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1. FinalExamStudyGuideEssays(ShortAnswerpossibilities)
Chapter Most of the time there are no
obvious reinforcers for our
behavior. We study for an exam,
but no one is there to reinforce
our studying minute-by-minute.
We work on long-term projects
that may not be completed for
months or years, in the absence
of any obvious reinforcement.
How does Skinner explain this?
Skinner would say that these
complex behaviors are learned
by shaping through successive
approximations. The step by step
process is a part of operant
conditioning, towards a final
target response that is
increasingly approximated.
2. Explain why Skinner argued
against the idea that people have
free will.
All the decisions we make are
based off of environmental
factors. If the environment is the
cause of our actions, then we
ourselves are not the cause of
our behavior. Thus, if we are not
in charge of our behavior, we
have no free will.
3. Explain how behaviorism
principles, which seem at first to
be relevant only to the
performance of simple responses,
can in principle be used to
explain complex patterns of
behavior.
-Shaping, successive
approximation
Chapter 11
4. Kelly explained that theories
have a range of convenience and
a focus of convenience. What do
you feel is the particular range of
convenience and focus of
convenience of Kelly's own theory
of personality?
His range is quite comprehensive,
but doesn't get specific in growth
& development and emotions so
it is not as good with focus
because people are not all the
same so therefore predictions are
hard.
5. Describe Kelly's approach to
personality change and contrast
it with that of Freud.
Kelly thinks you can change
through time and experiences
because of change in constructs
and self efficacy and goals to
change. Freud believes you're a
result of your past and cant
change it much. victim of
childhood
6. What are the advantages of
Kelly's approach to personality
assessment, as compared to that
of the trait theorists? Conversely,
what are the disadvantages of
Kelly's approach to personality
assessment, as compared to that
of the trait theorists?
Kelly's advantages: recognizes
that environment has a large
influence on personality, trait =
genetics. DIS= kelly can't offer
much therapy to those who have
those with personality issues.
Chapter 12
7. What are the core personality
variables in social cognitive
theory? How do these contrast
with the sort of personality
variables found in trait theory
(e.g., in the Big Five model)?
Goals, beliefs, evaluative
standards. Big 5 has to do with
primarily internal personality
traits that are kind of how you
are, whereas the 3 in social
cognitive theory recognize
outside influences.
8. Imagine a client seeking help
with an irrational fear, such as
the fear of being in social settings
with large numbers of other
people (i.e., agoraphobia). How
would a social-cognitive theorist
treat the person's fear? Compare
this approach with that of
psychoanalysis.
Social cognitive theorist would do
emotion-focused coping by
making a hierarchy of the ratings
of fear (what scares you the
most.) practice being calm in
each situation. PSYCHOanalysis removes you from the bad
environment causing fear.
9. In the cognitive-affective
personality system (CAPS)
approach of Mischel and Shoda,
what is personality? That is,
how does the theory account for
those enduring, distinctive
individual characteristics that we
usually think of as an individual's
personality?
This distinguishes
between theory four distinctive
personality traits that are evident
to some degree in everyone. The
fist is controllers; they are
outspoken and hasty in decision
making. Analysers are
perfectionists that are reserved
and socially uncomfortable at
times. Promoters are
spontaneous and unorganized
positive minds. Supporters are
activist that are sensitive and
creative. Every person is more of
one of these traits thus allowing
Mischel and Shoda to classify the
enduring individual
characteristics of everyone into
these broad categories.
Chapter 13
10. Markus introduced the concept of
working self-concept. How does
this idea speak to the challenge
of explaining both 1) the stability
of an individual's personality, and
2) situation-to-situation variability
in a person's behavior?
The working self-concept is
comprised of past experiences
that give you an expectation of
the future. While this can change
a bit from situation to situation,
the total composition of the
working self-concept is so large
the older you get, that the
change in each situation
becomes less evident the more
times a situation is experienced,
thus the personality of a person
remains fairly constant across the
board.
11. How can Higgins' analysis of
different types of evaluative
standards explain individual
differences in emotional
experience?
Because everyone has a different
set of selfdiscrepancies,
everyone has different emotions.
Different standards promote
different emotions
12. Is social cognitive theory a
comprehensive theory of
personality? What are its primary
limitations in this regard?
Yes. Social cognitive theory's
strengths are is ability of bring
systematic research to bear on
important problems of
personality functioning and social
behavior.
Its primary limitation is that it is
not yet wholly unified, systematic
theory, and it can not always
relate the development of social
cognitive structures to inherited
biological qualities that
contribute to individual
differences.
Chapter 14
13. Suppose you were designing an
intervention to promote
environmental conservation.
What would you do (applying the
principles discussed in Chapter
14)?
I would try to appeal to different
types of people by being
culturally sensitive but also use
hot versus cold attention focus. I
would associate the evils of
wildlife destruction to that of a
negative childhood experience,
such as a parent letting a child
down. I would associate the
parents betrayal to that of
humans' betrayal of mother earth
by destroying her. This would
cause transference from the
personal relationships between
humans to humans with the
earth.
14. Are all personality variables
global, or context-free? What are
some examples of contextualized
personality variables?
No they are not. In America, the
personality variable of
independence is very important,
while in a buddihist country the
personality variable of centered.
15. Discuss some research examples
in which personality development
is shown to reflect an interaction
of early-life personality styles and
social context.
Chapter 15
17. Compare and contrast two of the
theorists covered in the text in
relation to their theories of
motivation and personality
change.
18. Compare the strengths and
limitations of two theoretical
approaches covered in the text.
19. Discuss the relationships among
theory, approach to research,
and approach to assessment in
the light of the theories covered
in the text.