Lecture 3

Question 1

What do the big 5 focus on

Answer 1

Consistencies in social and emotional behaviors and on things where we notice their are individual differences

Question 2

What is the best was to organise our impressions or judgments about personality?

Answer 2

The big 5

90% of good personality research does this

Question 3

According to macadams

Answer 3

Big 5 capture our public reputation

Question 4

Is there a gender bias in B5

Answer 4

no

Question 5

Is it a universal syatem

Answer 5

It works in other languages and cultures

And species

Question 6

Pam from the office

Answer 6

Kind, quiet, courteous, bashful, steady

Question 7

Taxonomy

Answer 7

Extraversion - tendency to be outgoing, sociable and assertive

Neuroticism - tendency to experience negative emotions

Openness to experience - tendency to be receptive to new ideas, approaches and experiences

Agreeableness - tendency to have concern for others, to have warm and trusting sentiments

Pam is exemplar

Conscientiousness - tendency towards organisation, persistence and motivation on goal directed behaviour

Question 8

McAdams on agreeableness

Answer 8

Agreeable people are more than nice. Agreeableness incorporates expressive qualities of love and empathy. friendliness, cooperation and care. Indeed the term agreeable may be too meek for it.

Includes altruism, affection and many of the best human traits

Question 9

Evidence for big 5: languages

Answer 9

Has been shown to emerge in lexical analysis in other languages

Question 10

HEXECO model

Answer 10

Proposed by Ashton & Lee
For some Asian countries
Humility/Honesty
Emotionaliity
Xtraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness

BUT many big 5 trait studies done in those countries
Evidence mostly supports big 5

Question 11

Country differences in big 5

Answer 11

All other cultures organised their personality evaluations in ways compatible with the big 5

BUT does not mean they all rate the same

There are cross national differences in ratings

Just that they organised their evaluations in the same way

Question 12

Big 5 geographic E

Answer 12

Varied region to region

E Europe and NA are highest

Could be because E is culturally preferred in those regions whilst not liked in east Asia which has low E scores (cultural differences).

Question 13

Because you are starting with natural languages

Answer 13

you can be confident you are dealing with the full scope of personality

personality differences are important in getting along with others in work and play. Every culture must have evolved words to represent these differences and over time, every important attribute or trait will have been noticed

Question 14

Evidence in other species

Author

Answer 14

Gosling, 1999

Dogs, cats and pigs

You always find E, N & A

Often find O in terms of curiosity and play

C only appears in chimpanzees - recent evolutionary hx as a result of social-cognitive functions like norms, goals and impulse control

Freemen et al (2013) found evidence for 6 characteristics in chimps

E divided into sociability and dominance/drive to go up hierarchy

Question 15

Does the big 5 predict behavior? unethical experiment

Answer 15

Rate ppl for C
tell TAs to make observations
one observation wont tell you anything
But if you aggregate alll behaviour, big correlation

If you take the est and retake a few weeks late, probably similar scores

If you get 5 ppl who know you to do it about you, they will say similar things both about you and their scores will be similar

it gets at something real

Question 16

E brain systems

Answer 16

BAS seeking reward (dopamine)

Opiod system

Question 17

A clinicians experience with the Big 5

Answer 17

Miller, 1991

Experienced clinician in a mid sized city

120 clients, 63% female

Diverse SES

Eclectic treatment approach

M=50 sd=10 standardization for big 5

Only N was high

Well replicated finding

Question 18

Miller’s argument

Answer 18

Trait theories such as the five factor model can be useful to clinicians, as they provide a detailed, accurate portrait of the clients needs, proximate motives and interpersonal style.

Helpful in 3 ways

Can anticipate and understand the clients private experience

Can anticipate the problems presented in treatment

Helps you formulate a practical treatment plan and anticipates the opportunities and pitfalls of it

Question 19

Influences on therapy practices

Answer 19

O: reactions to therapy interventions
Plan how experimental to be such as the empty chair

C: Willingness to do the work
Homework. If you know the are low C, it might not be psychological resistance when they do not do it

E: energy and enthusiasm for therapy
Talking is hard for low E people. More structure and therapist talking for them

A: subjective reaction to the person of the therapist
Makes therapeutic alliance easy/hard. Can anticipate this id low A, explain they might be suspicious and you can work though this with the client

N: intensity/duration of the client’s distress
May motivate investment in therapy if high

Question 20

Orthogonal nature of the big 5

Answer 20

Designed to be independent

McAdams says we naturally group desirable traits together
as good vs evil

Traits do not group and are independent

You can easily be high E and high N

So you CANNOT predict other traits from knowing one

Question 21

Concern about where you are in traits

Answer 21

If you are high in an undesirable trait, start by knowing it. You can change some and learn to live with others/ work around the issues

Question 22

High N people are

Answer 22

more likely to be anxious

less likely to have accidents

Question 23

Evolutionary adaptations of both ends of the traits

Answer 23

All people are needed for societies

Even high N, we need suspicious people! FBI, competing with other groups

Question 24

ntroverts

Answer 24

Susan Cain, quiet

Question 25

Rehabilitating quarrelsomeness papers show

Answer 25

High n or low A people are needed

Promotes a diversity of approaches
Discourages group-think
Willingness to fight for what is right (such as injustice)
Adaptive in COMPETITIVE contexts