Chapter 8: Personality Flashcards
Traits
stable, enduring dispositions that persist over time
Trait perspective
assuming that the organization of traits guides an individual’s behavior
Five-factor model or Big five
theory intended to capture all essential characteristics of personality in a set of 5 broad dispositions with 6 subscales or facets each
NEO-PI-R
questionnaire used to test the FFM; Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Personality Inventory-Revised
5 traits in FFM
OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism)
Correspondence principle
people seek environments and experience life events that are consistent with their personalities, further reinforcing their personalities
Type A behavior pattern
a collection of traits that include being highly competitive, impatient, feeling a strong sense of time urgency, highly achievement-oriented, and can be high in hostility
Personality risk factors for heart disease
type A and type D personality
Type D personality
high levels of anxiety, loneliness, and depression who try to suppress their feelings
Socioemotional selectivity theory (SST)
people seek to maximize the positive emotions they experience in their relationships as due to their perception of time running out
2 types of rewards from relationships
informational rewards that give you new knowledge and emotional rewards that give you positive feelings
Affect regulation
increasing your feelings of happiness and well-being
Cognitive perspective
people are driven by the desire to control and predict their experiences
3 approaches within cognitive perspective
possible selves theory, coping and control, identity process theory
Possible selves theory
the individual’s view of the self or self-schema guides the choice and pursuit of future endeavors; people aim to be their hoped-for possible self, not their dreaded possible self
Stress
when you perceive a situation to be more than you can handle
Coping
thoughts and actions people take to reduce stress and manage internal/external demands
2 main forms of coping
problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping
Problem-focused coping
approach; changing something about the situation
Emotion-focused coping
avoidance; changing your outlook on the situation
Identity process theory
the goal of development is optimal adaptation to the environment by establishing a balance between maintaining consistency of the self (identity assimilation) and changing in response to experiences (identity accomodation)
Life story
an individual’s inner personal narrative of past events in his or her life
Midlife crisis
a period of self-scrutiny and re-evaluation of goals triggered by an individual’s entry into middle age (30-60)
Personality
set of psychological traits and mechanisms that are organized and relatively enduring
Distinctiveness
how individuals differ from one another
Consistency
idea that people will behave similarly across situations
3 broad perspectives on personality
radical contextual perspective, biological essentialist perspective, compromise perspective
Radical contextual perspective
personality traits are highly prone to change over time and are highly unstable (can depend on context)
Biological essentialist perspective
personality is most likely the product of genetics (50%) rather than environmental influences, highly immutable and stable over time
Compromise perspective
personality is moderately stable and can change significantly throughout lifespan
Mean-level or normative change
reflects whether a GROUP of people increases or decreases on trait dimensions over time; may be influenced by biological, social, historical processes
Changes in OCEAN across lifespan
increases in agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability; inverted U for openness
Rank-order consistency or differential stability
quantifies the degree to which individual differences are maintained over time; increases from adolescence to 30-40 then peaks from 60-70
