COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE PERSONALITY THEORY

Prepared byKristel Rose B. Magluyan(MP-CP)

REPORT OUTLINE Biographical

Sketch of Walter Mischel

Theory and Concepts

Critique

WHO IS WALTER MISCHEL?

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WALTER MISCHEL He was born on February 22, 1930 in

Vienna Walter is the second son in the family

and was raised by upper-middle-class parents

The Mischel Family transferred to the United States, and settled in Brooklyn due to the invasion of Nazis in Austria in 1938

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WALTER MISCHEL He graduated as valedictorian in high school Mischel also acquired a scholarship in New

York University He developed strong passion in art (painting

and sculpture), and he divided his time among art, psychology and his life in Greenwich Village

He was strongly inclined to humanistic perspective, which was influenced by existential thinkers and great poets

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WALTER MISCHEL He graduated MA-Clinical Psychology at the City

College of New York He went to Ohio State University were he

completed his doctorate degree at the age of 26 During his stay in Ohio State University, he was

influenced by Julian Rotter and George Kelly He taught at the University of Colorado for 3 years He became connected with the Harvard University

During his stay in Harvard, his interest in personality theory and assessment was fortified by his discussions with Allport, Murray and others

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WALTER MISCHEL While he was in Harvard, he met and married

Harriet Nerlove They had three daughters and got involved with

several projects before they divorced Mischel also served Stanford University in 1962

and became colleagues with Albert Bandura He went back to New York after spending 20

years at the Stanford University, and started teaching in Columbia University At the present time, he remains as an active

researcher for Columbia University

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS Niven Professor of Humane Letters,

Columbia University, 1994-present Professor of Psychology, Columbia

University 1983-present; Chair, Department of

Psychology, Columbia University, 1988-1991; Chair, Department of Psychology,

Stanford University, 1977-1978, 1982-1983; Professor of Psychology, Stanford

University, 1966-1983; Associate Professor of Psychology, Stanford University,

1962-1966; Assistant Professor and Lecturer, Harvard University, Department of

Social Relations, 1958-1962; Assistant Professor, University of Colorado, 1956-1958

ACTIVITIESAND HONORS

John P. McGovern Award Lecture in Behavioral Sciences (2013), American

Academy of Arts and Sciences Ludwig Wittgenstein Prize (2012), Austrian Research

Foundation Grawemeyer Award in Psychology (2011) Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa, Hebrew University of

Jerusalem (2010) Scientific Honoree, Foundation for the Advancement of

Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2009) President, Association for Psychological Science (2008-9) National Academy of Sciences (elected 2004) Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected

1991) MERIT Award, National Institute of Mental Health, 1989-

2009 (awarded twice, sequentially)

Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association (APA), 1982

Distinguished Scientist Award, Society of Experimental Social Psychologists (awarded in 2000)

2005 Jack Block Award for Distinguished Contributions to Personality Psychology (Society for Personality and Social Psychology)

Distinguished Scientist Award, APA, Division of Clinical Psychology, 1978 President, Association for Research in Personality, 2002 – 2003 (elected) Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (elected 1999) Editor, Psychological Review, 2000-2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award, Ohio State University, 2010 Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa, Ohio State University, June 1997 Niven Professor of Humane Letters, Columbia University, 1994-present William James Fellow, American Psychological Society, 1990 President, Division of Personality and Social Psychology (8), APA, 1985 Publication Board, American Psychological Association, 1989-1995 Scientific Advisory Board, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, 1983-1994 Social Sciences Commission, Humanities Section, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft,

West Germany, 1981-1990 Fellow, Society of Experimental Social Psychologists (elected 1977) Advisory Board, Research Center for Arts and Culture, Teachers College, 2000-

present

Social Science Research Council, Committee on the Arts, 2000-2001 Trustee, Association for Advancement of Psychology, 1982-1986 Chairman, Personality and Cognition Research Review Committee, National

Institute of Mental Health, 1976-1980 Clinical and Personality Sciences Fellowship Review Committee, National

Institute of Mental Health, 1970-1973 Committee on Scientific Awards, American Psychological Association, 1975-

1977 Advisory Council, Princeton University, Department of Psychology, 1978-1983 President, Division of Clinical Psychology, Section III (Development of Clinical

Psychology as an Experimental Behavioral Science), APA, 1971 Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1976-1977 Katz-Newcomb Lecture, University of Michigan, 1990 Columbia University Lecture, 1989 Morton Professorship Visiting Lecturer, Ohio University, April 1976 Shepard Lecture, University of Michigan, April 1976 Psychology Advisor, Random House and Alfred Knopf, 1974-1980 Series Editor for Century Series in Psychology, Prentice-Hall, 1976-1993: Distinguished Contributions Series, Guilford Press, 2001-currentEditorial

Board/Consulting Editor: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (SCAN), 2005-present; Psychological Review, 1989- 1999; Journal of Cognitive

Therapy and Research, 1977-1979; Journal of Personality Research, 1973-1977; Child Development, 1971-1977.

Associate Editor: Computers in Human Behavior, 1995-1997; Journal of Personality

and Social Psychology, 1996-1997; Psychological Assessment: An International Journal, 1984-1994; Psychological Inquiry, 1983-1999; Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1982-1986; Behavioral Assessment, 1979-1981; Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1969-1971. Consultant for Selection and Assessment, Peace Corps, Washington, D.C., 1961-

1962 Consultant, United States Veterans' Administration Hospitals, 1957-1985 National Science Foundation Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Univ of Hawaii,

Nov 1973 Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Kansas State University, May 1971 Fellow, American Psychological Association, 1973-present Advisory Board, Stanford Center for the Humanities, 1981-1983

THEORY AND CONCEPTS

CONSISTENCY PARADOX Mischel’s term for

the observation that clinical intuition and the perceptions of laypeople suggest that behavior is consistent, whereas research finds that it is not.

CONSISTENCY PARADOX Mischel claimed that though some basic

traits persist over time, there is little evidence that they generalize from one situation to another.

For Mischel, any attempt to classify individuals as friendly, extraverted, conscientious, and so forth may be one way of defining personality, but it is a sterile taxonomy that fails to explain behavior.

SITUATIONISM

SITUATIONISM It is an approach that claims that people are greatly

influenced by external situational factors than by internal traits or motivation

The term was popularized in 1968 Mischel argued that circumstances are way powerful

than dispositional traits when it comes to predicting the behaviour of a person

It is obviously the opposite of what the personality view defines The personality view claims that behaviour depends on a

person’s long term personality traits and these are manifested in whatever circumstance a person is immersed into.

COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE PERSONALITY THEORY

COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE PERSONALITY THEORY Mischel’s theory that views people as active,

goal-directed individuals capable of exerting influence on both their situation and themselves

For him, the field of psychology was searching for consistency in the wrong places

SITUATION = NOISE OR ERROR X

Mischel asserted that through including the situation as it is perceived by the person and by analyzing behavior in its situational context, the consistencies that characterize the individual would be found

COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE PERSONALITY THEORY If A, then X; but if B, then Y

For example, if Mark is provoked by his wife, then he will react with aggression. However, when the “if” changes, so does the “then.” If Mark is provoked by his boss, then he will react with submission.

Mark’s behavior is not inconsistent and may well reflect a stable lifetime pattern of reacting.

The frequently observed variability in behavior is simply an essential part of a unifying stability of personality.

COGNITIVE-AFFECTIVE PERSONALITY THEORY Mischel claimed that the ‘consistency’ of

personality is due to similarity of the perceived features of the situation – that is people identify situation – behavior relationships that become behavior signatures of people’s personalities.

These signatures are idiographic (individual) In this, personality could even be considered

as the interaction or intersection of cognitive characteristics and environment.

MISCHEL’S THEORETICAL POSITION IN PREDICTING BEHAVIOR

“If personality is a stable system that processes the information about the situations, external or internal, then it follows that as individuals encounter different situations, their behaviors should vary across the situations”

SITUATION VARIABLES Mischel believes that the relative influence of situation variables

and personal qualities can be determined by observing the uniformity or diversity of people’s responses in a given situation.

5 Variables that contribute to the condition of a certain situation Competencies- the intellectual capabilities and social skills Cognitive strategies- different perceptions of events that happen

(example:what we think is frightening for us ourselves may be challenging for a different person.)

Expectancies- the results that are expected after performing certain behaviors

Subjective Values- the respective value of the possible outcomes of behaviours

Self-regulatory systems- the rules and standards that people adjust to control their behaviours

EXPERIMENT OF MISCHEL AND ERVIN STAUB(1965) They made an experiment to show that

the interaction between the situation and various personal qualities is an important determinant of behavior.

Now let’s look at the

results

Subject: 8th-grade boys

They were asked to rate their

expectancies for success on

verbal reasoning and general

information task

They worked on a series of problems

Some were told that they

succeeded on the problems,

some were told that they failed;

and a third group received no

information at all

The boyswere then asked to

choose between an immediate, less

valuable, noncontingent

rewardand a delayed, more valuable,

contingent reward.

Obtained Success

Chose more valuable

contingent rewards

Obtained Failure

Chose less valuable

noncontingent rewards

No Informatio

n

Made choices based on

earlier expectancy for

success

THE MARSHMALLOW EXPERIMENT Subject – 4 year old children A plate with one marshmallow on

top was placed in front of the children

Each of the children were given the instruction that they could eat the marshmallow, but if they would wait longer they would be given one more marshmallow NOW LET’S WATCH THE VIDEO

PERSPECTIVE EVALUATION

QUICK ANALOGY Humans have an ongoing dialogue

between self and situation

ADVANTAGES Emphasizes interpresonal influences Understands that humans have different

selves in different situations Often studies personality across time

LIMITS Difficult to define situations and to study

the many complexities of interactions Extreme positions can fail to take into

account the complexity of the relationship between personality, behavior and the situation

May overlook biological influences

REFERRENCES Feist, G. J., & Feist, J. (2008). Theories of

Personality 7th Edition. The McGraw−Hill Companies, Inc. USA

Freidman, H. S., & Schustack, M.W. (1999). Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research. Allyn & Bacon. USA

http://waltermischellara.wikispaces.com/Biography

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/indiv_pages/mischel/Walter_Mischel_files/wm_vita_1-7-13.pdf

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