Social Cognitive Theory of Personality – Flashcards

- The S-C perspective views behavior & personality as influed by the interaction b/w persons (& their thinking) & their social context - Ppl learn behavior thru conditioning or thru modeling & imitating the behavior of other ppl - Rather than focusing on how the enviro controls us, S-C focuses on how we interact w/ our enviro

- argued that our mental capacities interact w/ our enviros to influ our behavior - important determinant = self-efficacy: how much we believe we can achieve specific outcomes

- Refers to the interacting influs b/w personality, enviro factors, & behavior - Personality shaped by our feelings, thoughts, enviro, & behavior - We are products & architects of our enviro - There is no 1 enviro that effects everyone the same - At every moment our behavior is influed by our bio, our social experiences, & our cognition & personality

- Emphasized our sense of personal control—whether we see ourselves as controlling or controlled by our enviro - Found ppl behaved diff depending on if they believe success was determined by skill or luck - Performed better when thought skill - Argues that ppls behaviors depends on their subjective beliefs - Locus of control - Ppl tend to have a generalized disposition - personality trait - learned from past experiences to believe that rewards are due to our own personal effort or that they are out of our control

Rewards (& fate) outside of control

Individuals control their own rewards More likely to: - Take preventive health measures - Succeed in weight loss programs - Seek info about how to protect themselves during tornado warnings - Resist group pressure in lab tests of conformity - Prefer games of skill over chance [scale does predict behavior, but correlations not high]

- Development of separate locus of control scales for separate realms - High correlation