Chapter 8: The Trait Approach: Relevant Research Flashcards
prevalence of the trait approach
- The trait approach has become so entrenched in personality research that it has become synonymous with measuring and examining traits
- The use of trait measures has increased steadily over the past few decades
the need for acheivement
the desire to accomplish something difficult, to master, manipulate, or organize to overcome obstacles and attain a high standard
what inspired the notion of acheivement motivation
Henry Murray’s description of people high in need for achievement
where is the need for acheivement emphasized?
in individualist cultures
how did early researchers measure the strength of one’s need for acheivement?
by coding the participants’ responses on the TAT
entrepreneurial behaviour
understanding achievement in the business world
what did early acheivement researchers focus on?
entrepreneurial behaviour
need for acheivement and wealth
People with a high need for achievement are more likely to find economic prosperity
need for acheivement and success
Need for achievement predicted success for low-level managers, but not for those higher up on the corporate ladder
why does need for acheivement not predict success for higher-level managers
because success in upper management often depends on the manager’s ability to delegate authority and motivate others, which can be difficult for those who are too concerned about their accomplishments
U.S. presidents and need for acheivement
U.S. presidents whose inaugural speeches were rated higher in need for achievement were also rated by historians as relatively ineffective leaders
participants of initial need for acheivement studies
Initial studies on the need for achievement only used male participants because relatively few women entered the business world at the time
gender and need for acheivement
Because of differences in gender-role socialization, men and women may differ in the kinds of achievement they value and how high career achievement ranks among their personal goals
women and sacrifices
Women sometimes make sacrifices for their family rather than pursue career goals
men vs. women’s success
Men are more likely to see success in terms of external standards (ex. Gaining prestige & recognition), while women are more likely to rely on internal definitions of success (ex. Setting out to do what one intended to)
success in individualistic cultures
achievement is defined in terms of personal accomplishments
success in collectivist cultures
success is more likely to be defined in terms of cooperation and group accomplishments
attribution
explanations people generate for why they do well or poorly in achievement situations
3 dimensions of attributions
- stability
- locus
- control
stability dimension
explaining our performance by pointing to stable or unstable causes
locus dimension
whether an attribution is internal or external to us
control dimension
whether we can control or not control the cause of the success or failure
benefit of the 3-dimensional attribution model
researchers can predict how people will respond to success or failure
examples of stable attributions
- good coordination
- poor math attitude
examples of unstable attribution
- good luck
- illness
examples of internal attributions
- extra effort
- poor skills
examples of external attributions
- easy test
- difficult competition
examples of controllable attributions
- high motivation
- not enough practice
examples of uncontrollable attributions
- from wealthy family
- weak national economy
how do we attribute losses?
Most of us attribute our losses to unstable sources, keeping alive our hope of succeeding the next time
when do we feel best about our successes?
when we attribute them to internal source
how do we improve acheivement motivation?
by changing people’s attributions through attributional retraining
attributional retraining session study
students in a first-year full-year psychology class who attended an attributional retraining session encouraging them to make controllable attribution for their performance performed better on their exams in the following semester, including in other classes
acheivement goals
provide targets that people aspire to in achievement situations
mastery goals
concerned with developing competence
performance goals
concerned with demonstrating accomplishments to others
four types of acheivement goals
- mastery-approach goals
- performance-approach goals
- mastery-approach goals
- performance-avoidance goals
students with high mastery vs. high performance goals
Students with high mastery goals work hard to learn the subject matter in a course, while those with high-performance goals want to obtain a high grade
approach goals
motivated by a desire to achieve a sense of mastery
avoidance goals
motivated by a desire to not feel incompetent
efficacy of acheivement goals
- Both mastery and performance goals can lead to achievement
- But, mastery goals tend to lead to higher achievement
effects of mastery goals
- Students choose more challenging tasks and are more interested in their classes
- People retain information and skills learned longer
- People share information and work with others to achieve common goals
combining types of acheivement goals
In some cases, a combination of mastery and performance goals can be particularly effective
when are the advantages of focusing on performance at play?
they re limited to performance approach goals
persistent reliance on avoidance goals
has been linked to poor performance and a lowered sense of well-being
stability of acheivement goals
- There is stability in the use of achievement goals in high school and college students
- However, there are higher levels of motivation when teachers emphasize mastery and improving skills
two dimensions of acheivement goals
- definition (mastery vs. performance)
- valence (positive vs. negative)
coronary-prone behaviour pattern
a personality dimension that seemed to consist of a combination of behaviours associated with coronary disease
coronary-prone behaviour pattern became known as
Type A personality
Type A- Type B dimension
a trait continuum, where extreme type A people are on one end and extreme type B people are on the other
Type A people
strongly motivated to overcome obstacles and are driven to achieve
Type B people
relaxed and unhurried
three major components of the Type A trait
- People work harder at achievement tasks regardless of outside pressure, such as deadlines
- Show a sense of time urgency
- More likely to respond to frustrating situations with anger and hostility
what motivates Type A people?
a desire to exercise effective control over the people and situations they encounter
Type A people are:
- More likely to dominate a group discussion
- Less likely to give up control over a task, even to someone who might do a better job
- More likely to want something after being told they can’t have it
Type A vs. Type B in acheivement tasks
Type A participants typically outperform Type B on achievement tasks because they set higher goals for themselves
Type A vs. Type B in competitive tasks
Type A people experience high blood pressure and a higher heart rate when told they are going to be competing against another person
confidence of Type A vs. Type B people
Type A people are more confident in their ability to do well in a game when they are told they will be competing against another participant
Type A vs. Type B students
- Type A students tend to take more classes than Type B students and expect to do better in these classes
- Type A students receive more academic honours and participate in more sports, extracurricular activities, and social activities in high school than Type B
original research on Type A and health
Early research showed that Type A is a good predictor of heart disease
current research on Type A and health
the hostility component in Type A personality is responsible for negative health outcomes
People high in hostility
tend to have a strong reaction to the small frustrations and inconveniences we all experience
hostility and coronary artery disease
- Participants who score high in hostility were more than twice as likely to suffer from some form of coronary heart disease over 4.5 years
- High-anger participants were nearly 3 times as likely to be hospitalized or die from heart disease during a 4.5-year study
anger-related words and heart disease study
The use of anger-related words in a U.S. county is strongly correlated with the age-adjusted rate of death from heart disease in that county. Anger-related words were a better predictor of death than smoking, hypertension, and obesity
Why is hostility related to cardiovascular problems?
- Unhealthy lifestyles
- Poor social support
- Immune system weaknesses
- Blood lipid levels
hostility and social interactions study
male participants high in hostility showed elevated blood pressure when interacting with other people, whereas low-hostility male participants did not show this reaction
hostility and social interactions follow-up study
The same trend was not found for women, potentially because women generally find social interactions more pleasant and less of a source of frustration than men do
health consequences of high anger and hostility
- physical illness
- immune system
- pain
- cholesterol
- cardiovascular disease
- death
high hostility & physical illness
high hotility scores predict increased incident of many illnesses, including asthma, liver disease, and arthritis
high hostility & the immune system
high anger is related to weakeness in the immune system, espsecially after conflict
high hostility & pain
high anger scores are associated with lower pain tolerance in lab studies and with complaints of greater pain among patients experiencing pain
