Personality Four Main Theories Psychoanalytic Theory Humanistic Theory

Personality Four Main Theories: • Psychoanalytic Theory • Humanistic Theory • Social-Cognitive Theory • Trait Theory A person’s pattern of thinking, feeling and acting.

Basic Ideas n Proposed by Albert Bandura (the Bobo Doll guy!) n Personality/behavior is a combination of learning (social) and mental processes (cognitive) n Emphasizes external events and how we interpret them

Reciprocal Determinism n How we interact with the environment shapes who we are and vice versa

Self-Efficacy n Our perceived ability to succeed n How likely you are to succeed at some specific goal n This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy for ourselves!

Learned Helplessness n No control over repeated bad events leads to giving up n Leads to depression n Dog Shock Study

Locus of Control n Do we control what happens to us (INTERNAL LOCUS) or do we have no control over life (EXTERNAL LOCUS)? n Locus of Control Survey

Locus of Control n Benefits of having Internal Locus of Control: n Achieve more in school, act more independently, enjoy better health, feel less depressed, better able to delay gratification, better able to deal with stress

Optimism vs. Pessimism n Measure of attitude and outlook: positive (optimistic) or negative (pessimistic)

Optimism vs. Pessimism n Benefits of Optimism: more productive, better health n Drawbacks of Optimism: can blind us to real risks (STD, college application examples)