The earliest theories of vision were egocentric. They thought rays came out of the eyes, reflected off an object (or captured it) and returned it the eye. The images were conveyed to the soul. Thought was believed to be the manipulation of images. There was no imageless thought.
About 3500 years ago, the Chinese developed a system of personality based on when you were born. This zodiac incorporated the planets (5 elements), the months (12 animals), and (later on) the tide: yin and yang. This 60-year cycle explained what you were like, who to marry, and what would happen in the future. A thousand years later (about the time of Confucius), Hippocrates was explaining to the Greeks that personality types (humors) were based on four essential body fluids. Many ancients believed that your name determines your personality. The power of names was so great, parents carefully chose a name lest they temp the fates. Consequently, naming a baby “sloth” would be unacceptable, while naming a child “brave” or “mercy” would produce a person held that trait.
Ancient approaches often emphasized temperament over character. Temperament was thought to be the built-in characteristics a person has. You might have a generally sad personality (melancholy) or happy (sanguine). This temperament doesn’t mean you can’t be honest (character) but describes your general bent. If you’re a morning person, it’s the result of temperament. If you go to an early morning class even though you are a late night person, it’s a reflection of your character.
The first modern personality trait theorist was Gordon Allport. In the 1930’s, Allport and his students searched through dictionaries to find words that described personality. They started with 17,953 adjectives but settled on 4504 of them. Allport suggested that most of these traits were “common traits” (traits we all hold in common). Some might have a lot of a common trait but others might have only a smidge. But Allport also proposed that people can have individual traits unique to them. His morphogenic approach combined individual uniqueness (idiographic traits) and group comparison traits (nomothetic traits). You can compare yourself to others on “agreeable,” “friendly,” and “caring.” Plus you can have your own special nobody-in-the-world-is-like-me traits. Allport bridged the “lots of traits” and the “only a few traits” debate by combining them.
Following Allport’s lead, Raymond Cattell reduced Allport’s list further. Cattell removed uncommon words and those he thought redundant. He whittled it down to 171 traits. Still following Allport’s lexical approach (personality can be described by dictionary words), Cattell added a statistical technique: factor analysis. Then, using factor analysis, he concluded there were only 16 traits. His personality test, the 16 PF (sixteen personality factors) is still in use today. Cattell’s factors included: affectia (outgoing vs. reserved), ego strength (emotional volatility), parmia (adventurousness), and surgency (a sort of happy-sad distinction).
Cattell wasn’t the only one using factor analysis. Hans Eysenck used the statistical technique to reduce personality to two dimensions: neuroticism and introversion-extroversion. For Eysenck, personality was more a matter of temperament than character. He revived the humors of Hipprocates but reformulated the four humors into two dimensions: extroversion and neuroticism. Extraversion is a reflection of your physiological make up. He believed that your shy personality is the result of your brain is easily startled. Specifically, Eysenck targeted the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) and the reticular formation of the lower brain stem. Introverts, according to this view, don’t have the safety mechanism that extroverts do. When trouble comes, an extroverts brain becomes numb or zones out. This inhibition process protects the brain from trauma. In contrast, introverts feel all of the impact of the traumatic event and are overwhelmed by it.
Although nervous people aren’t always neurotic, Eysenck believed that they were more susceptible to problems, hence the tendency for people to have “nervous disorders,” “nervous breakdowns,” and “nervous ticks.” This nervousness is the result of temperament: built in physiologically. Since the sympatric nervous system causes arousal and emotional responsiveness, he hypothesized that people who scored high on his test of neuroticism had an underlying physiology that made them more likely to be excited by danger and stress. People who remain calm under stress have a sympathetic nervous system that is less responsive.
The tendency to believe personality is biologically based is not limited to the brain physiology. In the 1940’s, William Sheldon proposed that personality and body types were linked. He categorized people as being endomorphic (soft and round), mesomorphic (muscular and rectangular) and ectomorphic (fragile and tall). According to this approach, soft and round folk were friendly and cuddly. But muscular mesomorphs were assertive and energetic. Ectomorphs might be thin and shy but they were smart. Sheldon’s theory was more phrenology than psychology, but you’ll still encounter people following his line of reasoning.
Henry Murray added to trait theory by hypothesizing two influences on people: needs and presses. Needs can be both processes and internal states (achievement, power, intimacy). Your need for intimacy pushes you toward people. Your need for achievement determines how hard to try. Just as hunger is a physiological need that pushes you to get food, psychological needs are internal pressures that compel action. Your behavior is not solely the result of your needs. The environment also impacts you. These environmental presses pressure you from the outside. You can be pressured by a press of danger, or deprivation. Your environment might press you to be friendly or compliant. You can be impacted by a rejecting environment, or one of loss or duty. Both a loss in your life and the birth of a child are presses. In some sense, you are trapped between internal drives and external presses.
Murray’s other main contribution to personality theory was the creation of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Although today it is widely used as a test of creativity, the TAT was designed to reveal latent needs (unexpressed needs). Composed of a series of magazine-sized cards, the test is a collection of abstract images on which a person can “project” their personality. You would be given a card and asked to describe what is going on now, what went on before, and what is going to happen in the future. Your stories would be written down verbatim, and later analyzed for themes. Murray, who was psychoanalyzed by Carl Jung, believed that these latent themes were the key to understanding how people really felt; the TAT was a key to understanding one’s personality.
The most recent trait theory is a multidimensional theory called the Big Five. This is a consensus theory, not the work of a single person. It is the culmination of work over three decades using factor analysis. The Big Five are summarized as OCEAN or CANOE: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
In the 19060’s, the Air Force routinely gave Cattell’s 16PF to its incoming officers. Two researchers (Tupes & Christal, 1962) analyzed these tests, looking for underlying factors. From their eight samples (they didn’t look at all of the scores), they concluded that the number of personality factors could be reduced substantially from Cattell’s sixteen. In six of the samples, they could reduce the number of factors to eight. In another sample, they found 5 factors. In the last sample, they identified 12 factors.
Using undergraduates instead of Air Force personnel, another researcher (Norman, 1963) found five factors. Norman had students rate their peers on 20 of the variables Tupes and Christal used (four from each of the five factors). Through factor analysis, he found five factors (which critics suggest is not surprising since he started with 4 examples of each of the five factors). In another study (Norman, 1967), 1431 words were rated on the original five dimensions, resulting in 75 semantic clusters. These clusters were later used with others words but again five factors were found (Goldberg, 1980); again not a surprise to the critics: start with clusters based on five dimensions and end with five dimensions.
Another research team (McCrae & Costa, 1976) began with a two-trait model (neuroticism and extraversion) but later added “openness to experience.” Still later, they added agreeableness and conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1985). In their personality test (NEO, each of the five factors are composed of six subscales (facets). So extroversion is really a combination of gregariousness, activity, assertiveness, warmth, positive emotions, and seeking excitement. And agreeableness is subdivided into trust, modesty, compliance, altruism, tendermindedness and straightforwardness.
About 3500 years ago, the Chinese developed a system of personality based on when you were born. This zodiac incorporated the planets (5 elements), the months (12 animals), and (later on) the tide: yin and yang. This 60-year cycle explained what you were like, who to marry, and what would happen in the future. A thousand years later (about the time of Confucius), Hippocrates was explaining to the Greeks that personality types (humors) were based on four essential body fluids. Many ancients believed that your name determines your personality. The power of names was so great, parents carefully chose a name lest they temp the fates. Consequently, naming a baby “sloth” would be unacceptable, while naming a child “brave” or “mercy” would produce a person held that trait.
Ancient approaches often emphasized temperament over character. Temperament was thought to be the built-in characteristics a person has. You might have a generally sad personality (melancholy) or happy (sanguine). This temperament doesn’t mean you can’t be honest (character) but describes your general bent. If you’re a morning person, it’s the result of temperament. If you go to an early morning class even though you are a late night person, it’s a reflection of your character.
The first modern personality trait theorist was Gordon Allport. In the 1930’s, Allport and his students searched through dictionaries to find words that described personality. They started with 17,953 adjectives but settled on 4504 of them. Allport suggested that most of these traits were “common traits” (traits we all hold in common). Some might have a lot of a common trait but others might have only a smidge. But Allport also proposed that people can have individual traits unique to them. His morphogenic approach combined individual uniqueness (idiographic traits) and group comparison traits (nomothetic traits). You can compare yourself to others on “agreeable,” “friendly,” and “caring.” Plus you can have your own special nobody-in-the-world-is-like-me traits. Allport bridged the “lots of traits” and the “only a few traits” debate by combining them.
Following Allport’s lead, Raymond Cattell reduced Allport’s list further. Cattell removed uncommon words and those he thought redundant. He whittled it down to 171 traits. Still following Allport’s lexical approach (personality can be described by dictionary words), Cattell added a statistical technique: factor analysis. Then, using factor analysis, he concluded there were only 16 traits. His personality test, the 16 PF (sixteen personality factors) is still in use today. Cattell’s factors included: affectia (outgoing vs. reserved), ego strength (emotional volatility), parmia (adventurousness), and surgency (a sort of happy-sad distinction).
Cattell wasn’t the only one using factor analysis. Hans Eysenck used the statistical technique to reduce personality to two dimensions: neuroticism and introversion-extroversion. For Eysenck, personality was more a matter of temperament than character. He revived the humors of Hipprocates but reformulated the four humors into two dimensions: extroversion and neuroticism. Extraversion is a reflection of your physiological make up. He believed that your shy personality is the result of your brain is easily startled. Specifically, Eysenck targeted the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) and the reticular formation of the lower brain stem. Introverts, according to this view, don’t have the safety mechanism that extroverts do. When trouble comes, an extroverts brain becomes numb or zones out. This inhibition process protects the brain from trauma. In contrast, introverts feel all of the impact of the traumatic event and are overwhelmed by it.
Although nervous people aren’t always neurotic, Eysenck believed that they were more susceptible to problems, hence the tendency for people to have “nervous disorders,” “nervous breakdowns,” and “nervous ticks.” This nervousness is the result of temperament: built in physiologically. Since the sympatric nervous system causes arousal and emotional responsiveness, he hypothesized that people who scored high on his test of neuroticism had an underlying physiology that made them more likely to be excited by danger and stress. People who remain calm under stress have a sympathetic nervous system that is less responsive.
The tendency to believe personality is biologically based is not limited to the brain physiology. In the 1940’s, William Sheldon proposed that personality and body types were linked. He categorized people as being endomorphic (soft and round), mesomorphic (muscular and rectangular) and ectomorphic (fragile and tall). According to this approach, soft and round folk were friendly and cuddly. But muscular mesomorphs were assertive and energetic. Ectomorphs might be thin and shy but they were smart. Sheldon’s theory was more phrenology than psychology, but you’ll still encounter people following his line of reasoning.
Henry Murray added to trait theory by hypothesizing two influences on people: needs and presses. Needs can be both processes and internal states (achievement, power, intimacy). Your need for intimacy pushes you toward people. Your need for achievement determines how hard to try. Just as hunger is a physiological need that pushes you to get food, psychological needs are internal pressures that compel action. Your behavior is not solely the result of your needs. The environment also impacts you. These environmental presses pressure you from the outside. You can be pressured by a press of danger, or deprivation. Your environment might press you to be friendly or compliant. You can be impacted by a rejecting environment, or one of loss or duty. Both a loss in your life and the birth of a child are presses. In some sense, you are trapped between internal drives and external presses.
Murray’s other main contribution to personality theory was the creation of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Although today it is widely used as a test of creativity, the TAT was designed to reveal latent needs (unexpressed needs). Composed of a series of magazine-sized cards, the test is a collection of abstract images on which a person can “project” their personality. You would be given a card and asked to describe what is going on now, what went on before, and what is going to happen in the future. Your stories would be written down verbatim, and later analyzed for themes. Murray, who was psychoanalyzed by Carl Jung, believed that these latent themes were the key to understanding how people really felt; the TAT was a key to understanding one’s personality.
The most recent trait theory is a multidimensional theory called the Big Five. This is a consensus theory, not the work of a single person. It is the culmination of work over three decades using factor analysis. The Big Five are summarized as OCEAN or CANOE: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.
In the 19060’s, the Air Force routinely gave Cattell’s 16PF to its incoming officers. Two researchers (Tupes & Christal, 1962) analyzed these tests, looking for underlying factors. From their eight samples (they didn’t look at all of the scores), they concluded that the number of personality factors could be reduced substantially from Cattell’s sixteen. In six of the samples, they could reduce the number of factors to eight. In another sample, they found 5 factors. In the last sample, they identified 12 factors.
Using undergraduates instead of Air Force personnel, another researcher (Norman, 1963) found five factors. Norman had students rate their peers on 20 of the variables Tupes and Christal used (four from each of the five factors). Through factor analysis, he found five factors (which critics suggest is not surprising since he started with 4 examples of each of the five factors). In another study (Norman, 1967), 1431 words were rated on the original five dimensions, resulting in 75 semantic clusters. These clusters were later used with others words but again five factors were found (Goldberg, 1980); again not a surprise to the critics: start with clusters based on five dimensions and end with five dimensions.
Another research team (McCrae & Costa, 1976) began with a two-trait model (neuroticism and extraversion) but later added “openness to experience.” Still later, they added agreeableness and conscientiousness (Costa & McCrae, 1985). In their personality test (NEO, each of the five factors are composed of six subscales (facets). So extroversion is really a combination of gregariousness, activity, assertiveness, warmth, positive emotions, and seeking excitement. And agreeableness is subdivided into trust, modesty, compliance, altruism, tendermindedness and straightforwardness.
| Which Animal Would You Pick | ||
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| Here’s a description of your personality traits based on your animal. Although these descriptions are based on traditional traits associated with the animal symbols, remember that I wrote them, so don’t take them too seriously.
RAT (Year 1; January)You are intelligent, hard-working, successful, and ambitious. You can be quick-tempered and extremely critical but you are hardest on yourself. You’re charming, attractive, and love parties. You’re calm on the outside but needlessly worry and fret about trivial details. You’re a good problem solver but tend not to plan for the future. You’re pretty tight with your money but always looking for fast deals and “bargains.”OX (Year 2, February)You are patient, easy going, and not easily angered. You’re a strong, faithful, dedicated worker and you hate to fail. You’re a born leader but you’re slow to make decisions and don’t have much of a sense of humor. It’s hard for you to form close relationships but you’re very loyal to the friends you have. You’re a bit of a traditionalist and extremely stubborn.TIGER (Year 3, March)You’re good at seeing problems but tend to rush in with too little thought. You’re adventurous, independent and strong. But you hate being bossed around or worse: ignored. You could be great at many things but can’t make up your mind about anything. You’re fun to be around, have a great sense of humor, and love being the center of attention. You don’t have many lasting friendships. RABBIT (Year 4, April)You are strong-willed, understanding, well-mannered and always find something good to say about everyone. You’re creative, artistic, and diplomatic. You carry through on plans, are rarely impulsive but a bit moody. You’re warm, friendly, likeable, and rarely get in trouble. If cornered, you’re evasive or might even tell a fib. You’re a good listener but not a party animal. A quiet night at home is more your style. DRAGON (Year 5, May)You are very expressive, enthusiastic and charismatic. You speak your mind, share your feelings, and bubble with excitement. Everybody loves your bigger than life personality, mostly. You rely on emotions more than thoughts, you can’t keep a secret, and you’re a bit of a know-it-all. Although you’re confident and honest, you have a bit of a temper. Some find you intimidating but you’re fiercely loyal to friends and family. SNAKE (Year 6, June)You’re a romantic and a bit of a snob. You love good food, good music and good art. You think more than you talk, but you often make decisions on intuition. You don’t worry about money because you have plenty, mostly because you never part with any. You’re good-looking but know it. You’re very successful and could achieve more, but tend to procrastinate; you’re busy living the good life. HORSE (Year 7, July)You like parties, crowds and activity. You work hard and play hard. You love falling in love and do so often. You like to exercise but don’t like wasting time. You’re intelligent, friendly, capable and a bit selfish. Sometimes you talk too much but you’re always charming. You’re independent, adventurous and good with money and time. You might be impetuous or rash but you’re never jealous of others. RAM (goat) (Year 8, August)You are gentle, artistic and deeply spiritual. Although somewhat timid, you’re passionate about what you do. But you do only what you’re passionate about. You prefer to be your own boss, set your own pace, and keep to yourself. You’re a family person and a bit of a romantic. You love art, music and beauty. You hate pressure, aggression and competition. You love peace and avoid confrontation. MONKEY (Year 9, September)You love travel, adventure and new experiences. You want to keep busy, and enjoy being creative. You don’t like people telling you what to do but you’re impatient when others don’t do what you want. You’re good at making decisions and are a natural leader but tend to gloat about your own accomplishments. You are charming, clever and more than a bit mischievous.ROOSTER (Year 10, October)You are capable, talented, and hard working but tend to be a loner. You’re a bundle of contradictions. You’re a thinker but your emotions are quite volatile. You’re both conservative and a show off. You know how to spend and how to save but not how to do both. You swing from one extreme to the other. You have good intentions but can’t always deliver on your promises. DOG (Year 11, November)You prefer life to be predictable. You are loyal, honest and good at keeping secrets. You tend to see life in simple terms: friend or foe, work or play. You work hard and long but never seem to worry. You’re easy going unless riled. You don’t take yourself or other too seriously but you can hold a grudge for a long time. You like good company and are good company. PIG (Year 12, December)You are strong, optimistic and smart. You don’t spend a lot of time on your looks, but you belong to several clubs, love to entertain and are often the center of attention. Although you’re a bit naïve and quick tempered, you love being involved and helping others. You’re steady, calm and have a hard time saying no. You set high goals for yourself and others. |
Photo by Nathan Fertig on Unsplash
About the time the Old West was being settled, Sigmund Freud was exploring the frontier of mental health. His techniques, assumptions and theories had great impact on counseling and clinical psychology.
There is great diversity in approaches to mental health but all forms of counseling ultimately owe their own foundation to the work of Sigmund Freud. Unlike most other theorists, he was not associated with a university, nor was his system based on experimental evidence. Although Freud performed some experimental research early in his career, it had no real relevance to his later theory. Indeed, Freud’s theory had more to do with behavioral deviation than with general principles of behavior.
Based in medicine and neurology, he revolted against the traditional German psychiatrists (e.g., Kraepelin) and their insistence on physiological causes for behavioral disorders. As his theory developed, Freud’s explanations became more psychological and less medical.
Born May 6, 1856 in Freiburg, Austria (now Pribor, Czechoslovakia), Sigmund Freud was the eldest child of his father’s second family. His father had two grown sons from a previous marriage, and Sigmund was the first of 8 more. Although his father was a poor wool merchant, every effort was made to give Sigmund every advantage possible. While the rest of the family used candles for light, he was given an oil lamp (better for reading).
He graduated from the Sperl Gymnasium in 1873, considered studying law or physiology but eventually settled on medicine. In 1873, Sigmund entered the University of Vienna and studied with noted physiologist Ernest Brucke (a disciple of Hermann von Helmholtz).. Under Bruche’s direction, Freud published articles on anatomy, physiology and neurology. He wanted an academic appointment as a biologist-physiologist but Jews were “discouraged” from academic and governmental positions but allowed in law and medicine. In 1881, Freud graduated from the University of Vienna.
Shortly before obtaining his medical degree, Freud was befriended by Joseph Breuer, a respected, successful, and sophisticated physician in Vienna. In 1889, Breuer had treated Bertha Pappenheim (referred to as Anna O in his writings). Breuer could find no physiological cause for her symptoms, which included arm and leg paralysis, blurred vision, and confusion, but he found that his patient seemed to improve just from talking about her problems while under hypnosis. Although the symptom set changed, the treatments (which the girl called “chimney sweeping” or “the talking cure”) appeared to be effective in helping her deal with emotionally-charged events from her past.
In 1891, 2 years after the fact, Freud and Breuer discussed the case at great length. Together, they pondered the significance of this breakthrough technique, and included her case in a book which they co-wrote. Published in 1895, Studies in Hysteria marked both the end of their friendship and the founding of psychoanalysis.
During his association with Breuer, and not too long after graduating from medical school, Freud went to Paris to study with Charcot. In 1885, Charcot was the leading neurologist in France, and the source, according to Freud, of a famous statement. The story goes that in reference to the case of a one patient, Charcot said the cause “in this kind of case, it is always something genital — always, always, always.” Although Charcot denied making the statement, it has become part of Freudian folklore.
Upon his return to Vienna, Freud continued to use hypnosis and Breuer’s “talking cure.” But he discovered that with patients who couldn’t be hypnotized that similar results could be found by talking about their early emotional traumas even if not hypnotized.
Freud’s theory is a deterministic system of internal motivation. Borrowing heavily from the terminology of physics and other sciences, Freud proposes a self-contained system of psychical energy. Behavior is a result of conscious and unconscious processes which oppose and counteract each other.
Although responsible for popularizing it, Freud didn’t create the concept of the unconscious mind. Certainly, Leibnitz’s (1646-1716) theory of monads contained the notion of an unconscious but it was Herbart (1776-1841) who fully developed it. Similarly, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) wrote of the negative influence unconscious ideas could have. He also introduced the basic concept of repression.
Freud proposed that the mind is composed of three structures: the id, ego and superego. The id is Freud’s term for the earliest and most basic component of personality. At birth, a neonate is only an id. Like a spoiled child wanting immediate gratification, the id relies on the pleasure principle. The id operates like a reflex, providing the individual’s psychic energy. The id’s primary process generates an image of the object it desires. Since the id is completely unconscious, it can’t distinguish between images and reality.
As an infant matures, it evolves from an id-centric organism in order to deal with reality. With the addition of an ego, the child can interact with reality and tries to acquire in reality the imaginary images produced in the id (object substitution). The ego operates on the reality principle, and controls both the motor and sensory functions of the body.
As a child learns right from wrong, the ego creates the third mental component. Like the id, the superego cannot distinguish imagined from real, and consequently punishes you equally for a bad idea as for a bad action. Composed of the conscience (what you should not do) and the ego ideal (what you should do), the superego is in direct opposition to the id (what you want to do). The conflict produced by the fighting of the id and superego is called anxiety. Human behavior is a function of the ego mediating between the forces of the id and superego.
Freud has given us a complicated system of force and counter-force. Although the structure of the mind is illustrative and abstract, his model emphasizes the importance of the individual. Freud based his ideas on case histories and not on experimental data. He shows us that good writing and revolutionary theorizing does not depend on the latest computerized laboratory equipment. Freud emphasized the importance of early childhood, the usefulness of dreams, and that we are not always aware of our own motives.
Since Freud’s approach was the first modern theory of personality, psychoanalysis is sometimes called the First Force of psychology (behaviorism is the 2nd and humanism is the 3rd). Since his theory is over 100 years old, Freud’s views sometimes conflict with current research findings. Yet it is surprisingly popular.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Life
Joseph Breuer
Wilhelm Fliess
Theory
ID
EGO
SUPEREGO
Ego balances id and superego
Defense Mechanisms
5 Psychosocial Stages
Goal: observing ego
Ability to look at oneself honestly & make changes
Who is the founder of psychoanalysis:
2. According to Freud, which is the earliest, most basic component of personality:
3. According to Freud, this operates on the reality principle:
4. According to Freud, instincts, memories and psychic forces are:
5. Freud based his ideas on:
1. Who is the founder of psychoanalysis:
2. According to Freud, which is the earliest, most basic component of personality:
3. According to Freud, this operates on the reality principle:
4. According to Freud, instincts, memories and psychic forces are:
5. Freud based his ideas on:
Cognitive Theories include insight (getting hit by lightening), problem solving, thinking and information processing. The focus is on how our thinking (and mis-thinking) impacts our lives.
Aaron Beck (1921-) combined Rogers and Freud to create Cognitive Therapy.
From Rogers, he takes the importance of developing a relationship with the client, and Roger’s emphasis on how you see the world (phenomenology). From Freud, Beck takes the importance of treating severe conditions, the value of a good medical education (Beck got his MD from Yale), and the great impact that internal processing has on external behavior.
But instead of Freudian conflicts, the heart of Beck’s approach is the impact of beliefs on behavior. What we believe impacts what we do. Just as our perceptual processes can be distorted, our thinking can be biased.
If we have an internal representation of ourselves as hopeless or unlovable, that cognitive bias will impact our behavior. We can make ourselves miserable by over-generalizing a bad day as all life being bad. We might magnify a small issue into a big issue, make everything all about us, or jump to conclusions before we have any evidence. All of these are problems of thinking. Beck’s approach, then, is to fix behavior by fixing the thinking and its underlying assumptions.
These assumptions are called schemas. They are assumptions about how the world operates. We generate rules about ourselves, other people, and the world in general. We decide whether we are good, whether others can be trusted, and whether the world is neutral, on our side or against us.
Some of these schemas are very general but many are specific to our experience and unique to us. We might have a general rule of life (be kind to others) and a very specific rule of how to act at home (never ask for advice from your mother unless you want to be criticized).
Schema and values are interchangeable. Values that are at the center of who we are. Think of them as super-schema or super-rules. A schema influences some behavior but values influence a lot of behaviors. If these core values are healthy, they are beneficial to us. But if our core beliefs are based on distortions of reality, we will systematically make errors of reasoning throughout our lives.
If our belief is that we are incapable of making good decisions, this cognitive bias will result in our being indecisive. Similarly, if we believe we are incompetent, we might expect failure and try to get other people to run our lives for us. If we believe we can’t make it through life without help, we might over-value our relationships. Alternatively, if we believe we must make it on our own, we might underestimate the value of intimacy.
The good news is that our personality is not fixed. For Beck, we are what we think. We construct our view of the world from our past experiences and internal processes. If our past twists our thinking, our challenge is to untwist it. Since our thinking causes a lot of our misery, we can make our lives better by examining our assumptions, testing reality and straightening out our thinking.
Despite his emphasis of cognition, Beck is surprisingly behavior oriented. In therapy, clients are taught to specify their behaviors, track them, and modify them. For Beck, thinking and doing are closely tied. Systematic cognitive distortions don’t really matter if they don’t show up in behavior. And teaching people to identify their dichotomous thinking (it has to be this or that; nothing in between) is of little value unless it produces a change of behavior. For Beck, it’s a thinking-doing combo.
Aaron Beck (1921-)
Albert Ellis (1913-2007)
Aaron Beck
Albert Ellis
According to cognitive theory, beliefs are:
2. According to Kelly, we must look at ourselves as:
3. For Ellis, internalized dialog that determines our thoughts and emotions is called:
4. According to Beck, assumptions about how the world works are called:
5. Cognitive theories of personality believe people can change by:
1. According to cognitive theory, beliefs are:
2. According to Kelly, we must look at ourselves as:
3. For Ellis, internalized dialog that determines our thoughts and emotions is called:
4. According to Beck, assumptions about how the world works are called:
5. Cognitive theories of personality believe people can change by:
