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
Outline Costa & McCrae (1989) methods
- Factor analysed personality questionnaires and found that they consistently showed 5 underlying dimensions
- Data driven theory - not much theoretical background
What were FIske (1949) original proposed big 5
- Self-expression
- Social adaptability
- Conformity
- Emotional Control
- Inquiring intellect
What are the Big 5 from Costa & McCrae (1989)
OCEAN
- Openness - from conventional to divergent
- open to new experiences/ things
- e.g. fantasy, feelings, values - Conscientiousness - from organised to careless
- organised/ structured
- Competence, self-discipling, striving - Extraversion - from sociable to reserved
- Warmth, activity, positivity - Agreeableness - from helpful to uncooperative
- Trust, compliance, sympathetic - Neuroticism - from volatile (anxious in different situations) to well-adjusted (dont mind new situations/ change)
- anxiety, depression, vulnerability
- each one has sub traits
What is the method of testing the big 5?
- The NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992)
What are some advantages of the Big 5
√ - stability over time
√ - Cross cultural support
√ - Heritability of factors - similarity in family members
√ - Widely used
√ - Consitent with Cattels 16 PF and EYsenck
√ - Psychoticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness are easy to test as they strongly influence behaviour
What are some disadvantages of the Big 5
X - Do opennes to experience/ intellect/ culture all mean the same thing, and others cross over too
X - 5 enough?
X - Cloningers theory - argues genetics/ brain heavily influences behaviour - challenging personality theories
X - is there still a general factor of personality we havent found yet
Who came up with the HEXACO model?
AShton et al (2000)
- Added ‘honesty-humility’ to the big 5
- Honesty-Humility
- Emotionality
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness vs anger
- Conscientiousness
- Openness to Experience
Outline Honesty-Humility and Reciprocal altruism/ kin altruism
- This factor can be explained by reciprocal - do something for someone unselfishly and dont want anything in return
- People in this category do this
- Kin altruism is the opposite - where you want a reward
What Subtraits are there in Honest-humility
- Sincere
- Just
- Honest
- Human
- Truthful
- Loyal
- Faithful
Outline LaBouff et al (2012)
- Found that humble students are more likely to help a student in need than non-humble students
- Because they dont want a reward/ recognition
Outline the Dark Triad Traits in the HEXACO model
- Dark Triad Traits
1. Psychopathy - lack of empathy/ anti-social
- want to be on their own, but not because they are shy, but because they dont care.
- Machiavellianism
- dont care, dont see whats wrong - Narcissim
- selfish/ boastful
How is honest-humility linked to the dark triad traits
- Lee & Ashton (2005)
Lee & Ashton (2005)
- found that variance in these three factors sufficiently explained by H
- not any of the other 5 factors
- This is because the H factor is concerned with what people want to get out of a situoin, can link to the triad in this sense
Whats limitations of the HEXACO model?
X - Factor analysis is subjective?
X - TOo many factors
X - are they truly independent? Humility and agreeableness correlate
X - ignores other factors that could be the 6th:
- Religion/ Sprituality
- humour
- sexuality
What did Digman (1997) do to the HEXACO model
Split it into 2 - Argued there was two components
- Alpha
- emotional stability
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness - Beta
- Extraversion
- Openness to experience
Outline the General factor of personality
- Saucier & Goldberg (2003)
- Musek (2007)
Argues for a ‘General Factor of Personality’, that can be broken down into 2 components
- Stability - reasons you conform to societys rules
- Emotional stability
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness - Plasticity - reasons you dont conform
- Extraversion
- Openness to Experience
What are some criticisms of trait approach
X - not much theory behind them, just data
X - Limited by linguistic ability to describe personality
X - Ignores other factors that influence personality in different situations - e.g. context
X - Poor test/re-test, e.g. Myers Briggs type indicator
- results can vary from month to month
What are some cultural issues surrounding theories about personality
X - personality may mean different things
- including personality traits
- Extraversion in china may mean annoying
X - collectivist vs individualist emphasis
- Different views about interaction with others/ family/ friends
X - Lexical differences - how things are explained/ talked about differs
Define National Character
- How you view yourself as part of a nation influences personality/ behaviour
- Will behave in a way you believe suits/ matches/ supports your culture
How is national character assessed
Terracciano et al (2005)
- 30 item questionnaire
- Indicates the extent to which members of their nation would reflect the personality traits
- do it across cultures, to see if people Around the world have similar results, as well as within cultures
Outline the findings of McCrae & Terracciano (2006) into national character
Looked at the 5 factor model
- Filled in the NCS as well as the NEO-PI-R
- Average correlation across the sample was 0.02
- found those in one culture were very similar, but not across cultures
What factors of Type A personality did Friedman & Rosenman, 1976 say were linked to heart attack
- Competitive
- Aggressive
- Ambitious and Driven
- Active and energetic in actions and speaking
- More susceptible for heart attack (Friedman & Rosenman, 1976)
Outline features of a Type A personality
- Competitive
- time urgency (stressed)
- Hostility - likely to react badly to disappointment, frustration, inconvenienecs
- More likel to have CHD, or heart attacks
Outline features of Type D personality
DISTRESSED Peronsliaty Type (Denollet, 2005)
- Focus on anger suppression and depression
- Depression & Low perceived social support - related to CHD
- Negative affectivity & social inhibition
- Negative views of self
