Chapter 12 Flashcards
characteristic pattern of thinking, interacting, and reacting that is unique to each in individual and remains relatively consistent over time and situations
Personality
– focus on creating detailed descriptions of individuals and their unique personality characteristics
o Might involve a rare type of individual
o i.e. a profile of someone with exceptionally creative talent
• Idiographic approach
examines personality groups of people; aims to make generalizations about personality structure
o Advantage: allows psycholgoists to ask questions about genetic and cultural basis of personality traits
o i.e. shy vs outgoing, optimistic vs pessimistic, etc
• Nomothetic approach
labels specific to attributes of personality (shy, cheerful, outgoing, adventurous)
Personality traits
stats show that there are similarities among a wide variety of items; broad personality labels
• i.e. friendly, kind, warm
• clusters = factors
Factor analysis
Raymond Cattell narrowed the list of 18k traits to 16
McCrae and Costa found that personality could be reduced to five major dimensions
• The Five Factor Model (The Big Five personality factors) – trait-based approach to personality measurement; includes
o Extraversion
o emotional stability
o conscientiousness
o agreeableness
o openness
The Five Factor Model (440-441)
- Fixed or do they change?
- Infants vs adults
• Temperament – represent innate, biological basis of personality
Personality Traits over the Life Span
a temporary physical or psychological engagement that influences behaviour
• i.e. lashing out at the waiter bc of hunger
State
Aspects of Situations that influence Behaviour:
- Locations (work, school, home)
- Associations (friend, alone, with family)
- Activities (awake, rushed, studying)
- Subjective states (mad, happy, drunk, sick)
Normal and Abnormal Personality:
The MMPI-2 aka Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
multiple-question personality inventory that is used to characterize both normal personality dimensions and profiles that fit various psychological disorders
• Main purpose is to discriminate bt normal and abnormal characteristics
The MMPI-2 aka Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Other Methods for Measuring Personality
• Interviews
• Behavioural assessments
o Create a profile by observing an individual in a specific context or situation
o Drawback of knowing you’re being observed can alter behaviour
• Projective tests
Reciprocal determinism
idea that behavior, internal (personal) factors, and external factors interact to determine one another and are based on interactions among these three aspects
Culture and Personality
Cultural Variations in the Big Five
• Challenge to find a standardized measure across cultures
• WEIRD places (USA, Canada, Europe)
• Traits may differ among cultures
• Many findings defy cultural stereotypes
Culturally Unique Personality Traits
- Issue with using Big Five for research: it poses a structure of personality on other cultures
- Members of other cultures may have more than just the Big Five
- China and interpersonal relatedness (harmony, tradition, relationships) not covered in the Big Five
- Overall, research using the Big Five measures does show cross-cultural consistency
the view that personal identity, goals, and attributes are of greater value than group identity, goals and attributes
Individualism
a view that places greater value on defining self in terms of group membership and goals
Collectivism
The distinction bt invidualism and collectivism found in the brain
• Different brain patterns
• Using the Big Five, identical (monozygotic) twins showed a stronger correlation in personality traits than fraternal (dizygotic twins)
o Identical twins: treated in similar ways; could be due to similar environment
• Heredity plays an important role but we should also consider environment and parenting among other factors that affect personality
Twin Studies
– regulates mood and emotion; found on chromosome 17
• Serotonin
• Codes for proteins that transport serotonin molecules within synapses (tiny spaces) between nerve cells
From Molecules to Personality
• Genes are _______; there are different versions of the same gene that can lead to different physical or behavioural characteristics
polymorphic
• Two variations of the serotonin transporter gene: long and short copy
o Short copy – predisposed to anxiety, shyness, negative emotional reactions to interpersonal situations
• Genes interact w the environment to produce behaviour
- Personality evolved to promote survival and reproductive success
- i.e. jealousy as a means to advertise that their mate is unavailable (455)
The Role of Evolution in Personality
• Big Five personality traits found in a variety of secies including hedgehogs, ants, rhinos, primates (456)
Animal Behaviour: The Evolutionary Roots of Personality
Evolution and Individual Differences in Personality traits
- Personality varies form individual to individual
- Evolutionary noise – individual differences (bc evolution occurs at the size of a population)
- “opposites attract”
- assortative mating – choosing sexual partners who are similar to the individual doing the searching
- personality is flexible
- Women generally report higher ratings of extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism
- Countries with the largest gender difference also have greater access to resources (health care, education, wealth)
- Prosperity gives members of either gender to diverge
Men are from Venus, Women are from Mars
Ancient medicine guided by the:
• Body consisted of four humors: o Blood o Phlegm o Black bile o Yellow bile • Illness and disorders due to an imbalance (i.e. too much black bile leading to melancholy)
theory of humorism
Later decided that the skull was a better place to understand personality
• Franz Gall (1700) developed
- Personality characteristics corresponded to individual differences in brain structure; assessed by measuring shape and contours of skull surface
- Shape of the skull had little to nothing to do with personality
phrenology
Personality linked to specific ______
• Hans Eysenck
• Proposed arousal states of the brain as basis of extraversion and reactivity of limbic system (emotional circuits), reticular activating system, and cortex
• Decreased reactivity = unaroused
o Seek out social and emotional stimulation
• Introverts have higher reactivity so they don’t seek out stimulation as much as extraverts
brain regions
Two hemispheres of the brain
• Left and right differ in processing of positive and negative emotions
o Activity in left prefrontal cortex is associated with positive responses; whereas activity in right responds to threat and unfamiliar stimuli
o Individuals differ by which side dominates
- Left – more positive emotions
- Right – more anxious
• MRI
Contemporary Research: Images of Personality in the Brain
