Background on Personality Flashcards
What traits are dog people vs cat people likely to exhibit?
D: extraversion and agreeableness
C: Neuroticism and openness
What is the study of personality useful for?
If we can understand personalities, we can perhaps predict what people might do
What kind of traits are personalities composed of?
A unique combination of emotional, behavioural, and motivational traits
What are the four bodily humours according to Hippocrates and Galen?
- Blood
- black bile
- yellow bile
- phlegm
Describe the four personality types laid out by Hippo. What is this called?
- Sanguine - hopeful, brave, amorous
- Choleric - easily angered, not fun
- Melancholic - pessimistic, irritable
- Phlegmatic - mellow, unemotional
Humourism theory
How long were hippo’s views held as fact? what modern theory is it most similar to?
1000 years or so. Eysenck, 3 types of personality
What is the (simple) definition of personality an what 2 factors is it used to explain?
A unique constellation of behavioural traits
- stability of behaviour over time and across situations
- Behavioural differences of people reacting to the same situation
Describe/define “personality trait” What must it be?
Basically, the disposition that you will behave in during a variety of circumstances. Must be durable and distinct from others
How is the map of traits generally structured? Give an example.
Hierarchically. That is, most traits are just offshoots of primary ones. Being annoying or grating are offshoots of excitability
What conclusion did Catell come to about traits, and how did he do this?
He used factor analysis to boil down adjectives in the dictionary to come up with 16 core traits
What is factor analysis?
Finding clusters of closely related variables within a wider set. Done by examining the correlations between variables (in this case adjectives)
Give an example of factor analysis in action
Let’s say I wanted to find a core word/trait. I’d look at all of the words relating to anger in the dictionary and compare how related they are. The higher related the words are to each other, the ore likely they have a common ancestor in anger
What are the first three big five personality traits according to McCrae? What is the acronym?
Openness to experience: curious people who might go to Europe on a whim and appreciate art
Conscientiousness: a disciplined person and more child-minded parents
Extraversion: an assertive person motivated by pursuit of intimacy
OCEAN
Which factor of the big five is a more recent and debatable addition, why? What’s it also called?
Openness. Generally not as cohesive as others
Culture-intellect
What are the last two big five traits?
Agreeableness: a trusting and empathetic person
Neuroticism: an anxious and insecure person who’s impulsive
