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Cognitive – Experiential Domain. Personality from the Inside. Emphasis on subjective, conscious experience How you think, feel, perceive your social world Chapter 12: Personality and Cognition Chapter 14: Personality and the Self Chapter 17: Personality and Culture.
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Personality from the Inside • Emphasis on subjective, conscious experience • How you think, feel, perceive your social world • Chapter 12: Personality and Cognition • Chapter 14: Personality and the Self • Chapter 17: Personality and Culture
Personality and Cognition: Perceived Control • Narrow cognitive focus • Judgments regarding causal connection between stimuli • Perceived Control: extent to which we perceive a relationship between two stimuli • Human tendency to attempt to make sense of things
Perceived Control – Individual Differences • Locus of Control • Developed by Julian Rotter (1960s) • Based on clinical observations • Scale: Higher scores indicate a more external orientation • External: Generalized expectancy that events are outside of one’s control • Internal: Generalized expectancy that reinforcing events are under one’s control, and that one is responsible for major life outcomes
Locus of Control Scale 11 +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ Internal External Generalized expectancy that Generalized expectancy that one’s outcomes are contingent one’s outcomes are independent of one’s responses of one’s responses.
Locus of Control Findings • Internals act as if they have control • Act on basis of expectancies (i.e., prison study) • Generalizes to beliefs about others’ outcomes • If external, believe outcomes for others are independent • Religiosity? • Why?
Locus of Control Findings Continued • Socio-economic status (SES)? • Why? • Hours study? • Vote? • Time? • Why?
Locus of Control Scale • Better to be internal or external? • Problems with scale? • Captured by Big 5? • Political correlates?
Perceived Control – General Principles • Regardless of individual differences, how good are people at detecting relationships between stimuli? • Both overestimate (perceive relationships that are not warranted) and overestimate (fail to perceive relationships that are warranted)
Perceived Control: General Principles • Overestimate (erroneously see connections) • Examples? • Two types of reasons: Motivational and Cognitive • Motivational • People are motivated to understand (and predict, explain, etc.) their social world
Perceived Control: General Principles • Motivational Explanation • People are motivated to understand (and predict, explain, etc.) their social world • Randomness is uncomfortable; it’s meant to be • Science, religion • However, may be so motivated to make sense that they sometimes make sense when there is no sense to be made (i.e., erroneously perceive a nonexistent connection)
Perceived Control: General Principles • Just World Hypothesis (Belief in a Just World) • Belief that the world is essentially just; therefore, bad things don’t happen to good people • Lerner experiments • Ps observe other Ps (actually confederates) in a teacher/learner situation with shocks for incorrect answers. Who is teacher/learning is randomly determined. Ps perceive learner more negatively.
Perceived Control: General Principles • Real life examples? • Positive outcomes? • Effect is greater for those lower in power • Effect is greater if a more social orientation is induced • Why?
Perceived Control: General Principles • Cognitive Explanations • Poor information processors • Multiple documented biases
Perceived Control: General Principles • Illusion of Control (Langer) • Overestimate control over chance (i.e., random) events (e.g. gambling) • Why? Confuse causality and control • Casino games • Lotteries?
Perceived Control: General Principles • Illusory Correlation • Wider scope; relevant any time (not just chance events) judging a relationship between stimuli Disease Yes No Symptom Yes 50 25 No 20 5
Perceived Control: General Principles Disease Yes No Symptom Yes 50 25 50/75=67% No 20 5 20/25=80% Failure to consider all possible outcomes Occurs anytime judging a relationship between two stimuli (e.g., Californians and vegetarians; Hoosiers and basketball, etc.) Effect is larger if a priori expectation
Perceived Control: General Principles • Underestimate (erroneously fail to see connections) • Examples? • Learned Helplessness – exposure to uncontrollable negative outcomes – belief in no control when it may exist • Dogs and uncontrollable shocks • Humans and uncontrollable noise