Chapter 13

1. Chapter 13 SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY: APPLICATIONS, RELATED MODELS, AND CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH

2. QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN THIS CHAPTER • How can the study of knowledge structures, or schemas, inform the understanding of personality? • What role do qualitatively different and disordered cognitive structures have on motivation, emotional experience, and adaptive functioning? • How does the social-cognitive approach to personality contribute to effective psychotherapies?

3. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF • Schemas = knowledge structures that guide and organize the processing of information • a new song on the radio sounds structured because you have developed schemas for how songs are typically structured • schemas help you to process and appreciate the sounds that make up the song • songs from a different culture might seem chaotic and distasteful because their sounds are structured differently from your schema for songs

4. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF • Markus (1977) – the most important schemas concern ourselves • People form cognitive generalizations about the self just as they do about other objects and events (self-schemas) • People develop different self-schemas • Self-schemas account for the distinctive ways in which individuals perceive their relationship to the environment

5. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF Self-Schemas • Reaction time = a procedure in which the experimenter records not only the content of a participant’s response, but also how long s/he takes to respond • People who possess a self-schema about a particular domain of life should react more quickly to stimuli that are related to that domain

6. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF Self-Schemas • Markus (1977) identified people with a self-schema revolving around independence • Participants rated themselves as high or low on independence • Participants indicated the degree to which independence-dependence was important to them • Those with high or low self-ratings on independence and who indicated that independence-dependence was important were categorized as schematic • Participants then judged whether a series of adjectives, some thematically related to independence-dependence, were descriptive of themselves • Schematics made these judgments faster

7. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF Self-Schemas • People live complex lives which necessitate the development of different self-schemas • Different situations cause different self-schemas to emerge as part of the working self-concept = the subset of self-concept available in memory at any point in time • The working self-concept contains specific information about the self that assists people to adjust their behavior as they encounter changing events and situations

8. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF Self-Based Motives and Information Processing • Self-schemas motivate people to process information in certain ways • People are motivated to experience themselves as consistent and predictable, reflecting a self-verificationmotive • People are also biased toward maintaining a positive view of themselves, which can be described as a self-enhancement motive

9. COGNITIVE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY BELIEFS ABOUT THE SELF Self-Based Motives and Information Processing • What happens when these motives conflict? • People generally prefer positive feedback about themselves, but prefer negative feedback on specific negative self-schemas • Positive feedback can be bad for one’s health if it conflicts with a negative self-schema and challenges one’s negative identity • People may be oriented toward self-verification in intimate relationships and self-enhancement in casual relationships

10. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS STRESS AND COPING • Stress occurs when a person views their circumstances as taxing or exceeding their resources and endangering well-being • 2 stages of cognitive appraisal: • Primary appraisal = a person evaluates whether anything is at stake in the encounter (e.g., threat or danger) • Secondary appraisal = a person evaluates what, if anything, can be done to overcome or prevent harm or to improve future prospects

11. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS STRESS AND COPING • Problem-focused coping =attempting to alter elements of a stressful situation (e.g., problem-solving) • Emotion-focused coping = striving to regulate one’s emotional state (e.g., emotional distancing, seeking social support)

12. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS STRESS AND COPING • Stress-inoculation training involves making clients aware of stress-producing automatic thoughts and their adverse effects • Clients learn relaxation as an active coping skill and cognitive strategies for restructuring problems so that they become more manageable • Problem-solving process = define the problem, generate alternative solutions, evaluate the pros and cons of each solution, implement the solution most likely to solve problem, evaluate outcomes • Stress-inoculation training is active, brief, focused, and structured

13. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPATION AND CHANGE • Albert Ellis - people do not respond emotionally to events, but to their beliefs about those events • ABCsof rational-emotive behavior therapy • Activating (A) event may lead to a consequence (C), such as an emotional reaction • “We . . . create Beliefs (B’s) between A and C. Our B’s about A largely determine our response to it” (Ellis & Tafrate 1997, p. 31) • Beliefs that cause needless psychological distress are considered to be irrational beliefs

14. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE • Examples of negative thinking that cognitive therapists attempt to modify • Faulty reasoning = “I’m a poor test taker because I’m nervous.” • Dysfunctional expectancies= “If something can go wrong for me, it will.” • Negative self-views = “I always feel that others are better than me.” • Maladaptive attributions = “When I succeed, it’s luck; when I fail, it’s me.” • Memory distortions = “Life is horrible now and always has been.” • Self-defeating strategies = “I’ll put myself down before others do.”

15. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy • Best known for its application to depression, but useful in treating anxiety, marital discord, substance misuse, and personality disorders • Psychological difficulties are due to • Automatic thoughts • Dysfunctional thought processes • Negative self-schemas

16. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE The Cognitive Triad of Depression • Negative views of the self (e.g., “I am inadequate, undesirable, worthless.”) • Negative views of the world (e.g., “The world makes too many demands on me and life represents constant defeat.”) • Negative views of the future (e.g., “Life will always involve the suffering and deprivation it has for me now.”)

17. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE Cognitive Therapy • The goal of therapy is to collaborate with the client in identifying and replacing distorted specific automatic thoughts, habitual dysfunctional thinking, and negative self-schemas that lead to maladaptive outcomes • The therapist works collaboratively with the client to • Monitor problematic cognitive functioning • Recognize how problematic cognitive functioning contributes to maladaptive behavior and emotion • Examine the evidence and logic for and against problematic cognitive functioning • Develop more realistic and useful thoughts, thinking, and self-schemas

18. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE Expectancies • Social-cognitive therapists emphasize the role of dysfunctional expectancies in maladaptive emotion and behavior • People may erroneously expect aversive consequences to follow certain events or pain to be associated with certain situations • They then may act • to avoid such situations • in a way that creates the very outcome they were trying to avoid

19. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE Expectancies • Perceived inefficacy plays a key role in anxiety • People with low perceived self-efficacy for responding to potential threats experience high anxiety • It is not the threatening event, but the perceived inefficacy in coping with such an event that causes anxiety

20. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE Expectancies, Goals, and Standards • Perceived inefficacy with respect to potential rewards leads to depression • Individuals prone to depression • Impose excessively high goals and evaluative standards • Blame themselves for falling short • Low perceived self-efficacy diminishes performance, leading a person to fall even further below his or her goals and standards and to additional self-blame

21. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MALADAPTATION AND CHANGE Expectancies, Goals, and Standards • Discrepancies between performance and evaluative standards increase motivation when people believe they can attain the goal • When people believe that a goal is beyond their capabilities because it is unrealistic, they will abandon the goal without becoming depressed • Depression occurs when people perceive a goal to be reasonable and perceive themselves to be incapable of attaining it

22. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS SELF-EFFICACY AND HEALTH • Strong, positive perceived self-efficacy is good for your health • Self-efficacy to practice safe sex is related to the performance of safe-sex behavior • Modeling, goal-setting, regulating anxiety, and providing support can increase perceived self-efficacy and reduce risky health-related behavior

23. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS SELF-EFFICACY AND HEALTH Self-Efficacy and the Immune System • Snake phobics were tested under 3 conditions: • Baseline control - no exposure to a snake • Self-efficacy acquisition - participants were assisted to strengthen their perceived self-efficacy for coping with a snake • Perceived maximal self-efficacy – participants received bogus positive feedback on their coping skills • Blood was drawn from participants and analyzed for the presence of cells known to help regulate the immune system • Increasing perceived self-efficacy produced more helper T cells and, thus, enhanced immune system functioning

24. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MODELING AND GUIDED MASTERY • Maladaptive behavior, including fears and phobias are learned via • Direct experience • Exposure to inadequate or dysfunctional models

25. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MODELING AND GUIDED MASTERY • Modeling • Desired behavior is demonstrated by a model who experiences positive consequences • Complex patterns of behavior are broken down into more basic skills and then modeled to ensure optimal progress • Guided mastery • The client not only views the model performing the desired behavior, but also is assisted in performing the behavior to ensure successful enactment • First-hand experience of performance success yields a rapid increase in perceived self-efficacy and behavioral competence

26. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MODELING, GUIDED MASTERY, AND SELF-EFFICACY • Bandura (1977) - therapies for overcoming fear succeed when they increase perceived self-efficacy for coping with fear • Snake phobics were assigned to one of three treatment conditions • Guided mastery • Modeling • Control • Before and after treatment, participants were tested on a Behavioral Avoidance Test - 29 tasks requiring increasingly threatening interactions with a snake • The final task required participants to let the snake crawl in their laps

27. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MODELING, GUIDED MASTERY, AND SELF-EFFICACY • Researchers measured self-efficacy for performing each of the increasingly challenging tasks of handling a snake • Assessments were taken • Before treatment • After treatment, but before second administration of the Behavioral Avoidance Test • Following the second administration of the BAT • One month after treatment

28. CLINICAL APPLICATIONS MODELING, GUIDED MASTERY, AND SELF-EFFICACY • Changes in perceived self-efficacy and approach behavior were highly correlated • At the group level, treatment conditions (e.g., PM) that produced increases in perceived self-efficacy showed parallel improvements in approach behavior • At the individual level, high perceived self-efficacy was tied to greater likelihood of approach behavior • Follow-up data indicated that participants not only maintained gains in perceived self-efficacy and approach behavior, but also continued to improve on both