Person-Situation Interactionist Aspects Flashcards
Explain Walter Mischel’s perspective on personality traits
Measured consistency of behavior and correlations of traits with behavior and generally found low correlation values (r=.30)
Behavior varies so much by situation that the concept of personality traits makes little sense
What is the modern understanding of interactionism?
Personality as the intersection of the personal characteristic and the environment
Individuals can behave consistently across different situations and situations can cause different people to behave similarly
What were Mischel’s four cognitive strategies?
Competencies: abilities and knowledge
Encoding strategies: schemas and mechanisms used to encode info
Expectancies: what we expect to happen in response to our behaviour
Plans: variables encompassing our intentions for our actions
Explain trait relevance and its relationship to the situation
Traits will only emerge in relevant situation
Interindividual variance in traits emerges more in some situations than others - Moderate situation needed to see trait differences reflected in behavior
The trait relevance of a situation influences the likelihood of a trait-based behavior emerging
What is the logic behind considering personality through the person (traits) vs the situation?
The person: A person has a relatively consistent manner of behaving that we can classify into categories (traits)
The situation: Everyone is basically the same; behaviour depends on situation, not traits; idea of relative self
Personality is usually — over time
Stable
Explain rank-order consistency as it relates to personality over time and its implications for predicting behaviour
We change with age, but we maintain the same differences relative to others
Means that in most cases we can predict patterns over the long term
Name the three main methods for studying personality and aging and their potential drawbacks
Longitudinal: Studying a group over a long time, allows tracking of individuals - slow and selectivce dropout can be a concern
Cross-sectional: considering multiple groups of different ages at the same time point, allows immediate age comparisons - cohort effects
Cross-sequential: combines the two approaches
Which perspective acknowledges situational and environmental influences on aging and personality?
Lifecourse perspective
What are cohort effects?
Having been born in a different time or region or having different life experiences can alter the outcomes of studies, especially those that compare age cohorts
What is selective dropout?
Dropout of some participants who systematically differ from those who remain in the study
What effects are often seen when considering life/work experiences and change in traits?
Early professional success → greater increase in emotional stability and conscientiousness
Early professional problems → decrease in conscientiousness and emotional stability
