39.2 Social-Cognitive Theories

39-6 How do social-cognitive theorists view personality development, and how do they explore behavior?

social-cognitive perspective views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context.

The social-cognitive perspective on personality, proposed by Albert Bandura (1986, 2006, 2008), emphasizes the interaction of our traits with our situations. Much as nature and nurture always work together, so do individuals and their situations.

Social-cognitive theorists believe we learn many of our behaviors either through conditioning or by observing and imitating others. (That’s the “social” part.) They also emphasize the importance of mental processes: What we think about a situation affects our behavior in that situation. (That’s the “cognitive” part.) Instead of focusing solely on how our environment controls us (behaviorism), social-cognitive theorists focus on how we and our environment interact: How do we interpret and respond to external events? How do our schemas, our memories, and our expectations influence our behavior patterns?

Reciprocal Influences

reciprocal determinism the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.

Bandura (1986, 2006) views the person-environment interaction as reciprocal determinism. “Behavior, internal personal factors, and environmental influences,” he said, “all operate as interlocking determinants of each other” (FIGURE 39.4). We can see this interaction in people’s relationships. For example, Rosa’s romantic history (past behavior) influences her attitudes toward new relationships (internal factor), which affects how she now responds to Ryan (environmental factor).

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Figure 13.6: FIGURE 39.4 Reciprocal determinism
Courtesy of Joslyn Brugh

Consider three specific ways in which individuals and environments interact:

  1. Different people choose different environments. The schools we attend, the reading we do, the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the friends we associate with—all are part of an environment we have chosen, based partly on our dispositions (Funder, 2009; Ickes et al., 1997). We choose our environment and it then shapes us.

  2. Our personalities shape how we interpret and react to events. Anxious people tend to attend and react strongly to relationship threats (Campbell & Marshall, 2011). If we perceive the world as threatening, we will watch for threats and be prepared to defend ourselves.

  3. Our personalities help create situations to which we react. How we view and treat people influences how they then treat us. If we expect that others will not like us, our desperate attempts to seek their approval might cause them to reject us. Depressed people often engage in this excessive reassurance seeking, which may confirm their negative self-views (Coyne, 1976a,b).

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In addition to the interaction of internal personal factors, the environment, and our behaviors, we also experience gene-environment interaction. Our genetically influenced traits evoke certain responses from others, which may nudge us in one direction or another. In one classic study, those with the interacting factors of (1) having a specific gene associated with aggression and (2) being raised in a difficult environment were most likely to demonstrate adult antisocial behavior (Caspi et al., 2002).

In such ways, we are both the products and the architects of our environments: Behavior emerges from the interplay of external and internal influences. Boiling water turns an egg hard and a potato soft. A threatening environment turns one person into a hero, another into a scoundrel. Extraverts enjoy greater well-being in an extraverted culture than in an introverted one (Fulmer et al., 2010). At every moment, our behavior is influenced by our biology, our social and cultural experiences, and our cognition and dispositions (FIGURE 39.5).

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Figure 13.7: FIGURE 39.5 The biopsychosocial approach to the study of personality As with other psychological phenomena, personality is fruitfully studied at multiple levels.

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Albert Bandura proposed the kcxsDC5VTGkSiECZ - XkPMXfT7QJJq66nMlxyQ1A== perspective on personality, which emphasizes the interaction of people with their environment. To describe the interacting influences of behavior, thoughts, and environment, he used the term u80iYVqKe01+Bc2nydwvtOUabJtS4y8ectmDiQ== .

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If you can't stand the heat. . . On the Food Network's Chopped, contestants are pitted against one another in stressful situations. The entertaining episodes illustrate a valid point: A chef's behavior in such job-relevant situations is a valid assessment of that person's ability and can help predict job performance.
Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images

Assessing Behavior in Situations

To predict behavior, social-cognitive psychologists often observe behavior in realistic situations. One ambitious example was the U.S. Army’s World War II strategy for assessing candidates for spy missions. Rather than using paper-and-pencil tests, Army psychologists subjected the candidates to simulated undercover conditions. They tested their ability to handle stress, solve problems, maintain leadership, and withstand intense interrogation without blowing their cover. Although time-consuming and expensive, this assessment of behavior in a realistic situation helped predict later success on actual spy missions (OSS Assessment Staff, 1948).

Military and educational organizations and many Fortune 500 companies have adopted assessment center strategies (Bray et al., 1991, 1997; Eurich et al., 2009). AT&T has observed prospective managers doing simulated managerial work. Many colleges assess students’ potential via internships and student teaching, and assess potential faculty members’ teaching abilities by observing them teach. Most American cities with populations of 50,000 or more have used assessment centers in evaluating police officers and firefighters (Lowry, 1997).

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Assessment center exercises have some limitations. They are more revealing of visible dimensions, such as communication ability, than of others, such as inner achievement drive (Bowler & Woehr, 2006). Nevertheless, these procedures exploit a valid principle: The best means of predicting future behavior is neither a personality test nor an interviewer’s intuition; rather, it is the person’s past behavior patterns in similar situations (Lyons et al., 2011; Mischel, 1981; Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). As long as the situation and the person remain much the same, the best predictor of future job performance is past job performance; the best predictor of future grades is past grades; the best predictor of future aggressiveness is past aggressiveness. If you can’t check the person’s past behavior, the next best thing is to create an assessment situation that simulates the task so you can see how the person handles it (Lievens et al., 2009; Meriac et al., 2008).

“What’s past is prologue.”

William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 1611

Evaluating Social-Cognitive Theories

39-7 What criticisms have social-cognitive theorists faced?

Social-cognitive theories of personality sensitize researchers to how situations affect, and are affected by, individuals. More than other personality theories (see TABLE 39.2), they build from psychological research on learning and cognition.

Table 13.3: TABLE 39.2
Comparing the Major Personality Theories
Personality Theory Key Proponents Assumptions View of Personality Personality Assessment Methods
Psychoanalytic Freud Emotional disorders spring from unconscious dynamics, such as unresolved sexual and other childhood conflicts, and fixation at various developmental stages. Defense mechanisms fend off anxiety. Personality consists of pleasure-seeking impulses (the id), a reality-oriented executive (the ego), and an internalized set of ideals (the superego). Free association, projective tests, dream analysis
Psychodynamic Adler, Horney, Jung The unconscious and conscious minds interact. Childhood experiences and defense mechanisms are important. The dynamic interplay of conscious and unconscious motives and conflicts shape our personality. Projective tests, therapy sessions
Humanistic Rogers, Maslow Rather than examining the struggles of sick people, it’s better to focus on the ways healthy people strive for self-realization. If our basic human needs are met, people will strive toward self-actualization. In a climate of unconditional positive regard, we can develop self-awareness and a more realistic and positive self-concept. Questionnaires, therapy sessions
Trait Allport, Eysenck, McCrae, Costa We have certain stable and enduring characteristics, influenced by genetic predispositions. Scientific study of traits has isolated important dimensions of personality, such as the Big Five traits (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion). Personality inventories
Social-Cognitive Bandura Our traits and the social context interact to produce our behaviors. Conditioning and observational learning interact with cognition to create behavior patterns. Our behavior in one situation is best predicted by considering our past behavior in similar situations.

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Critics charge that social-cognitive theories focus so much on the situation that they fail to appreciate the person’s inner traits. Where is the person in this view of personality, ask the dissenters, and where are human emotions? True, the situation does guide our behavior. But, say the critics, in many instances our unconscious motives, our emotions, and our pervasive traits shine through. Personality traits have been shown to predict behavior at work, love, and play. Our biologically influenced traits really do matter. Consider Percy Ray Pridgen and Charles Gill. Each faced the same situation: They had jointly won a $90 million lottery jackpot (Harriston, 1993). When Pridgen learned of the winning numbers, he began trembling uncontrollably, huddled with a friend behind a bathroom door while confirming the win, then sobbed. When Gill heard the news, he told his wife and then went to sleep.

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ANSWER: examine the person's past behavior patterns in similar situations