and some have an ectomorphic or relatively thin body build.

Bones and Muscles
The bones ossify at different rates in different parts of the body, following the laws of developmental direction. The muscles become larger, stronger, and heavier, with the result that children look thinner as early childhood progresses, even though they weigh more.
Fat
Children who tend toward endomorphy have more adipose than muscular tissue; those who tend toward mesomorphy have more muscular than adipose tissue; and those with an ectomorphic build have both small muscles and little adipose tissue.
Teeth
During the first four to six months of early childhood, the last four baby teeth, the back molars erupt. During the last half year of early childhood, the baby teeth begin to be replaced by permanent teeth. The first to come out are the front central incisors the first baby teeth to appear. When early childhood ends, the child generally has one or two permanent teeth in front and some gaps where permanent teeth will eventually erupt.



At the end of sensorimotor stage:
Child achieves object permanence—the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen, heard, or touched.


Infant understands a differentiation between self and world. At around 5.5 and 6.5 months of age, an infant can understand simple causal factors .



Piaget’s Preoperational Stage of Development
Preoperational stage stretches from approximately 2 to 7 years of age
Signifies time when stable concepts are formed, mental reasoning emerges
Egocentrism begins strongly & then weakens
Magical beliefs are constructed
Child does not yet think in operational way
Operations being internalized sets of actions that allow child to do mentally what before did physically


Symbolic Function Substage
First substage of preoperational thought, occurring roughly between ages of 2 & 4
During which young child gains ability to represent object mentally that is not present
Egocentrism feature of preoperational thought in which child is not able to distinguish between one’s own perspective & someone else’s perspective
Animism limitation within preoperational thought, whereby child believes that inanimate objects have ‘lifelike’ qualities & capable of action



Intuitive Thought Substage
Second substage of preoperational thought occurring approximately between 4 & 7 years
Children begin to use primitive reasoning & want to know answers to all sorts of questions
Centration focusing of attention on one characteristic to the exclusion of all others- inability to shift quality or function from one set of criteria to another
Conservation evidence of centration in child’s idea of amount remaining same regardless of how container changes

Piaget’s 6 Sub stages of Sensorimotor Development

Schemas are patterns of actions and thoughts that organize knowledge. The basic unit for an organized pattern of sensorimotor functioning.

Actions are behavioral schemas. Their development characterizes infancy, such as that of simple actions and reflexes.

Thoughts are cognitive activities or mental schemas, which develop in childhood, such as classifying objects by size, color, or shape.


Assimilation incorporates new information into existing knowledge.

Accommodation adjusts existing knowledge to fit new information.

Organization is Piaget’s concept of grouping isolated behaviors into a higher-order system.
The child becomes skilled at using tools over time, one at a time until experiences become skills.


Equilibration:
Piaget’s mechanism to explain how children shift from one stage of thought to another.

It is lost when children have cognitive conflicts.

Achieved when assimilation and accommodation are used together to resolve a conflict.


Piaget’s 6 substages of the sensorimotor stage of infant development last from birth to 2 years of age.

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Question-asking behavior follows Piaget's model of cognitive development. It reflects the logic of their thinking processes.
At the preoperational stage, the child's questions concerning physical causality reflect largely undifferentiated cognitive structures in which the child's concerns with motivations and intentions are not separated from the causal explanations.
When the child moves into the concrete operations stage, his questioning behavior reflects a higher level of differentiation: thus the questions separate physical causality from psychological causality.
The question asking behaviors of children at the level of concrete operations are initially concerned with physical causality and then shift to a diverse number of categories.

Language is a system of words, symbols, and gestures that create shared communication that transcends time (future, present, and past).
Language’s five systems of rules:
Phonology: sound system of language, with phoneme being smallest unit of sound with meaning

Morphology: units of meaning in word formation, with morpheme being the smallest unit of meaning

Syntax: how words are combined

Semantics: the meanings of sentences and words

Pragmatics: use of appropriate language in different contexts


On average, a child
Understands about 50 words at age 13 months
Speaks first word at 10–15 months of age
Can speak about 50 words at 18 months of age


Average 2-year-old can speak about 200 words.

Vocabulary spurt begins at approximately 18 months of age.
Two-word utterances occur at about 18–24 months.
Overextension and underextension of words are common.
Telegraphic speech is use of short and precise words.

Some Language Milestones in Infancy
Birth
1 to 2 months
6 months
8 to 12 months
10–15 months
18 months
18 to 24 months

Specific regions of the brain are predisposed to be used for language
Broca’s Area (word production)
Wernicke’s Area (word comprehension)
Damage to either of these areas produces types of aphasia, a loss or impairment of language processing.


Erikson’s psychosocial theory
LINGUSITIC DEVELOPMENT
By the time children are two years old, most of the prespeech forms of communication they found so useful during babyhood have been abandoned. Young children no longer babble, and their crying is greatly curtailed. They may use gestures, but mainly as supplements to speech-to emphasize the mean­ing of the words Early childhood is normally a time when rapid strides are made in the major tasks of learning to speak-building up a vocabulary, mastering pronunciation, and combining words into sentences.

During early childhood, there is a strong moti­vation on the part of most children to learn to speak
First, learning to speak is an essential tool in socialization
Second, learning to speak is a tool in achieving independence. Early childhood is popularly known as the chatterbox age.

Improvement in Comprehension
Comprehension is greatly influenced by how attentively children listen to what is said to them.
Pronunciation of Words.
Certain sounds and sound combinations are especially difficult for a young child to learn to pronounce, such as the consonants z, w, d, s, and g and the consonant combinations st, str, dr, and fl



Vocabulary Building
Young children's vocabularies increase rapidly as they learn new words and new meanings for old words. Young children learn a general vocabulary of words, such as "good" and "bad," "give" and "take," as well as many words with specific usage, such as numbers and the names of colors.
Forming Sentences
Three- or four-word sentences are used as early as two years of age and commonly at three. Many' of these sentences are incomplete, con­sisting mainly of nouns and lacking verbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. After age three, the child forms six- to eight-word sentences containing all parts of speech.
Content of Speech
At first, the speech of young children is egocentric in the sense that they talk mainly about themselves, their interests, their families, and their possessions. Toward the end of early childhood, so­cialized speech begins and children talk about other people as well as about themselves. But much of this early socialized speech is unsocial in that it is heavily weighted with criticism of others, and it may take the form of tattling or complaining.

Most young children also make unkind, derogatory comments about other people, and about their actions and their possessions. They also engage in name-calling, especially when they are angry. Boasting, primarily about material possessions, is very common at this age.
As the size of the play group becomes larger, children's speech becomes more social and less ego­centric. They become less critical, they ask fewer questions, and they give more commands. There is evidence that small social groupings are more favor­able for the development of speech in young children than large social groupings.
EMOTIONS
Emotions are especially intense during early childhood.
Although any emotion may be "heightened" in the sense that it occurs more frequently and more in­tensely than is normal for that particular individual, heightened emotionality in early childhood is char­acterized by temper tantrums, intense fears, and un­reasonable outbursts of jealousy.
Part of the intense emotionality of children at this age may be traced to fatigue due to strenuous and prolonged play, rebellion against taking naps, and the fact that they may eat too little.
Even more important, children whose parents expect them to measure up to unrealistically high standards will experience more emotional tension than children whose parents are more realistic in their expectations.
FACTORS INFLUENCING HOW MUCH YOUNG CHILDREN TALK
Intelligence
Type of Discipline
Ordinal Position
Family Size
Socioeconomic Status
Racial Status
Sex-Role Typing
Bilingualism
COMMON EMOTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
Anger
Fear
Jealousy
Curiosity
Envy
Joy
Grief
Affection
Parenting Styles
Authoritarian: Parent places a high value on obedience and respect for authority
Permissive: Parent imposes minimal controls on their children
Authoritative: Parent enforce standards, but encourages verbal give-and-take with the child


School-The Transition to Elementary School
In elementary school children take up a new role:
Interacting & developing relationships
Adopting new reference groups
Developing new standards by which to judge themselves

School - Teachers
Teachers have a prominent influence in middle and late childhood
Symbolize authority by establishing:
Classroom’s climate
Conditions of interaction among students
Nature of group functioning.



Erik Erikson believes that good teachers should be able to produce a sense of industry, rather than inferiority, in their children
A teacher needs to be aware of needs of each student & create a structure by which academic material is generated while consideration is made for individual learning styles of students

Intelligence - Mrs. Prabha Ranganathan, Consultant Psychologist

INTELLIGENCE
The word intelligence is derived from the Latin word meaning – to understand -. In simple terms it is COGNITION or MENTAL ABILITY.
Father of Intelligence Testing – Alfred Binet.
DEFINITIONS:
A judgment of commonsense, initiative, the ability to adjust to oneself, to judge well, to understand well and to reason out well. - Binet
It is the aggregate global capacity of an individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment. – David Wechsler
Intelligence is the ability to think abstractly - Terman
General adaptability to new problems and conditions of life – William Sterm
INTELLIGENCE
Summerised:
Ability to Adjust to any new situation
Ability to Solve new problems &
Ability to Understand new ideas

I.Q. LEVELS
Less than 20 : Profound mental retardation
21-35 : Severe mental retardation
36-50 : Moderate mental retardation
51-70 : Mild mental retardation
71-90 : Slow learner
91-110 : Average Intelligence
111-120 : Superior Intelligence
121-140 : Very Superior Intelligence
140 above : Gifted
TWO FACTOR THEORY – Charles Spearman
To him, intelligence has
A General factor, called (g) and
A Specific factor, called (s)

(g) is the specific factor, everyone has, though vary – it is INNATE, uneducable. It is not general intelligence. (but a general unique mental energy)

(s) can be compared to large number of engines, any, or all can be activated, educated.


MULTIFACTOR THEORY[E.L. Thorndike]
To him, intelligence is nothing but specific [S-R] relations; so it is only general intelligence.
Level: level of difficulty of the problem
Range: Number of tasks at a particular difficulty level
Area: Total number of situations
Speed-Quickness: of answering the best items
Levels are;
Abstract: Ability to understand & Manipulate things
Mechanical: Ability to Manage things
Social: Ability to (Abstract above) human relations in society
L.L. Thurstone [Group Factor theory]
PRIMARY MENTAL ABILITIES [PMA test]
Verbal Comprehension [V]: disarranged sentences > back to proper form
Word Fluency [W]: To name words beginning with given letter > rhyming
Number [N]: Basic mathematics [a/s/m/d]
Space [S]: is the ability to deal with visual relationships in two or three dimensions; to draw design from memorised images
Memory[M]: Efficiency to recall> Association
Perceptual Speed[P]: Find similarities & differences between pictured objects
Reasoning[R]: Find principle to solve problem. [2,5,6,9,10, __ ]
J.P. Guilford [Factor Analysis]

In Guilford's Structure of Intellect (SI) theory, intelligence is viewed as comprising
OPERATIONS, CONTENTS, AND PRODUCTS.
There are 6 kinds of operations (cognition, memory recording, memory retention divergent production, convergent production, evaluation),
6 kinds of products (units, classes, relations, systems, transformations, and implications), and
5 kinds of contents (visual, auditory, symbolic, semantic, behavioral).
Since each of these dimensions is independent, there are theoretically 180 different components
J.P. Guilford [Factor Analysis]
How useful Guilford for TESTS?
Evaluation of semantic units (Judge concept)
Eg.Which of the following objects best satisfies the criteria, hard and round: an iron, a button, a tennis ball or a lightbulb?
Divergent production of semantic units
Eg. list all items they can think of that are round and hard in a given time period.
Divergent production of symbolic units
Eg. a different content category, namely words (e.g., "List all words that end in 'tion').
Generation ideas based on relation
ships. An example test item for this ability would be providing the missing word for the sentence: "The fog is as ____ as sponge" (e.g., heavy, damp, full).
Triarchic Theory - Sternberg
Practical(Contextual) intelligence--the ability to do well in informal and formal educational settings; adapting to and shaping one's environment; street smarts.
Experiential intelligence--the ability to deal with novel situations; the ability to effectively automate ways of dealing with novel situations so they are easily handled in the future; the ability to think in novel ways.
Componential intelligence--the ability to process information effectively. This includes metacognitive, executive, performance, and knowledge-acquisition components that help to steer cognitive processes.

Theories of Personality - Mrs. Prabha Ranganathan, Consultant Psychologists

Theories of Personality

What is Personality?

 People differ from

each other inmeaningful ways

 People seem to show  some consistency in behavior

Personality is defined as distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting Personality

• Personality refers to a person’s unique and

relatively stable pattern of thoughts, feelings,

and actions.

Four major perspectives on personality

•

Psychoanalytic - unconscious motivations

Trait - specific dimensions of personality

Humanistic - inner capacity for growth

Social-Cognitive - influence of environment

Freudian Theory

 Levels of consciousness

 Structures of Personality

– Conscious

• What we’re aware of

– Preconscious

– Id

• Operates according to the “pleasure principle”

• Memories etc. that can – Ego

• Operates according to be recalled the “reality” principle

– Unconscious

– Superego

• Wishes, feelings,

• Contains values and impulses that lives ideals

beyond awareness Conscious

Ego

Superego

Preconscious

Unconscious

Id

The Unconscious

“the mind is like an iceburg -- mostly hidden”

“the mind is like an iceburg mostly hidden”

Conscious Awareness

small part above surface

(Preconscious)

Unconscious

below the surface

(thoughts, feelings,

wishes, memories)

Repression

banishing unacceptable

thoughts & passions to

unconscious

Dreams & Slips

Freud & Personality Structure

“Personality arises from conflict between

pleasure-seeking impulses and social restraints”

Satisfaction

without the guilt?

Super

Ego

Ego

Id

Freud & Personality Structure

Id - energy constantly striving to satisfy basic drives

Pleasure Principle

Ego - seeks to gratify the Id in realistic ways

Reality Principle

Super

Ego

Ego

Id

Super Ego

- voice of conscience

that focuses on how

we ought to behave

• Id - instinctual drives present at birth

– does not distinguish between reality and fantasy

– operates according to the pleasure principle

• Ego - develops out of the id in infancy

– understands reality and logic

– mediator between id and superego

• Superego

– internalization of society’s moral standards

– responsible for guilt

 Anxiety occurs when:

– Impulses from the id threaten to get out of

control

– The ego perceives danger from the environment

 The ego deals with the problem through:

– coping strategies

– defense mechanisms

Defense Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms refer to unconscious mental processes that

protect the conscious person from developing anxiety

– Sublimation: person channels energy from unacceptable

impulses to create socially acceptable accomplishments.

– Denial: person refuses to recognize reality.

– Projection: person attributes their own unacceptable impulses to

others.

–

– Repression: anxiety-evoking thoughts are pushed into the

unconscious

• Rationalization: Substituting socially acceptable

reasons.

• Intellectualization: Ignoring the emotional

aspects of a painful experience by focusing on

abstract thoughts, words, or ideas

• Reaction formation: Refusing to acknowledge

unacceptable urges, thoughts or feelings by

exaggerating the opposite state

• Regression: Responding to a threatening situation

in a way appropriate to an earlier age or level of

development

• Displacement: Substituting a less threatening

object for the original object of impulse

Psychosexual Stages

• Freud’s five stages of personality

development, each associated with a

particular erogenous zone

• Fixation - an attempt to achieve pleasure

as an adult in ways that are equivalent to

how it way achieved in these stages

• Oral Stage (birth - 1 year)

Mouth is associated with sexual pleasure

• Weaning a child can lead to fixation if not handled correctly

• Fixation can lead to oral activities in adulthood.

• Anal Stage (1 - 3 years)

• Anus is associated with pleasure

• Toilet training can lead to fixation if not handled correctly

• Fixation can lead to anal retentive or expulsive behaviors in adulthood.

• Phallic Stage (3 - 5 years)

• Focus of pleasure shifts to the genitals

• Oedipus or Electra complex can occur

• Fixation can lead to excessive masculinity in males and the need

for attention or domination in females.

• Latency Stage (5 - puberty)

• Sexuality is repressed

• Children participate in hobbies, school and same-sex friendships

• Genital Stage (puberty on)

• Sexual feelings re-emerge and are oriented toward others

• Healthy adults find pleasure in love and work, fixated

adults have their energy tied up in earlier stages

Harry Stack Sullivan

• BASIC CONCEPTS==DYNAMISM

AND PERSONIFICATION

• DYNAMISM==BASIC TENDENCY OF

BEHAVIOR, SUCH AS A HABIT, IN

RESPONSE TO PARTICULAR SOCIAL

INTERACTIONS

• EXAMPLE==PERSON’S TENDENCY TO GET NERVOUS

AND REMAIN SILENT WHEN IN ONE-TO-ONE

INTERACTIONS. IF THIS BEHAVIOR OCCURS IN A WIDE

VARIETY OF SITUATIONS, THE PERSON MAY HAVE A “SHY

PERSONALITY”

• SELF==MOST EXTENSIVE DYNAMISM. GENERATES

THOUGHTS AND INTEGRATES BEHAVIOR PATTERNS

DESIGNED TO MAINTAIN SECURITY AND REDUCE

ANXIETY

• INSECURE==STRICT AND RIGID TO AVOID NEW

SITUATIONS.

• SECURE==MAY SEEK OUT DIVERSITY FOR

OPPORTUNITIES TO DEMONSTRATE A SENSE OF

MASTERY AND ACHIEVEMENT

• 1. PROTOTAXIC MODE

• CHARACTERIZED BY A VERY PRIMITIVE FORM

OF THINKING. PERSONAL AND MAKES

COMMUNICATION WITH OTHERS DIFFICULT.

(YOUNG CHILDREN AND SEVERLY DISTURBED

MENTAL PATIENTS)

• ALSO, ARGUMENT WHERE A PERSON IS STUCK

IN THEIR OWN WAY OF THINKING.

• 2. PARATAXIC MODE

• VERY LOW LEVEL OF CAUSAL REASONING

THAT OFTEN MAKES COMMUNICATION

DIFFICULT.

• EXAMPLE==WOMAN WHO EXPRESSES ANGER

AND HOSTILITY TOWARD A COWORKER FOR

RECEIVING A PROMOTION THAT SHE

WANTED. THINKS IT’S THE PERSON WHO

GOT THE JOB IS AT FAULT. WHEN IN

REALITY, A PERSONNEL MANAGER MADE

THE DECISION.

• 3. SYNTAX MODE==SHARED LEVEL OF

COMMUNICATION AND EFFECTIVE

INTERACTION.

• EXAMPLE==TWO WRITERS THINKING ALONG

THE SAME LINES WHEN WORKING ON A

SCREENPLAY.

Stages of Development

• Sullivan saw interpersonal development as taking place over seven

stages, from infancy to mature adulthood. Personality changes can

take place at any time but are more likely to occur during transitions

between stages.

A. Infancy

• The period from birth until the emergence of syntaxic language is

called infancy, a time when the child receives tenderness from the

mothering one while also learning anxiety through an empathic

linkage with the mother.

B. Childhood

• The stage that lasts from the beginning of syntaxic language until the

need for playmates of equal status is called childhood. The child's

primary interpersonal relationship continues to be with the mother,

who is now differentiated from other persons who nurture the child.

C. Juvenile Era

• The juvenile stage begins with the need for peers of equal status and

continues until the child develops a need for an intimate relationship

with a chum. At this time, children should learn how to compete, to

compromise, and to cooperate. These three abilities, as well as an

orientation toward living, help a child develop intimacy, the chief

dynamism of the next developmental stage.

D. Preadolescence

• Perhaps the most crucial stage is preadolescence, because mistakes made earlier can

• be corrected during preadolescence, but errors made during preadolescence are nearly

impossible to overcome in later life. Preadolescence spans the time from the need

• for a single best friend until puberty. Children who do not learn intimacy during

preadolescence have added difficulties relating to potential sexual partners during

• later stages.

E. Early Adolescence

• With puberty comes the lust dynamism and the beginning of early adolescence.

Development during this stage is ordinarily marked by a coexistence of intimacy

• with a single friend of the same gender and sexual interest in many persons of the

opposite gender. However, if children have no preexisting capacity for intimacy, they

may confuse lust with love and develop sexual relationships that are devoid

• of true intimacy.

F. Late Adolescence

• Chronologically, late adolescence may start at any time after about age 16, but

psychologically, it begins when a person is able to feel both intimacy and lust toward the

same person. Late adolescence is characterized by a stable pattern of sexual activity and

the growth of the syntaxic mode, as young people learn how to live in the adult world.

G. Adulthood

• Late adolescence flows into adulthood, a time when a person establishes a stable

relationship with a significant other person and develops a consistent pattern of viewing

the world.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

• Behavior learned through

• conditioning & observation

What we think about our situation affects our behavior

Interaction of Environment & Intellect

Social/Cognitive Perspective

• Proposed that each person has a unique

personality because of our personal

histories and interpretations shape our

personalities

▲Albert Bandura’s social-cognitive approach

focuses on self-efficacy and reciprocal

determinism.

Bandura’s Theory

• Self-system: the set of cognitive processes by which a

person observes, evaluates, and regulates his/her behavior.

Bandura proposed that what we think of as personality is a

product of this self-system.

• Children observe behavior of models (such as parents) in

their social environment. Particularly if they are reinforced,

children will imitate these behaviors, incorporating them

into personality.

• Bandura also proposed that people observe their own

behavior and judge its effectiveness. Self-efficacy: a

judgment of one’s effectiveness in dealing with particular

situations.

Reciprocal Causation: Behavior, the

Person, & the Environment

Watching Attentively

Acting Aggressively

Preference for

violent TV

Violent TV

Development of

Behavior Through Learning

• Reinforcement is anything that increases the

likelihood of a response

– Operant behaviors – responses emitted without a

stimulus necessarily being present

– Operant conditioning involves shaping and

reinforcing operant behaviors

– Shaping deliberately molding the organism’s

responses through series of reinforcements in order to

achieve a desired behavior

Psychotherapy

and Behavioral Change

• Skinner’s attitude toward therapy is pragmatic

and curative

• Behavior modification seeks to eliminate

undesired behaviors by changing the

environment within which they occur

• Token economy used in many institutional

settings for reinforcement of appropriate

behaviors

Respondent Behavior and

Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov: Classical conditioning

– Dogs salivate to neutral stimulus (sound of

owner’s feet) when previously only salivated to

sight of food

– Began sounding tone before feeding dogs

– Eventually began to salivate to sound of tone

• Demonstrates new meaning to previously neutral

stimulus (sound of tone

• Reinforcement (consequences of behavior)

– Dogs learn to respond to bell because reward follows (food)

– Strengthens response, increases likelihood of repeating

response in future

• Extinction

– Reinforcement is no longer given following the conditioned

stimulus

– Dogs not given food after sound of bell, salivation response

eventually stops

Positive Reinforcement, Negative

Reinforcement and Punishment

• Positive reinforcement: Strengthen response by

providing desirable rewards

– Ex: Token economy

• Negative reinforcement: Strengthen response by

removing aversive stimuli

– Ex: Prisoners-early release for good behavior

• Punishment: Use aversive stimulus following

response to decrease likelihood of behavior in the

future

The Humanistic Perspective

Maslow’s

Self-Actualizing

Person

Roger’s

Person-Centered

Perspective

Humanistic Theory

• Humanistic personality theories reject

psychoanalytic notions

– Humanistic theories view each person as

basically good and that people are striving for

self-fulfillment

– Humanistic theory argues that people carry a

perception of themselves and of the world

– The goal for a humanist is to develop/promote a

positive self-concept

Humanistic Perspectives

 Carl Rogers

– We have needs for:

• Self-consistency (absence of conflict between self-

perceptions

• Congruence (consistency between self-perceptions

and experience)

– Inconsistency evokes anxiety and threat

– People with low self-esteem generally have poor

congruence between their self-concepts and life

experiences.

Self-concept

• Self-concept: How I see myself

• As infants grow, they develop the need for

positive regard

• Positive regard: Acceptance, love and approval

from others

• Child does not receive positive regard: fails to

develop actualizing tendency fully

Incongruence

• Discrepancy between self-concept and

aspects of experience

• Experiences inconsistent with how we see

ourselves cause anxiety

• Psychological adjustment/emotional health

Characteristics of Fully Functioning

Persons (Self-Actualizing)

•

•

•

•

•

•

Awareness of all experiences

Live fully in the moment

Trust own behavior and experience

Sense of freedom in decision making

Creative, flexible to change

Recognition difficulties will inevitably arise

Criticisms of Rogers’ Theory

• Ignores aspects of personality that client

may be unaware of, but that still influence

client’s behavior

• Ambiguous concepts: Self-actualizing

tendency

Humanistic Perspectives

▲Abraham Maslow

emphasized the basic

goodness of human nature

and a natural tendency

toward self-actualization.

Maslow’s

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s theory maintains that a person does

not feel a higher need until the needs of the

current level have been satisfied. Maslow's

basic needs are as follows:

Self-Actualization

Basic Human Needs

Esteem Needs

Social Needs

Safety Needs

Physiological Needs

Characteristics of

Self-Actualized People

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Efficient perceptions of reality

Comfortable acceptance of self, others, and nature

Spontaneity

Task Centering

Autonomy

Continued freshness of appreciation

Fellowship with humanity

Profound interpersonal relationships

Non-hostile sense of humor

Peak experiences

Karen Horney

•

•

•

•

Basic Anxiety

Pervasive feeling of loneliness and helplessness

Foundation of neurosis

4 ways we protect ourselves in childhood from basic

anxiety:

–

–

–

–

Securing love and affection

Being submissive

Attaining power

Withdrawing

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Neurotic Needsthat become a

Definition: Irrational defenses against anxiety

permanent part of personality and that affect behavior

Encompass the 4 ways of protecting ourselves against anxiety

Affection and approval (gaining affection)

A dominant partner (submissive)

Power (attaining power)

Exploitation (attaining power)

Prestige (attaining power)

Admiration (attaining power)

Achievement or ambition (attaining power)

Self-sufficiency (withdrawing)

Perfection (withdrawing)

Narrow limits to life (withdrawing)

• 3 categories of behaviors and attitudes toward

oneself and others that express a person’s needs

• Neurotic persons are compelled to act based on

one of the neurotic trends

– Movement toward others (compliant personality)

– Movement against others (aggressive personality)

– Movement away from others (detached personality

The Compliant Personality

•

•

•

•

•

•

Move toward others

Intense need for affection and approval

Urge to be loved, wanted

Manipulate others to achieve goals

Think of self as helpless

Suppress desires to control, exploit others

The Aggressive Personality

•

•

•

•

Move against people

Survival of the fittest

See self as superior

Driven to succeed to compensate for

feelings of insecurity, anxiety

The Detached Personality

•

•

•

•

Move away from others

Strive to become self-sufficient

Desire for privacy

Maintain emotional distance

Criticisms of Horney

• Theory of personality not as well

constructed as Freudian theory

• Ignores roles of sociology and anthropology

in influencing personality

• Observations too influenced by middle class

America ns