PSYC 3690 Chapter Notes -Pessimism, Extraversion And Introversion, Social Skills
14 Apr 2013
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Optimists are people who expect good things to happen to them; pessimists are people who expect bad things to happen to them. They differ in how they approach problems and challenges, and they differ in the manner and success with which they cope with adversity. Expectancy-value theories begin with the assumption that behaviour is organized around the pursuit of goals. Goals are states or actions that people view as either desirable or undesirable. People try to t their behaviours to what they see as desirable. The more important a goal is to someone, the greater is its value within the person s motivation. Without having a goal that matters, people have no reason to act. The second conceptual element is expectancy - a sense of con dence or doubt about the attainability of the goal value. If the person lacks con dence, there will be no action. Goals vary in speci city (general to particular, concrete to speci c)
