chapters 12-14 Flashcards
personality
A characteristic pattern of thinking, interaction, and reacting that is unique to each individual, and remains relatively consistent over time and situations
What are the two approaches to studying personality?
- idiographic
- nomothetic
idiographic approach
Focus on detailed descriptions of individuals and their unique personality characteristics
nomothetic approach
Examines personality in large groups, with the aim of making generalizations about personality structure
personality traits
Labels applied to specific attributes of personality
-18 000 descriptors tallied by early studies
factor analysis
Reveals statistical similarities among a wide variety of items
-18 000 terms, will probably have some redundancy, ex: “I like meeting people” and “I like going to parties” can both go into a category like “I am social”
five factor model
A trait-based approach to personality measurement that includes
- openness
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
what is missing from the five factor model?
it does not take into account people that are “evil”
authoritarian personality
Tendency to separate social world into ‘us’ and ‘them’
-these people are more likely to engage in prejudice and violence towards members of other groups
what is HEXACO?
Added honesty-humility dimension to the big five
the dark triad
- Machiavellianism: playing both sides to use people
- psychopathy: seeking out conflict to gain stimulation that they were otherwise lacking
- narcissism: socially destructive people using and manipulating people for their own selfish interest
Right winged authoritarianism (RWA) can be characterized by:
Obeying orders; deference to authority
- supporting aggression against those who dissent and targets identified authorities
- believe strongly in maintaining the existing social order
what is the global change game?
- each region is given resources and qualities that are equivalent in the real world
- the game was either run by people who were high right winged or low right winged
- low right winged people had very little war and military build up, downsizes their armies and diverted the money to humanitarian problems (ex: global warming) this created a peaceful world
- unlike people who were high right winged, more war, more violence, they wiped out the entire population and the game ended quickly
- even with a second chance, they played the same way
temperaments
Personality-like attributes present at birth
- innate foundation on which personality is built
- predicts adult personality (well-adjusted vs. under-controlled and inhibited)
reciprocal determinism
The idea that behaviour, internal factors, and external factors interact to determine one another
state
A temporary physical or psychological engagement that influences behaviour
-ex: someone that is usually calm and even tempered, if put in the right situation, this person can “snap”
what are the 4 general aspects of situations that would lead to someone “snapping”
- locations
- associations
- activities
- subjective states
do personality structures differ between cultures?
Countries do differ in Big Five scores
- however, Big Five is a construct developed based on Western cultures and language and therefore inherently biased
- equivalents of Big Five found in most cultures
- factor analysis of adjective form other languages identify additional, culture specific personality dimensions
Is the Big Five an accurate measure of personality across the world?
- Big Five was developed using the English language so there is bias
- but, there is reasonable consistency
- it’s a challenge to assure that these tests are properly translated, but there is a lot of research to say that the Big Five is fairly accurate throughout different societies
individualism
Refers to the view that personal identity, goals, and attributes are of greater value than group identity, goals, and attributes
collectivism
Is a view that places greater value on defining the self in terms of group membership and goals
There are brain imaging differences between individualistic and collectivistic people
True of False?
true, area in the prefrontal cortex had more activation in individualistic people when explaining things that relate to themselves and vice versa for collectivistic cultures when talking about others
______ code for brain chemicals related to personality, not personality itself
genes
give an example of how genes can affect personality
Genes regulate serotonin transport which is linked with anxiety
what have studies concluded about the similarity of identical twins and their personalities?
- this could be because of genetic makeup
- but, twins that had been raised in separate households were about as similar to twins that were raised in the same house
- adoptive parents have quite little impact on their adoptive children
are Big Five traits also found in animals?
yes, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness reliably rated by human caregivers of chimpanzees
novel environment/ novel objects test
Measures tendency to explore and shyness-boldness continuum
- animal enters an unfamiliar room/ is given an unfamiliar object
- measuring how fearful they are of exploring a new environment, how curious they are
habitat-dependent selection hypothesis
Certain personality types have fitness advantages in particular types of environments
-Ex: more bold individuals tend to be better suited for more stable environments, shy individuals are better suited for fluctuating environments
Brain regions responsible for cognitive abilities related to each Big Five factor show ______
Size differences between high and low scorers
arousal theory of extraversion
Extraversion determined by people’s threshold for arousal
- ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) regulates arousal response
- people’s rating on the Big Five corresponded with the size of the brain regions thought to be involved with those certain personality traits
psychodynamic theories
Focus on how personality arises through complex interactions involving motivational conscious and unconscious processes that occur from early development through adulthood (Freud)
- unconscious influences behaviour
- personality forms in early childhood
- mental representations shape behaviours
Id
Collection of basic biological drives
sexual/aggressive tendencies
super-ego
Responsible for moral judgments
ego
Mediates between desires of id and super-ego
Though unscientific and discredited, psychodynamic theories had some lasting contributions. What were they?
- appreciation for unconscious processes
- defence mechanisms
defence mechanisms
Unconscious strategies to reduce or avoid anxiety, guilt, and other unpleasant feelings
what are 5 defence mechanisms? Explain them
- repression: keeping distressing information out of consciousness
- denial: refusing to acknowledge unpleasant information
- rationalization: coming up with alternative explanations to justify one’s unacceptable behaviours
- projection: remaining ignorant of one’s undesirable qualities by attributing them to others
- reaction formations: altering an impulse into its opposite
fixation
When an individual becomes preoccupied with obtaining the pleasure associate with a particular stage
-proposed some odd psychological tendencies, not supported by any empirical evidence
What are Freud’s psycho-sexual stages of development
Oral: Infant achieves gratification through oral activities such as feeding, thumb sucking and babbling
Anal: The child learns to respond to some of the demands of society (such as bowed and bladder control)
Phallic: The child learns to realize the differences between males and females and becomes aware of sexuality
Latency: The child continues his or her development but sexual urges are relatively quiet
Genital: The growing adolescent shakes off old dependencies and learns to deal maturely with the opposite sex
projective tests
Personality test which ambiguous images are presented to an individual to elicit responses that reflect unconscious desire or conflicts
What do projective tests tell us about our unconscious desires?
- these methods lack validity and reliability
- perception of others as a measure of projection, but weak correlations
analytical psychology
- Carl Jung
- A branch of psychology that describes personality as the result of unconscious archetypes
collective unconscious
A collection of memories that can be traced to our ancestral past
inferiority complex
- Alfred Adler
- an abnormal personality that results from struggling with feelings of inferiority in one’s social environment
humanistic psychology
Emphasizes the unique and positive qualities of human experience and potential
Abraham Maslow: self-actualization
reaching our fullest potential
Carl Rogers: person-centered perspective
People are basically good, and given the right environment their personality will develop fully and normally
positive psychology
Uses scientific methods to study human strengths and potential
-well-being and flow
mimicry
Taking on for ourselves the behaviours, emotional displays, and facial expressions of others (can be useful when doing something for the first time)
chameleon effect
Non-conscious ‘mirroring’ of another person’s behaviour
- body position, gestures, facial expressions often end up mirroring other person’s expressions when having a conversation
- ex: sitting in a pub, once one person has a drink it starts a chain reaction
social norms
Unwritten guidelines for how to behave in social contexts
- promotes conformity
- everything form our manners, and how much to eat at a meal, attitudes and beliefs, etc.
- these vary by cultures
- people often don’t realize that their being governed by these social norms
social loafing
When individuals put less effort into tasks when working with others
what are some reasons that lead to social loafing?
- person could have low self-efficacy beliefs, they don’t think they have control over the outcome so they put less effort in the group task
- people don’t care about the group outcome
- people don’t know how they are helping the group
- they think others in the groups aren’t putting in their full effort either
social facilitation
-what is the Yerkes-Dodson law?
When one’s performance is affected by the presence of others
-Yerkes-Dodson law: idea that for simple tasks, the audience effect tends to benefit performance in that task, for complex tasks, it is the opposite
group think
When group members tend towards the same ideas to minimize conflict
- other perspectives are not considered
- dissenters pressured
- overconfidence in decisions
conformity
Refers to a change in behaviour to fit in with a group
-conscious decision
what are the 2 different types of influences that lead people to conform to others?
Normative influence: conforming to avoid incurring a social cost
Informational influence: concluding that the group must be right