Self-Regulation Perspective
Basic assumptions:
1. people are information processors: they gather, integrate and organize information
from the outside world
- explicit processing
- implicit processing
2. living involves continual decision making:
"…life is a flow of decisions…"
3. behavior is goal directed
living involves continuous checking and adjusting (self-regulating)
Cautions:
1. Who are the research subjects?
2. Be careful to note the qualifiers:
p.448 – "People with an entity view tend to see task performance as having the goal of proving
their ability. If they do poorly, they're distressed and want to quit. People with an incremental
view see their actions as having the goal of extending their ability. If they do poorly, they see
this as an opportunity to increase their ability." pp. 448-449.
"People tend to have jobs that have the same first initial as their own names. Sherry's odds of
owning a salon are greater than chance." p. 453
Attribution
- judging the causes of events.
Fundamental attribution error – the tendency for observers to underestimate situational
influences and overestimate dispositional influences on others' behavior.
i.e., I am cranky because of the situation
others are cranky because of their personalities
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Weiner's Attribution of Causality Theory
- three dimensions
- was success or failure caused by something about the actor (Internal) or by something
about the situation (External)
- was the internal or external cause stable (permanent) or unstable (temporary)
- was the occurrence controllable or not controllable
Attributions about achievement: grade on the Psyco 223 final exam
Stable
Internal
Controllable
External
typical
effort
professor
dislikes
student
-------------------------------Not controllable lack of
task
ability
difficulty
Unstable
Internal
External
unusual
effort
unusual disruption
by raving student
---------------------------------mood
luck
Mischel – cognitive social learning view
Cognitive social learning person variables:
Competencies – skills developed over the lifetime
- physical skills
- social skills
- problem solving skills
- people differ
- situational requirements differ
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Encoding strategies and personal constructs
- one's unique world view
- how a situation is construed
- depends on what schema is used
Expectancies
1. what typically follows an event
2. behavior-outcome expectancies
- particular acts typically lead to particular outcomes
Goals and values
- what outcome the person wants
Self-regulatory systems and plans
- the nitty-gritty of setting goals, makings plans, carrying out the various
steps, etc.
Mischel and Shoda – Cognitive-Affective Processing System
(CAPS)
- behavior has a "conditional quality"
- the if…then principle
- does not measure the average amount of a behavioral disposition, e.g., friendliness
- looks for the pattern of behavior
- identifies mediating processes
(diagram)
Mediating processes – similar to cognitive person variables (above)
- added an affects unit: feelings, emotions, affective responses (including physiological
reactions)
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"To summarize, through the interactions of the personality system's structure with the
features of situations that activate characteristic processing dynamics, individuals may select,
seek, interpret, respond to, and generate stable social situations and experiences in patterns that
are typical for them." (Mischel & Shoda, 1995, p. 259 – 260).
(diagram)
- accounts for variability in behavioral expression
- also accounts for stability in the underlying personality system
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