PSY 351 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Personal Construct Theory, Eleanor Rosch, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
Document Summary
Explains differences in personality as differences in the way people process information. Basic unit of a person"s cognitive (mental) activity is the personal construct. Personal construct - cognitive structure we use to interpret and predict events. Everyone = a scientist try to predict and control events. Ie. healthy vs. sick, tall vs. short, friendly vs. unfriendly. Set of events it can be applied to. No 2 people use identical constructs and no 2 people organize them in an identical manner. We may have the same experiences as others but interpret them differently. Differences in our behavior (personalities) are largely due to our differences in how we construe the world interpret situations differently, therefore respond differently. Fundamental postulate - person"s processes are psychologically channelized by the ways in which he anticipates events. Human behavior is directed toward our expectations about events our expectations channel (direct) our actions. Prototype - best example of a category (typical example)
