Personality

A person’s pattern of thinking, feeling and acting.

Four Main Theories:

• Psychoanalytic Theory

• Humanistic Theory

• Social-Cognitive Theory

• Trait Theory

Basic Ideas

Proposed by Albert Bandura(the Bobo Doll guy!)

Personality/behavior is a combination of learning (social) and mental processes (cognitive)

Emphasizes external events and how we interpret them

Reciprocal Determinism

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

Self-Efficacy

Our perceived ability to succeed

How likely you are to succeed at some specific goal

This can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy for ourselves!

Learned Helplessness

No control over repeated bad events leads to giving up

Leads to depression

Dog Shock Study

Locus of Control

Do we control what happens to us (INTERNAL LOCUS) or do we have no control over life (EXTERNAL LOCUS)?

Locus of Control Survey

Locus of Control

Benefits of having Internal Locus of Control:

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

Measure of attitude and outlook: positive (optimistic) or negative (pessimistic)