| Cognitive-Affective Processing System | |
Proponents Relevant works | |
| Psychology portal | |
Cognitive-affective theorists argue that behavior is not the result of some global personality trait; instead, it arises from individuals' perceptions of themselves in a particular situation.However, inconsistencies in behavior are not due solely to the situation; inconsistent behaviors reflect stable patterns of variation within the person. These stable variations in behavior present themselves in the following framework: If A, then X; but if B, then Y. People's pattern of variability is the behavioral signature of their personality, or their stable pattern of behaving differently in various situations.According to this model, personality depends on situation variables, and consists of cognitive-affective units (all those psychological, social, and physiological aspects of people that allow them to interact with their environment in a relatively stable manner).
The authors identified five cognitive-affective units:
The cognitive-affective processing system theory attempts to explain seemingly conflicting evidence -- personality remains relatively invariant over time and throughout different social contexts, whereas social behaviors vary substantially across different situations. The theory integrates concepts of personality structure and dynamics, obviating the need for two subdisciplines in personality psychology, each with different and sometimes conflicting goals (i.e. personality dispositions or personality processes).[2]