8/7/2019 2010 Cognitive Focused Approaches http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/2010-cognitive-focused-approaches 1/94 Cognitive Focused Approaches 14. Creativity 15 The Role of Personal Control in Adaptive Functioning 16 Well-Being: Mindfulness Versus Positive Evaluation 17 Optimism 18 Optimistic Explanatory Style 19 Hope Theory: A Member of the Positive Psychology Family 20 Self-Efficacy: The Power of Believing You Can 21 Problem-Solving Appraisal and Psychological Adjustment 22 Setting Goals for Life and Happiness 23 The Passion to Know: A Developmental Perspective 24 Wisdom: Its Structure and Function in Regulating Successful Life Span Development
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Guilford (1967), who began by proposing a profounddistinction between two kinds of thinking.
Convergent thought involves the convergence on a single
correct response, such as characteristic of most aptitudetests, like those that assess intelligence.
Divergent thought, in contrast, entails the capacity togenerate many alternative responses, including ideas of
considerable variety and originality.Guilford and others have devised a large number of tests purported to measure the capacity for divergent thinking (e.g., Torrance, 1988; Wallach & Kogan, 1965). Typical is the
Alternate Uses test, in which the subject must come up withmany different ways of using a common object, such as a paper clip or brick.
One of the oldest debates in the study of creativity
is the ³mad-genius controversy´ (Prentky, 1980). Asfar back as Aristotle, thinkers have speculated thatoutstanding creativity is associated with psychopathology.
On the other hand, creative individuals often havecharacter traits, such as high ego strength,(Rule-conscious, dutiful, conscientious, conforming,moralistic, settled, rule bound -High Super Ego
Strength) which are not found in clinical populations(Barron, 1969; Eysenck, 1995).
Humanistic psychologists, in particular, tend to see
creativity as a symptom of mental health, not illnesse. . Maslow 1959 Ma 1975 .
The view of creative development is consistent with
creative adults¶ tendencies to exhibit childlike traitssuch as openness to experience, playfulness, andrich imagination (Feist, 1998).
However it should be emphasized that many of the
personal attributes contributing to adult creativityhave respectable heritability coefficients, therebysignifying that environmental influences may play aminor role
creativity, using the latest theoretical andmethodological advances in behavior genetics
Second, the psychological study of creativity would be greatly strengthened by a comprehensive and
precise theoretical framework. It is not that the fieldlacks theoretical perspectives. but no single theoryhas emerged as the consensual one in the field.
Third, practical new methods are needed for enhancing both personal and societal creativity.
The psycho economic theories stress ³investment inhuman capital´ or human assets.
A person¶s self-assessment of the ability to exertcontrol is called perceived control ² the judgment thone has the means to obtain desired outcomes and toavoid undesirable ones.
one¶s sense of personal control has positiveimplications for emotional well-being, for the
likelihood that action will be taken, for physical healtand for general adaptive functioning.
Perceptions of control also are advantageous becausethey may prompt individuals to take action and avoid
stressful situations. In summary, perceived control is beneficial because i
is associated with positive emotions, leads to active problem solving, reduces anxiety in the face of stress,and buffers a ainst ne ative h siolo ical res onses.
Creating new avenues for control, e.g. chronically illindividuals can influence the course of their illness byobtaining extensive medical information, getting good
medical care, following the course of treatment, reducingstress in their lives, improving overall fitness through dietand exercise, and investigating alternate types of treatment.
Accepting current circumstances
Primary control is the same as perceived control as it isdefined in this chapter: the perception that one can getdesired outcomes.
Secondary control involves accepting one¶s lifecircumstances as they are, instead of working to change
Acceptance can be achieved in a variety of ways, includingfinding benefits and meaning in the loss and in one¶s lifesituation. Even in an overall negative experience, many
individuals are able to find some benefits or advantages intheir situation For example, some stroke patients report thattheir stroke has helped them appreciate life and their spouseand that they have grown from the experience (Thompson,1991).
Acceptance increases a sense of control because it helps people feel less like helpless victims and reduces thediscrepancy between desired and achieved outcomes.
(a) locus of control, which is the perception that most people¶s outcomes are influenced by personal action(internal) versus out side forces or other people(external),
(b) self efficacy, which refers to the belief that one
personally has the ability to enact the actions that arenecessary to get desired outcomes.
Perceived control is the combination of an internallocus (i. e., outcomes depend on personal action) andself-efficacy (i. e., I have the skills to take effectiveaction).
Blame and Forgiveness ³To err is human, to forgive divine.´ Again, ask 10 people
whether forgiveness is good or bad. All will probably tellyou that it is good. Forgiveness is something to which weshould aspire. The more wronged we have been, the moredivine it is to be able to forgive. Now ask 10 people if blame is good or bad. All will probably tell you that blame
is bad. And yet to forgive, we have to blame. If we do not blame in the first place, there is nothing to forgive.
Discrimination Is Not Evaluation
Mindfulness Versus Positive Evaluation
Surely a single-mindedly positive view is likely to be more beneficial to health and well-being than a mindlessly
Aspinwall & Taylor (1992) reported that O ptimisticstudents engaged in more active coping and less
avoidance coping than did pessimistic students. Avoidance coping related to poorer adjustment;
active coping related (separately) to better adjustment.
O ptimists turn toward acceptance in uncontrollablesituations, whereas pessimists turn more to the useof active attempts at denial. Although both tactics
seem to reflect emotion-focused coping, there areimportant differences between them.
Shepperd, et. al (1996) found optimism related togreater success in lowering levels of saturated fat, body fat, and an index of overall coronary risk.O ptimism also related to increases in exercise acrossthe rehabilitation period.
Pessimism and Health-Defeating Behaviors Pessimism can lead people into self defeating
patterns. The result can be less persistence, moreavoidance coping, health damaging behavior, and
potentially even an impulse to escape from lifealtogether. With no confidence about the future, theremay be nothing left to sustain life (Carver & Scheier,1998).
Peterson et al. (1993) proposed three formal criteria withwhich to judge the goodness of an application:
1. O bjective non contingency : Learned helplessness is present only when there is no contingency between actionsand outcomes.
2. Cognitive mediation : Learned helplessness also involvesa characteristic way of perceiving, explaining, andextrapolating contingencies. The helplessness model
specifies cognitive processes that make helplessness moreversus less likely following uncontrollable events.
3. Cross-situational generality of passive behavior
( mediating variables) Does the individual give up and failto initiate actions.
Other consequences : cognitive retardation, low self-esteem,sadness, reduced aggression, immuno suppression, and physical illness.
undermine everything´) An explanatory style characterized by
internal, stable, and global explanationsfor bad events has been described as pessimistic, and the opposite style,characterized by external, unstable, andspecific explanations for bad events, has
explanatory styles of monozygotic twins were morehighly correlated than the explanatory styles of dizygotic twins (r = .48 vs. r = .00). This findingdoes not mean that there is an optimism gene.
Parents: Researchers have explored the relationship between the explanatory styles of parents and their offspring.
Simple modeling (Bandura 1977) parents¶ interpretation of their children¶s behaviors.
Perez-Bouchard, et. al (1993) found that children (aged 8 to14) of substance abusers were more likely to have a pessimistic explanatory style than children of parents
without a history of substance abuse. (Home environment) Teachers : As teachers administer feedback about children¶s
performance, their comments may affect children¶sattributions about their successes and failures in the
classroom. Television¶s proclivity for ruminating in its news coverage
compounds a tendency to magnify stories of violence in aself-serving way that may slant factual presentation(Levine,1977).
Trauma
Trauma also influences the explanatory style of children.
Explanatory Style as Positive Psychology :Thecurrent stage in learned helplessness research beganwith the reframing of explanatory style by Seligman(1990) in his book Learned O ptimism, where hedescribed how his lifelong interest into what can go
wrong with people had changed into an interest inwhat can go right
Attention to Outcome Measures
Attention to Mechanisms
The mechanism that lead from explanatory style tothese outcomes.
Peterson (1988) found that an optimistic explanatorystyle was associated with a variety of healthy practices, such as exercising, drinking in
moderation, and avoiding fatty foods. In one of recent studies of optimistic explanatory
style and physical well-being, studied 1,000
individuals over almost 50 years (Peterson, at. al1998). Pessimistic individuals had an increasedlikelihood of early death, and the large sample sizemade it possible to investigate associations between
explanatory style and death from different causes. Accidental deaths are not random. ³Being in the
Thinking In order to reach their goals, people mustview themselves as being capable of generating
workable routes to those goals.This process, which we call pathways thinking,
signifies one¶s perceived capabilities at generatingworkable routes to desired goals.
The production of several pathways is importantwhen encountering impediments (obstacle), andhigh-hope persons perceive that they are facile(too easy) at finding such alternate routes;moreover, high-hope people actually are veryeffective at producing alternative routes (Irving, et.al. 1998)
The Children¶s Hope Scale (for ages 8 to 16) (Snyder,Hoza, et al., 1997) comprises three agency and threepathways items.
Similarities Between Hope Theor y and Other Positive Psychology Theories:
Optimism: Seligman`s optimistic attributional style is thepattern of external, variable, and specific attributions for failures instead of internal, stable, and global attributes
that were the focus in the earlier helplessness model. In hope theory, however, the focus is on reaching
desired future positive goal-related outcomes, withexplicit emphases on the agency and pathways thoughtsabout the desired goal.
In both theories, the outcome must be of highimportance, although this is emphasized more in hopetheory.
In problem-solving theory, the person¶s identification of adesired goal (a problem solution) is explicitly noted, and itis assumed implicitly that an important goal is involved .
Significant positive correlations (r of .40 to .50) have beenfound between hope and problem solving (Snyder, Harris,et al., 1991).
Impor tance f or Academics: Academics Learning andperforming well in educational settings are important
avenues for thriving (flourishing) in American society. By applying hopeful thinking, students should enhance
their perceived capabilities finding multiple pathways todesired educational goals, along with the motivations topursue those goals. Also, through hopeful thinking,
students should be able to stay ³on task´ and not beblocked by interfering self-deprecatory (apologetic/critical)thoughts and negative emotions (Snyder, 1999a).e.gMana Ke ««««.
Hope relates to higher achievement test scores inschool children and higher semester grade pointaverages in college students.
In a 6year longitudinal study, Hope Scale scorestaken at the beginning of students¶ very firstsemester in college predicted higher cumulativegrade point average and graduation rate, as well
as lower attrition as tapped by dropout rate; Imagine the negative ripple (wave/ flow)²lost
opportunities, unfulfilled talents, and sense of failure² that may flow over a lifetime for some
students who drop out of high school or college.So, Hope may offer a potential antidote (remedy).
Researchers also have found that higher levels of hopeare related to more perceived social support (Barnum et
al., 1998), more social competence (Snyder, Hoza, et al.,1997), and less loneliness (Sympson, 1999).
They appear to truly enjoy their interactions with others(Snyder, Hoza, et al., 1997), and they are interested intheir goals and the goals of others around them (Snyder,
1994b) Meaning in Life Viktor Frankl (1965, 1992) has provided
an eloquent voice on the ³What is the nature of meaning?´question. To answer this query, he advanced the concept
of the ³existential vacuum´²the perception that there is no meaning or purpose in theuniverse.
21. Pr oblem Solving Appr aisal and Psychological Adjustment
The research evidence in this chapter will clearly
indicate that how people appraise their problem solvingaffects not only how they cope with problems, but alsotheir psychological adjustment.*
The importance of higher order or meta-cognitive
variables in various cognitive processes.Pr oblem Solving Inventor y
In the PSI, perceptions of one¶s problem-solving abilitystyle, behavior, and attitudes are assessed (Heppner,
1988; Heppner & Baker, 1997). The PSI consists of 35 six-point Likert-type items (1³strongly agree´ to 6 � ³strongly disagree´), with a totalscore and three subscale scores .
The three subscales tap Problem-Solving Confidence (11
p g (items), Approach-Avoidance Style (16 items), Personal Control(5 items), and 3 filler items.
Problem-Solving Confidence is defined as an individual¶s
self-assurance in a wide range of problem-solving activities, abelief and trust in one¶s problem-solving abilities (generalproblem-solving self-efficacy), and coping effectiveness.
The Approach-Avoidance Style, as the label implies, refers to ageneral tendency to approach or avoid different problem-solving activities.
Personal Control is defined as a belief in one¶s emotional andbehavioral control (thereby reflecting emotional over reactivityand behavioral control; Heppner, 1988; Heppner & Baker,
1997). Higher scores on the PSI indicate a lack of problem solving
confidence, an avoidant problem solving style, and an absenceof personal control.
Problem-solving appraisal using the PSI has been the focus of over 100 empirical investigations.
Psychological Adjustment
Early in the evolution of this topic, researchers claimed thatproblem solving was linked to psychological adjustment(D¶Zurilla & Goldfried,1971).
In over 50 studies now, researchers have examined the linkbetween problem-solving appraisal and psychological health.We will briefly discuss the literature specifically related to (a)general psychological adjustment, perceived effective (ascompared with ineffective) problem solvers report themselves
to be more adjusted on (a) general measures such as theMinnesota Multiphasic Personality, (b) specific measures of personality variables such as positive self-concepts (c) personalproblem inventories.
( ) p ,stronger association between problem-solvingappraisal and hopelessness (rs .48 to .62) than
between problem solving appraisal and suicidalideation (rs .11 to .43).
Alcohol Use/ Abuse The proponents of cognitive-social learning approaches propose that individualswho abuse drugs and alcohol do so because they lacka sense of self-efficacy for coping with stressfulsituations. Thus, alcohol and drug consumption maybe their coping strategy for altering feelings of personal inadequacy. Related to this thesis, support
for this relationship between problem-solving appraisaland alcohol/ drug usage emerges in several studies. Itis found a significant linear relationship between morepositive problem-solving appraisal and less alcohol
use/ abuse.
(e) Personality variables, a consistent association
Needs exist even if one is not aware of them; valuesexist in consciousness (or the subconscious).
A value is ³that which one acts to gain and/ or keep.
It is that which one regards, consciouslysubconsciously, as conducive to one¶s welfare.
The most fundamental of all values are moralvalues² that which the individual considers good or right. A moral code is a code of values accepted bychoice.
Emotions:
Emotions are the form in which people experienceautomatized, subconscious value judgments
(Lazarus, 1991; Locke, 1969). Emotions reflect subconscious knowledge and also
one¶s subconsciously held values and valuehierarchy.
Every emotion reflects a particular type of valueappraisal.
Fear is the response to physical threat, anxiety to an uncertain threat or a self esteem ;
threat, guilt to the breach of a moral value,satisfaction to value achievement;
Anger to another person doing something heshould not have done,
jealousy to another person having a value onewants for oneself, and so forth.
It should be obvious from this discussion thatsetting priorities in values and goals is critical tomanaging one¶s life, both in the short range and inthe long range.
It should be clear from the foregoing discussion that goalsetting² which means fundamentally purposefulness² isnecessary for living a successful happy life.
Most people, at some level, seem to know this. Why, then, areso many people unhappy? Three reasons are primary:
1. The most fundamental reason is irrationalism;
2. A second reason is the unwillingness to put forth mental (and
physical) effort² 3 The third reason is fear : fear of change, fear of telling the
truth, fear of being wrong, fear of being different, fear of thinkingfor oneself, fear of failure, fear of the subconscious and of knowing one¶s own motives, fear of disappointment, fear of
disapproval, fear of being hurt, fear of being vulnerable, fear of the new, and fear of standing up for one¶s values.
A fourth motivational component refers to the goodintentions that usually are associated with wisdom.That is, wisdom aims at solution that optimize thebenefit of others and oneself.
Implicit Belief s about Wise People: Four Dimensions
1.Exceptional knowledge about wisdom acquisitioncomprehends the nature of human existence triesto learn from his or her own mistakes
2.Exceptional knowledge about use of wisdom
knows when to give/ withhold advice is a personwhose advice one would solicit for life problems
The contents to which this expertise of wisdom refersare the ³fundamental pragmatics of life,´ that is,knowledge about the essence of the human condition
and the ways and means of planning, managing, andunderstanding a good life
First, as is typical for the development of expertise, weassume that wisdom is acquired through an extended
and intense process of learning and practice. Second, wisdom is a complex and multifaceted
phenomenon; therefore, for wisdom to emerge, avariety of experiential factors and processes on microand macro-levels are required to interact and
collaborate.
Third, given that wisdom involves the orchestrationf iti l i l i t l d
(a) Study participants are confronted with difficult life
problems of fictitious people under standardizedconditions. Specifically, they are asked to read shortvignettes about problems of life management,planning, and review.
(b) Participants are then instructed to think aloudabout those life problems, and their responses aretape-recorded and transcribed.
(c) A selected panel of trained judges then rates the
protocols according to five criteria ,that weredeveloped based on the general theoretical frameworkoutlined.
e.g. A 15year-old girl wants to get married right away.What should one/ she consider and do?
The psychometric location of wisdom-relatedf U i d h d ti f