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Karen J. Prager, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. Professor of Psychology and Program Head for Gender Studies Diplomate in Family Psychology The University of Texas at Dallas |
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More Information About Dr. Prager's work Processes in Couple Relationships Teaching and Professional Practice Selected Papers and Publications
For Students:
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COGNITIVE CONCEPTIONS BASIC ASSUMPTIONS The best way to understand people is to understand how they? People do not simply respond to cues and reinforcers; rather, they?
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Emerged from psychology's "cognitive revolution." How important is cognition in shaping our personalities, according to research? Cognitive theorists were frustrated with existing theories as follows?
Psychodynamic theorists: Problems with adherents to the theory? Problems with the treatment? Trait theorists Problem with their focus on methodology? Attitude towards important real-world problems? Value of summary scores? Behaviorists: Attitude towards the "mental?" Effort to address the impact of "information?" WALTER MISCHEL’S THEORETICAL PRINCIPLES Personality is the result of the interaction between events and ? Researchers discovered that the perceiver's cognitive transformations of stimuli determine their impact. (For example, preschool children can resist tempting tasty treats such as marshmellows & peanut candy if they transform them cognitively into "fluffy clouds"). It is what the person s rather than that predicts how the person will behave in a particular situation. Studies of modeling and observational learning revealed that people don't simply duplicate behavior they observe. Rather, they learn about the likely consequences of behavior in various situations and for various actors. Cognitive person variables: What are these? 1) Encoding system: Why is selective attention a good example of how encoding works? 2) Expectancies & beliefs: Why are expectancies like an internal map? Types of expectancies: a) behavior-outcome expectancies: take the form of if ... then ... statements. Therefore, they refer to: b). stimulus-outcome relations: the outcomes people expect come from all the relevant environmental stimuli we can perceive. c) self-efficacy expectations which are ? d) affects: e) values & goals: Can be intrinsic or extrinsic aspects of behavior. f) competencies & self-regulatory plans:
Goals & self-regulatory systems can affect which situations people are in. How does this help people engage in the behaviors they most want to engage in? SO WHAT MAKES PEOPLE DIFFERENT FROM ONE ANOTHER? COGNITIVE STRUCTURES: The unique pattern of thinking that characterizes in what circumstances a person behaves one way vs. another way. First, Mischel’s five concepts: encoding, expectancies & beliefs, affects, values, & competencies & self-regulatory plans -- explain: 1) how people are different from one another 2) why people do what they do 3) why people feel the way they feel How might they do that? Two additional cognitive structures: schemas & prototypes. I. Schemas What are these? Self-schemas are? How important are self-schemas in predicting individual differences in behavior? What do we mean when we say that self-schemas serve a priming function? How are self-schemas measured? (Hint: remember the term response lag from lecture). We can also have schemas about others. Stereotypes are an example. These can structure our perceptions of others. How schemas work Help us simplify the overwhelming amount of information that confronts us. Help us see order & consistency. Make the world more predictable. Help us to construct a consistent self. Healthy schemas are consistent but flexible.
Possible selves Can be defined as? What are 2 functions of possible selves, according to Hazel Marcus? 1. 2. How might culture affect possible selves?
Self-esteem: How do we get it & keep it? Are we like computers, gathering data & then presenting it unfiltered? How do we filter self-information?
How might self-esteem affect behavior? Self-efficacy: belief in one's own competence, ability to successfully execute necessary behaviors Guides behavior & self-evaluation May lead people to try unfamiliar, potentially constructive behaviors
Learned helplessness: Opposite of self-efficacy. Prototypes These are: These affect personality because:. APPLICATIONS Cognitive therapies
Albert Ellis' rational emotive therapy
Rational beliefs rarely overstate or lead to overblown emotion. A. T. Beck's cognitive therapy: Goal: to change helpless, inefficacious thinking patterns into more constructive, self-enhancing ones. Five steps:
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