Lecture 4- Dimensions of Personality Flashcards
What are the 5 individual differences that personality includes?
Individual differences that are:
- Psychological in Nature
- Not intellectual stuff
- Enduring - stable over time
- Explain broad/ generalised patterns - as within personality types, people still very
- Dynamics behind these characteristics - why do people behave in this way, is it personality?
What was Funder (1997) definition of personality
“An individuals characteristic pattern of thought, emotion, and behaviour, together with the psychological mechanisms, hidden or not, behind those patterns”
- patterns of behaviour, cognitions, emotions etc and what explains them
Define Temperement as a related concept
Aspects of psychological individuality that are present at birth or early in child development
What was Allport’s definition of temperament
- Individuals emotional nature, dependent on constitutional makeup and hereditary in origin
- Part biological/ part social
Define Character as a related concept
- Presonal attributes relevant to moral conduct, self-mastery, will-power and integrity
- Poor character - behaving in ways most would think are out of order
- Caused by socialisation - of what is okay and what isnt
- Differs between people as it contains a persons morals - what they believe to be right/ wrong
Define personality ‘traits’
- Unit of personality description
- Characteristic form of thinking, behaviour or feeling
- Enduring
- Pattern of behaviour on which people vary
- Hierachy of traits - begins with general traits that split off into subtraits
Give an example of breaking down a trait in a hierachical approach
- Extraversion can be broken down into Sociability and sensation seeking
- Sensation seeking can be broken down into Thrill and adventure seeking or bordom
- Borden can be broken into avoidance of routine
Outline Factor analysis and how it was used for personality
It is a nomothetic approach to personality
- by trying to simplify the trait universe
- Identifyfing the latent structure of personality
what did Cattell do (1965)?
- Tried to find characteristics that can be used to predict how people will behave in a given situation
- Came up with his 16PF
What are the 16 PF? or just the first few?
- Warmth: from reserved to outgoing
- Intellect: from less to more intelligent
- Emotional stability: from affected by feelings to emotionally stable
- Dominance: from humble to assertive
- Liveliness: from sober to Happy go lucky
- each person is on this continuum, somewhere between the two
What are the 5 global PF factors cattell came up with
- Extraversion - relates to: warmth, Liveliness, Social Boldness etc
- Independence - e.g. Dominance, vigiliance, openness to change etc
- Tough-Mindedness - e.g. warmth, sensitivity, abstractedness
- Self-control - e.g. rule conciousness, perfectionism
- Anxiety - e.g. emotional stability, tension, vigilance
How did Cattell assess personality types in people?
- Given a statement and how much you agree or disagree with it
- Very rare to see all scores on one side - scores between each global factor determines broad personality type
What are the advantages of Cattell’s 16 PF theory?
√ - developed the extensively used 16 PF personality test
√ - Breadth and depth - lots of personality factors/ types
√ - Used in job recruitment - has strong predictive validity (Deakin & Dost, 2013)
√ - paved the way
What are the disadvantages of Cattell’s 16 PF theory?
X - extensive revisions - which one to use?
X - Difficulty in replicating the factors
X - correlations between the 16 factors suggests further underlying constructs
Outline Eysencks theory of personality
He believed in biological determinant to personalit
- Again did a factor analytic approach
- And again a hierachical approach
He argued there were:
- Supertrais
- Habitual responses
- Specific responses
- Supertraits influence habitual responses, and habitual responses influence specific responses
What was Eysencks original theory about which traits were key?
There is a two way axis
On one line is extraversion—introversion
He then added neuroticism (unstable)—— Stable
- Argued these were the global personality traits
Whar was Eysencks later addition to his theory
- Latter added Psychoticism trait
- including: insensitivity, hostility, cruel, inhumane, aggressive, cold, antisocial
- But also creativity
SO his theory became PEN - Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism
Outline Eysencks EPQ
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire
- Eysenck, Eysecnk & Barrett, 1985
- Measures all 3 contstructs in detail
- Has been revised a few times, but not loads like Cattell
What is some evidence and support for EYsenck’s EPQ
√ - Variability along the E and N dimensions
- Dobbs et al (2011)
√ - Cross cultural validity of the measure and theory
- Barett et al (1998)
√ - Junior EPQ (Eysenck, 1965)
√ - Suggested support for genetic basis of personality
Outline DObbs et al as providing evidence for the EPQ’s variability along the E and N dimensions
- Argued introverts would do worse on a task when distracted by music playing
- this is because they are easily distracted by environment stimuli
- However, extroverts should do well with music as they are used to functioning in a busy, social environment
Outline Barrett et al (1998) as providing evidence for the EPQ’s cross cultural validity
- Found factorial validity of the EPQ in 34 Countries
Outline the Junior EPQ (Eysenck, 1965)
Substantial evidence for structural and cross cultural stability (Eysenck & Barrett, 2013)
- Can be used in nearly every country, with every person
What are some disdvantages of Eysenck’s PEN
X - Stability of traits over time
- Billstedt et al (2014)
X - reliability of the P dimensoin
X - Focuses on the abnormal - should it just be abover or below average
X - ignores social and environmental influences on personality, not at bio/ genetics
X - is 3 factors enough
Outline Billstedt et al (2014) and how it proposed A criticism of Eysencks stability over time
Tested them as a kid, then at 37
- overall, there was population mean stability
- but lots of individual variability
- mean of population stayed the same, but each persons personality varied
