Seligman; Rotter; Mischel

• Martin Seligman

  • Began with behavioural experiments on animals, particularly focusing on learned helplessness using dogs
  • Founded the field of Positive Psychology in the late 1990s, emphasising the study of positive human functioning and thriving on multiple levels
  • Served as the President of the American Psychological Association APA in 1998, using his platform to promote Positive Psychology
• Seligman's experiments on dogs

  • The experiment aimed to condition dogs to avoid electric shocks by jumping over a hurdle
  • Some dogs received unavoidable electric shocks in initial trials
  • After experiencing inescapable shocks, dogs did not attempt to escape in later trials, even when it was possible
  • This lack of response to escape opportunities was identified as learned helplessness, indicating a psychological state where the subject believes actions have no effect on outcomes
  • 2/3 of the dogs were helpless after unavoidable electric shocks
• About 5% of dogs that never received inescapable shock, exhibited helplessness when first exposed to shock in the operant learning situation. Seligman found that these dogs had previously been subjected to trauma that they could not escape.
• Learned helplessness in humans

  • When we are down in the dumps and feel like we have tried and failed to feel better, this can lead to overlooking potential avenues for feeling better
  • Implications for chronic pain, depression, anxiety, panic attacks
  • Repeated aversive outcomes leading to hopelessness and apathy
• Locus of control (Julian Rotter)

  • Generalised expectancies about whether events are under one's control (internal locus of control) or outside one's control (external locus of control)
  • Specific expectancies where the locus of control is in discrete areas of life
• Attributional style

  • Personal (internal vs external): whether a person attributes success or failure to internal factors like their abilities or effort, versus external factors such as luck or other external influences
  • Pervasive (specific vs global): whether an individual believes that the causes of events are global (affecting many areas of life) or specific (limited to particular situations)
  • Permanent (stable vs unstable): whether a person sees the causes of events as stable (unlikely to change over time) or unstable (likely to change or vary across different situations)
• Walter Mischel's problems with existing approaches in the 1960s

  • Argued that there was too much emphasis on the person, and that situation variables were ignored
  • Trait approaches didn't emphasize the dynamic nature of people and how they behave
  • General traits predict the way people behave very poorly (only 10%)
  • Situational characteristics are better predictors of behaviour when the situation is strong
  • Personality traits are better predictors of behaviours when the situation is weak
• Situations override traits
• Why would we expect general predispositions to predict behaviour in specific situations?
• Do we behave consistently across situations?
• Cognitive-Affective Units


  • Competencies and self regulation: plans, strategies and organisation of behaviour and internal states
  • Encoding Strategies: categories for internal and external world; schemas of the self
  • Expectancies & beliefs: beliefs about outcomes of one's own behavior & perceived self-efficacy
  • Goals & values: short and long-term goals and values
  • Affect: emotional responses

  
• Delay of gratification


  • Reward salience has an effect on children's capacity to delay
  • When rewards are concealed, most children can wait
  • When rewards are visible, most children have difficulty controlling their impulses
  • Children tend to delay when they use strategies that mentally distance them from the attractive features of a reward
• As adults, the "impulsive" four-year-olds who grabbed the marshmallow were more troubled, stubborn, indecisive, mistrustful, less self-confident, and still unable to put off gratification. They had less successful marriages, lower job satisfaction and income, poorer health, and higher frustration
• Delay of gratification - modelling (Bandura & Mischel, 1965)


  • High and low delay children were exposed to models of the opposite.
  • High-delay children saw a model who selected small immediate reward and commented on its benefits
  • Low-delay children saw a model who selected larger deferred reward and commented on the virtues of delay
  • High-delay children across conditions altered their choices in favour of immediate gratification
  • Low-delay children across conditions altered their choices in favour of deferred gratification
  • Effects of modeling were maintained for at least one month
• Some evidence that use of devices and exposure to electronic media might reduce ability to delay gratification. However, systematic review of the Marshmallow test found that delay times since 1960s increasing