Module 3: Context and Stability Over Time Flashcards
For trait theories of personality (like the five factor model) what are the 3 primary assumptions?
- Traits reflect meaningful individual differences among people
- Traits should exhibit some consistency across situations
- Traits should show a degree of consistency over time
What position does Walter Mischel endorse?
Situationism (power of situations on behaviour)
Trait differences in personality are related to behaviour but only in certain situations. This is referred to as…
person-situation interaction
With regard to person-situation interactions - describe strong situations versus weak situations.
Strong situations:
- circumstances where most people will behave in the same way regardless of their personality
Weak situations:
- circumstances where individual differences in personality traits have their greatest influence on behaviour
What are the 3 forms of person-situation interactionism? Briefly describe each.
- Situational selection
- individual differences in personality traits are related to the situations one chooses to enter or avoid - Evocation
- People partially create situations or circumstances because they elicit certain responses from others - Manipulation
- Involves the ways in which people use certain tactics to influence others and alter the situation
Increases or decreases in a whole population’s average scores over time
mean-level change
To know if personality is changing in an individual more or differently than what would be expected for the entire population we need to consider…
rank-order change
At around what age do personality traits become increasingly stable and when we observe the largest mean-level increases (especially in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability)
Around age 25
Describe some literature that has supported the idea that life experiences can make lasting changes on our personality
Modest increases in neuroticism among those who were affected by the series of major earthquakes in New Zealand
People living in geographic areas where atmosphere lead was higher had lower conscientiousness, lower agreeableness, and higher neuroticism
Why does some literature NOT support the idea that life experiences can make lasting changes on personality?
Traits are not assessed frequently enough and over a long enough period to be certain that the traits have actually changed
Traits that show high test-retest correlations (i.e., intelligence, impulsiveness, shyness, aggressiveness) and traits that are thought to have a biological basis (i.e., extraversion, sensation-seeking) show…
consistency over time
Aggregation is the process of…
adding up, or averaging, several single observations, resulting in a better (i.e., more reliable) measure of a personality trait rather than a single observation of behaviour
More than any other approach to personality, the trait approach relies on what sources of personality data?
Self-report
What are 3 measurement issues that pertain to self-report questionnaires?
- Carelessness
- Faking
- Barnum statements
What are 2 methods to detect carelessness?
- The infrequency scale (contains items that most people will answer the same)
- Duplicate questions
What are 2 methods to detect faking?
- Compare to a “faking good profile” and a “faking bad profile”
- Forced choice responding
What are Barnum statements?
Statements that could apply to anyone
Employers use personality assessment in the workplace for what 3 main reasons?
- Personnel selection
- Integrity testing
- Concerns over negligent hiring
The most widely used personality assessment in business settings is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). However what are the three problems with the MBTI?
- Typologies (are not real)
- Cutoff scores (can drastically change based on sample)
- Unreliable scores (slight change in score can result in a person being classified as a different type)
Given the problems with the MBTI why does it continue to be used?
Easy to understand
The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
Measures aspects of the big five traits that are relevant to 3 motives:
1. Acceptance, respect, approval
2. Status and control of resources
3. Predictability
What are some reasons for why the HPI is a better choice than the MBTI when it comes to employee selection?
- Based in statistical procedures (so high reliability)
- Can predict occupational success in many different jobs
- No adverse impact on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity
- Available in many languages
Personality coherence includes both elements of change and stability. Describe
It refers to maintaining rank order in relation to other individuals but changing the manifestations of the trait
Mary Rothbart studied infant temperament and found (4 major findings):
- Individual differences appear early in life
- For most temperament variables there are moderate levels of stability over time during the first year of life
- The stability of temperament tends to be higher over shorter internals
- Stability increases as infants mature
Block and Block longitudinal study follow a sample of children and repeatedly tested them at various ages. What were the 2 main findings?
- Activity level shows moderate stability during childhood
- The size of the stability correlation tends to decrease as the time interval between the different testing increases
Do individuals maintain their rank order stability on aggression over the years?
Yes and to a substantial degree
One meta-analysis examined “personality consistency” defined as the correlation between time 1 and time 2 measures of personality and found 2 key results:
- Personality consistency tends to INCREASE with increasing age
- As people age, personality appears to become more “set”
Especially after age ____ there is little change in the average level of stability of the big five traits
50
What big five traits tend to gradually decline with increasing age (until about 50) and what big five traits tend to show a gradual increase at the same time?
Decrease:
- Openness
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
Increase:
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
What was the gender difference that a study found that assessed self-esteem in a sample of 14 year olds and again when they were 23?
Over time the gender difference emerged with men’s self-esteem increasing and women’s self-esteem decreasing
Describe the developmental trajectory of sensation-seeking
Increases with age from childhood to adolescence; peaks in adolescence; falls as people get older
Both sensation seeking and impulsivity have been found to decline from late adolescence to early adulthood but the decline in __________ was much steeper and began earlier
impulsivity
Describe two experiences/interventions that can impact the trait of openness
- Psilocybin
- Mindfulness-based meditation
Cohort effects
The social time in which people live
Jean Twenge observed that women’s trait scores on assertiveness rose and fell dramatically depending on the time period when they were raised. This is an example of a….
cohort effect
One longitudinal study showed that one of the best predictors of coping well with the death of a spouse was the personality disposition of…
emotional stability (low neuroticism)
Neuroticism and impulsivity early in life in men have been linked to what socially relevant outcomes later in life?
- Emotional problems
- Alcoholism
Personality in youth appears to influence spirituality and religiousness later in life regardless of the early socialization practices to which they are exposed
TRUE or FALSE
TRUE
Adolescents who scored high on ____________ and _____________ were more likely to score high on religiousness later in life.
___________ in contrast was the only personality trait in adolescence that predicted spirituality seeking in late adulthood.
Conscientiousness; agreeableness
Openness
What big five trait is the single best predictor of successful achievement in school and work?
Conscientiousness
What are the 4 most important traits conducive to living a long life?
- High conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Low hostility
- Low neuroticism
