Choosing between mischel and rotters explaining personality

Choosing between mischel and rotters explaining personality Both Julian Rotter and Walter Mischel proposed the social cognitive approach to personality. Known as social cognitive theorists, Mischel and Rotter suggested that conscious thoughts and emotions determine the difference between people and guide the way they behave (Mischel, 2004). The social cognitive approach is not based on the description of an individuals personality rather than on the principles of human learning. Thus, they believe that our personality is formed through the learning processes such as observation and interaction with the family and others in social situations. From an interactionist point of view, peoples interaction with their environment predicts their behavior. Rotter suggested that changes in personality can occur at any time but the basic unity that it has prevents it from changing as a result of minor experiences. Rotter talked about the law of effect, as such, he believed that the way people act is a determinant of an anticipated goal. According to Rotter, four variables predict human behavior: behavior potential, expectancy, reinforcement value, and the psychological situation. Behaviour potential is the first component of Rotters theory. Behaviour potential refers to the possibility of engaging in a specific act in a particular situation. A person has a choice of behaviour to acquire in a given time and place. The second variable is Expectancy which refers to the a persons expectancy that a given behaviour will lead to a reinforce. Expectancy can either be General or specific. A specific expectancy is the belief that a particular behaviour at a certain time and place will lead to an outcome. General expectancies are the beliefs that anything a person is doing will make a difference. Rotter believed that the combination of the specific and general expectancies lead to reinforcement. The effort a person devote to achieve his goal will be determined by the total expectancy. The third variable is the reinforcement value. Reinforcement value is Rotters conception of motivation. The thing a person wants to attain has high reinforcement value. The constancy of expectancies and situational variables when there is preference of reinforcement shape behaviour. According to Rotter the perception of people known as the internal reinforcement influences behaviour. The fourth variable considered by Rotter is the psychological situation which is in his prediction formula. He believed that peoples interaction with their environment result in their way of behaving. He suggested that different people will interpret the same environment differently. Moreover, Mischels cognitive affective theory does suggest that individuals behaviour is characterized by the beliefs that they learn, expectancies and feelings but along with that he claimed that these particular characteristics make them different from other people. He termed these characteristics as cognitive person variables which shows the dimensions of the difference between people differ (Mischel, 2004, 569). Mischel named some important cognitive person variables that affect a person when adapting to an environment (Shoda and Mischel, 2006) : Encoding strategies are a persons belief about his environment and other people. Unlike the social learning theory, people make use of their cognitive processes to form personal constructs from the external stimuli. The way people encode an event is different which shows their individual differences in personal constructs. Also, Mischel suggested that stimulus can be altered by how people interpret experiences and to what they attend selectively. Expectancies refer to the persons belief of his capacity and what the person expects from his previous behaviour. Affects refer to feelings and emotions. Affective responses emphasize on a persons behaviour is determined by the interaction of peoples cognitive processes with a specific situation. The affective responses are not separable from cognitions and they influence other cognitive-affective units. Goals and values are what the person want to achieve and believe in. Competencies and self-regulatory plans refer to the persons capacity in terms of his thoughts and actions, his ability to engage in goal directed behaviour. As people do not attend to all stimuli in the environment, they selectively create the world in which they live. Also, the self regulatory plans make people to plan and maintain their behaviours. According to Mischel, these cognitive variables as well as the features of the situation have to be identified to predict a persons behaviour in a given situation. Hence, the interaction of the person and situation lead to behaviour. Mischel suggested that only if a person come upon a specific behaviour, then his behaviour will reflect the characteristics he has learned in that particular situation (Kammrath, Mendoza-Denton and Mischel, 2005). Rotters social cognitive theory was based on the locus of control whereas Mischels cognitive affective theory was based on situation versus person variables. Mischels theory was an extension of Rotters social cognitive approach. Just like Rotter believed that peoples reaction to environmental forces are more determined by cognitive factors than immediate reinforcements, Mischel claimed that behaviour is determined by both situation variables (environmental factors: rewards and punishments) and person variables (internal personal factors). The two person variables : expectancies and subjective values in Mischels theory have the same meaning as in Rotters model. As an extension of Rotters social cognitive theory, Mischel added other person variables like competencies, encoding strategies and self regulatory systems and plans. Mischel strongly believed that the interaction of both environmental and personal factors develops behaviour. He claimed that we have to take into account what we know about a particular person and the present situation to predict the latters behaviour. Furthermore, he laid emphasis on how emotions and person variables interacted. He argued that negative emotions like depression affects peoples interpretation of their experiences and expectancies they hold about the future (Mischel and Shoda, 1995, p.498). Also, Mischel suggested that emotion variables just like cognition depend on how people interpret and label their experiences. The cognitive-affective personality system proposed the consistency paradox which refer to the variability across situations and stability in a persons behaviour. Mischel believed that variations in the behaviour pattern is neither caused by random error nor the situation alone. He rather believed that these variations in behaviour patterns predict behaviour that mirror stable patterns of variation within a person. Mischel and Shoda (1995) devised the Ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦then framework which they believe can conceptualise the variations in behaviour. The relationship of the ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦then in this framework is as such: If A, then X; but if B, then Y. A and B are taken as situations in which the individual is in and X and Y are the ways people behave as a result of the situations they are facing. For example if Mark is provoked by his wife (situation A), then he will react with aggression (X). if changes and so, then also changes. In the first situation If Mark is being provoked by his wife (situation A), he will react aggressively (X). In a second situation (B), if Mark is being provoked by his boss then he will obey with submission (reaction Y). In these two situations we can see that Marks behavior is inconsistent, but Mischel and Shoda believed that being provoked by two different persons is not the same stimulus. Instead, they suggested that Marks behavior reflects a stable behavior pattern. Thus this framework claimed that the way people react to situations depend on cognitions( for example : perceptions, illusions) and affective (for example feelings) related with them. Mischel and Shoda (1995) proposed a second example where two persons are qualified as irritable but their irritability is caused differently. In the example he said that 2 persons are irritable: Person 1 likes to be the center of attention and likes interaction with others. Thus, Person 1 gets irritable when no one pays attention to him/her. Person 2 likes to be alone and gets irritable when people start to relate their lives. In addition to, there are two situations: Situation A reflects no interaction among people (e.g. Business meeting), It is just a boring situation. In situation B, such interactions are mostly frequent (e.g. parties). Therefore, based on ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Then Framework, Person 1 will feel irritated in situation A and not B, whereas Person 2 will feel irritated in situation B and not A. The Ifà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦then framework is based on the Behavioral Signature of Personality. The Behavioural Signature of Personality is the variation in an individuals behaviour in specific situations. In the example of Mark; his Behavioral Signature of Personality is his consistent manner to vary his behavior across situations; that is he will not react aggressively in all situations (Feist, 2004). M ischel took traits into consideration and contend that some basic traits are persistent over time. Mischel himself argued that the idea of consistency of personality across situations is not right. Mischel and Peake (1982) examined the consistency of conscientiousness and friendliness in college students. The result was that students responded inconsistently across situations. Mischels social cognitive theory maintains that peoples behavior is specific to the context of the situation. For example, somebody can be honest at work but can cheat on taxes. This approach does not predict depends that behavior will be consistent across situations. Behavior depends mainly on the consequences of the actions (such as rewards). However, according to Mischel, consistency can occur when the same behavior is reinforced in a variety of situations or if a person is unable to discriminate among situations. For Mischel traits can be useful as they provide summaries of multiple behavioral observation s and as such have descriptive usefulness. Traits affect behavior differently in different situations under certain conditions. For example, the trait of aggression will be apparent only under circumstances like when a person feels frustrated or angry. People with the trait aggressiveness act differently from those who are low in this trait. Moreover, Mischels theory considers the prior experiences in life. The prior experience play a role in situational context. Thoughts and emotions activated by a particular situation are the results of prior experiences with the particular situations. Therefore, situational variables as well as experiences play a role in the occurrence of any behavior. Rotter, on the other hand, attaches great importance to needs of people, as needs indicate the direction of behavior. Mischel talks goals only. Whereas Rotters theory speaks of goals when the focus is on the environment and speaks of needs when the focus is on the person. Rotter and Hochriech (1975) listed six categories of needs: recognition-status, protection-dependency, love and affection and physical comfort. In my own view, Mischels theory is better off than that of Rotters. Mischel even took into consideration the personality traits which he believed account for little of the variance in human behaviour. His aim was to replace traits like sociability or dominance into traits of his own invention. His theory was closely based on the social learning theory of Rotter but he combined the social learning theory with the knowledge about mental processes from cognitive psychology. Mischel with the help of his student, Shoda issued an updated version of his original theory. His new version had five variables instead of four and the new variable was affects, feelings or emotions. The addition of the new variable was due to the research made in 1995 which found that social information and processing and coping behaviour was influenced by affects and emotions (Mischel and Shoda, 1995, p.252). Another aspect which Mischel included in the new version of the theory was the description of personality as a cognitive-affective system. According to his new theory, he claimed that the importance in the five cognitive social learning person variables lie in their simultaneous interaction. Therefore, personality is a stable system that mediates how the individual processes, chooses and constructs social information and produces social behaviours (Mischel and Shoda, 1995). The cognitive affective personality system further claims that a persons behaviour will change based on a particular situation but in a meaningful manner. Mischel and Shoda (1995, 1998, 1999) even devised a framework and suggested that variations in behaviour can be predicted from it and he took into consideration the consistency paradox in explaining peoples behaviour. Moreover, Mischel places his cognitive theory against the traditional trait theory. As such, he argued that his theoretical cognitive person variables are superior to the traits as they express scientific rather than understanding. Unlike Rotter, Mischel and his colleagues believed in the importance of moving from a theoretical perspective of personality out of conceptualizations like irritability to a more scientific conceptualizations like encoding competency. Mischels theory is an advance over the trait approach as well. His person variables focus on the psychological processes in shaping behaviour rather than on the behaviours itself. Another advantage of Mischels theory is that individual differences in behaviour become conceptualized as patterns not as average levels.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie :: Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie The author: Agatha Christie was born in 1890 in Torquay in England. Her father was called Frederick Miller so she was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. She was educated at home and studied singing and piano in Paris. In 1914 she married Archibald Christie, but then World War I had broken out. Agatha worked as a nurse in a Red Cross hospital in Torquay at that time and that experience was useful later on. The book: I recently read a mystery book by the name of "And Then They Were None" by Agatha Christie. I read this book because a lot of people that read Agatha Christie’s books recommended them to me and because I like mystery stories. One of the mysteries to this book was, of course, who killed all of the innocent people. Another mystery was that every time another person was killed a little Indian figure would disappear from the edges of a serving plate. SUMMARY: Ten people are invited to an island, called "Indian Island", by letters that were signed by people they had met before. When they got to the island, they found out that their host, U.N.Owen, had not arrived yet. At dinner, they heard a voice, accusing each of them of a murder, which they were all guilty of. After one of them is killed, according to the first verse of a poem that is framed above each of their beds called "Ten Little Indians", they figure out that the murderer is one of them! As more people are killed off, one by one, the group narrows the suspect list down, until only one is left alive but she figured that she would never get off the island anyway, and she hung herself from the ceiling by putting a noose around her neck and kicking the chair away on which she was standing, but she was not the killer. SETTING: In "And Then There Where None" by Agatha Christie, they didn’t say when it took place, but I wouldn’t be surprised that it was in the 1900’s because that’s when she wrote it. It was on an island in the middle of the ocean. You couldn’t see any other land that surrounded it because it was really in the middle of nowhere! The general atmosphere was dark because there was a lot of trees and the ocean was nice but cold.

Kudler Fine Foods

Firstly, it is necessary to mention that Kudler Fine Foods is a famous food store in a Southern California that offers its customer one of the finest foods and ingredients for home cooking. Actually, Kudler ensures one stop shopping for all customers meaning they are able to find all necessary products in one store. According recent marketing investigations Kudler is experiencing significant growth and it is going to expand and to work out new marketing strategies.   In the previous years only about 20% of customers were very satisfied with services provided, whereas more than 25% were fully disappointed. Therefore, Kudler Fine Foods is highly interested in working out such a system that would give customers an excellent opportunity to make purchases through so-called Frequent Shopper Program. So, the primary goal to achieve is to investigate customers behavior when purchasing at individual level and then to establish loyalty points program to make customers more interested and motivated in Kudler’s services. One more idea is to allow customer to redeem their obtained points. The next goals are to cut costs, to organize ordering procedures to save time, and to offer competitive prices. There will be a need to synchronize Kudler’s inventory. All the goals to be tracked and set are determined, achievable, real and measurable. Therefore, they can be used in evaluating the degree of success. The project goals should also include economic analysis, whereas special attention should be paid to analyzing costs and benefits. It makes Kudler rely on the economic stability and growth to prosper. With the economic stability the company will be able to get new resources for growth and specialization. The tangible measures for success are exploring financial costs, identifying necessary resources and setting the timeframe. There is a need to identify tasks and duties at individual level.   In order to prove that the current project is tangible and feasible, the company’s team should cover all the areas discussed. References Kudler Fine Foods. Retrieved August 13, 2007, from http://kudler.com/   

Essay on The Necklace - 751 Words

The Necklace â€Å"The Necklace† by Guy De Maupassant tells of Mathilde Loisel who â€Å"by error of destiny† was born poor and winds up marrying a clerk. Mr. Loisel surprises Mathilde with an opportunity to taste the luxurious life for an evening and she unexpectedly bursts into tears because she has nothing to wear. Mr. Loisel agrees to buy her a gown and suggests that she borrow jewelry from her wealthy friend. The evening turns out to be a dream come true until the Loisels arrive home to find that the borrowed necklace is no longer around Mathilde’s neck. The Loisels secretly replace the necklace with an expensive duplicate that takes them ten long, hard years to pay off. Shortly after the loan is paid off, Mathilde runs into her rich†¦show more content†¦When the necklace turns up missing, Mathilde replaces it and dooms herself as well as her husband into ten years of misfortune. In the end, Mathilde finds that the hardships of her and her husband were all in vain. The conflict in the story occurs when the Loisel’s return home from the banquet, only to find that the borrowed necklace is missing. Resolution isn’t presented until the end of the story when Mathilde awkwardly realizes that the unnecessary suffering her and her husband have done over the past ten years was caused by her materialism and vanity. The main conflict is important to understand in this story because had Mathilde been content with the simple life she leads, her and her husband would not have had to go through the suffering that they had been dealt for so long in order to pay off the debt she created by losing the necklace. Finally, Mathilde realizes the internal conflict lives within her dreamscape lifestyle and the simplistic reality she occupies. The story takes place in Paris, France. The time is unknown, however, social rank is of great importance. In the beginning of the story, the couple resides in a simple apartment with simple belongings, howev er, by the end of the story, the life they were living seemed luxurious compared to the life they live now. Their grim apartment with drab walls, threadbare furniture and ugly curtains now seem lavish compared to the maidless, attic flat they currently reside in. Mathilde hadShow MoreRelated The Necklace1898 Words   |  8 Pagesconsistently reflected the interests and activities of a people. Therefore, some themes have been dominant in World Literature from ancient times to the present. One such theme greed and generosity, which is explored in the French short story â€Å"The Necklace† by Guy de Maupassant. On August 5, 1850, Maupassant was born near Normandy, France, where he lived for the majority of his childhood. He was the first son of Laure Le Poittevin and Gustave de Maupassant, who were both from prestigious bourgeoisRead MoreEssay on The Necklace1342 Words   |  6 Pagesshort story The Necklace. Its protagonist, Mathilde Loisel, longing for a lavish lifestyle rather than her middle class way of life, falls under the spell of an priceless diamond. Dealing with her fate, some of Mathildes strong character traits soon become apparent. Examining these attributes, we discover that Mathilde Loisel definitely has a negative personality. The first of many character traits of Mathilde Loisel that Maupassant makes evident in the The Necklace is greed. SheRead More The Necklace Essay1346 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"The Necklace† Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, â€Å"The Necklace†, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappyRead MoreAnalysis of The Necklace Essay883 Words   |  4 PagesBickford English 1102 6 February 2006 Analysis of The Necklace Many women dream of living a rich life, full of luxury, riches and servants. In the short story The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, a middle-class woman named Madame Loisel desires that life style very much. In The Necklace Madame Loisels vain desires cause many conflicts and her ultimate downfall. One small conflict in the story is Madame Loisel vs. her husband. He is always trying to make his wife satisfied and she neverRead MoreThe Necklace, Mr. Maupassant910 Words   |  4 PagesIn â€Å"The Necklace† Mr. Maupassant tells a story of a woman, Mrs. Loisel, who goes through many emotions over the loss of a necklace that ends up being a fake. As she goes through these situations Mr. Maupassant gives examples of literally elements that prove what kind of person she turns out to be. Throughout the story Mrs. Loisel is conflicted with many problems just to realize who she became and how she took advantage of what she already had in her life. When it turns out to be too late she thenRead MoreThe Diamond Necklace Script2414 Words   |  10 Pagesborrow some jewelries from her. SCENE 3: Forestier House Open Curtain Forestier: (went to a wardrobe with a mirror, took out a large jewel box, brought it back, opened it) Choose, my dear. Mathilde: (saw some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian gold cross set with precious stones. Tried on the ornaments before the mirror, hesitated and could not make up her mind to part with them, to give them back.) Havent you anymore? Forestier: WhyRead MoreThe Necklace by Guy de Maupassant1034 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"The Necklace.† Guy de Maupassant, a French writer, born in 1850, was considered one of France’s greatest short-story writers. His writings were mostly influenced by the divorce of his parents when he was thirteen years old and by great writers such as Shakespeare, Schopenhauer, and Flauber. His parent’s divorce caused his stories to depict unhappiness of matrimony, deceit, miscommunication, and a profound misunderstanding (Maupassant, Guy de, 1850-1893). In the short-story â€Å"The Necklace,† MadameRead MoreThe Necklace, By Guy De Maupassant999 Words   |  4 PagesMaupassant’s â€Å"The Necklace,† readers experience Mathilde Loisel’s life-changing event. Coming from nobility, de Maupassant tells the story of luxurious desire through the eyes of the middle class woman Mathilde. Mathilde constantly dreams of living the life of the upper clas s, and this prohibits her from acting in reality. Mathilde’s internal struggle for a sense of social royalty shows readers how quickly selfish pride destroys a person’s life. Throughout the course of â€Å"The Necklace,† Mathilde changesRead MoreThe Necklace, By Guy De Maupassant966 Words   |  4 PagesIn Guy De Maupassant’s â€Å"The Necklace,† Mathilde is a 19th century French woman who desires a wealthier lifestyle than she can acquire. She is completely indulged in the material possessions of life and is focused on the items she does not have rather than what she owns. It seems her happiness is entirely dependent on wealth and status. She neglects her husband and is never content with what he can offer. Eventually, Mathilde’s struggles of envy, selfishness, and materialism drive her to poverty.Read MoreThe Diamond Necklace, By Maupassant942 Words   |  4 Pagesand their generation stays rich all the time, while other born poor and all their stays poor all the times. However, there are other people who move from one class to another. Sometimes this mutation depends on the individual effort. In the Diamond Necklace, Guy de Maupassant describe the life of Mathilde who born poor and was not happy with her situation. Since she was unable to switch her social class, she tried for all occasion to appear as rich women. In this short story, Maupassant shows in different