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3 PSSO2614 - Chapter 4 - Unit 3 - 2023

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3 PSSO2614 - Chapter 4 - Unit 3 - 2023

Uploaded by

mohapisthaba77
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 4 Unit 3

Choices and actions: The self in control


By Mpilo MT
Upcoming activities

Questionmark UNITS COVERED DATE


quizzes

QM Quiz 1 Units 1 – 3 13th March from 8 am – 14th March at 8 pm

QM Quiz 2 Units 4 – 7 17th April from 8 am – 18th April at 8 pm

QM Quiz 3 Unit 8 – 10 8th May from 8 am – 9th May at 8 pm


Upcoming activities

Assessment Units covered Date

Test 1 Units 1 – 3 18th March 2023 Monday

Test 2 Units 4 – 7 and readings 22nd April 2023 Saturday

Test 3 Units 8 – 11 and readings 20th May 2023 Saturday

Sick test All units and readings 27th May 2023 Saturday

Final exam All units and readings Exam calendar


Unit 3 – Learning Objectives
• Distinguish four patterns that influence the
choices people make
• Analyse how a belief in free will affects
behaviour
• Summarise how a hierarchy of goals affects
planning and reaching goals
• Explain the TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) loop
• Identify the two main pathways to self-
destructive behaviour
Making choices
• Two steps to making choices
• Reduce the range of choices to a few
• Carefully compare highlighted options
• Influences on choice
• Risk aversion: weight to losses than gains
• Temporal discounting: weight to present over future
• The certainty effect: definite outcome than possibilities
• Keeping your options open

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Why people don’t
choose
• Decision avoidance
• The general theme is anticipated regret
• status quo bias: keep things they way they
are
• and omission bias: take action that does not
require you to do anything
• Some decisions are too difficult
• Too many vs few choices

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Reactance theory
• People desire freedom of choice, and react
negatively when freedom is taken away
• Example: pg 109
• Consequences of reactance
• May want forbidden option more
• May take steps to reclaim the lost option
• May feel/act aggressively

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Freedom to change
• Entity theory: good and bad traits are fixed
• People should not be expected to change
• Prefer to do things they are good at
• Failure is devastating and produce learned helplessness

• Incremental theory: traits can change and be improved upon


• People can change
• Likely to enjoy learning and challenges
• Failure forces them to try harder

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Freedom of action
• More or less free
• Some choices are made freely
• External factors may constrain other choices
• Free action comes from inside
• Self-determination theory: people need some degree of
autonomy and internal motivation
• Having an out versus no escape
• Panic button effect: reduction in stress due to belief
that one has an escape

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


• Goals: ideas of some desired future state
• Setting goals
Setting and • Choosing among possible goals
pursuing • Evaluating their feasibility and desirability
• Pursuing goals
goals
• Planning and carrying out behaviours to
reach goals

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Setting and pursuing goals
(cont’d.)
• Hierarchy of goals
• Short-term (proximal) goals
• Long-term (distal) goals
• Duplex mind is relevant to goal hierarchies
• Multiple goals and goal shielding
• Different goals compete inside your mind
• Goal shielding: shutting off thoughts of other goals
while pursuing a single goal
• Goals may also be associated with certain people. e.g.
parents

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Setting and pursuing goals
(cont’d.)
• Reaching goals: what’s the plan?
• Planning focuses on how to reach goals
• Drawbacks
• Too detailed & rigid plans can be discouraging
• Plans tend to be overly optimistic
• Common mistakes in planning
• Planning fallacy: belief that project will proceed as
planned
• Planner fails to allow for unexpected problems

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Self-regulation and habits
• Control and willpower
• Self-regulation: capacity to alter you own responses (self-
control)
• Enables flexibility, social conscience, keeping to promises
• Inadequate self-regulation – drugs, obesity, STDs
• Standards: ideas that guide self-regulation
• Effective self-regulation components
• Standards – can be set by culture. - e.g. what is right or wrong,
• Monitoring - keep track of behaviour you want to change
• Willpower for change – this is needed to keep trying when you feel
discouraged & want to quit

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


TOTE

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Self-regulation and habit (cont’d.)

• Willpower can be depleted


• Resisting temptation uses up willpower
• Depleted willpower can impair decision making
• Decision fatigue
• State of depleted willpower caused by making
decisions, which can affect subsequent decisions
by failing to think carefully

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights


Reserved.
Habits
• Habit
• Acquired behaviour that, if followed regularly, will
become almost automatic
• Occurs with relatively little control by the
deliberate system
• Goals promote learning of habits
• Habits can sustain the pursuit of goals when will power is low
• Goals can also conflict with habits
• Self-control is often needed to break habits

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Irrationality and self-destruction
• Self-defeating acts
• Being your own worst enemy
• Self-defeating behaviour
• Any action by which people bring failure, suffering, or
misfortune on themselves
• e.g. smoke cigarette, eating unhealthy foods, risky sex,
• Fear of success theory & women?
1. Sometimes good & bad outcomes are linked
2. Faulty knowledge & reliance on useless strategies. e.g.
procrastination

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.


Suicide
• Fits the now-versus-future pattern
• Willing to trade away future to end present
suffering
• Starts with some discrepancy between expectations
and reality
• Often set in motion by a significant change for the
worse
• No single theory can account for all suicides

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. All Rights


Reserved.
Summary
Human behaviour depends on meaning and
is guided by many factors

Humans break complex tasks, such as making


a choice or pursuing a goal, into smaller steps

Self-regulation and self-destructive


tendencies often guide human behaviours

Copyright © 2018 Cengage Learning. Al


l Rights Reserved.

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