Cognitive Strategies as Personality: Effectiveness, Specificity, Flexibility, and Change

Abstract

As units of personality, cognitive strategies describe how individuals use self-knowledge and knowledge about the social world to translate their goals into behavior. The concept of a strategy captures coherent patterns of appraisal, planning, retrospection, and effort (Bruner, Goodnow, & Austin, 1956; Cantor & Kihlstrom, 1987; Norem, 1987; Showers & Cantor, 1985). Strategies focus on process: the ways people direct their attention, construct expectations and goals, allocate their time and effort, protect their self-esteem, and react emotionally. Thus, strategies elaborate on the instantiation of traits and motives. Analysis of personality and individual differences in terms of strategies shifts emphasis away from general dispositions towards the cognitive links between motives and actions.KeywordsGrade Point AverageCognitive StrategyStrategy GroupSocial OptimistAcademic TaskThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.