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Personality and Individual Differences > Approaches to personality > Flashcards

Approaches to personality Flashcards

1
Q

Funder’s (1997) definition of personality

A

Pattern of thought, emotion, and behaviour, together with the psychological mechanisms - hidden or not - behind those patterns

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2
Q

Wilt & Revelle’s (2014) definition of personality

A

Abstractions that explain patterns of Affect, Behaviour, Cognition (and sometimes, Desires)

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3
Q

What are the overarching approaches to personality?

A

Nomothetic + Idiographic

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4
Q

What is the nomothetic approach

A

Individual differences can be described explained in terms of predefined attributes
(e.g. everyone is somewhere on extroverted continuum)

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5
Q

What explains the nomothetic approach?

A

Dispositional: personality seen as consistent, independent of situation, an extroverted person will always act so

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6
Q

What is the idiographic approach?

A

Individuals are so unique that two different people can’t be described using the same concepts

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7
Q

What explains the idiographic approach?

A

Situational: personality is a series of largely unrelated states, determined by the situation (someone may act extroverted because they are with their friend)

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8
Q

What do dispositional theorists say about the role of context in behaviour

A
  • Don’t deny the role
  • sig correlation between traits and behaviour
  • Traits influence types of situations encountered
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9
Q

The 4 Temperaments (Galen, AD 130-200)

A
  • Early model of personality
  • Balance of bodily fluids determines balance of temperaments
  • Melancholic (depressed
  • Choleric (angry)
  • Sanguine (happy)
  • Phlegmatic (calm)
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10
Q

Eysenck’s initial PEN theory (1947)

A
  • Two dimensions of personality (super traits) where everyone can be placed
  • Extraversion - Introversion
  • High neuroticism - low neuroticism
  • Biological approach
  • Complete description of someone’s personality
  • Scores on these traits are normally distributed
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11
Q

3rd Dimension PEN theory (1970s)

A
  • Observed emotionally unstable individuals with lower levels of fear and anxiety, lack of remorse or conscience and lack of appreciation of consequences
  • This added a psychoticism dimension
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12
Q

What does the psychoticism dimension involve

A
  • Highly unempathetic, aggressive, cold and creative
  • Low levels of altruism, conformism, rationalism, patience and unorganised
  • Not normally distributed
  • Not independent of neuroticism
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13
Q

Biological explanation of extraversion-introversion

A
  • Differential activity levels in reticulo-cortical system
  • The ARAS in brain stem modulates amount of electrical activity in the cortex
    Extraverts: lower levels of cortical arousal
    Introverts: higher levels of cortical arousal
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14
Q

What would an EEG see for extraversion + introversion

A
  • Lower cortical arousal (extraversion): lower frequency, higher amplitude EEG traces
  • Higher cortical arousal (introversion): higher frequency, lower amplitude EEG traces
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15
Q

What did Galen (1983) find when reviewing the biological explanation for extraversion-introversion

A
  • Mixed evidence, majority support it though
  • Methodological issues: unsystematic use of personality measures, v high/low arousal level of task will cause ppl to adapt to preferred level of cortical arousal
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16
Q

How is neuroticism explained biologically?

A

By differential activity levels in the reticulo-limbic system
- The limbic system is involved in emotional processing

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17
Q

Evaluation of 3rd dimension PEN theory

A
  • Good cross-cultural evidence
  • But psychoticism factor less accepted and not featured in other models
18
Q

What is Behavioural Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (Jeffery Gray)

A
  • Alternative to Eysenck PEN theory
  • Based on animal studies
  • Involves BAS and BIS (they dictate our responses in any given situation)
  • Strong biological component
19
Q

What is BAS (Behavioural Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory)

A
  • Behavioural Activation System
  • Activates approach behaviour towards goals (go signal)
  • Motivated to seek reward
  • Based on conditioned responses associated with positive events
20
Q

What is BIS (Behavioural Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory)

A
  • Behavioural Inhibition System
  • Focuses attention on potential costs
  • Inhibits behaviours associated with negative events
  • Motivated to avoid harm and punishment
21
Q

What did Gray propose were the 2 dimensions to personality?

A

Anxiety + Impulsivity

22
Q

What is the Lexical Hypothesis?

A
  • All aspects of personality can be described from single words used in language
  • Frequency of words corresponds with importance
23
Q

What did Allport & Odbert (1936) do?

A
  • Collected personality items from Webster’s dictionary referring to behavioural differences
  • Removed terms relating to cognitive, physical or transient states
24
Q

What did Allport & Odbert (1936) find? (dictionary)

A
  • Overlap in meaning of terms
  • 4500 terms likely represent smaller number of distinct traits
25
Q

What is a latent variable?

A

One that can’t be observed

26
Q

What type of variable is extraversion?

A

A latent variable

27
Q

What does psychometrics mean?

A

The scientific measurement of psychological variables

28
Q

What is Factor analysis?

A
  • A multivariate data reduction technique
  • Looks for the set of ‘latent variables’ that best account for the pattern of correlation within the dataset
  • Statistical technique
29
Q

What did Raymond Cattell (1905-1998) do?

A
  • Made groups of synonyms & pairs of antonyms
  • Selected exemplar from each & got 171 terms
  • 100 ppl rated someone on all 171 terms
30
Q

What did Raymond Cattell find? (synonyms & antonyms)

A
  • Examined correlations to find 60 clusters
  • Narrowed down to 45 terms
  • Factor analysed data relating to 45 surface traits using self- and other ratings & test performance
  • Identified 16 personality factors + listed in order of importance
31
Q

What were the 16 personality factors? (Raymond Cattell)

A

Reserved - Warm
Abstract - Concrete
Reactive - Emotionally stable
Deferential - Dominant
Serious - Lively
Expedient - Rule conscious
Shy - Socially bold
Utilitarian - Sensitive
Trusting - Vigilant
Practical - Imaginative
Forthright - Private
Self assured - Apprehensive
Traditional - Open to change
Group oriented - Self reliant
Tolerates disorder - Perfectionist
Relaxed - Tense

32
Q

Good points of Cattell’s 16 personality factors

A
  • Methodical, data-driven approach
  • Promoted use of factor analysis in personality research
  • They’re still used
  • Formed basis of ‘Big 5’ Models
33
Q

Bad points of Cattell’s 16 personality factors

A
  • Subjective and arbitrary
  • Many failures to replicate 16 factor structure
  • Is 16 too many?
  • Correlations between factors meaning they’re not independent
34
Q

Costa and McCrae’s Big Five

A
  • 5 Factors are necessary and reasonably sufficient for describing major features of personality at a global level
  • Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness
  • Each super trait has 6 facets measured on a scale
35
Q

Block (1995) critique of the Big 5

A
  • The factor analysis could’ve resulted in different solutions depending on how many, and which variables were entered
  • Single words insufficient to describe personality
  • Over reliance on lay persons
  • Simple correlations don’t capture full complexity of relationships between terms
  • Random choice for 6 facets per factor
  • Some important factors not represented (narcissism)
36
Q

Evidence for cross-cultural stability of the Big 5 factors

A

Thalmayer & Saucier (2014): measurement invariance across 26 nations

37
Q

Emerging evidence for biological basis of personality

A

Cukic & Bates (2014): openness associated with increased ANS activation at rest

38
Q

Eysenck’s conflicting view with Big 5

A
  • Openness is intelligence, not personality
  • Agreeableness is just low psychoticism, low neuroticism and high extraversion
39
Q

2 Other big trait models

A

Alternative big 5 (Zuckerman et al., 1999)
HEXACO (Lee & Ashton, 2004)

40
Q

Zuckerman’s alternative big 5

A

Impulsive unsocialised sensation seeking, Agression-hostility, Activity, Sociability, Neuroticism-anxiety

Personality and Individual Differences (10 decks)

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