Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Personality and Social Psychology > Lecture 10: Introduction to Personality > Flashcards

Lecture 10: Introduction to Personality Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
Psychology 101 flashcards GRE® Psychology flashcards AP® Psychology flashcards
1
Q

What did McAdams 1955 say about qualitative descriptions of people?

A

McAdams 1955
> general open qualitative descriptions of people can be turned into systematic descriptions which can be applied to many people

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are some general definitions of personality?

A

> Regularities in behaviour and experience (clusters, patterns) (DeYoung & Grey 2009) e.g. consistently aggressive
typical MODE OF RESPONSE (people respond differently to same events) (Pervin 1999)
our IDENTITY (self-concept) and REPUTATION ( regularities seen by other people) (self-concept agrees with reputation generally) (Hogan 2008)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What is a conceptual definition of personality?

A

Individual differences (not physical) that are (a) PSYCHOLOGICAL (b) NON-INTELLECTUAL (c) ENDURING (non-transient) (d) not specific such as attitudes but BROAD (domain general).

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Who cares about personality? Why is personality important?

A

> Romantic partners - something I like about this person which will be stable
Family / friends
office colleagues - getting along
employers for predicting performance
psychologists - different people may be susceptible to different types of psychological states e.g. addiction

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Operational definition of personality - how do we measure/study personality?

A

> Trait approach - over last 60 years used to operationalise personality
concern the structure of personality

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What are traits?

A

> Continuous DIMENSIONS - can be high or low on a trait rather than categories (e.g. not tall vs short, but continuous)
Provide STRUCTURE to personality - by identifying dimensions which will provide a complete description of personality

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

How did the trait approach come about?

A

> Allport and Odbert (1936) found descriptors of people in a dictionary = 18,000 terms
Factor analysis done by Cattell to reduce Allport & Odbert’s list to 16 factors (by collapsing terms that statistically went together) - got people to rate different individuals using the A&O list - suggesting 16 basic dimensions of personality

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What was Cattell’s method?

A

> Sort 18,000 descriptors into 160 clusters of synonyms / antonyms (criticism = subjective)
discard near-identical descriptors –> final list of 171 descriptors
100 participants rate 1-2 friends on 171 descriptors—> did factor analysis on this = 16 personality factors
included regularities in behaviour and experience –> approaching a personality system or taxonomy for describing the structure of personality

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What are problems with Cattell’s 16 traits?

A

> Subjectivity: different people reach a different reduced set of A&O descriptors
Poor Replicability: using Cattell’s 171 personality descriptors, many people failed to obtain the same 16 factors
Redundancy: Many of his factors correlated too highly for them to be “different” traits - we want to avoid redundancy
Solution wasn’t table, not robust, reliable taxonomy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What consistencies emerged from factor analysis of personality descriptors?

A

> most replicable factor structures suggested 3-6 traits
Very similar traits appear in this taxonomies
A Five Factor Model seemed to interface best with the various solutions - not that it was right but could be used to describe other taxonomies

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What are the Big Five factors?

A

Big Five > Eysenck > Tellegan > Hogan
> E > Extraversion > Positive Emotion (Agency) > Sociability
> A > Psychoticism > Positive Emotion (Affiliation) > Likability
> C > Psychoticism > Constraint > Prudence
> N >Neuroticism > Negative Emotionality > Adjustment
> O > – > Absorption > Intellectance

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What are the interpersonal aspects in B5?

A 
Extraverted
> bold and assertive
> talkative and sociable
> not nec. nice or kind
Agreeable
> kind, warm-hearted, caring 
> cooperate and trusting
> not nec a people person
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

Exploration theme in B5?

A

Open
> outgoing in sense of curious, like variety, enjoys challenges
> Appreciate art and nature
> being open-minded
> not nec outgoing
Extraversion
> like stimulation, excitement and bustle
> not nec wanting to learn and understand

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

Stability aspect of B5?

A

A maintain harmony
C meeting goals
N stability of emotion

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

Performance and achievement aspect of b5?

A

Conscientiousness
> self regulation, finish things, doing things property, being thorough, precise and careful
Neurotic
> may be perfectionistic etc., concerns reflect anxiety, worry about getting things wrong, messing things up

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

Emotion aspect of b5?

A

> Open: experiences of awe and wonder
EXTRAVERTED: intense positive affect
Neurotic: experiences worry and tension

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What are the levels of organisation in b5?

A

Can break down into facets or collapse to metatraits
> Big 5 is not definitive - can move into more detail or more high level (e.g. Stability vs Plasticity (metatraits))
> Stability = N, A and C
> Plasticity = A and O

18
Q

Why do people advocate Big 5 as being useful?

A

> Regularity/ stability
trait assessments converge over multiple raters
Traits predict a range of real-world outcomes
Traits are highly heritable

19
Q

How are b5 stable?

A

> Traits show RANK ORDER STABILITY over time (test-retest r of big five over 20 years are up to r=.65) i.e. if above av on a trait at 30, 83% change of being above average at 50
traits become more stable as we age (av r=.41 I childhood, r=.55 at 30 years, r=.70 bw 50-70 years)
stabilities does no vary according to big five trait, gender or assessment method (self vs observer reports)

20
Q

what is mean-level stability for b5?

A

Mean level of stability is relatively low - personality changes for EVERYONE - through development and maturation
> more A and C from adolescence
> less N and O throughout adulthood
> E fairly stable (slight increase in dominance)
Personality had a DEVELOPMENT TRAJECTORY but in RELATIVE TERMS remains fairly stable

21
Q

Do trait assessment converge over multiple raters? How? Conclusion?

A

> Trait assessments converge over multiple raters e.g.. Parents, peer
identity and reputation - converge
N - parent-parent agreement but not parent-peer agreement (because the child may present a certain image)
E is easy to judge
N not easy to judge - concerns emotion which are internal
Conclusion: traits reflect some meaningful, SHARED UNDERSTANDING of a person’s characteristics

22
Q

What is required for convergence of trait assessments?

A

Target’s display of a RELEVANT trait indicator, AVAILABILITY of the indicator to the perceiver, who must be able to DETECT and correctly UTILIZE the indicator for trait judgment (Funder 2012)

23
Q

Why do some traits converge more than others?

A

> Indicators of E (e.g. talkativeness) are highly behavioural and occur in social contexts and therefore easier to detect / interpret
Indicators of N (e.g. worrying) are less visible, might often occur in non-social contexts, and could be easily misinterpreted

24
Q

Why are we not perfect judges of our own personality?

A

> self-deceptive enhancement - over-positive perception of the self grounded in the maintenance of belief that are contradicted by available info, most strongly associated with LOWER NEUROTICISM
difficult to know which rating is right if there is no convergence - therefore measures are combined to provide a more accurate description

25
Q

Traits predict which real-world outcomes?

A

> may be correlational and longitudinal e.g. C predicts longevity
E = happiness, health, dating variety, status, leadership
A = health, longevity, friends, relationship satisfaction, volunteering, less crime
C = less drug use / risk taking, longevity, relationships satisfaction, job performance
N = lower happiness, coping, dissatisfaction, conflict, abuse, crime, poor financial wellbeing
O = philosophical values, liberal politics, investigative pursuits

26
Q

How are traits heritable?

A

> Highly heritable

> 50% genetic, 50% of variation through environmental factors

27
Q

What are the scope and limitations of traits? Is personality completely captured by traits?

A

> Traits don’t describe everything about personality
traits are DECONTEXTUALIZED (e.g. some cross situational generalizability) and NONCONDITIONAL
other important aspects that are captured by TIME, PLACE AND ROLE e.g. age, work vs family vs friends, parent vs work - there will be consistencies but situationally dependent

28
Q

What can describe personality BEYOND traits?

A

Characteristic adaptation (CA)
> How you respond to environment, more CONTEXTUALISED more CONDITIONAL with respect to TIME, ROLE and PLACE
> motive and goals - e.g. achievement goals
> values and interests -e.g. liberal, social/investigative interest
> personal projects - working on aspects of your personality
> characteristics adaptations as a role or developmental stage e.g. leadership is not just extraversion
> CA = second nature cf. traits = first nature - adapt by going against our first nature e.g. introvert may have to act as an extrovert in a meeting

29
Q

The richest level of personality description?

A

Life narrative
> internal, dynamic life story that an individual constructs to make sense of his or her life
> personal story, not verbatim record, gives life unity and sense of purpose e.g. biography, autobiography
> McAdams 1995

30
Q

How are life narratives studied?

A

Standardised interviews focus on events, people, future script, stresses and problems, personal ideology and life theme
Content analysis
> tone of narrative
> themes (preoccupation with certain problems, goals etc.)
> Form (getting better? Getting worse? Chaos? Stability?)

31
Q

Examples of some common narrative

A

> Redemption sequences -overcoming adversity

> Growth story - personal development

32
Q

What are the three levels of personality description?

A
  1. Life Narratives
  2. Characteristic Adaptations
  3. Traits
33
Q

What is the difference in the content of

  1. Life Narratives
  2. Characteristic Adaptations
  3. Traits
A
  1. Life Narratives - personal story, unity and purpose of self
  2. Characteristic Adaptations - motives, values and personal projects
  3. Traits - broad dispositions or characteristics
34
Q

What are the strengths of Life narratives?

A

Highest resolution description of a person

35
Q

What are the strengths of Characteristic Adaptations (personal concerns)

A

Takes into account time, role and place

36
Q

What are the strengths of traits?

A

universal structure and high predictive value

37
Q

What are the limitations of Life narratives?

A

idiographic, no predictive value

38
Q

What are the limitations of Characteristic Adaptations (personal concerns)

A

unclear structure

39
Q

What are the limitations of traits?

A

lowest resolution description of a person

40
Q

How is personality a part of everyday life?

A

> personality is used in everyday life to describe people
implication = your interaction with a person
e.g. first date, drive home after party, biography, autobiography (people’s experiences differ partly due to personality), people react differently to stressful experiences based on their personality

Personality and Social Psychology (3 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions