Social-cognitive interaction theory.

Kelly (1955) proposed a personal construct theory pioneering the start of cognitive theories of personality. Personality is conceived by cognitive theorists to be a complex of cognitive structures that are systematically organized and predictable. Bandura (1986) advocated a personality theory based on principles of learning and cognition. According to Bandura the environment is the critical etiological factor in personality development since we learn either by conditioning or through social learning by observation and imitation. Cognition is a vital component in personality theory since what we think about a given situation determines our behavior. However, unlike behaviorism where the focus is totally on environmental forces the social-cognitive perspective sees the critical determinant as the interaction of the individual with the environment. Social-cognitive theory explains the utilization of cognitive schemas to interpret a situation and how expectations of outcomes influence our actual behavior. Bandura called this process reciprocal determinism since we exercise some choice over aspects of the environment with which we interact and that these choices in turn shapes who we are as people.

Our interpretations are largely shaped by our personalities since we attend to expected stimuli based on individual reality. For example people with anxious personalities are more likely to attend to and expect threatening events (Eysenck, 1967; Eysenck, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1987). Furthermore, people also contribute to the actual creation of the expected situations by selective attention and behavior based on our personalities. For example, if we perceive our colleagues as unfriendly, we may selectively attend to this perception to the exclusion of other cues and act consistently in ways that actually encourage an unfriendly environment. According to social-cognitive interaction theory we are the shapers of our environment, but our personality is also the product or outcome of the environment in a continuous process of interaction between environmental and personality components.

In many ways people fulfill their own prophecies and expectations through preconceptions that influence interactions with the sociocultural environment. For example, students who possess a hopeful attitude are more likely to study hard and get good grades. Again the message is one of balance since unrealistic optimism may not prepare the individual for the relevant tasks and challenges. Some anxiety over possible failure might actually help motivate more effort to accomplish important goals. Moderate and realistic optimism conveys the message that achievement is possible, unrealistic optimism brings failure and reduces motivation. Students who are unrealistically optimistic may not have sufficient motivation to study properly for an exam and hence fail (Peterson & Barrett, 1987; Cantor & Norem, 1989).

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 959