The socio-cognitive theory of personality and its clinical applications

Abstract

Personality is a cognitive-affective processing system, which, according to the socio-cognitive theory, creates four dimensions. They are reflected in the skills, beliefs, standards and goals of the individual, which are consistent and consistent patterns of behaviour. Self-efficacy judgments and self-patterns determine the choice of goals and persistence in achieving them. On the other hand, the emotions preceding and accompanying the achievement of goals affect coping with stress and problems. The review of the clinical and therapeutic applications of this theory included stress inoculation training, REBT rational emotive therapy, Beck's cognitive depression therapy, schema therapy and modelling methods. The great advantage of this theory is the possibility of verifying its theoretical assumptions and confirming their huge amount of research. Besides, it has a practical application as many types of cognitive-behavioural therapies have been developed on its basis.