Attribution theory focuses on how people attribute the cause of an event and how those beliefs interact with internal perception of themselves. Attribution Theory defines three major elements of cause: Locus, Stability, and Control ability. 1. Locus – determining the location of the cause—internal (dispositional) or external (situational) to the person • Influential to feelings
Choices regarding behavior People will be more inclined to take on a task if they believe they can succeed. People generally avoid tasks where their self-efficacy is low, but will engage in tasks where their self-efficacy is high. People with a self-efficacy significantly beyond their actual ability often overestimate their ability to complete tasks, which
Bandura points to four sources affecting self-efficacy; 1. Experience – a.k.a. Enactive Attainment “Mastery experience” is the most important factor deciding a person’s self-efficacy. Simply put, success raises self-efficacy, failure lowers it. Children cannot be fooled by empty praise and condescending encouragement. They may have to accept artificial bolstering of their self-esteem in lieu of
Explanatory style is a psychological attribute that indicates how people explain to themselves why they experience a particular event, either positive or negative. Psychologists have identified three components in explanatory style: Personal. This involves how one explains where the cause of an event arises. People experiencing events may see themselves as the cause; that is
This concept has had much relevance to the study of depression, with Abramson et al. believing that those who showed a characteristic way of attributing negative outcomes – to internal, stable and global causes – would be likely to suffer depression when negative events happened to them. It is important to remember this: since their
Reciprocal determinism is the theory set forth by psychologist Albert Bandura that a person’s behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the social environment. Bandura accepts the possibility of an individual’s behavior being conditioned through the use of consequences. At the same time he asserts that a person’s behavior (and personal factors
Albert Bandura was born December 4, 1925, in the small town of Mundare in northern Alberta, Canada. He was educated in a small elementary school and high school in one, with minimal resources, yet a remarkable success rate. After high school, he worked for one summer filling holes on the Alaska Highway in the Yukon.
Walter Mischel (born 1930) is an American psychologist specializing in personality theory and social psychology. He is the Robert Johnston Niven Professor of Humane Letters in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. Early life Mischel was born on February 22, 1930 in Vienna, Austria, from where he fled with his family to
In contemporary psychology, the “Big Five” factors (or Five Factor Model; FFM) of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality which are used to describe human personality. The Big five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (common acronyms are OCEAN, NEOAC, or CANOE). The neuroticism factor is sometimes referred by its
A personality test aims to describe aspects of a person’s character that remain stable throughout that person’s lifetime, the individual’s character pattern of behavior, thoughts, and feelings. An early model of personality was posited by Greek philosopher/physician Hippocrates. The 20th century heralded a new interest in defining and identifying separate personality types, in close correlation
In psychology, a projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts. This is different from an “objective test” in which responses are analyzed according to a universal standard (for example, a multiple choice exam). The responses to projective tests are content
The theory of multiple intelligences was proposed by Howard Gardner in 1983 as a model of intelligence that differentiates intelligence into various specific (primarily sensory) modalities, rather than seeing it as dominated by a single general ability. Gardner argues that there are a wide variety of cognitive abilities which are only very weakly correlated with
The Rorschach test (also known as the Rorschach inkblot test, the Rorschach technique, or simply the inkblot test) is a psychological test in which subjects’ perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex scientifically derived algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person’s personality characteristics and emotional
Fluid and crystallized intelligence In psychology, fluid and crystallized intelligence (abbreviated Gf and Gc, respectively) are factors of general intelligence originally identified by Raymond Cattell. Fluid intelligence or fluid reasoning is the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge. It is the ability to analyze novel problems, identify
The Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a projective psychological test. Historically, it has been among the most widely researched, taught, and used of such tests. Its adherents assert that the TAT taps a subject’s unconscious to reveal repressed aspects of personality, motives and needs for achievement, power and intimacy, and problem-solving abilities. Procedure
The g factor, where g stands for general intelligence, is a statistic used in psychometrics in an attempt to quantify the mental ability underlying results of various tests of cognitive ability. The existence of such an underlying g factor was postulated in 1904 by Charles Spearman. Spearman, who was an early psychometrician, found that schoolchildren’s
Smiling person (combined head and body) age 4½. The Draw-A-Person Test (DAP, DAP test, or Goodenough-Harris Draw-A-Person Test) is a psychological projective personality or cognitive test used to evaluate children and adolescents for a variety of purposes. History Developed originally by Florence Goodenough in 1926, this test was first known as the Goodenough
The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence The triarchic theory of intelligence was formulated by Robert J. Sternberg, a prominent figure in the research of human intelligence. The theory by itself was groundbreaking in that it was among the first to go against the psychometric approach to intelligence and take a more cognitive approach. Sternberg’s definition of
Sentence completion tests are a class of semi-structured projective techniques. Sentence completion tests typically provide respondents with beginnings of sentences, referred to as “stems,” and respondents then complete the sentences in ways that are meaningful to them. The responses are believed to provide indications of attitudes, beliefs, motivations, or other mental states. There is debate
Louis Leon Thurstone (29 May 1887 – 30 September 1955) was a U.S. pioneer in the fields of psychometrics and psychophysics. He conceived the approach to measurement known as the law of comparative judgment, and is well known for his contributions to factor analysis. Background and history Louis Leon Thurstone was born in Chicago
Figure drawings are projective diagnostic techniques in which an individual is instructed to draw a person, an object, or a situation so that cognitive, interpersonal, or psychological functioning can be assessed. The Kinetic Family Drawing, developed in 1970 by Burns and Kaufman, requires the test taker to draw a picture of his or her entire
According to Guilford’s Structure of Intellect (SI) theory, an individual’s performance on intelligence tests can be traced back to the underlying mental abilities or factors of intelligence. SI theory comprises up to 150 different intellectual abilities organized along three dimensions—Operations, Content, and Products. Operations dimension SI includes six operations or general intellectual processes: Cognition—The
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is one of the most frequently used personality tests in mental health. The test is used by trained professionals to assist in identifying personality structure and psychopathology. History and development The original authors of the MMPI were Starke R. Hathaway, PhD, and J. C. McKinley, MD. The MMPI
Philip Ewart Vernon (6 June 1905 – 28 July 1987) was a British psychologist. He studied race and intelligence. Born in Oxford, England, he attended St. John’s College, Cambridge and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1927. Vernon studied contributions of environmental and genetic factors to intellectual development. He concluded that individual