Cognitive Approaches to Personality

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Exploration of how mental processes and perceptions affect personality, including beliefs, expectations, and attributions.

Cognitive theories of personality: This is an overview of the basic principles of cognitive theories of personality, which focus on the ways in which individuals perceive, interpret, and process information about themselves and their environment.
Cognition and emotion: This explores the relationship between cognitive processes and emotional experiences, including the ways in which emotional states can be influenced by cognitive appraisals of potentially threatening or rewarding stimuli.
Cognitive biases and distortions: This examines the various cognitive biases and distortions that can impact personality development and functioning, such as confirmation bias, self-serving bias, and attribution error.
Self-schema theory: This describes the concept of self-schema, which is the mental representation of oneself that is used to organize and interpret information about oneself and the world.
Social cognition: This explores the ways in which social factors and cognitive processes interact to influence personality and behavior, including processes such as social comparison, social influence, and group dynamics.
Information processing and decision-making: This examines how cognitive processes are involved in decision-making and problem-solving, including the role of heuristics, mental models, and other cognitive strategies.
Memory and cognition: This describes the ways in which cognitive processes are involved in memory encoding, retention, and retrieval, and how these processes can influence personality and behavior.
Perception and attention: This explores the relationship between cognitive processes such as perception and attention and personality, including the ways in which individual differences in these processes affect behavior and mental health.
Motivation and self-regulation: This examines how cognitive processes are involved in motivation and self-regulation, including the role of goal-setting, self-efficacy, and self-control.
Personality assessment and measurement: This describes the various methods used to assess and measure personality, including both self-report and observational techniques, and how cognitive approaches can inform the development of new assessments.
Trait Theory: Trait theory in psychology refers to the study of individual personality traits and their influence on behavior and overall personality.
Social-Cognitive Theory: Social-Cognitive Theory is an approach in psychology that emphasizes the interaction between a person's thoughts, behaviors, and environment, and how these factors contribute to their personality development and social interactions.
Cognitive-Experiential Theory: Cognitive-Experiential Theory examines how individual's social experiences and cognitive processes shape and influence their personality development.
Personal-Construct Theory: Personal-Construct Theory is a psychological approach that explores the individual's unique way of perceiving and interpreting the world, emphasizing the role of personal meanings in shaping personality.
Narrative Theory: Narrative theory in psychology refers to the study of how individuals construct their sense of self and identity through the interpretation and organization of personal experiences into coherent life narratives.
Information Processing Theory: Information Processing Theory is a cognitive approach that explores how individuals encode, store, retrieve, and manipulate information to shape their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Schema Theory: Schema Theory is a cognitive approach that explains how individuals organize and interpret information, based on their existing beliefs and preconceived notions.
Control Theory: Control Theory in psychology is a conceptual framework that explains human behavior as driven by an individual's desire to maintain a sense of control over their environment and themselves.
Positive Psychology: Positive Psychology focuses on studying and promoting the positive aspects of human experience, such as happiness, well-being, and personal growth, in order to enhance individual and collective flourishing.
Cultural Psychology: Cultural psychology explores how culture shapes individuals' thoughts, behaviors, and psychological processes, emphasizing the influence of cultural values, beliefs, and practices in shaping personality.
"Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psycho-social intervention that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression and anxiety disorders."
"Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most effective means of treatment for substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders."
"CBT focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions (such as thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes) and their associated behaviors to improve emotional regulation and develop personal coping strategies that target solving current problems."
"Though it was originally designed to treat depression, its uses have been expanded to include many issues and the treatment of many mental health conditions, including anxiety, substance use disorders, marital problems, ADHD, and eating disorders."
"CBT is a common form of talk therapy based on the combination of the basic principles from behavioral and cognitive psychology."
"It is different from historical approaches to psychotherapy, such as the psychoanalytic approach where the therapist looks for the unconscious meaning behind the behaviors, and then formulates a diagnosis."
"The therapist's role is to assist the client in finding and practicing effective strategies to address the identified goals and to alleviate symptoms of the disorder."
"CBT is based on the belief that thought distortions and maladaptive behaviors play a role in the development and maintenance of many psychological disorders and that symptoms and associated distress can be reduced by teaching new information-processing skills and coping mechanisms."
"When compared to psychoactive medications, review studies have found CBT alone to be as effective for treating less severe forms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), tics, substance use disorders, eating disorders, and borderline personality disorder."
"Some research suggests that CBT is most effective when combined with medication for treating mental disorders, such as major depressive disorder."
"CBT is recommended as the first line of treatment for the majority of psychological disorders in children and adolescents, including aggression and conduct disorder."
"Researchers have found that other bona fide therapeutic interventions were equally effective for treating certain conditions in adults."
"Along with interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), CBT is recommended in treatment guidelines as a psychosocial treatment of choice."