Lecture 4 Flashcards
Rank-order stability?
Relative stability. Most commonly evoked by researcher. The opposite of change. Whether or not people change when compared to each other. Often looking at correlations between scores.
Mean-level stability?
Absolute stability. if people change in their levels of a feature over time. An example: if you have absolute stability in height from the age of 5, you would be disappointed because you will be quite small. If you had relative stability, you would also be disappointed because you would want to be taller than your classmates. But it is a very different thing!
Personality coherence?
Complicating factor for identifying change or stability in personality. How the same trait can be manifested in different behaviours at different ages.
What two frequently observed results concerning personality stability did we first see evidence of in the study of smiling and laughter in very young children?
That there is a substantial degree of stability in how we behave, even from the earliest ages.
- The longer the time in between any two personality assessments, the more relative change we see between those assessments.
- Rank-order stability increases as we age
What personality features characterize someone whose personality will change less over time?
High conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability.
What are some mean-level changes that characterize the period between 20 and 50?
Niche-building: people may create or seek out environments that “fit” with their personality.
We change less.
As you age, you may develop a clearer idea of who you are and shape your behaviors to fit with that idea.
Why does personality change slow down with age?
We get to know us self. People who marry someone similar to themselves will tend not to change and stay stable.
Negative or positive correlation between IQ and conscientiousness?
Negative!
What did Dabbs et al. found out in their study about testosterone?
Those who had committed violent crimes had higher levels of testosterone. Those who had done prison role violations had higher level of testosterone than those who hadn’t.
Is the result from Dabbs et al.’s study seen as cause or effect?
It is both the cause and the effect.
What did the rat study about testosterone show?
That the rats that got testosterone x2 had a higher level of aggressiveness.
What does it to you if you have circulating testosterone?
- It increases willingness to engage in aggressive and physical competition
- Increases displays of dominance
- Increases behaviours associated with dominance – sexual activity
- Circulating testosterone levels serve as an indicator of how you should behave and motivate you to behave in that fashion.
What are the health consequences of optimism?
Optimists perceive themselves as being at lower than average risk for bad events. But the average person already underestimates their risks (optimistic bias)
Maybe optimists ignore their symptoms and therefore go less to the doctor than pessimists.
People high in E are normally more opmistic where people high in N are not.
What is the definition of Type A personality?
- Working when ill rather than rest and healing
- Competitive/aggressive, active and energetic, and ambitious and driven
- Found that heart attacks are more common among type A
- Hostile
What is the definition of Type D personality?
- Impaired recovery from heart problems (when having low extraversion and high neuroticism)
- Negative affect (high neuroticism, low conscientiousness, low agreeableness and low extraversion)
- Social inhibition (low extraversion and conscientiousness, high neuroticism)
Which characteristics in infants at the age of 3 shows the biggest correlations with stability?
Smiling and laughter, and activity level.
What is an actigraph?
A motion recording device used to supply the other observation methods.
What is stability coefficients the same as?
Test-retest reliability.
What is the correlation between different measures of the same trait obtained at the same time called?
Validity coefficients.
Which of the Big Five traits doesn’t decrease at any time in life?
Conscientiousness.
What is the social-investment theory (SIT)?
An alternative theory on personality maturation. SIT proposes that entering new phases in your life, such as entering the labour force after graduation, marrying or becoming a parent, come with adopting a new social role. That is because society expects other behaviors from you.
What are the four sub-scales on the sensation-seeking scale?
Thrill and adventure seeking, experience seeking, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility.
