Lecture 2, 3 and 4: The Big Five Traits Flashcards
Why the Myers-Briggs Test is not good?
- Psychometrics are NOT reliable or valid
- Some questions were subjective and thus the answers might change with time
What is good about the Big Five Inventory?
It is reliable and predictable
Who determined that the Big 5 Test was good?
Maggie Koerth-Baker
How did the Myers-Briggs Test characterize people?
- By using 4 dichotomies.
- Introversion and Extraversion
- Sensing and Intuitive
- Perceiving and Judging
- Feeling and Thinking
- Developed in 1940s
- You can only get one combination of these
Why is the Myers-Briggs Test so popular?
- It is Categorical
- You can only fit one category
- Positive
- The feedback it gives is positive
Give an example of Myers-Briggs feedback
- ISFP, The Composer:
- Warmth, relaxed, loyal, modest, dislike disagreements, do not force values/opinions on others
- Others in this category:
- Mozart
What is good about the Big 5 Test?
- The questions are getting the consistencies of the social and emotional behaviours
Bianca Andreescu’s Personality Description
- Extrovert: approached Selena, good at interviews (high)
- Conscientious: Manages and handles everything (high)
- Neuroticism: (low)
- Agreeable: (high)
- Openness: NA
What was the process followed into creating the Big Five
Lexical Approach:
- Identified all words describing personality (18 000 in English)
- Cut down to 4000 that were descriptive and not momentary
- Cut down to 180 adjectives by grouping synonyms and antonyms
Analytical Approach:
- Cut to 5 trait dimensions by deciding which captured something important and distinct
- Captures diversity and complexity of the different ways that humans behave.
Definition of Openness to Experience
Tendency to be receptive to new ideas, approaches and experiences
Other notes:
- Down to earth
- Aesthetic:
- music, art, litterature
- Are:
- Curious, imaginative, complex, refined, sophisticated
- Opposite:
- conventional, conformist
Definition of Conscientiousness
Tendency towards organization, persistence and motivation in goal-directed behaviour.
Definition of Extraversion
Tendency to be outgoing, sociable and assertive.
Break down into 2 components:
- Social validity
- Social dominance
Other notes:
- Are:
- Talkative, bold, dominant, …
- Opposite:
- Quiet, shy, bashful, submissive, reserved, …
Definition of Agreeableness
Tendency to have concern for the others, to have warm and trusting and sentiments
Other notes:
- Are:
- kind, cooperative, sympathetic, …
- Opposite:
- cold, competitive, cynical
Definition of Neuroticism
Tendency to experience negative emotions
Other notes:
- Hallmark of neuroticism:
- Feeling nervous, anxious or worried
- Extends to other emotions too
- Are:
- Moody, emotional, jealous, unstable
- Opposite:
- Calm, steady, secure, at ease, contented
Extraversion can be divided into two components, which ones? Give a short description of each.
Social Validity
- How much you like people
Social Dominance
- Confidence and assertiveness
What is the formal definition of Traits?
Dimensions of individual differences in tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
NOT: types or dispositions
Consistent: over situations and time
Which are two very important interpersonal traits?
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
Peanuts Example
- Charlie:
- E
- SD: low
- SV: high
- Conclusion: med
- N: high
- E
- Lucy:
- E: high
- A: low
- N: low
- Linus:
- A: high
- N: high
What are the caveats to the Big 5?
- Nuanced
- There is more to personality than the Big 5
- Big 5 profile is not what is the most unique about an individual
How can we start to describe an individual’s personality?
Learn to use the Big Five Inventory to organize personality judgements.
The Office Example
- Pam:
- E (low):
- quiet, mild-mannered and modest, Self effacing, low dominance, low asseriveness
- N (low)
- O (high)
- artist
- E (low):
- Jim:
- E (med)
- N (low)
What is some evidence of the validity of the Big Five?
- Emergence in many languages, across cultures and the mean levels differ across countries
-
Asia: 6th factor: Humility/honesty
- Original authors of the Big 5 think this should be considered as Agreeable
-
Asia: 6th factor: Humility/honesty
What is some evidence of the Big 5 being universal?
-
Gosling 1999: Dogs, cats, donkeys and pigs
- Evaluated E, N and A (often also O as curiosity and playfulness)
-
Freeman et al. 2003: Chimps:
- O, C, SD, SV, A, N
What experience did Miller 1991 do?
- Collected Big 5 traits on diverse clients
- Q: Could traits predict process and outcome of therapy?
- Helpful in 3 ways:
- anticipate and understand personal experiences
- anticipate problems in treatement
- formulate practical treatment
How does the Big 5 trait influences therapy?
- O: reaction to interventions
- C: willingness to do the work
- E: energy and enthusiasm
- A: subjective reaction to the person of the therapist
- N: intensity and duration of client’s distress
True or False
There is a correlation between the traits.
False
What was the paper by Kelly and Conley (1987) studying? And what were the results?
- Personality and Compatibility
- Procedure:
- 50 year study of 300 engages couples who were to get married in 1938
- Personality was rated by 5 acquaintances
- Rating were reconfigured to fit the Big 5
- Other non-personality variables were also considered
- sexual history, values, attitude, …
- Follow up at 5 , 20 and 50 years
- Controlled for SES, religion, sexual history
- Results:
- 20% never got maried
- 20% divorced
- 60% married
- Marital Misery Index
-
Found that Neuroticism had a big effect:
- High N for both –> divorce
- Low C in men had also a negative effect
What kind of men would stay into a unhappy marriage?
- Quarrelsome
- positive aspect from combative relationship
Who wrote the paper Personality Trait Similarity Between Spouses in 4 Cultures? When was it published? What was the study about?
- McCrae and Costa 2008
- Procedure:
- Divided group between young and old and (19-49 and 50-84) and rated according to Big 5
- Results:
- Most traits were highly similar but specially Openness
The Big 5 personality Dimansions and Job Performance:
A Meta Analysis
- Barrick and Mount 1991
- Procedure:
- 150 studies examined the validity of personality measurements for personnel selection purposes between 1950 and 1990
- Use diverse and confusing set of scales
- Reorganize results according to Big 5
- Split up according to occupation
- Split according to the criteria:
- training profiency
- job proficiency
- objective outcomes
- 150 studies examined the validity of personality measurements for personnel selection purposes between 1950 and 1990
- Results:
- Conscientiousness is the predictive trait about how people will do in a job
- For all occupations and criteria
- Extroverts:
- Occupations: Sales, Managers
- Openess:
- Outcome
- A (high) and N (low) better performance
- Conscientiousness is the predictive trait about how people will do in a job
True or False
Diverse groups do not improve groups?
False, look at the Work-Team Personality Composition and Job Performance of Teams
Work-Team Personality Composition and Job Performance of Teams
- Neuman et al, 1999
- Procedure:
- 80 four-person teams in retail company
- Big 5 scales for each worker
- Predictions based on
- Personality Elevation (mean)
- Team Personality Diversity
- Result:
- O: Higher good (elevation)
- C: Higher good (elevation)
- E: Diversity
- A: Higher good (elevation)
- N: Diversity
What is Grit?
- Working a lot towards challenges
- maintaining interest and effort over the years
- Approaches achievement like a marathon
- Stamina
- Measurement:
- Perseverence & effort
- Consistency
- Sounds a lot like Conscientiousness!
How does McAdams describe Conscientiousness?
- Plans lives carefully according to goals and principles
- Hard-work, self-discipline and perseverence
- r = 0.25 with job outcomes but conditional in job autonomy
- Best predictor of school outcomes after IQ and aptitude
How useful are the Bi 5 traits?
- Predict important life outcomes:
- mariage
- job
