Context and Attention Drive Personality

At times, almost everyone is inclined to frame an important issue according to a status quo concept. That certainly is true regarding the notion of personality.  For instance, in 2016, approximately 75 percent of published personality-oriented articles either made reference to or focused exclusively on the Big Five (BF) theory of personality.  I, too, have mentioned the Big Five frequently in this blog (see, for instance, Personality Change in Adulthood), doing so because of the theory’s dominance in professional research and literature.  But that does not mean that the BF is beyond reproach.

Let’s briefly consider another intriguing and useful way to interpret personality: the Context-Appropriate Balanced Attention Model (CABA).  First I will paraphrase the theory's explanation as discussed by Michael D. Collins, Chris J. Jackson, Benjamin R. Walker, Peter J. O’Connor, and Elliroma Gardiner (2016).  Then I will infer how the relatively novel approach might have relevance to our understanding of physical and mental health.

The BF provides a relatively simple and straightforward system from which to explain differences between people.  Most of us readily accept the notion that individuals usually can be classified reliably as extroverted or introverted, open or closed to experience, conscientious, on non-conscientious, agreeable or disagreeable, and neurotic or emotionally stable.  But the BF is of limited utility in describing the factors within a person that determine why they are as they are, or that cause them to be more or less personality-consistent over times and circumstances.  For instance, the BF does not explain why someone would be more introverted as they age or when they are in the presence of the opposite sex.

By contrast, the CABA applies mostly to how individuals adjust their behavior over times and circumstances.  As the name implies, the Context-Appropriate Balanced Attention Model operates via the allocation of attention within a given context.  It posits that we have only a limited supply of attention upon which to draw to activate adaptive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and/or to inhibit maladaptive ones.  In any given situation, when adaptive processes are dominant, we naturally attend to that which is adaptive and when maladaptive processes are dominant, we naturally attend to that which is maladaptive.  Therefore, to change the situation-specific dominant mode from adaptive to maladaptive or vice versa, we must be able to redirect our attentional resources to the new focus.  That, of course, presumes that we are aware of the need to shift attention and capable of exerting the effort necessary to do so.  Michael Collins and his colleagues relate the CABA model and the CABA processes to their neurological substrates, but discussing that would take this blog too far afield.

For us, CABA helps underscore the role of attention, effort, and situation in determining our lifestyles.  Suppose you are an overeater and seek to overcome that condition.  According to the CABA model, your dominant mode involves attending maladaptively to food stimuli, and therefore eating too much, too often in one or more specific situations.  To reverse the condition, you must learn to redirect your attention in those specific overeating situations.  Your dominant mood needs to become one in which you attend to non-food stimuli with adequate power to maintain your non-food focus.   Obviously, you will not be able to reallocate your attentional resources if you remain unaware when your attention is drawn excessively to food.  And anything that depletes your attentional resources (e.g., fatigue or alcohol) will make your desired change less likely to occur.

When you seek a lifestyle change then, know the contexts most likely both to promote and to inhibit the new desired behavior.  With that knowledge as your guide, plan how you can regulate your contexts and attention adaptively toward the desired and away from the undesired stimuli.  I can frame this important issue according to a status quo concept familiar to all and advise you to be "mindful" of what your want to do, what you want to avoid, the contexts that promote each, and how you control your attention.       

     

Reference:

Collins, M., Jackson, C., Walker, B., O’Connor, P. & Gardiner, E.  (2016). Integrating the Context-Appropriate Balanced Attention Model and Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory: Towards a Domain-General Personality Process Model.  Psychological Bulletin, November 28. No Pagination Specified. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000082