Ch.9: Personality Flashcards

1
Q

Personality comes from the Greek word ‘___________’ (mask) which means character represented in a play

A

persona

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2
Q

The combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character: “she had a sunny personality that was very engaging”

A

Personality

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3
Q

Personality involves both _______ and ________ over time

A

stability and change

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4
Q

Traits

A

refers to a person’s usual way of behaving

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5
Q

Personality is often measured in terms of ______________ or ______________

A

mean-level change or rank-order consistency

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6
Q

Mean-level change

A

comparing group mean levels on a personality trait between 2 or more points in time.

You might look at a group of 30 year olds and see their mean level of extroversion. And then you could follow them for 20 years at age 50 and again take a look at extroversion & see if there’s a mean level change

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7
Q

Rank-order consistency

A

looks at the stability of a person’s rank within a certain group over time

Is the most extroverted person still the most extroverted in 10 years?

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8
Q

Mean level differences

A

compare group of 30 yr olds right now to a group of 50 yr olds right now

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9
Q

Costa & McCrae’s (1999) research posited notion that personality is “set like plaster”, with very little change after age 30. Why did they think this was the case?

A

Because of significant milestones that happen

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10
Q

TRUE or FALSE

According to research (mean-level changes): Although personality change is not as dramatic as before ag 30, it continues to occur even into older adulthood

A

TRUE

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11
Q

Maturity principle

A
  • those individuals following the developmental trend of increased agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness, and decreased neuroticism
  • people whose personality traits change in line with this maturity principle have better relationship quality, greater success at work, less criminality, fewer mental health problems, healthier, and even live longer than those whose personality traits do not follow this pattern across the lifespan
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12
Q

In the meta-analysis of the Big 5 Personality Traits, what increases and decreases with age?

A
  • Extroversion: Social vitality decreases, social dominance increases
  • Agreeableness increase with age
  • Conscientiousness increase with age
  • Emotional stability increase with age
  • Openness to experience decrease with age
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13
Q

A meta-analysis of 152 studies indicated that rank-order stability tends to linearly _________ form childhood older adulthood

A

increase

  • people high in a trait stay high relative to others
  • their meta-analysis revealed that trait consistency was lowest in childhood, increased during college years, increased again to age 39 and then reached a plateau between ages 50 & 70.
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14
Q

What accounts for personality change across the lifespan? (4 perspectives)

A
  1. Biological-Essentialist- The basis of the FFM model; Personality is determined by genetic/biological factors; Research shows that genetics account for 40-60% of personality trait differences
  2. Contextualist- Personality arises through interaction with the environment
  3. Corresponsive Principle- People experience life events that reflect their personality traits; once these events occur, they further affect people’s personalities
    ex: ambitious & confident people are attracted to demanding jobs & demanding jobs need dedication & drive leading to more ambition & confidence
    Personality stability is influenced by the active choices that we make. It’s about an interaction between one’s personality & the experiences that people choose
  4. Interactional- considers both the person and the environment in the development; idea that it’s both nature & nurture
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15
Q

This big 5 personality trait is associated to decreased risk of mortality, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, substance abuse, obesity, smoking, Alzheimer’s

A

Conscientiousness

  • people who are more conscientious are more likely to exercise, take their meds, etc.
  • lower levels of conscientiousness= increase risk of mortality
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16
Q

High levels of this big 5 personality trait is associated to increased risk of substance abuse, obesity, smoking, lung disease, high blood pressure, depression, Alzheimer’s

A

Neuroticism

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17
Q

Initial study showed strong relationships between Type A personality and cardiovascular disease but what does more recent more rigorous studies have found?

A

Have found far less compelling evidence for this link

18
Q

Low __________ increases resilience against developing Alzheimer’s disease

A

Neuroticism

19
Q

Low __________ increases vulnerability to develop Alzheimer’s disease

A

Conscientiousness

20
Q

He said said personality development was completely shaped by adolescence.

  • Theory of the id, ego, and superego
  • Our personality and behavior arise from conflicts between these three aspects of the unconscious mind
  • Defense mechanisms help us manage the anxiety from underlying sexual and/or aggressive impulses
A

Sigmund Freud

21
Q

He said that younger people are more extroverted than older people because young people need to find work & need to find a partner so they need to be more extroverted to do this. And when they get older, this is less important because old age is a time for reflection

he is the first theorist to posit that personality can change into adulthood

A

Carl Jung

22
Q

Epigenetic principle

A
  • each stage unfolds from the previous stage in predestined order, but people may experience a psychosocial issue at an age other that the one shown
23
Q

Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development has been criticized for being difficult too empirically test. Why is this?

A
  • A given stage is never really fully mastered. For example, trust may reoccur throughout the lifespan when precipitated by different life events
24
Q
A
25
Q

The focus of this psychosocial development stage of Erikson is developing close & intimate relationships with friends, partners. If this doesn’t happen, isolation will occur

A

Intimacy vs. Isolation

26
Q

In this psychosocial development stage of Erikson one feels a need to give back to one’s community. Mentoring future generations, passing along the knowledge & experience that one has acquired

A

Generativity vs. Stagnation

27
Q

In this psychosocial development stage of Erikson, reviewing one’s life & trying to make meaning of the good & bad in it.

A

Integrity vs. Despair

28
Q

Research suggests that higher levels of _____________ are associated with more meaningful and satisfactory social relationships and greater psychological well-being.

A

generativity

29
Q

___________ is positively associated will all big five traits except neuroticism

A

Generativity

30
Q

Programs such as __________________ provide structured opportunities to foster generativity

A

Elder Service Corps

31
Q

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

A
  • When people develop sense of time running out, they’re more likely to focus on the emotional rewards of relationships than the informational ones.
  • Therefore they prefer to spend time with the people they are closest to in their lives (people that make them happy). This is true for younger and older adults
32
Q

In the socioemotional selectivity theory, the _____________ trajectory increases with old age while the ___________ trajectory decrease with old age

A

emotion, knowledge

33
Q

Possible selves theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986)

A
  • views about the self guide choices and pursuits of future endeavors
  • people are motivated to strive for hoped-for possible self and attempt to avoid feared possible self
  • older adults may lower expectations in order to feel more satisfied with what they achieve
34
Q

Problem-focused coping

A

attempts to change situation

35
Q

Emotion-focused coping

A

attempt to change appraisal

36
Q

Life narratives

A
  • “life storied do not simply reflect personality. They are personality, or more accurately, they are important parts of personality, along with other parts, like dispositional states, goals and values”- Dan McAdams & Erika Manczak
  • the life story forms a personal narrative of individual’s past life
37
Q

These 3 transition points (stages) of adult development according to Levinson each involve change in the life structure

A
  • early adult transition
  • midlife transition
  • late adult transition
38
Q

What is a key idea in the life transition theories?

A

Midlife crisis

39
Q

Midlife correction

A
  • you reflect on where you’re expected to be at this point in your life & then you do something about it if you aren’t living up to your expectations
40
Q

TRUE or FALSE

There is very little data to support the universality of a midlife crisis

A

TRUE

41
Q

3 Critiques for the Mid-life crisis

A
  • Age is not a marker of development
  • Levinson’s book was highly subjective
  • The “findings” were never replicated
42
Q

MIDUS doesn’t support the midlife crisis. MIDUS stands for

A

Midlife development in the US