Chapter 3 - Personality Traits

Question 1

What is the statistical approach?

Answer 1

Uses factors analysis to identify major personality traits

Traits that come up more commonly are important

Question 2

What is the theoretical approach?

Answer 2

Researchers rely on theories to identify important traits

Distinguish between people e.g. Someone’s personality in prison will determine if they get parole or not

Question 3

Synonym frequency?

Answer 3

Means if an attribute has not one or two traits adjectives to describe it but rather many words

Question 4

What is cross cultural universality?

Answer 4

If a trait is sufficiently important in all cultures that its members have codified terms to describe that trait. It must be universally important

Question 5

What is the lexical approach?

Answer 5

All traits listed and defined in the dictionary form of basis of describing differences among people.

All important individual differences have become encoded within natural language - these become noticed over time

An English trait such as “fun loving” that keeps reappearing in different languages

Question 6

What makes up PEN???

Answer 6

Psychoticism
Extraversion
Neuroticism

Question 7

Adjacency, bipolarity and orthogonality?

Answer 7

Adjacency: how close the traits are to each other

Bipolarity: traits that are bipolar are located at opposite sides

Orthogonality: specifies that traits are perpendicular to each other

Question 8

What makes up the 5 factor model?

Answer 8

Extravetsion- Love to party, engage in frequent interactions, love social attention

Agreeableness- “let’s get along” use negotiation to solve conflicts

Concientiousness- love to get ahead, hard workers, punctual, neat and orderly

Emotional stability- taps into the way people deal with stress, calm. Relaxed, anxious

Culture- intellect and opened, artistic, creative

Question 9

An example of a combination in the big 5?

Answer 9

High level of alcohol consumption can be to do with high extraversion but low conscientiousness

Question 10

What is socioeconomic orientation?

Answer 10

Men and woman will pursue one of two alternative sexual relationship strategies (monogamy v.s. Promiscuity)

Question 11

What’s factor analysis?

Answer 11

Identifies groups of items that convey but tend not to in groups

a process in which the values of observed data are expressed as functions of a number of possible causes in order to find which are the most important.

Question 12

What is synonym frequency?

Answer 12

If an attribute has not one or two traits adjectives to describe it but rather many words but more importantly individual differences

Question 13

Sense of importance, doesn’t take criticism well, need for attention, lack of empathy, what is this an example of?

Answer 13

Narcissism

Question 14

What is machiavelianism?

Answer 14

Based on Italian politician

Advice on how to be a successful politician:

• manipulate, be opportunistic
• view others as weak. Self serving and opportunistic
• disregard for mortality

High machs are more likely to cheat unethically in business

Question 15

What is psychopathy?

Answer 15

They are highly impulsive, thrill seeking, low empathy, fearless with anti social behaviour

Very common in prison populations

Aggressive, high physical aggression, peer related romantic aggression

Question 16

What is the dark triad made up of?

Answer 16

Psychopathy, machiavelianism, narcissism

Question 17

Out of the 3 in the dark triad which are more strongly correlated?

Answer 17

Narcissism and psychopathy

Question 18

Why are the dark triad traits similar?

Answer 18

They are distinct traits with many things in common e.g. Callousness is a feature in psychopathy, narcissism and psychopathy

Question 19

Explain v.s describe, how does this relate to the theoretical approach and the statistical approach?

Answer 19

Trait is important because it causes behaviour -theoretical

This behaviour Leads to a trait - statistical

Question 20

Essentially the 5 factor model is?

Answer 20

The building block of personality

Question 21

There is so to speak a 6th dimension, what is it? And what other languages is it found it?

Answer 21

Honesty/humility - greed/arrogant

Found in Eastern Europe, Poland and Germany

Question 22

What is the HEXACO model?

What is its significance?

Answer 22

Honesty 
Emotionality
eXtraversion
Agreeableness 
Conscientiousness 
Openness to experience 

Mentions the 6th dimension, honesty and humility

Question 23

What is the goal of the PEN model? And what was its goal?

Answer 23

It is to focus on understanding causes of differences in how people act, think and feel. Proposes some traits are inheritable and some have biological foundation

It’s goal is to link specific response to habitual response then to traits, the super traits (PEN) finally to biological structures

Question 24

What are the 2 components that reappear in every personality theory?

Answer 24

Extraversion and anxiety

Question 25

Extroverts are low in cortical arousal, what does this mean for them?

Answer 25

This is why they are attracted to loud noises and business

Question 26

What does the MMPI mean?

Answer 26

Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory

Question 27

What does the MMPI do?

Answer 27

Assess 10 psychiatric disorders

Interviews normal and psychiatric patients, what do we see in one group and not the other?

Question 28

What are the validity scales of the MMPI?

Answer 28

Cannot say scale - number of answered questions, how many times did they refuse or lie?

Lie scale - tendency to present favourable image, catching people out in lies

Infrequency scale - tendency to falsely claim psych problems, they put questions to throw people off guard

Defensiveness scale - tendency to see oneself in unrealistically positive manner to promote goodness

Question 29

Problems with the MMPI?

Answer 29

Needs to be updated and tested every decade

Question 30

What is factor loading?

Answer 30

How much the variable explains the factor in factor analysis