Motivation, Emotion, and Cognition : Integrative Perspectives On Intellectual Functioning and Development

long-term adaptation may be disrupted by unexpected events, and short-term

adaptation may be eased by prior planning and familiarity.

We seek to relate long-term goals to personality and short-term goal to

states. Hence, we first present a cognitive-adaptive perspective on traits. We

focus especially on extraversion and neuroticism, the traits for which the be-

havioral data base is richest. We relate each trait to specialized adaptive

goals, and to biases in cognition and self-regulation that support attainment

of those goals. We discuss how these biases influence the course of intellectual

functioning and social problem solving. Next, we present an analysis of

states, focusing on recent work that discriminates integrated complexes of

emotional, cognitive, and motivational states. We argue that state responses

in performance settings reflect the person’s short-term adaptive goals, and

modulate the dynamic transaction between person and situation. States are

influenced by the person’s appraisal of the personal relevance of the task, and

themselves affect information processing, coping strategy, and task perform-

ance. Implications of this bidirectional process for intellectual functioning

are discussed. This chapter is concerned primarily with conceptual issues:

what traits and states mean as psychological constructs spanning the trilogy

of mind, and their implications for intellectual functioning. Thus, we do not

present detailed reviews of empirical studies (see Matthews, 1997, 1999;

Matthews, Schwean, et al., 2000; Zeidner, 1998; Zeidner & Matthews, 2000).

PERSONALITY TRAITS: A COGNITIVE-ADAPTIVE

FRAMEWORK

Traditionally, personality traits have been linked to individual differences in

brain function, consistent with evidence for the heritability of traits. For ex-

ample, interactive effects of personality and environmental stressors on intel-

ligence test performance have been attributed to overarousal of the cerebral

cortex (see Revelle, 1993). We do not deny the biological substrate for per-

sonality. However, biological models have proved to be of limited use in ex-

plaining the behavioral correlates of traits (Matthews & Gilliland, 1999). Ef-

146 MATTHEWS AND ZEIDNER

TABLE 6.1

Typical Properties of Long-Term and Short-Term Adaptive Processes

Timescale Long-Term Short-Term

Determinants of action Self-directed Reactive to circumstances
Temporal constraints Low High
Choice of environments High Low
Behavior change reflects: Competence Performance
Individual difference constructs Stable traits Transient states