What are implicit theories?

 

 

 

                                                                                   

 

                                   

Text Box: How we view money, power or friendship?

 

 

 

 

 


 

Text Box: A Framework or Foundation?

 

                                               

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Text Box: An outline or structure we believe to be true? Text Box: How we perceive ourselves?         What are implicit theories?  

 

 


            Implicit theories can be defined as an individual’s basic assumptions about himself/herself and the rest of the world. “Implicit theories are necessary because they help to create a meaningful system by providing a framework to guide our goals,” (Dweck, 1995).  Implicit theories are used as a framework for understanding situations so we don’t have to start from the beginning every time we are confronted with new information. Rowan (1988) describes implicit theories as “Cognitive structures held by ordinary people that are used to generate explanations, descriptions, and/or predictions regarding a phenomenon” (p. 1). Implicit theories also influence goals, motivations, attributions and behavior in relationships (Knee, Patrick, Lonsbary, 2003). 

 

            Each one of us may carry these sorts of theories around with us on a day to day basis.  In fact, they are a strong foundation for many of the things we believe to be true throughout our lives. We might not be accustomed to calling these beliefs, theories, but they are very common to who we are. Each one of us has a theory about life, love and friends.  For example we each have a particular practice on how we spend or give away our money, and we each have beliefs about ourselves and others. Even though these theories may or may not correspond with a formal theory that has already been researched or written, they are still theories that can be thought of as our individual preconceptions (Cheney, Christensen, Zorn, Ganesh, 2004). These types of theories are the basis for what we use to approach new and old situations, and often times we also use this information to make decisions.

             According to Dweck (1995), there are mainly two types of implicit theorists - “entity theorists” and “incremental theorists”.  The “Entity” theorists believe that traits are firmly established and fairly consistent thus causing theorists to be confident in making assumptions from a minuscule amount of behavior. “Incremental” theorists believe traits are always varying over time. They see traits as not having much predictive value and therefore are not as confident to pass judgments.

            Entity and incremental views of traits form an important framework for understanding social judgments and biases. “Research on implicit theories is not to evaluate the “correctness’ of people’s beliefs because these theories are simply different ways of constructing reality. Rather, research is used to demonstrate that having one view or the other has potentially significant consequences.” (Dweck, 1995, p.1)

            Psychologically, people of similar culture, social and educational backgrounds are known to share implicit theories, or lay theories as they might often be called. “I want to believe that I understand my environment and see the world consistently with my peers. I am motivated to retain the notion that I see the objects themselves. Implicit theories may cause individuals to naturally be motivated to retain existing beliefs and to protect their belief structures” (Rowan, 1988).

            To see if you are a part of an effective organization look at how you organizations work has been challenged by specific experiences that questioned your existing beliefs. Learn more about your implicit theories with the links below:

Hyperlinks:

http://www.joe.org/joe/2003october/tt1.shtml

http://www2.agsm.edu.au/agsm/web.nsf/Content/AGSMMagazine-ImplicitTheories

http://opensource.mit.edu/papers/bosco.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9216077&dopt=Abstract

 

Works Cited

Cheney, Christensen, Zorn, Ganesh, (2004). Organization Communication: in an Age of        Globalization. Illinois: Waveland Press

Dweck, C. S. (1995). Implicit theories as organizers of goals and behavior. In P.M.,               Gollwitzer and J.A. Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking        cognition and motivation to behavior, p. 69-90. New York: Guilford Press.

Knee, Patrick, Lonsbary, (2003). Implicit Theories of Relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 7, 41-55

Rowan, K. (1988). A contemporary theory of explanatory writing. Written      Communication, 5(1), 23-56.