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