Personality Psychology Lecture 16Outline of Last Lecture Genetics and Personality - Behavior genetics- Heritability coefficient Selective breedingMolecular geneticsGene environment interactionsShared and nonshared environmentBrainSES and serotoninOutline of Current Lecture George Kelly- Invitational mood- Constructive Alternativism- Cognitive processesPersonal constructsConstructs Current LectureGeorge Kelly Thinking processes paramount Uniquely human capacity to reflecto On oneself All have own individual truth about how we see things, what we believe, etco On the worldo On the future o How we drive meaning depends on how we construe/interpret what our experiences are Individual attempts to develop ideas that enable us to predict futurePsychology of Personal Constructs (1955) Called ahead of his time, emphasis on complex cognitive processes new to think about thinking processeso Cognitive revolution happens in 60s and 70s, his work happens before thiso Used new and highly scientific language—created own language to explain his ideas (didn’t work that well though because alienated himself from mainstream psychology), big reason he didn’t succeedThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. Humans are active/thinking, not passiveo Cognitive Ability to THINK makes us free and determinedo Free to develop our own meanings of events, each person interprets event differently due to freedomo Cant think outside of our own constructs/ideas though—determined by these meanings we create for ourselves Invitational mood—individual themselves is free to invite as many alternative interpretations as we choose too Invite ourselves to generate as many meanings as we want when were trying to build our constructs People reveal aspects of their own personality in the constructs they use to describe others—shows how you interpret world and other peopleConstructive Alternativism  Alternative scientific constructs—each may provide useful view of world, meanings/ideas we come up with (from invitational mood) are scientific constructs/ideas Not pursuit of one right theoryinstead construe events and interpret and make sense ofo Construe=understanding in particular wayo Highly individualized, not one right way to do thisCognitive Processes  Are mental procedures used to:o Categorize people and thingso Attribute meaning to eventso Predict events Some are intrinsic, other we form and then they become automatic Once we adopt a process they become automatic Can modify processes, can think about what were doing and how, etc Analyze how people thinkPersonal Constructs—ideas or categories used by people to interpret their world  Belong to individuals Important to development of who we are Constructs Comprise ones knowledge of world Used in acquiring new knowledge Some are universalo Ex. everyone knows what a tree is Some highly idiosyncratic (flexible)o Ex. what makes a great pizza, lots of variation  Constructs we have in place can be modified or can create new ones  Used automatically Events anticipated by observing patterns regularities o See regularities thus in people, events, objectso Allows us to anticipate whats going to happen next People notice some events share distinguishing characteristicso Ex. someone not responding the same way they usually do to something Construing of a similarity and a contrastformation of a construct o Become aware of similarity and contrast of an