Cognitive-Affective Processing Systems | Chapter 27 – Cambridge Personality Psychology

This chapter presents the Cognitive-Affective Processing System (CAPS) model, a comprehensive social-cognitive framework developed to address the longstanding "personality paradox," which highlights the conflict between the expectation of stable personality traits (inter-individual variability) and the common observation of inconsistency in specific behaviors across different situations (intra-individual variability). CAPS, rooted in the concept of reciprocal determinism, suggests that the true stability of personality is found not in overall behavioral levels, but in the invariant structure of internal cognitive and affective processing dynamics. This stable internal organization generates distinctive and highly predictable patterns of cross-situational behavior referred to as behavioral signatures, expressed as if... then... relations—for example, a person may be verbally aggressive if teased, but non-aggressive if praised by an adult. The model specifies five interacting Cognitive-Affective Units (CAUs) that mediate the link between situational features and subsequent actions: encodings, which are the personal constructs or schemas used to interpret the self and the situation; expectancies and beliefs, such as response-outcome and self-efficacy expectancies, which anticipate future outcomes; goals and values, which provide motivational direction, influencing what situations a person approaches or avoids, and determining emotional responses; affects, or emotional states, which profoundly influence information processing and behavior; and finally, competencies and self-regulation skills, which encompass capabilities like self-monitoring, affect-control, and action planning, actively influencing all other units in the system. These CAUs are organized in a unique and stable network of interconnections for each person. Research has demonstrated that these dynamic systems often settle into attractor states, which are mutually supporting constellations of cognitions and affects that help maintain the system’s coherence and sustain particular psychological conditions despite situational changes. Recent studies have validated these behavioral signatures across diverse settings and utilized implicit measures to assess the strength of the network associations, confirming that genetic factors influence these unique person-by-situation profiles. Furthermore, researchers are employing specialized top-down and bottom-up methods to accurately identify the psychologically active ingredients of situations that trigger these individual processing dynamics. 📘 Read full blog summaries for every chapter: https://lastminutelecture.com 📘 Have a book recommendation? Submit your suggestion here: https://forms.gle/y7vQQ6WHoNgKeJmh8 Thank you for being a part of our little Last Minute Lecture family! ⚠️ Disclaimer: These summaries are created for educational and entertainment purposes only. They provide transformative commentary and paraphrased overviews to help students understand key ideas from the referenced textbooks. Last Minute Lecture is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any textbook publisher or author. All textbook titles, names, and cover images—when shown—are used under nominative fair use solely for identification of the work being discussed. Some portions of the writing and narration are generated with AI-assisted tools to enhance accessibility and consistency. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, these materials are intended to supplement—not replace—official course readings, lectures, or professional study resources. Always refer to the original textbook and instructor guidance for complete and authoritative information.