SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY AND TRAIT THEORIES

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Identify and explain the key components of social cognitive theory, including conscious thought processes,
self-regulation, observational learning, modeling, and reciprocal determinism.
2. Analyze the sources of self-efficacy, including mastery experiences, social modeling, social persuasion, and
physical/emotional states.
3. Explore the contributions of Raymond Cattell, McCrae and Costa to trait theory.
4. Learn to evaluate and differentiate the key theories discussed.

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

• The social cognitive processes stress conscious thought processes, self-regulation, and the importance of
situational influences.
• One important characteristic of the social cognitive perspective on personality is that a person’s conscious
thought processes in different situations strongly influence his or her actions.
• According to the social cognitive perspective, people actively process information from their social
experiences. This information influences their goals, expectations, beliefs, and behavior, as well as the
specific environments they choose.
• It emphasizes the social origins of thoughts and actions but also stresses active cognitive processes and the
human capacity for self-regulation.

Differences between psychoanalytic and humanistic perspectives:

1. Instead of basing their approach on self-analysis or insights derived from psychotherapy, social cognitive
personality theorists rely heavily on experimental findings.
2. The social cognitive perspective emphasizes conscious, self-regulated behavior rather than unconscious
mental influences and instinctual drives.
3. The social cognitive approach emphasizes that our sense of self can vary depending on our thoughts, feelings,
and behaviors in a given situation.

Albert Bandura
The capacity to exercise control over nature and quality of life is the essence of humanness. Unless people believe
they can produce desired results and forestall detrimental ones by their actions, they have little incentive to act or
persevere in the face of difficulties.
—Albert Bandura (2001)

Observational Learning
Bandura believes that observation allows people to learn without performing any behavior. More specifically,
they will learn through observing the behavior of the other people. By observing others, humans are spared countless
responses that might be followed by punishment or by no reinforcement.

Modeling: the core of observational learning; this involves adding and subtracting from the observed
behavior and generalizing from one observation to another. It involves symbolically representing information and
storing it for use at a future time.

We learn many behaviors by observing and then imitating those behaviors. But we don’t merely observe their
actions. We also observe the consequences that follow people’s actions, the rules and standards that apply to behavior
in specific situations, and the ways in which people regulate their own behavior.

Reciprocal Determinism: according to Bandura, human behavior and personality is caused by the
interaction of behavioral, cognitive, and environmental factors. Our environment influences our thoughts and actions,
our thoughts influence our actions and the environments we choose, our actions influence our thoughts and the
environments we choose, and so on in a circular fashion.
Beliefs of Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy refers to the degree to which you are subjectively convinced of your own capabilities and effectiveness
in meeting the demands of a particular situation. It is people’s belief in their capability to exercise some measure of
control over their own functioning and over environmental events.

If a person completely lacks self-efficacy, they might quit before they begin with a task, regardless of whether
they are actually capable of completing the task. The concept of self-efficacy makes it easier to understand why people
often fail to perform optimally at certain tasks, even though they possess the necessary skills.

Self-efficacy varies from situation to situation depending on the competencies required for different
activities; the presence or absence of other people; the perceived competence of these other people, especially if they
are competitors; the person’s predisposition to attend to failure of performance rather than to success; and the
accompanying physiological states, particularly the presence of fatigue, anxiety, apathy, or despondency.

Sources of Self-Efficacy:
a. Mastery Experiences: past performances; successful performance raises efficacy expectancies; failure tends
to lower them
b. Social Modeling: Our self-efficacy is raised when we observe the accomplishments of another person of
equal competence, but is lowered when we see a peer fail. When the other person is dissimilar to us, social
modeling will have little effect on our self-efficacy.
c. Social Persuasion: Self-efficacy can also be acquired or weakened through social persuasion. The effects of
this source are limited, but under proper conditions, persuasion from others can raise or lower self-efficacy.
d. Physical and Emotional States: Strong emotion ordinarily lowers performance; when people experience
intense fear, acute anxiety, or high levels of stress, they are likely to have lower efficacy expectancies

Evaluating the Social Cognitive Perspective on Personality

1. A key strength of the social cognitive perspective on personality is its grounding in empirical, laboratory
research.
2. Unlike vague psychoanalytic and humanistic concepts, the concepts of social cognitive theory are
scientifically testable.
3. By emphasizing the important role of learning, especially observational learning, the social cognitive
perspective offers a developmental explanation of human functioning that persists throughout one’s lifetime.
4. By emphasizing the self-regulation of behavior, the social cognitive perspective places most of the
responsibility for our behavior—and for the consequences we experience—squarely on our own shoulders.

TRAIT PERSPECTIVE ON PERSONALITY

Trait theorists view the person as being a unique combination of personality characteristics or attributes,
called traits. A trait is formally defined as a relatively stable, enduring predisposition to behave in a certain way. A
trait theory of personality, then, is one that focuses on identifying, describing, and measuring individual differences
in behavioral predispositions.

Surface Traits: traits that lie on “the surface” and can be easily inferred from observable behaviors.
Examples of surface traits include attributes like “happy,” “exuberant,” “spacey,” and “gloomy.”
Fun fact: Personality researcher Gordon Allport combed through an English language dictionary and discovered more
than 4,000 words that described specific personality traits.
Source Traits: the most basic dimension of personality, a source trait can potentially give rise to a vast
number of surface traits. Trait theorists believe that there are relatively few source traits.
Raymond Cattell
- He reduced Allport’s list of 4,000 terms to about 171 characteristics by eliminating terms that seemed to be
redundant or uncommon
- He collected data on a large sample of people who were rated on each of the 171 terms. He then used a
statistical technique called factor analysis to identify the traits that were most closely related to one another.
After further research, Cattell eventually reduced his list to 16 key personality factors.
- To measure these traits, Cattell developed what has become one of the most widely used personality tests,
the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire.

(From: Discovering Psychology by Hockenbury, Hockenbury, and Nolan, 7th Edition)

Five-Factor Model

• Many trait theorists felt that Cattell’s trait model was too complex and that his 16 personality factors could
be reduced to a smaller, more basic set of traits.
• According to the five-factor model of personality, five dimensions represent the structural organization of
personality traits.
• The Big Five traits, as defined by personality theorists Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, Jr, are the
following: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
• According to abundant cross-cultural research, the five-factor model describes the universal structure of
human personality. They believe that the Big Five personality traits are basic features of the human species,
universal, and probably biologically based.
• Some personality researchers, however, suggest that the five-factor model may not apply to pre-industrial,
preliterate indigenous tribes and developing countries.
(From: Theories of Personality, 9th Edition by Jess Feist)

Evaluating the Trait Perspective on Personality

1. Trait theories don’t really explain human personality. Instead, they simply label general predispositions to
behave in a certain way.
2. Trait approaches generally fail to address other important personality issues, such as the basic motives that
drive human personality, the role of unconscious mental processes, how beliefs about the self influence
personality, or how psychological change and growth occur.