Chapter 17: Self-Regulation Chapter 15: Personal Constructs

1. Chapter 17:Self-RegulationChapter 15:Personal Constructs Theories of Personality May 9, 2003 Class #14

2. Self-Regulation Perspective • Over the past two decades self-regulation theory has emerged to offer a whole new perspective on human behavior • With its focus on the ways in which individuals direct and monitor their activities and emotions to attain their goals, the theory provides a dynamic framework for understanding the complexities of behavior in response to emotionally provocative events, such as illness and stressful experiences • People are always striving to attain a goal • This being a never-ending battle

3. Constant Monitoring… • Behavior is regulated by cycles involving the monitoring of one’s own status, comparison of status with expectations, and “course correction” when they don’t match

4. Self-Monitoring: Life as theater • There seems to be degrees to which people attend to and control the impression they make on others in social interactions • High self-monitoring • Very sensitive to how they are being perceived by others • Good at adjusting how people see them • Good actors • Good at reading others

5. Self-Monitoring: Life as theater • Low self-monitoring • Either don’t care or lack ability to detect how they are perceived by others • Don’t attempt to adjust

6. From Cognitions to Behavior • Motor schemas • Information that helps us to produce behavior, action • Information or schemas used for understanding, will influence later behavior • Considering the role or memory • As you think about a situation, you activate certain memory nodes • Behavioral qualities linked to those nodes also become activated, making these behaviors more likely to occur

7. Self-regulation and feedback control • Feedback loop • Self-regulating system • Like thermostat in your house • Regulate towards a goal, standard or reference value • For example: 68 degrees • Perception of present situation or behavior • Present temp. is 70 degrees • Comparing present situation (or behavior) with goal  (comparator) • 2 degrees too warm • Change in behavior (or situation) if needed • AC kicks on to cool house to 68 degrees

8. Albert Bandura was involved with this theory as well… • Self-regulation -- controlling our own behavior -- was the “workhorse” of human personality.  He suggests three important steps in this process: • 1.  Self-observation • We look at ourselves, our behavior, and keep tabs on it. • 2.  Judgment • We compare what we see with a standard • For example, we can compare our performance with traditional standards, such as “rules of etiquette”  • Or we can create arbitrary ones, like “I’ll read a book a week”  • Or we can compete with others, or with ourselves

9. Bandura’s self-regulation views… • 3. Self-response • If you did well in comparison with your standard, you give yourself rewarding self-responses • If you did poorly, you give yourself punishing self-responses • These self-responses can range from the obvious (treating yourself to a sundae or working late) to the more covert (feelings of pride or shame)

10. Are you hard or easy on yourself? • A very important concept in psychology that can be understood well with self-regulation is self-concept (better known as self-esteem) • If, over the years, you find yourself meeting your standards and life loaded with self-praise and self-reward, you will have a pleasant self-concept (high self-esteem) • If, on the other hand, you find yourself forever failing to meet your standards and punishing yourself, you will have a poor self-concept (low self-esteem).

11. Implications of self-regulation model • Behavior is purposeful • Much effort to adjust behavior to meet criteria or goal • Process of self regulation is continuous and never-ending • For example: maintaining good grades, job performance, etc.

12. Research Methods on Self Regulation • Evaluation of self through measure such as self-consciousness scale • Hypothesis that self focus should increase comparator process • Behavior should then shift to more closely correspond with goal • Findings usually show that self attention caused greater conformity to the value or goal

13. Self Regulation Therapy • Effort is made to break down automatic thoughts/ behaviors which may be maladaptive • Then work to make desired responses more automatic (in place of problem responses) • Often accomplished through imagery, role play, homework in real life settings • Process of therapy is a feedback system • Process of therapy is dynamic as goals, behavior are shifting • Emphasis on problem solving skills (means-ends analysis)

14. Potential Problems in self-regulation process • At times, self regulation is driven by lower level goals • We may temporarily lose sight of higher order goals • For example: • When describing ourselves, tend to focus on what we DO, suggests importance of program level

15. Potential Problems in self-regulation process • Metaphor of human computer may depersonalize, doesn't consider free will, spirituality • People try to match several values at once • Form example: • Caring for family, completing work goals, etc. • Can cause conflict

16. George Kelly (1905-1967) • Born in 1905 in Kansas • He pursued undergraduate study for three years at Friends University followed by one year at Park College • Here he graduated with the Bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics, but his interests had already begun to shift to social problems--perhaps in part because of experiences that he had gained in intercollegiate debates • In line with this newly developing interest, he pursued graduate study in educational sociology at the University of Kansas • His master's thesis was a study of the leisure time activities of workers in Kansas City, and he completed minor studies in labor relations and sociology

17. Kelly’s Background • At this point, George Kelly's activities expanded to include a wide range of teaching in different situations • He was a part-time instructor in a labor college in Minneapolis • He taught classes in speech for the American Bankers Association, and he taught an Americanization class for future citizens • An additional brief spell as an aeronautical engineer in Wichita followed teaching experience in Iowa and at the University of Minnesota • In 1929, he moved to the University of Edinburgh as an exchange scholar

18. Kelly’s Background • He then returned to the United States and became a graduate student in psychology at the State University of Iowa. In 1931, he received his Ph.D. with a dissertation dealing with common factors in speech and reading disabilities

19. Kelly's Personal Construct Theory • Kelly placed the emphasis on cognition in personality development • Cognition includes the processes involved in thinking, problem solving and predicting events in the environment and Kelly believed that each of us acts like a natural scientist in that one of our prime needs is to predict and control events in our environment • We think about what happens to us and we construct theories about what's going on, attempting to satisfy the drive to make sense of things

20. A Hypothetical Example… • If you ask your normally helpful Psychology professor for help and he gives you the brush-off, you don't just leave it at that… • You try and figure out a reason… • Did you ask in the wrong way? • Had you done something to upset him? • Perhaps he's got problems that are causing him to have a “bad day”? • You cast your mind back over his and your behavior and try to work out why this has happened, establishing a theory or two and trying to see how they fit the observed facts

21. Like a scientist… • Just like a scientist you create your own way of seeing the world in which you live • You builds constructs and try them on for size • In an uncertain universe, the constructs we establish should, like a scientific hypothesis, also have predictive power

22. Kelly's Personal Construct Theory • In Kelly's view we all develop a set of personal constructs which we use to make sense of the world and the people in it • Our construct systems are not static. They are confirmed or challenged every moment we are conscious

23. Another hypothetical example… • If we believe that Arctic Airlines offers the best service in the world, and then we have a dreadful trip where everything goes wrong, we do one of two things: • We either adapt our construct system, altering our feelings about them in the light of our experience or we immunize our construct system, with thoughts like “They must have been having a really bad day”, or “Yes, but the airport was so overcrowded they didn't stand a chance”

24. Our construct systems influence our expectations and perceptions… • Also, if we're expecting Arctic Airlines to treat us well, we probably get on the plane in a better mood than we would on an airline which gave us poor treatment last time • If our experience is that Arctic's cabin staff always smile when they meet us, we probably board the plane with a smile ourselves • We might not notice when Arctic's service fails to live up to standard, but pay attention when it happens with the other airline • Because our construct systems reflect our past experience, they also influence our expectations and behavior

25. Some constructs, and some aspects of our construct systems, are more important than others… • The airline example repeats in every area of our experience… • We feel, think, and behave according to our construct system • We adapt our constructs, immunize them, or have them confirmed • Some of our constructs - those which represent our core values and concern our key relationships - are complex, quite firmly fixed, wide-ranging, and difficult to change • Others, about things which don't matter so much, or about which we haven't much experience, are simpler, narrower, and carry less personal commitment