Final 7-12.docx

PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES CHAPTER 7: THE NEUROSCIENCE PERSONALITY - Group that learned meditation showed less anxiety, and showed differences in how their brain responded to emotional stimuli o Greater activation on left prefrontal cortex at rest and in response to positive and negative emotional events, and also showed better immune functioning - Best way to think of our physiologies is as a package of potentialities for personality What is Neuroscience and How Do We Study It? - Nervous system made up of: o Central Nervous System (CNS):Include brain and spinal cord o Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): Includes  Somatic Nervous System: controls movements of muscles  Autonomic Nervous System: regulates smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and glands. Is further divided into:  Sympathetic Division: mobilizes energy (fight or flight)  Parasympathetic Division: supports systems that replenish the body‟s energy store - Brain protected by cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that cushions brain, and flows through spaces in the brain called ventricles - Researches hypothesize differences in bodily responses, brain structure, brain activity and biochemical activity are all related to individual differences in personality Bodily Responses - It is the autonomic nervous system that responses to arousing events in the environment o When aroused the sympathetic division responds by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, blood flow to extremities, respiration, sweating and muscle activity - Sweating measured by Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) – skin conductance test - Muscle activity measured by Elecrtomyography – estimates electrical impulses of muscles during contraction and relaxation Brain Structure - Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan: takes a high resolution x-ray picture of the brain. By looking at thin cross sections of the brain, we can detect abnormalities or differences in brain tissue - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): radio frequency waves are used instead of x-rays. Strong magnetic field causes nuclei of some atoms to resonate, then waves used to detect activity of the atoms - Since hydrogen atoms are present in all tissues but in varying concentrations the pattern of resonance formed by hydrogen atoms forms a multidimensional picture of the brain Brain Activity - Electroencephalogram (EEG): electrodes placed on scalp to monitor electrical activity of the brain. When electrical activity of brain or other part of nervous system is measured in response to specific stimulus it is called Evoked Potential PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Positron Emission Tomography (PET): slightly radioactive glucose substance with short half-life injected into brain and person is placed in a scanner. Active regions use up more glucose than inactive regions - Functional MRI (fMRI): works same as an MRI but brain activity levels are monitored over time by tracing blood oxygen levels in the brain o Notable problems with fMRI:  Timing of response: when viewing stimulus our thoughts react within milliseconds, but blood flow takes 2 seconds  Small samples make it difficult to find a reliable and significant effect  Non-Independence Error: researches may unintentionally bias their results by not independently selecting which brain areas to correlate with variables  Confounds such as tie of day and nervousness of participant affect results of neuroimaging studies - Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: brief electric current passes through coil placed on head, the magnetic field disrupts the regular activity of those neurons Biochemical Activity - Physiological differences may appear as differences in how the brain and body process various chemicals including neurotransmitters, hormones and drugs - Neurotransmitters: chemicals released by neurons to inhibit or excite the next neuron into action (i.e. norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin) o Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) and epinephrine (adrenaline) are considered stress hormones – help body deal with threat by increasing blood flow to muscles which increases heart rate and blood pressure o Dopamine related to feelings of pleasure and helps regulate movement learning, attention and rewards o Serotonin is involved with mood regulations, arousal, control of sleeping and eating, and pain regulation  Depression, anxiety and other mood disorders related to how body processes serotonin - Monoamine oxidase (MAO): regulates availability of dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine in the system - Norepinephrine and serotonin may also be related to symptoms of depression – some anti-depressant drugs work by blocking their reuptake so they stay in spaces between neurons longer - Anti-Anxiety drugs work by mimicking neurotransmitter Gamma-Aminobutryic Acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter - Challenge Test: researchers administer a drug that is known to either increase or decrease a neurotransmitter functioning and monitor the impact of this new substance on reactions presumed to be related to the neurotransmitter PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES Neurological Theories of Personality - Scientists are not able to find consistent physiological differences that relate in a clear way to differences in personality characteristics - Maybe biology has biggest impact at a broader, more general level of personality called temperament: set of personality characteristics that are: o Relatively stable across life span o Expressed through general energy level o Present from early childhood o Similar in other species of animals o Present at birth at least in a general way o Determined by genetic factors o Changeable with maturation and experience - All major personality typologies converge on three primary temperaments: o Extraversion: Positive emotion, reward sensitivity, social rewards, sociability, approach o Neuroticism: Negative emotion, anxiety, punishment sensitivity, withdrawal o Impulsivity: Psychoticism, lack of constraint, sensation seeking, novelty seeking, lack of conscientiousness, lack of agreeableness Eysenck‟s PEN Model (Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism) - Extroverts tend to be sociable, popular, optimistic, and somewhat unreliable - People high in Neuroticism tend to be distressed, insecure, and upset in many areas of life. They are chronically worried, nervous and moody, hold a low opinion of themselves and find it difficult to get back on an even keel after an upsetting experience - People high in Psychoticism tend to be loners, egocentric, troublesome, manipulative, impulsive, uncooperative, hostile, withdrawn and don‟t fit in anywhere - Eysenck drew on at least pieces of evidence to support the view that these are genetic and biological o Cross cultural universality in traits implies a strong biological component o People show tremendous consistency in these three traits over time, despite changing environments o Each of the three traits have moderate heritability Neurology of Extraversion - Thought the main difference between extraverts and introverts was arousal - Introverts had greater cortical arousal than extraverts, particularly in the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS): a pathway transmitting signals from the limbic system and hypothalamus to the cortex o Activation in the ARAS can make a person alert and mentally sharp or sluggish and mentally dull o According to this Introverts avoid over stimulation, while extraverts seek more stimulation PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o If this were the case though, there would be differing arousal levels even when sleeping or resting, but this is not the case o This suggests the key difference is in the arousability, or sensor reactivity Neurology of Neuroticism - Thought physiological arousal could also account for differences in neuroticism - Eysenck thought Neuroticism had to do with the stability or instability of the sympathetic nervous system (parts involved with emotion regulation (hippocampus, amygdale, cingulum, septum, hypothalamus) o This is to say that the vulnerability of people high in Neuroticism to negative emotions is due to an extrasensitive emotional or drive system - While extraversion and neuroticism both deal with arousal, the key difference is extraversion deals with positive arousal (excitement, energy) whereas neuroticism is marked by negative arousal (fear, anxiety) - People high in neuroticism are sensitive to negative emotions in particular o If this is true, it would be difficult to identify specific physiological differences since people vary greatly in their sympathetic responses. o All in all there is no support for the hypothesis that Neuroticism is related to activation in sympathetic nervous system Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) – Jeffrey Gray - For Gray, personality is the variation in the functioning of the brain systems - Idea was to identify brain-behaviour systems that accounted for important differences among individuals and link these systems to standard measures of personality - First hypothesized two behavioural systems linked to extraversion and neuroticism, but now evidence suggests there are three important behavioural systems that do not exactly map onto any existing measure of personality - Gray‟s great contribution was in recognizing that everything in the brain is interconnected - First system is fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS): associated with fear and is responsible for our reactions to aversive stimuli. Personality factor that matches this is fearfulness and avoidance - Behavioural Approach System (BAS): organizes responses to appetitive stimuli. o BAS makes people more sensitive to reward. Related personality is optimism, impulsiveness, and emotion of anticipatory pleasure. o In extreme this may lead to addictive behaviours, high-risk impulsive behaviour and mania - Behaviour Inhibition System (BIS): once thought to control inhibition of behaviour, but now hypothesized to resolve conflicts o Until conflict is solved we may experience anxiety, worry, rumination, risk assessment, vigilance for bad things or sense of possible danger/loss PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o When BIS activated people are more sensitive to punishment and are often more cautious - BAS is similar to extraversion and BIS is similar to neuroticism but the evidence suggests that they are quite similar but NOT identical o BAS is 2 parts Extraversion 1 part Neuroticism. BIS is the other way around Neurology of FFFS, BAS and BIS - There is a lot of evidence for this theory. RST appears to be a good general theory of emotion, motivation and learning in humans - Biggest issue is we can‟t tell if there is a problem with the theory, or with the scales designed to measure the personality traits exhibited by these brain systems - Given that BAS is related to how sensitive people are to rewards, we would expect a difference in brain activity from people high and low in BAS o At least 5 parts of brain are related to responding to visual food cues: ventral (underside) of striatum, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, ventral of pallidum, and midbrain region associated with dopamine activity o People with strong appetitive drive as measured by BAS scores showed stronger reactions to photos of appetizing and disgusting foods - Important individual difference according to RST is how quickly people learn from rewards and punishments o People high in BAS will learn more quickly by responding; High in BIS will learn more quickly by withholding a response Then and Now: Phrenology - Phrenology: discredited theory of Joseph Gall from 1790 that size, shape, and location of bumps on scalp was related to particular mental or personality characteristics - Combe discovered that by pressing his thumbs on parts of exposed cortex of patients who had serious had injuries, he was able to change their behaviour. o Also discovered that some areas of brain filled with blood when thinking, dreaming or talking. This eventually lead to the fMRI - According to Wundt theories of localization fail to account for the connectivity of ideas in the mind and the complex interactions of brain systems - Diffusion tensor Imaging (DTI): special type of fMRI that traces diffusion of water in cells, it can highlight connections between cortical and subcortical regions - Suggested that prefrontal cortex and limbic systems are associated with the three temperaments - By studying preteen brains that are still growing Whittle hoped to relate changes in neural networks with behaviour and psychopathology over time - Researches in digital media at Drexel University used Combe‟s observations of change in cerebral blood flow to design games in which the gamer controls the character‟s actions just by thinking Neurological Correlates of Personality PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - A consistent finding is that the key difference between extraversion and neuroticism is in how emotions are experienced - Anhedonia: the loss of or inability to experience pleasure that may or may not be accompanied by the presence of negative emotions - Common agreement that Impulsivity is the result of BIS failing to inhibit behaviour Extraversion and Neuroticism Brain Structure Differences in the Cortex and Amygdala - Two main areas show difference in size depending on differences in Extraversion and Neuroticism: cortex and amygdale The Cortex - Introversion correlated with thickness of three sections of the right but not the left cortex (that is Introverts seem to have more grey matter in the right hemisphere) - Neuroticism scores negatively correlated with parts of the left, but not right, cortex (less gray matter in the left hemisphere) - This effect is stronger in males. And results confirm that people high in Neuroticism have lower brain volumes and that brain volume was not related to extraversion or other traits The Amygdala - Extraverts have higher concentration of gray matter in left amygdala than introverts - People high in neuroticism had lower concentration of gray matter in the right amygdala Brain Activity Differences in the Cortex, Left-Right Asymmetry, and the Amygdala The Cortex - Extraversion and Neuroticism are each correlated with activity in temporal and frontal parts of the cortex area that controls consciousness o Extraversion correlated with activity for positive emotions, while Neuroticism for negative emotions Left-Right Asymmetry - Right frontal and prefrontal cortexes are more active than left during negative emotions whereas left portion are more active during positive emotions - Shy inhibited children, depressed adults, and those high in Neuroticism show greater right asymmetry; those higher in Extraversion experience greater left asymmetry The Amygdala - While viewing happy faces extraverts show more activity than introverts in the amygdala - There was no relation between Extraversion and amygdala response to negative faces nor between amygdala and Neuroticism Biochemical Activity - Differences in extraversion seem to involve dopamine, while for neuroticism it is serotonin Dopamine and Extraversion - Introverts more sensitive to fluctuations in dopamine as a result of sensory input PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Extraverts have greater dopamine activity which could be because of greater responsiveness in general which makes sense because dopamine connects with amygdala which is more responsive in extraverts Serotonin and Neuroticism - There is evidence that extreme levels of anxiety and depression, as found in clinical depression, PTSD and anxiety may be related to low serotonin levels - People with lower levels of serotonin showed greater amygdala reactivity for fearful faces - People high in neuroticism may have stronger and longer lasting learned associations, especially to punishment Impulsivity and Sensation Seeking - Disinhibition: extent to which people have lowered social inhibitions and enjoy letting loose in the company of others without a thought about decorum, proper behaviour or social norms - Sensation seeking shows consistent gender differences and age differences: men higher than women; young higher than old Bodily Responses - Zuckerman once though high sensation seekers were trying to increase their arousal levels to an optimum level - Recent evidence suggests that the key difference may be in orienting or how people react to a novel stimuli, which may involve the reactivity of nervous system - Other evidence suggests that high sensation seekers have greater pain tolerance higher extraversion, less hypochrondiasis, and higher sensory thresholds Brain Activity - High sensation seekers have stronger reactions in parts of the brain related to arousal and reinforcement while viewing the highly arousing pictures regardless of whether they were positive or negative - Low sensation seekers show faster and stronger activation in regions related to emotional regulation and decision making Biochemical Activity - Dopamine, Norepinephrine, epinephrine, MAO all show correlation with sensation seeking and impulsivity - Zuckerman – high sensation seeking comes from dopamine reactivity, low serotonin, and low Norepinephrine - Evidence suggests high sensation seekers have higher levels of dopamine and lower levels of serotonin CHAPTER 8: INTRAPSYCHIC FOUNDATIONS OF PERSONALITY - Attachment Theory: we form emotional bonds with our caregivers which become mental representations called internal working models of all future intimate relationships PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Transference: unconscious redirection of feelings for one person onto a different person who resembles the original person in some way, especially from a person who was important in childhood onto a person important in present - Key premise of psychoanalytic psychology is that we form mental representations of ourselves, others and relationships from early experiences Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis Background - Freud influenced by scientists and philosophers of the day and believed he had a solution to the mind-body problem: instincts - He thought there had to be a similar energy source for the mind (psychic energy) and that this energy fueled the functions of the mind including thinking imaging, and remembering - Instinct: a tension, or an excitation originating from within the body - The habitual ways we deal with our impulses form or personality - There are 2 broad categories of instincts: Eros (Life Instincts) and Thanatos (Death Instincts) - Libido: psychic energy of the life instincts Uncovering the Unconscious - Free Association: patient relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, may lead patient to reveal unconscious thoughts - Dream Analysis: detailed examination of the content and symbolism of dreams to decipher hidden meanings o Manifest content: what is actually seen in dreams o Latent content: the true meaning behind the dream - Suppressed thoughts are more likely to appear in our dreams but this doesn‟t have to do with desires or wishes - Parapraxes: mistakes caused by unconscious desires - Humor: Jokes give us a socially acceptable means of expressing aggression and sexual desires through laughter - Symbolic Behaviours: actions that seem innocent but represent deeper motives Then and Now - Complexes: what we call a schema today, are patterns of thoughts, memories, and perceptions organized about a theme - The idea that our reaction times can reveal our hidden thoughts and feelings is also behind more modern assessment technique: Implicit Association Test (IAT): Uses reaction times to measure strength of association between concepts Freud‟s View of Personality: The Structural and Topographical Models The Structural Model of Personality: Id, Ego Superego - Id works through Primary Process Thinking: makes decisions without logical rules and conscious thought (pure instinctual energy, bundle of reflexes and urges) PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o Operates according to Pleasure Principle: wanting what it wants, when it wants it o Two ways of satisfying the id:  Reflex Action: through immediate physical action  Wish Fulfillment: imagining what it wants - Ego works through reality principle: tries to satisfy the id within the constraints of social and physical reality o Operates using Secondary process thinking: logical thinking, weighing the costs and rewards of possible courses of action - Superego contains moral standards. Has two parts: conscience and ego ideal o Conscience: contains knowledge of what we should not do o Ego Ideal: contains knowledge of what we are suppose to do The Topographical Model of Personality: Conscious, Preconscious, Subconscious - Conscious: contains thoughts and sensations that we are currently aware of - Preconscious: contains thoughts that are just outside of our awareness, thoughts that are easily accessible and that we are easily accessible and can readily summon into our consciousness - Unconscious: contains urges, thoughts, wishes, desires, and memories that were unable to know about o Can produce particular thoughts feelings behaviours and defenses in us related to our impulses and for this reason is often called the motivated unconscious - There is more of a continuum between conscious and unconscious than a clear cut line - Cognitive Unconscious: motivated and goal driven , the unconscious mind much like conscious can help regulate our thoughts emotions, motivations, goals and even intentions without all the conflict and drama Anxiety and the Defense Mechanisms - Sometimes the balancing of id superego, and reality is too much for ego and causes anxiety that can come out in physical symptom (conversion reaction) or psychological symptom - One way ego can prevent or lessen anxiety and acheieve a balance among desire (id) and morality (superego) is to use Defense Mechanisms: o Reaction Formation: instead of expressing a threatening id impulse, people express the opposite id impulse. o Isolation: when we mentally isolate a threatening thought by keeping it separate from other thoughts and feelings  Intellectualization: isolate the emotion so that we can experience thoughts or memories without the disturbing feelings o Denial: when we refuse to believe or even acknowledge a threatening or traumatic event or the emotions associated with the event PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o Undoing: a person who has either thought about performing or who has already performed an unacceptable behaviour attempts to nullify that action with a later action o Projection: we attribute our own disturbing or unacceptable impulses to another person  Not thinking about an undesirable trait actually increases in the tendency to see that trait in other people o Displacement: the true id impulse is expressed but the target of the impulse is changed into a more acceptable one (i.e. a child hitting a wall instead of their mom)  Often alternative explanations account for results better than displacement  Idea of displacement hinges on catharsis – build up of unsatisfied id impulses builds up and must be realised somehow  Release of id energy is called catharsis o Sublimation: change the unacceptable id impulse into something more acceptable  Despite intuitive appeal, there is almost no support for sublimation o Repression: Ego unconsciously keeps unacceptable thoughts or urges outside of our awareness. Suppression is the same, but conscious instead  Suppressing or Repressing thoughts only make us think about it more  People don‟t forget traumatic event, just cope with it by managing emotional responses  No evidence that memories can be repressed and kept out of consciousness for significant periods of time o Rationalization: when people reinterpret their behaviour to hide their true motivations for their actions PsychoSexual Stages - Each psychosexual stage starts with a libidinal urge that is experienced in a specific biologically determined part of the body - Infant or child feels tension in erogenous zone and must find a way of gratifying the id impulse in a sociable way - Fixation: the result if someone receives too much or too little gratification at a stage - Freud – born with an id (the source of libidinal urges) and by age 2 ego is formed and we learned to control our bowels, and by 5 superego is formed as a result of resolving Oedipal complex. Oral Stage (Birth – 18 months) - Oral Incorporative Personality: lack of gratification early on; as an adult shows excessive dependency and trying to gain oral satisfaction by eating, drinking smoking, kissing PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Oral Sadistic Personality: lack of gratification later on; as an adult shows aggressive behaviour, oral activities like gum chewing, nail biting, overeating and symbolic biting behaviours of sarcasm cynicism, and ridicule Anal Stage (1-3yrs) - Anal Expulsive Personality: obtain gratification whenever, wherever; as an adult : self- confident, uninhibited, nonconventional, and resisting of authority - Anal Retentive Personality: react to parental controls of feces; as an adult is rigid, compulsive, and lives up to expectations of others Phallic Stage - Castration Anxiety: because penis is the source of pleasurable feelings towards mother the boy develops this and lives in fear that his father will cut off his - Phallic Character: when Oedipus complex isn‟t resolved; as an adult has overly exaggerated sense of masculinity or machismo - Hysterical Character: when woman is fixated dat this stage, she has exaggerated femininity. Latency Stage (5- puberty) – no significant development Genital Stage (-adulthood) Problems With Freud‟s Psychosexual Stages of Development - He started with adults who had problems and looked at their childhoods, instead of watching children develop - Children from 2-5 don‟t know genital differences - Boys and girls don‟t differ in morality despite supposed non-development of superego in girls Psychodynamic Theory Since Freud - Some broke with Freud and started own systems; called Neo-Freudians - Some objected to Freud‟s „id psychology‟ and developed their on ego psychology focusing on the ego rather than impulses of the id (pioneers included Hartman and Freud‟s daughter) - Object Relations Theory focuses on the cognitive and emotional processes involved in intimate relationships: how we form close relationships, bond and cognitively represent important others o Concerned with impact of actual experiences instead of fantasy - There are 5 postulates that define contemporary psychoanalytic theory o Much of our thoughts, feelings, motives, defenses, fears, and wishes are unconscious o Part of being human is recognizing that we have conflicting thoughts, feelings, and motivations o Personality begins to form in childhood and shows continuity into adulthood o Mental representations of self, others and relationships are important PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o Personality development and growth involves moving from an immature, dependent state to a mature interdependent state. Attachment Theory - Been described as resurrection of psychodynamic theory - Bowlby – attachment system evolved to keep infants close to their mothers and safe from harm - According to bowlby o Infant who trusts that the mother will be accessible and responsive will be less fearful than an infant who does not have confidence that the mother will be available o This confidence is built up slowly from birth through adolescense and will remain relatively unchanged through adulthood o These expectations are fairly accurate reflections of the experiences individuals have actually had. These were referred to as internal working models - We form a working model of others and self - Working model of others comes from our expectations of our primary caregiver‟s responsiveness - Working model of self comes from our feelings of worthiness, lovability, and competence as an individual deserving of help. - A person with anxious attachment may be overly dependent on others, whereas an avoidant person may be overly self-reliant - Mary Ainsworth developed “strange situation” o Secure Attachment: children of sensitive and responsive mothers cried less, communicated better and enjoyed close bodily contact more. They are not clingy and sought less physical contact o Avoidant Attachment: other mothers were less affectionate during child‟s first 3 months and frequently disliked and avoided close bodily contact with the child during the first year. Independent and unemotional during separation o Ambivalent Attachment: mothers inconsistent in responding to their infants. Infants resistant when mothers left, but didn‟t accept mother‟s comfort on return o Disorganized/Disoriented: parents full of fear, themselves or inadvertently behave in ways that are frightening to infant - Correlation between early attachment and attachment any later point in time is approximately .39 - 70-75% agreement between infant‟s secure or insecure attachment in the strange situation and his or her attachment in adolescence and young adulthood - Attachment is reflected within romantic relationships in the future same as with mothers - Couples separating at the airport are much like the children in strange situation PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES CHAPTER 9: REGULATION AND MOTIVATION: SELF-DETERMINATION THEO. there‟s more to rewards and punishments:  Intrinsic redward of mastery can be more effective than the extrinsic reward of candy - Self Determination Theory: there is a big difference in engaging in an activity because of extrinsic reasons and engaging in the same for intrinsic reasons – reasons why we do are often more important than what we do o Extrinsically Motivated: acting because of some external pressures like rewards or punishments (failing an assignment), we may not enjoy the activity as much, perform our best or continue the behaviour on our own o Intrinsically Motivated: acting out of our own desires and by our own choice doing things that are fun or satisfying to us, we enjoy what we‟re doing and increase our well-being in the process - People with intrinsic goal (helps you be fit and prevents you from getting sick later age) for learning put in greater effort than students with extrinsic goals (you‟ll be physically appealing and gain less weight later) when new instructor came in to teach them exercises. Also perform better when tested. Also those in a supportive context (you can) perform better than those in controlling (you have to) - Students in the supporitive contect and students with an intrinsic goal persisted longer than students in controlling or students with extrincsic goal, students who had both supportive and intrinsic goal for learning Tae Bo showed greatest persistence of all 4 months later - More likely to join school‟s Tae Bo club - Self determination theory o Predict reasons why we do something (intrinsic or extrinsic) are important for effort, performance and task persistence o Way another person communicates his/her expectations and instructions to us has a big impact on our effort, performance and task persistence - We are surrounded by ppl who have expectations on us like teachers and bosses and we do the same to others – motivation and performance (SDT) Three Fundamental Psychological Needs - Self-Determination theory grounded in Humanistic Tradition: which emphasizes responsibility, growth and actualizing tendency. Sees people as active organism and seeks the best way to not only survive but to grow and develop. - Actualizing Tendency: Carl Rogers called this the motive to actualize or bring about growth and positive change - When ppl are not being pushed around by env. They have the ability to find what they need for growth (not all environments support growth) - According to self-determination theory there are three basic and universal psychological needs: Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness regardless of what culture one is from PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o Individuals must feel that they can freely choose what to pursue instead of being pushed around from themselves or ppl around them – need for autonomy: feeling free and able to make choices about one‟s actions, being self-regulating and able to determine one‟s own actions and plans as opposed to feeling like a pawn at the mercy of others or fate o Need to feel competent at their pursuits, achieving mastery at tasks that are neither too easy nor too hard. Need for competence - Feeling effective in one‟s actions and having opportunities and experiences to exercise expand and express one‟s abilities o Relatedness is feeling connected to others, having people to care for, and to receive care from  Can alseo come from feeling a sense of belonging within a community like school, work, club or town - When all three needs met, ppl will feel moticated and will happily participate in some activity (intrinsically motivated, perform well and buils skills and increase their well being - Universal needs and essential for healthy development Ex. When sitting in a boring class or one that‟s too difficult a sense of competence is missing  Class has a lot of readings with very little choice on what to do and how to do it – lack autonomy  Didn‟t get along with teacher who may have been uncaring, cold or didn‟t enjoy being in a class where they couldn‟t get to others (relatedness lacking)  Classes that met your needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness may have increased your motivation, learning and well being  Possible to get through a class where you felt incompetent, pushed around and got through it b/c you had friends to suffer with How Do We Satisfy These Needs Ppl need to get their needs met by contect or situation in which they find themselves and balance their internal needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness with nutriments provided by external environments Certain aspects of environment can foster fulfillment of three needs Table 9.1 Fostering Autonomy: autonomy support  Must feel they can act out of their own volition (preferences, wishes and desires)  Parents, teahers, coaches, friends can help us make our own choices and develop our own way of doing things or can attempt to control and pressure us into doing what they want us to - Strategies that help individuals develop and express their own self are autonomy supportive; the opposite of autonomy support Is control PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Most ppl we know have our best interest at heart, but sometimes parents have to set limits to help teach child from harm o There are still ways of being autonomy supportive w/o being pressuring - One way to support autonomy is by providing choice o Better luck for kids to each veggies when saying would you like peas or carrots vs eat your veggies o Doctors would say “my patients have a hard time losing weight implying instead of telling” - Another way is to encourage initiative, giving people a chance to decide for themselves what they would like to do or how they would like to do it without fearing repercussions for choosing poorly - Autonomy cannot be developed if a person is hesitant or fearful to make any choice whatsoever - Children learn to regulate and control their own behaviour by making choices on trivial matters like choosing what to wear to bigger decisions like friends o To do this parents, doctors, supervisors need to support child‟s choice even if they disagree with it o Students requires to write a paper, profs let them choose their own topic - Parents should stand by to help their children or students live with the consequences of these decisions that‟s how we learn but at alevel the child can cope with o Take kids to run errands then buy them candy of their choice, but could not make a fuss about what they picked o If got a candy they didn‟t like would tell them they‟re mom‟s favourites and to see if she has something she‟d be willing to swap with you o Children learned to make decisions, try new things, take responsibility and live with their decisions o Helped them develop autonomy in an age appropriate way by applying principles of autnomy support - Recognizing and respecting the individuals point of view and feelings about the matter or helping individuals see how their actions relate to their personal goals, beliefs, or values helps autonomy by helping ppl regulate hteir own behaviour and stave off helplessness - “it‟ll all be worth it in the end” - 3 conditions: o Controlling limits: don‟t make a mess with paints o Autonomy supportive limits: sometimes it‟s fun to make a mess but here materials and room need to be nice for other children to use o Control – no rules  Given option to continue to paint or do something else when experimenter stepped out while an assistant present - Children in all 3 grps did as they were told and didn‟t make a mess with paints PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Children in autonomy supportive limits had greater enjoyment of painting and more artistic and creative paintings than children in controlling limits condition o Higher creativity, technival merit, overall quality, number of colors used and level of detail o Not diff from no rules condition - Children with no limits and autonomy supportive limits painted longer than children in controlling limits - Results suggest that limits can be communicated to children w/o undermining their autonomy in a way that increases their motivation and quality of performance Fostering Competence: structure and optimal challenge - Need tasks to be aimed at the right level, not too hard and not too easy with steps that are clear and doable - Need to know how to carry out a task and what the consequences would be - Need to know what is expected of them and need immediate feedback from task or from others to learn correct way to do a task - Large tasks need to be broken down into smaller steps - With all these in mind, ppl learn to master a task quickly building their sense of competence - Wii fit game trains players by successive approximation to become better at controlling their movements and balance o Roughly hit target to precisely o Get visual feedback on screen and happy sounds when they achieve the goal or sad sounds when they don‟t - Help playhers master physical activities like balance, agility and coordination and increase their fitness level in the process - Satisfy need for competence b working ont asks that are optimally challenging - Tasks that are too difficult where demand outpaces person‟s skills may cause P to feel frustrated, worried and ancious - Too easy tasks can cause relaxation and boredome - Engagement in tasks that have a clear set of goals, that require appropriate responses, give immediate feedback and are operating at their maximum capacity can lead to positive state of flow o Flow: an experience marked by complete absorption, deep enjoyment, intense concentration, and almost an altered state, as people block out all irrelevant stimuli and focus entirely at the task at hand. o Athletes are in the zoone, religious msystics call it ecstasy (ignore hunger and fatigue) minutes pass w/o them knowing o Likely to jappen when engaged in creative activites, music, sports, games, religious rituals PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Tasks that are optimally challenging lead to a state called flow. Intensity of experience increases with distance from a person’s average levels of challenge and skill (fig 9.4) - Just immersing oneself in everyday activities are highly meaningful and which demand the right balance of challenge and skill can produce flow - Flow states are by no means the only way that a P can have their need for competence met but are a powerful means of feeling competence which together with autonomy fosters motivation and engagement - Tasks just a bit beyond a P‟s skill level, personally meaningful, highly enjoyable, engrossing or wrth doing for their own sake lead to greatest amount of intrinsic motivation and positive emotion Fostering Relatedness: involvement  Autonomy support and task structure both occur within a relationship whether it patient doctor or teacher student wtc. - Quality of relationships can increase the likelihood that autonomy and competence needs will be met. - People feel related or connected to others through involvement: interest shown in them and their concerns, the time a person spends with them and the energy that others invest in them o Teacher spends extra time teaching you makes you feel connected and easier for you to feel motivated - 4-5 yr olds played with markers: o Control: child merely drew in presence of a neutral experimenter, both child and experimenter fount it awkward and unsettling to not interact with each other  Even if experimenter didn‟t make eye contact with child, child tried to get attention of experimenter persistently  Showed lowest intrinsic interest of all conditions then their motivation to draw was assessed a week later - Part of what makes teachers autonomy-supportive is the warm, supportive relationship with their students o Listen to students, give them time to talk and take their perspective establishing sense of warmth, affection and acceptance of students o Controlling teachers ignore teacher-student relationship and focus on correct answers and desired classroom behaviors o Show sensitivity and attunement to students by sensing cognitive and emotional states of their students and adjusting their instruction accordingly Personality of everyday life  College students of color – relatedness to fam, peers and profs were important for motivation and engagement o If count campus to be hostile and unfriently indicating a lack of relatedness are at risk for performing pooly in college and dropping out PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES  Relatedness is important source of motivation for all college students regardless of their cultural background o Engaged in college for relationships they hoped to develop,t eaching they looked forward to receiving and love and support of their fam and friends back home o Friends and fam can provide intrinsic reasons (give back to ppl who helped you) and extrinsic reasons (keep up with others around you) for attending college  Intrinsic reasons with relatedness to peers and faculty and stagg lessened a student‟s intention to drop out  Extrinsic reasons not related to a student‟s intention to drop out  Relatedness is often overlooked in predicting motivation and engagement, but is important Then and Now: Undermining Intrinsic Interest Impact of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic behaviour inspired self-determination theory  Expected reward: told will get a good player award for drawing  Unexpected reward: kids received good player award only after they drew with markers o Tested whether merely getting a reward lowers intrinsic interest or if explicitly contracting for reward lowers interest  No reward (control): children drew with markers but didn‟t hear or receive any reward  Rewards didn‟t increase the behaviour for drawing with markers a week later when available during free time  Drawings made by expected kids rated as inferior, but kids also played less with markers during free time than kinds in unexpected reward and no reward conditions - Overjustification Effect: undermining of intrinsic interest, when intrinsic interest in an activity is already high; like drawing for the kids, if extrinsic factors are made more salient by giving a reward, they will discount their own intrinsic reasons for doing the behaviour o If I have to get rewarded to do this then that means this activity is boring o Supported by cognitive dissonance theory and self-perception theory - Tangible rewards undermine intrinsic interest of Ps - Rewards given explicitly for reaching a level of performance or finishing a task are more likely to have an adverse effect than rewards that don’t require engaging in a specific task or which are not contingent on completion, quality of output or reaching some standard of excellence - External motivators can convey 2 meanings: o Controlling aspect of an extrinsic factor suggests that the behaviour is under external control (you‟re doing this b/c im giving you a reward) thwarting ppl‟s satisfaction for the need for autonomy o Informational aspect provides feedback about ppl‟s performance on task (one more to get 10) so they can adjust their behaviour and satisfy their need for competence PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - A reward experienced as controlling will rob a person of autonomy and undermine intrinsic interest. But reward that is experienced as informational will increase feelings of competence and not undermine intrinsic interest - Not the reward that‟s good or bad but how the reward is communicated ad interpreted determines whether control or info aspect will be more salient with ultimate impact on motication and performance - External motivators like deadlines, imposed goals, competition, surveillance and evaluations may undermine intrinsic interest and performance if used to control (robbing autonomy( instead of for into (increase competence) Connections Between Self-Determination Theory and Other Theories in Personality Autonomy and Locus of Causality Internal locus of control: they can influence what happens to them through their own efforts, behaviour or characteristics External locus of control believe that what happens to them is due to chance, luck, fate or others Little control over what happens to them - Locus of Control: describes connection btw behaviour and outcomes. (opp. Is feeling helpless) People‟s beliefs about what deermines their outcomes in life, their own efforts or outside circumstances - Autonomy describes connection btw choice and behaviour: extent to which ppl feel free to choose their own behaviors or follow their own interests (locus of causality) - Locus of Causality (autonomy): People‟s beliefs about the choice to engage in a behaviour, feeling autonomous or controlled - Ppl may understand contingency btw their behaviour and some outcome and are able to control their behaviors (locus of control), but may not want to or feel free to engage in those behaviours (locus of causality) - Opp. Of autonomy is complianece (conformity to norms andobedience to a direct order) or degiance both occur in direct response to controlling actions of another - Anytime a P gives in to external or internal pressures(guilt) to behave in a certain way, he or she is behaving w.o autonomy - Ex. Have to write a paper on what teacher wants, not what you believe – behaviour or writing is under your control,m but feeling of pressure to do what youre told and lack of being able to act in a way that‟s truly yourself illustrates external locus of causality and lack of autonomy Competence and Self-Efficacy Theory - Self-Efficacy: the belief that one can be competent and effective at some activity similar to feelings of competence o There are two parts:  Outcome Expectation: the belief that behaving in a certain way will produce a certain outcome PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES  Efficacy Expectation: the belief that one is capable of acting in a certain way; that is, the expectation about whether a P will succeed or fail at performing the required action - According to Self-Efficacy theory, efficacy expectation is more important than outcome expectation - P recovering from back injury told that to prevent injury, should strengthen abdominal muscles by doing exercises everyday to get stronger (expected outcome), does P feel capable to do the exercises? (efficacy expectation) - Knowing ppl‟s self-efficacy predicts how motivated they‟ll be before and during an activity o Lack of perceived competence o Determines which activities ppl likely to engage in or avoid, how much effort they‟ll put into that activity whether they‟re likely to persist or give up especially when going gets tough, how well they perform and what their emotional reactions might be before, during and after activity o Self-efficacy theory predicts amount of motivation, doesn‟t differentiate among types of motivation the way self determination theory does - We develop our self-efficacy beliefs from 4 sources of info o Personal experience – most direct  Successes build efficacy, wheras failures decrease efficacy  Bad experience skiing may cause P to never ski again o Vicarious experience of watching another person enact the behaviour and succeeding/failing then trying it ourselves  Can see what can happen to us and what strategies to improve our own chances of succeeding or not via observationallearning and social modeling self-efficacy can be increased/decreased  Personal stories of ppl who have overcome difficulties in their lives through determination and effort o Through social persuasion  Friends, coaches, teachers, etc. may be able to convince another P that he or she may be capable fo taking an action involing changing efficacy expectations (you can do this, take a deep breath and call) but can also involve outcome expectations (here‟s the number, what‟s stopping you) o From physical and emotional states: we read our own physical and emotional reactions and adjust our self-efficacy beliefs accordingly o Activities or thoguhts of activities that make us sweat, tire or cause aches and pains lower our self-efficacy and may prevent us from attempting an activity or stop the activity o Activities that energize us or occur in absence of negative visceral reactions increase our self-efficacy and make us want to attempt the activity or continue it PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o Tension, anxiety and depression on tasks and feelings of fatigue and pain on tasks that require stamina and strength may be interpreted as sdigns of low self-efficacy o Have used principles of self-efficacy to decrease ppls fears of traveling by automobile, using elevators/escalators. Shopping, entering public places o Helped ppl recover from cardiac arrest, explain effectiveness of grps and academic/career choices of students Relatedness and Attachment Theory - Self-determination theory builds on work in attachment theory - SDT recognizes importance to be connected or attached to careivers, partners and friends b/c feeling connected to others with autonomy and competence gives us motivation to engage with world, persistence when going gets tough and increased well-being - Research in self-determination theory often uses path-analysis o Path Analysis: A technique in which researchers use statistics to test hypothesis about how variables relate to one another o Builds on logic of regression o Researchers then draw a path diagram visually showing the significant effects of the variables on each other (hypothesized) o Variables can have a direct effect (solid), indirect effect (dotted), or no effect o Head of arrow indicates direction of effect and if double lined then 2 vars affect each other o Each line connecting variables represents the regression coefficient which is how much the x-variable is weighted when it is used to predict the next variable o The higher the weight, the greater the impact one var has on the other  +ve means it causes an increase in next var  -ve means it causes a decrease in next var o For each model researchers propose they test if the overall model accounts for a significant amount of variability in data, the weights are significantly different from 0, and if the effects are direct or indirect o Analysis suggests that workers‟ perceived supportivesness of their work env had a direct impact on satisfaction of their needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness (measured as intrinsic need satisfaction) o Approaching world in an autonomous intrinsically motivated way as opposed to being extrinsically motivated or feeling like world pushes you around also had a direct effect on workers‟ need satisfaction o Having needs met had a direct effect on workers‟ performance evaluations and adjustment o Having needs met increased quality of workers‟ performance and psychological adjustment in work env o Workers whose needs met by autonomy supportive climate showed greater emotional stability and better health than workers whose needs not being met PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o Having good performance evaluations does not satisfy workers‟ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness o Need satisfaction is a cause not a result of high performance What it Means to be Self-Regulated - Motivation is best characterized on continuum from extrinsic to intrinsic varying on how much volition a P believes they have, there is even amotivation: having no motivation (apathetic or alienated) - Being self-regulated means adjusting our own behaviours and attitudes somewhere along this continuum of motivation depending on the situation and the activity at hand - Self regulation embodies humanistic values of freedome, responsibility and authenticitiy to be fully functional and part of SDT Types of Motivation - Intrinsic Motivation and Intrinsic Regulation: occur when people engage in an activity due to reasons inherent in the activity itself like satisfaction or pleasure. Very few activities we undertake in a typical day are intrinsically motivating - We engage in many activities in our day like chores and brushing our teeth that are not particularly intrinsically interesting, by being self-regulating - Extrinsic motivation: an activity is undertaken for reasons external or separable from activity itself like gaining a reward or avoiding a punishment o 4 types varying in how much autonomy or volition is involved - External Regulation: completely extrinsic and controlled by something or someone outside ourselves o Brush teeth to be called good girl or watch fav tv show - Introjected Regulation: behaviour is controlled by something within ourselves. Experienced as just as controlling as external regulation except we act as our own controlling agents using guilt, anxiety, conditional self-esteem, obligation, approval or other thoughts to control ourselves o Parent won’t say good girl when you brush your teeth at night now, but you may do it b/c it makes you feel good about yourself (introjected regulation) - External and introjected regulation are considered controlled and part of extrinsic motivation b/c P feels pressured or controlled by demands and contingencies o May also experience apathy, lower creativity, drug and alcohol abuse and poor psychological health - Identified Regulation: when we accept the activity as personally meaningful for a greater goal than hassles involved in task at hand - Integrated Regulation: people have internalized the goals and values of the enterprise even though the particular activity is not inherently interesting - Identified and integrated regulations are extrinsic PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Ppl who believe they should take care of their bodies would show identifies regulation for brushing their teeth and not mind the momentary discomfort of hard bristles and medicine flavoured toothpaste - If only reason a P brushes her teeth is to avoid having a nasty case of gingivitis – external regulation - Activities that are integrated are generally expressions of our true, authentic self o Someone who regularly maintains a healthy lifestyle and loves to show it would feel great about brushing teeth in the morning making it a part of his personality (integrated regulation where identification with the activity is integrated into other aspects of the self - Motivate yourself to do something uninteresting by engaging in nonregulation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation and integrated regulation - Ppl can willingly undertake even uninteresting tasks if the meaning and greater value behind the activities is understood - People who are more autonomous or self-regulated can take up activities with identified, integrated or intrinsic regulations, and engage in them with more interest, enthusiasm, confidence and show greater performance, persistence and creativity more than ppl who are more controlled in their activities Various of ways of providing autonomy support help ppl find ways of regulating their behaviour along continuum By supporting autonomy, agents such as parents and friends foster internal motivation and self- determination By being controlling, agents foster external motivation and non-self determination When we choose activities that are intrinsically interesting where possible and regulate our behaviour when choice is not possible we maintain our own self-determination o They also show increased vitality, self-esteem, general well-being, and longer- lasting changes in health behaviours Causality Orientations For ppl who have their needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness met, the world is diff than for ppl who have had a lifetime of being pushed around not developing a sense of their own competencies or feeling unsupported by ppl around them - Causality Orientation: people‟s typical way of regulating their motivations and behaviour developed over a lifetime of experiences with internal and external motivation (typical ways of self-regulating) o Importance individual diff in what ppl expect from world and how they approach specific situations o Ppl may express each of these orientations to some extent, but one is stronger than others PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES o Ppl show consistent, general ways of approaching tasks across many behaviors (brushing teeth, foul shots), situations (work and home) and domains (academics, sports) o Autonomous Orientation: describes the degree to which people interpret a situation as autonomy supportive, providing information for their own self- regulation (when all 3 basic needs are met)  Situation has potential to stimulate intrinsic motivation which they find optimally challenging  Associated with autonomous self-regulation, greater intiative, good performance and psychological well-being  More likely to have all 3 needs met , positive performance evaluations and better psychological adjustment o Controlled Orientation: describes the degree to which people look for controls in the environment and let the environment or their own introjects determine and regulate their behaviour. (when all 3 except autonomy are met)  Approach situations ready to respond to situational demands and contingencies and self-regulate rhough introjects and external contingencies are dependent on rewards and other controls and show diminished well-being o Impersonal Orientation: describes the degree to which people feel they lack control over important outcomes. (having all three needs thwarted consistently)  Approach situatiosns through amotivation with detachment and apathy believing that there’s little they can do to attain desired outcomes  Poor functioning and well-being o Causality Orientations measured through GCOS (Gender Causality Orientations Scale) rate responses to scenarios from 1-7 and see strength of orientation Self-Determination Tehory Applied  Accoding to this model, context provides nutriments for meeting the three needs, structure for competence, autonomy support for autonomy and involvement for relatedness  When these needs are met we feel motivated for action and will experience positive emotions and feel like being engaged in task at hand  As a result of our actions we increase our skills, abilities and general well-being  If needs not met in a context that fails to provide involvement, structure or autonomy support, we won‟t feel motivated  Instead of engaging in activit, we may feel disaffection  Ppl engaged in a contect show productive behaviors like attention, effort and persistence whereas ppl disaffected show behaviors like lack of effort and withdrawal (express negative emotions like depression, frustration or boredom instead of curiosity or enjoyment) check fig 9.9 PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES  Due to disaffection, we miss out on chance to increase our skills and abilities and end up experiencing distress of poor psychological adjustment Health Behaviors:  The more autonomy, competence and relatedness patients feel, the more willing and able they are to quit smoking, manage blood sugar levels, lose weight and exercise regularly and clean teeth  Standard – no extra session  Intervention – extra session with dentist about oral care – gave confidence in their ability to do the task and didn‟t use controlling or pressure language and given brushes  Intervention was successful in giing pateients an increased sense of competence nd autonomy  More likely to take care of their teeth better and have less plaque than patients who believed theyh lacked competence and autonomy  SDT pathway better predictor of plaque at end of experiment than was the amount of plaque patients had a ebeginning of study  Gingivitis at end of study indirectly influenced by feelings of competence and utonomy through amount of plaue patients had at end of study and directly through amount of gingivitis patients has at beginning of study  Feelings of autonomy and competences nourished by autonomy support and task structure motivated ppl to take better care of their teeth  Increased motivation led to increased health behaviors led to a healthier mouth Sports  There‟s nothing inherently motivation or demotivation about competition by itself  Contect in which competition occurs can undermine intrinsic motivation if athletes experience situation as controlling  Students who solved a puzzle faster than their opponents regardless of whether instructed to beat opponent or do their best reported greater perceived competence than participants who lost the competition  Ps pressured into winning felt less intrinsic motivation and lowered perceived autonomy than ps w.o pressure  Coaches can have a huge impact on how their players interpret and experience practices and competitions to benefit or detriment of their motivation o Influence ability of their players to self-regulate and emotions of players while playing and practising o Extent to which players‟s needs for autonomy, competences and relatedness were met directly or indirectly increased their enjoyment and decreased their boredome of the game  The more players perceived that coaches provided autonomy support, structure and involvement, the more the players were self-refulated and engaged in practice using PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES intrinsic or identified regulation instead of external or introjected regulation or amotivation  Self-regulated motivation increased players‟ enjoyment of game  Correlation is not causation – not studied over time  Rs wanted to know how fluctuations in athlete‟s feelings of motivation, energy and self esteem related to perceptions of their ocoach‟s and parents‟ autonomy support, structure and involvement and feeling that their needs were being met during practise  Gymnasts were highly self-determined in their motivation scoring highest in identification and intrinsic regulation  Younger gymnasts showed more introjected regulation than older gymnasts  Gymnasts high in identification attended practices more regularly  The more autonomy-supportive parents and coaches were perceived by the gymnasts to be the more self-regulating the gymnasts were showing more identifies and intrinsic motivation  Those more self-regulated experienced more positive meotiosn during practices like feeling excited, alert and more energy and vitality during practise and stable self esteem and attended more practices  Less self-regulating, feeling more controlled by their parents or coach reported more introjection and external motivation experiences more negative emotions during practice like feeling distressed, sad, irritable, less engery and vitality and more unstable self esteem  Practise session where gymnasts reported practice fulfilled their needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness experienced a boost in positive affect, energy and stability of self esteem by end of that practice compared to how they felt at beginning of practice  Gymnasts who perceived coach was highly involved in their training on a given day had more stable self esteem during practice than gymnasts who perceived their coach as being uninvolved  Self-regulation style that gymnasts bring to practise is developed over the course of a lifetime of experiences with parents and past interactions with coach (backdrop of what goes on in a particular practise)  Self-regulatory style of individual gympansts is part of their personality and fairly stable  Gymnasts who were more self-regulated showed greater engagement and well-being tha gymnasts who were less self-regulating  Impact of each practice session on engagement and well-being of gymnasts varied over course of study  Bad practise when needs not met made them feel worse than when they came in – distressed and discouraged Work  Past used controlling methods o Undermine intrinsic interest and requires continual monitoring and surveillance PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES  Nature of work today requires more thought and creativity  Cost and effort required to train new employees  SDT provides increase in motivation, creativity, satisfaction and job performance of workers  Managers should foster motivation leading to a sustainable motivation that‟s self-directed rather than externally controlled (motivation that persists in absence of direct surveillance)  Corporate management changed organizational climate to inclure more participative management to increase autonomy and employee involvement to increase relatedness  Created teams and brought in consultants to model autonomy-supportive behaviors and involvement in their interactions with managers so manager would experience for themselves the power of SDT model of motivation and engagement o Listen empatheticallyh, take perspective of managers and awknowledge their feelings  Give choice whenever possible, noncontrolling feedback and showing acceptance and acknowledgement of their perspective  Technicians felt less pressure and control and more support and freedom in workplace  Managers sought support from other managers and supported intiviative in their workers and helped them be more self-regulating  Workers expressed positivity  The more managers supported the self determination of their technicians, the more trusting of the coportation technicians were and less pressure they felt at work  Technicians reported greater satisfaction with feedback from their managers, opportunity for input and job security Pusuit of happiness  Young ppl who aspire to ginancial goals are more depressed, anxious and less self- actualized than ppl who strict for self acceptance (meaningful life, knowing and accepting themselves) or affiliation (having friends, spouse, children)  Students who value instrinsic goals more than extrinsic goals have higher subjective well- being, life satisfaction, self esteem and self-actualizaiton  Well-being depends on ppl‟s reasons for pursuing financial success  Students who agreed that it‟d be fun to have a pay well job, freedom had higher self- actualization then those who wanted to make fam proud or others respect them  Too oftem pursuit of game, future or good looks involves relying on external standards rather than on aperson‟s internal standards o Extrinsic motivation not intrinsic motivation o What you choose to pursure and why you pursue it that‟s important for well-being and happiness PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES  fame, fortune or good looks in and themselves don‟t lead to well being and happiness but rather freely choosing what to pursure feeling competent in one‟s endeavors and being meaningfully related to others along the way does lead to happiness Tae Bo Study revisited  autonomy support and intrinsic goal led to greater effort by students, better performance and higher persistence upto 4 months later with est outcomes  having need for autonomy satifised increased students‟ motivation for learning and practicing Tae Bo and fully engage din class no doubt developed competence as this new skill  ppl differ in extent to which they feel pushed around or supported by world  causality orientations account for diff btw ppl in how they approach new situations and interpret feedback which impacts their psychological functioning and well being  over lifetime we build autonomy and competence and supportive relationships  CHAPTER 10: COGNITIVE FOUNDATIONS OF PERSONALITY - Despite being somewhat depressed at the start of the study, participants who thought about the good things that happened to them and about why they happened, and participants who developed one of their character strengths by using it in a new way, show decreases in symptoms of depression and increases in felt happiness over course of experiment - Field-Dependent: tend to see the big picture rather than the details - Field-Independent: rely on their own physical sensations and have selective attention to a particular object without being distracted by surrounding details - Field independent learn language in traditional question, dependent tend to learn language better being totally immersed Locus of Control - Internals pay more attention to info that may be useful to them later and they also retain more information than externals Measures of Locus of Control - Often measured with Internal-External Locus of Control Scale o Presented with 29 questions (6 are fillers) scores go from 0-23 with higher scores indicating a greater external locus. - More positive outcomes in achievement, work, health, and relationships are associated with having an internal locus of control. Locus of Control and Achievement - Internals take more actions than externals including political action, achieving greater academic success by studying more and getting better grades - Internals assume more responsibility for themselves and hold others to high standards of responsibility as well. Are also better at long term goals Locus of Control and Work Behaviour PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Those with internal locus of control show better satisfaction with their pay, promotions, coworkers and supervisors than external - Internal college students show better career decision-making - Locus of control affects performance and performance affects future locus of control Locus of Control and Physical and Psychological Health - Belief that you can control what happens to you along with a greater willingness to take action contributes to overall better physical and mental health of people - Externals are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression and Adolescent externals have a greater risk of suicide than internals - People with internal locus use more problem-focused coping, looking for possible solutions and taking concrete steps to make things better - Externals use more emotion-focused coping, relieving their feelings of anger, sadness, by talking with others Locus of Control and Social Behaviour - Internals are more socially skilled and show greater social sensitivity than external - When interacting with a stranger, externals talked more and looked at their partners more than internals did Cultural Differences in Locus of Control - Individualistic cultures tend to have more internal locus of control o Tend to be so internal they are vulnerable to Illusion of Control: belief they have control even in situations in which they do not - Collectivistic Cultures tend to have more of an external locus of control - John Weisz suggested there are two was of taking control: o Primary Control: attempt to make themselves feel better or less distressed by changing circumstances. To do this you need Internal locus of control o Secondary Control: attempt to fit into, accommodate or accept a situation or an event in ways that make themselves feel better. This also requires internal - Average college student becoming more external than prior students - Shift toward secondary control is reflected in a more external locus of control Learned Helplessness - The opposite of having an internal locus is not having an external; it is feeling helpless in the present and hopeless about the future - Learned Helplessness: A state of lack of motivation, problems in thinking and learning, and negative emotions including depression caused by experiencing a lack of control - Yoking: when a treatment that participant in one condition receive depends on how participants in another condition behave - Triadic Design: a research method in learned helplessness experiments in which three groups are used to test the controllability of an aversive stimulus - The key to avoiding helplessness is not learning that a particular response is effective, but learning that any response is effective PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - Learned helplessness comes from peoples beliefs about control, their expectations about a specific task and their past experiences with uncontrollable outcomes. Each one alone is enough to cause helplessness in humans - Learned helplessness causes problems in motivation, cognition and emotion. At first it causes anxiety, then continued exposure it causes depression - Learned helplessness is marked by the same three parts o Non-contingency or disconnect between people‟s actions and their outcomes o Must come to expect that their actions will also be ineffective in the future o People give up and act possibly when they recognize that their actions are fruitless - Hopelessness Model of Depression: belief that one lacks control combines with belief that the helplessness will continue in the future - People can feel helpless without feeling hopeless if they anticipate that circumstances might be different in the future Explanatory Style - Out of the dogs, 33% could not be made to feel helpless and 5% never learned they could escape the shock even without experience in the inescapable shock - Explanatory Style: after many experiences people develop habitual ways of explaining both the bad and the good things happen to them in life - Pessimistic Explanatory Style: negative events as own fault (internal), likely to happen again (stable) and undermining other aspects of their lives (global) - Optimistic Explanatory Style: negative events as external, unstable, specific - Explanations can vary in 3 ways o Internal vs. External o Stable vs. Unstable o Global vs. Specific Measures of Explanatory Style - Two ways to measure: questionnaires and content analysis - Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) o Higher numbers indicate a more optimistic explanatory style - CAVE Technique: first one must find a direct quote of a person explaining why a good or bad event happened to him or her. The researcher quotes the event and explanation to trained judges who rate the explanation on a scale of the three explanations o Allows researcher to measure explanatory style of historical figures Explanatory Style and Achievement School - Optimistic college students do better in their classes than students with a pessimistic explanatory style - Students with optimistic style show greater motivation and persist longer in the face of adversity PSYB30 - PERSONALITY MIDTERM NOTES - There are times when a more pessimistic explanatory style, focusing on failure may work to improve achievement such as when faced with highly demanding academic programs like law - Some aspects of the pessimistic explanatory style, such as taking responsibility for one‟s failures to remedy them, may be more adaptive and conducive to future achievement than explaining them away as external - Pessimistic explanations tend to be self-fulfilling Athletics - Individuals and teams with an optimistic explanatory style perform better than those with pessimistic - Key to athletic performance is persisting despite setbacks Explanatory Style and Work Behaviour - When it comes to sales particularly, optimistic style pays off especially when persistence is needed like calling people - Changing someone‟s explanatory style from pessimistic to optimistic would cause them to succeed more E