1. Behaviorist Theories 1. Principles 1. Personality is determined by the environment 1. reinforcement contingencies create personality 2. We can alter personalities by changing the environment 2. Criticism 1. Fail to recognize the importance of cognition 2. Social Cognitive Theories 1. Albert Bandura 1. Personality is created by an interaction between: 1. the person (traits) 2. the environment 3. the person’s behavior 2. This is based on triadic reciprocality (reciprocal determinism) 1. each of these three factors influence both of the other two in a constant loop like fashion 3. Also believed that personality is determined by selfefficacy 1. high = optimistic about their ability to get things done 2. low = feel a sense of powerlessness 3. affects actions 2. George Kelly 1. PersonalConstruct theory 1. in attempts to understand the world, people develop systems of personal constructs 1. consist of pairs of opposites 2. ex. smart vs. dumb 3. used to evaluate the world 2. behavior is determined by interpretation of the world 3. based on a fundamental postulate 1. which states that behavior is influenced by cognitions, and we can predict future behavior with past behavior 3. Locus of control 1. Julian Rotter 2. Internal locus of control 1. feel as if you are responsible for what happens to you 2. correlated with higher health, political activity, and grades 3. External locus of control 1. believe that luck and other forces outside of your own control determine your destiny 3. Humanistic Theories 1. Determinism 1. The belief that what happens is dictated by what happened in the past 2. Psychoanalysts and behaviorists 3. Doesn’t support the existence of free will 1. an individual’s ability to choose his own destiny 2. third force 1. arose in opposition to determinism 3. central to humanistic psychology 2. Principles 1. People are innately good 2. People are able to determine their destinies with free will 3. Focus on importance of self concept and self esteem 1. these have a positive correlation 4. Self concept 1. a person’s global feeling about himself 3. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers 1. People are motivated to selfactualize 1. reach their full potential 2. Maslow 1. hierarchy of needs 3. Roger’s self theory 1. people need unconditional positive regard to self actualize 2. unconditional positive regard 1. blanket acceptance 4. Criticism of Humanistic Theories 1. Theory of human nature too optimistic 4. Assessment Techniques 1. Projective Tests 1. Used by psychoanalysts 2. Involve asking people to interpret ambiguous stimuli 1. Rorschach inkblot test 1. involves showing people a series of inkblots and having them describe what they see 2. thematic apperception test (TAT) 1. consists of cards with a picture of people in an ambiguous situation 2. people are asked to describe what is happening in the cards 3. People’s interpretations should reflect their unconscious thoughts 4. Scoring is complicated and unreliable 1. it relies on the therapist’s interpretations 2. SelfReport Inventories 1. Questionnaires that ask people to provide information about themselves 2. Used by many types of psychologists, ex: 1. humanistic 2. cognitivebehavioral 3. trait theorists 3. MMPIZ 1. Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory 2. widely used 3. some have “lie scales” built in 3. Radical Behaviorists 1. Observing behavior is the only way to measure personality 4. Reliability vs. Validity 1. Reliability 1. consistency 2. Validity 1. accuracy 5. Barnum Effect 1. People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality 2. Named after P.T. Barnum 1. circus owner 2. “There’s a sucker born every minute.”