Personality Flashcards
1
Q
What are traits?
A
o Relatively enduring predisposition that influences our behaviour across many situations
2
Q
What is personality?
A
• People’s typical ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving
3
Q
What is the fundamental attribution error?
A
o Tendency to attribute too much of other’s behaviour to their disposition (including personality), and not enough to the situation
4
Q
What are the behaviour genetic methods?
A
- 3 broad influences over personality
- Genetic factors
- Shared environmental factors
- Nonshared environmental factors
5
Q
What do twin and adoption studies tell us about personality?
A
Twins Reared Together
• Significant influence from genes, but correlation is not 1 so there must be nonshared environmental factors at play
Twins Reared Apart
• Identical twins reared apart are about as similar as if they were raised together
• Shared environment plays little to no role in adult personality
• Shared environment has some effect on us as kids, but dissipates as we get older
Adoption Studies
• Correlation from biological parents about 0.2, and less than 0.1 for adoptive parents
• Shows shared environment plays very little role in personality
6
Q
What are nonshared environmental factors? What is an example of one?
A
- Experiences that make individuals within the same family less alike
- None identified so far
- Birth order was proposed but no strong evidence it matters
7
Q
What is the nomothetic approach?
A
- Scientific approach that seeks out general principles in nature, rather than principles specific to an individual
- Traditional way of looking at personality
8
Q
What is the idiographic approach?
A
- Scientific approach that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person
- May be needed to capture full impact of environment
9
Q
What is behaviour genetic studies?
A
- Specific genes don’t directly affect a behaviour, but they can affect them indirectly
- Twin studies show that heritability is involved but not which genes are responsible for those changes
10
Q
What is a molecular genetic study?
A
• Part of behaviour genetic studies
• Investigation that allows researchers to pinpoint genes associated with specific personality traits
• Premises
o Genes code for proteins that may affect neurotransmitter function
o Neurotransmitter function associate with personality traits
• So far, few replicated associations between specific genes and personality traits
11
Q
What is determinism?
A
- The theory that free will is an illusion
- We are not consciously aware of thousands of subtle environmental influences
- Our behaviours are completely determined, caused by preceding influences
12
Q
What is psychic determinism?
A
Part of psychoanalytic theory
• The assumption that all psychological events have a cause
• Specific case of determinism
13
Q
What was symbolic meaning in psychoanalytic theory?
A
- No action is meaningless
* Every action must mean something, likely sexual in nature
14
Q
How do psychoanalysts view unconscious motivation?
A
- We don’t’ understand why we do what we do as we are doing it
- Far more important to our personality than what we are consciously aware of
15
Q
How does psychoanalytic theory stand up to scientific evaluation?
A
- Not falsifiable for the most part
- Parts that can be falsified often have been
- Doubtful that the unconscious exists as Freud conceived it
- Used atypical population samples and overgeneralized it to the population
- Believed in shared environment influence which twin studies have debunked
16
Q
Describe the id
A
• Most primitive impulses o Especially sex and aggression • Entirely unconscious • Pleasure principle o Tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification
17
Q
What is the pleasure principle associated with the id?
A
o Tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification
18
Q
Describe the superego
A
- Sense of morality
- Believed overdevelopment results in guilt-prone individuals
- Guilt free people at risk for developing psychopathy
19
Q
Describe the ego
A
• Psyche’s executive and principal decision
• Resolve competing demands of id and superego
• Reality principle
o Tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet
• Anxiety is ego experiencing danger
20
Q
What is the reality principle of the ego?
A
o Tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet
21
Q
According to the psychoanalyst structure of personality, what is anxiety?
A
• Anxiety is ego experiencing danger
22
Q
Describe the interactions between the id, ego, and superego
A
- Generally the 3 are in harmony
- Freud believed psychological distress results from conflict in the 3 agencies
- Believed dreams were id and in symbols in your dreams (again, mostly sex)
23
Q
According to Freud, what are defense mechanisms?
A
• Unconscious manoeuvres intended to minimize anxiety
• Performed by the ego
• Freud believed necessary for psychological health
o Too little leads to uncontrollable anxiety, too much is pathological
24
Q
List the defense mechanisms Freud identified.
A
Repression Denial Regression Reaction formation Projection Displacement Rationalization Intellectualization Sublimation
25
What is Freuds description of repression?
• Motivated forgetting of emotionally threatening memories or impulses
• Most critical defense mechanism for the psychoanalyst
• Triggered by anxiety
• Causes infantile amnesia
o Inability to remember anything prior to age 3
26
What is Freuds description of denial?
* Motivated forgetting of distressing external experiences
* Most often seen in individuals with psychotic disorders
* May occur in individuals undergoing extreme stress
27
What is Freuds description of regression?
• Act of returning psychologically to a younger, and typically simpler and safer, age
28
What is Freuds description of reaction formation?
* Transformation of an anxiety-provoking emotion into its opposite
* Unconscious impulse is considered unacceptable by the individual, so it is transformed into an observable emotion that is opposite from the original impulse
29
What is Freuds description of projection?
• Unconscious attribution of our negative characteristics to others
30
What is Freuds description of displacement?
• Directing and impulse from a socially unacceptable target onto a safer and more socially acceptable target
31
What is Freuds description of rationalization?
• Providing a reasonable-sounding explanation for unreasonable behaviours or for failures
32
What is Freuds description of intellectualization?
• Avoiding the emotions associated with anxiety-provoking experiences by focusing on abstract and impersonal thoughts
33
What is Freuds description of sublimation?
• Transforming a socially unacceptable impulse into an admired goal
34
What were erogenous zones to Freud?
Sexually arousing zone of the body and were the focus of the stages of psychosexual development
35
What were the 5 stages of psychosexual development?
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Oral
Anal
Phallic
Latency
Genital
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36
Describe the oral stage of the psychosexual development
```
• Focuses on the mouth
• Birth – about 12 to 18 months old
• Fixated symptoms
o Impatient and demanding
o Unhealthy oral behaviours such as smoking
```
37
Describe the anal stage of psychosexual development
* Focuses on toilet training
* About 18 months – 3 years old
* Fixated symptoms may be either excessive neatness, rules, and regulations or messiness, aggression, and loathing
38
Describe the phallic stage of psychosexual development
* Focuses on the genitals
* About 3 – 6 years old
Oedipus Complex in Boys
• Conflict in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals
• Suggests they have to befriend daddy to get mommy to resolve this conflict
Electra Complex in Girls
• Conflict in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals
• Penis envy
o Girls desire to posses a penis like daddy
o Girls feel “inferior” to boys because of their missing “organ”
o Sense of inferiority can persist for decades
39
Describe the latency stage of psychosexual development
* Sexual impulses submerged into the unconsciousness
* About 6 – 12 years old
* Find members of opposite sex to be unappealing
40
Describe the genital stage of psychosexual development
* Sexual impulses awaken and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction toward others
* Begins about age 12
* Difficulties with love attachments occur if earlier issues not resolved
41
Describe the Oedipus complex according to Freud
* Conflict in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals
* Suggests they have to befriend daddy to get mommy to resolve this conflict
42
Describe the Electra complex (although Freud didn't use this term)
• Conflict in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals
• Penis envy
o Girls desire to posses a penis like daddy
o Girls feel “inferior” to boys because of their missing “organ”
o Sense of inferiority can persist for decades
43
What are Neo-Freudian theories?
• Theories derived from Freud’s model, but that placed less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in personality and were more optimistic regarding the prospects for long-term personality growth
44
Describe the striving for superiority Neo-Freudian theory
• Alfred Adler
• Main motive for human personality
• Results in a better self
• Style of life
o Each person’s distinctive way of achieving superiority
• Inferiority complex
o Feelings of low self-esteem that can lead to overcompensation for such feelings which may include dominating others
45
Describe the collective unconsciousness Neo-Freudian theory
• Carl Jung
• Shared storehouse of memories that ancestors have passed down to us across generations
• Accounts for similarities in myths and legends
• Archetypes
o Cross-culturally universal symbols
46
Describe the feminist psychology Neo-Freudian theory
* Karen Horney
* First feminist personality theorist
* Took exceptions to penis envy and Oedipus complex
47
What are radial behaviourists and what are their primary beliefs? How do they feel about determinism and unconscious processing?
```
• Radical behaviorists
o Emphasis is on observable behaviour
• Claim personalities are habits acquired by classical and operant conditioning
• Believe personality consists of behaviours
• 2 influences to personality
o Genetics
o Contingencies in the environment
Reinforcers
Punishers
```
Determinism
• Belief that free will is an illusion
• We don’t see the situational factors that trigger our behaviours that are predetermined
Unconscious Processing
• Rather than Freuds vast store of inaccessible information, behaviourists believe unconscious variables lay outside us, not inside
48
What are social learning theorists? What are their main beliefs?
* Also called social cognitive theorists
* Emphasize thinking as a cause of personality
Reciprocal Determinism
• Albert Bandura (Bobo Beater Bandura)
• Tendency for people to mutually influence each other’s behaviour
Observational Learning
• Albert Bandura (Bobo Beater Bandura)
• Learning by watching others
• Believed we acquired good and bad habits from watching adults in our lives
49
What is a humanistic model of personality?
• Embrace notion of free will
• View human natures as inherently constructive and self actualization as a worthy goal
• Self actualization
o Drive to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extent
50
What is the Roger's model of personality?
* Carl Rogers
* Focused on pathological individuals who’s self actualization efforts were thwarted
* Made of 3 major components
Organism
• Innate, genetically influenced blueprint
• Like id but more positive and helpful
Self
• Set of beliefs about who we are
Conditions of Worth
• Expectations we place on ourselves for appropriate and inappropriate behaviour
• May be impact by others – your dream isn’t worthwhile
• May result in us acting in ways inconsistent with our underlying personality
51
What is the Maslow humanistic theory?
• Abraham Maslow
• Focused on often famous individuals that were self actualized
o Martin Luther King Jr, Hellen Keller, etc.
• Individuals tend to be self-confident, focus on real-world problems and have a few deep friendships
• Prone to peak experiences
o Ultimate moments of intense excitement with a profound sense of connection to the world
52
How are traits identified for trait models o personality? What fallacy needs to be guarded from when discussing traits?
• Factor analysis
o Statistical technique that analyzes the correlations among responses on personality inventories and other measures
o Reduces the 17 000 terms in English for traits (called variables) down to 3 or 5 traits (called factors)
o Uses correlation between variables to determine which one’s group into the same factor
• Need to avoid circular reasoning fallacy
o Demonstrate that traits predict behaviour in novel situations
53
Describe the big 5 model of personality and what are the big 5?
• 5 traits that have surfaced repeatedly in factor analyses of personality measures
• Predict real-world behaviours as generalities, not specific instances of behaviour
• Lexical approach
o Approach proposing that the most crucial features of personality are embedded in our language
o How the big 5 were uncovered
• Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Extroversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
54
How do cultural influences affect the big 5 model of personality?
• Big 5 fairly identifiable in most countries
• China may have an extra one for group harmony and avoiding embarrassment
• Some European countries may have a factor for honesty and humility
• In collectivist cultures, traits may be less predictive of behaviour than in individualistic cultures
o Different countries have different levels of individual collectivism
55
Can personality traits change over time?
• May change a little until 30 years old, after that, very little change
56
What is cosmetic psychopharmacology?
o Peter Kramer
o Use of medications to produce long-term changes in personality
o May give a better than well state, evidence is promising
57
What are some very old, misguided ways of assessing personality?
• Phrenology
o Personality traits based on patterns of bumps on their head
• Physiognomy
o Personality traits based on facial characteristics
• William Sheldon
o Believed he could determine personality traits based on body type
• Japanese cultural belief
o Personality traits based on blood type
58
What are structured personality tests?
```
• Paper-and-pencil test consisting of questions that respondents answer in one of a few fixed ways
o True/false or yes/no etc.
o Likert formats
Numerical scales like 1-5
• Easy to administer and score
```
59
What is the rationally/theoretically constructed test?
• Approach to building tests that requires test developers to begin with a clear-cut conceptualization of a trait and then write items to assess that conceptualization
60
What is the NEO personality inventory?
NEO Personality Inventory – Revised (NEO-PI-R)
• Used to measure the big 5
• Impressive validity demonstrated
Rationally/Theoretically Constructed Tests
61
What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test?
• Most widely administered personality test
• Based loosely on Jung’s theory of personality
• Low reliability and validity
• Measures 4 categories
o Introversion – extroversion
o Sensing – intuiting
o Thinking – feeling
o Judging – perceiving
• Gives 16 personality types
Rationally/Theoretically Constructed Tests
62
What is the MMPI and how is it constructed?
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
o Widely used structured personality test designed to assess symptoms of mental disorders
• 567 true/false questions in a structured personality test
• Built using empirical method of test construction
o Also called data-based method of test construction
o Approach to building tests in which researchers begin with two or more criterion groups (i.e., clinically depressed, and not clinically depressed) and examine which items best distinguish them
63
Which mental disorders are measured with the MMPI test?
* Hs Scale – Hypochondriasis
* D Scale – Depression
* Hy Scale – Hysteria
* Pd Scale – Psychopathic Deviate
* Pa Scale – Paranoia
* Pt Scale – Psychasthenia – Anxiety
* Sc Scale – Schizophrenia
* Ma – Hypomania
64
How is validity ensured with the MMPI test?
• Low face validity
o Extent to which respondents can tell what the items are measuring
• Detect response sets
o Tendency to distort responses to items
o Impression management
Making ourselves look better than we are
o Malingering
Making ourselves appear psychologically disturbed
• L Scale – Lie
o Consists of items assessing denial of trivial faults
o Identifies impression management
• F Scale – Frequency
o Consists of items people rarely endorse
o Identifies malingering, serious psychological disturbance, or carelessness answering questions
• K Scale – Correction
o Consists of items similar to, but more subtle than, L scale
o Measures defensive or guarded responses
65
Other than validity and mental disorder scales, which scales are measured?
* Mf Scale – Masculinity/Femininity
| * Si Scale – Social introversion
66
What are projective tests? What are some examples?
• Test consisting of ambiguous stimuli that examinees must interpret or make sense of
• Based on projective hypothesis
o Hypothesis that in the process of interpreting ambiguous stimuli, examinees project aspects of their personality onto the stimulus
• Most controversial tests
Rorschach inkblot, TAT, human figure drawing etc.
67
What is the Rorschach inkblot test?
* Hermann Rorschach
| * Projective test consisting of ten symmetrical inkblots
68
What is the thematic apperception test?
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
• Projective test requiring examinees to tell a story in response to 31 ambiguous pictures
• Analyzed using clinical intuition alone
• Moderate validity for object relations
o Perceptions of others, such as whether people see others as helpful or harmful
69
What is the human figure drawings test?
Human Figure Drawings
• Group of tests where examinee draws a person and clinician looks for “signs” in the drawing to give hints for personality
• Little to no correlation between this test to personality traits
70
What is the graphology test?
• Psychological interpretation of handwriting
• Graphotherapeutics
o Claim to cure psychological disorders by altering a person’s handwriting
• Uses representative heuristics
o If the t cross looks like a whip, person is sadistic
71
What is the P. T. Barnum test?
* Tendency of people to accept high base rate descriptions as accurate
* Just because you think the results of a personality test fit you does not mean the test was valid
* Probably accounts for horoscopes etc.
72
A concern with personal goals and high self-esteem is most characteristic of those from ________ cultures.
individualistic
73
Which piece of evidence suggests that social learning is a weak influence on personality development?
a) Adopted children are more similar to their biological parents than to their adoptive parents.
b) Identical twins are more similar to each other than are fraternal twins.
c) Shared environment seems to play a large role in personality development.
d) Genes associated with the production of dopamine have been associated with novelty seeking.
A
74
The age at which a baby was weaned from nursing or bottle feeding would have most impact on which of Freud’s psychosexual stages?
oral
75
If you wanted to date someone who loves to travel, is eager to try new things, and would enjoy philosophical discussions, which of the Big Five personality traits matters most?
Openness
76
If you wanted to predict which person is most likely to be willing to try new foods or consider a new theory, which trait are you focused on?
Openness
77
Which of the following is one of the dimensions of the Big Five?
a) Superiority
b) Conscientiousness
c) Psychoticism
d) Sociability
B
78
Which of the following statements is a common criticism of Maslow’s perspective on self-actualization?
a) His reports of self-actualized people were influenced by confirmation bias.
b) It is missing a discussion on the influence of selfless motives in personality development.
c) It underestimates the influence of external factors in personality development.
d) It focused only on women.
A
79
What technique is used by trait theorists to categorize the diversity of traits into as few as three or five underlying traits?
Factor analysis
80
A married woman is sexually attracted to her coworker, so she focuses on all the things she hates about him and tells others about how revolting he is. This woman is using the defense mechanism of
reaction-formation.
81
Freud’s studies are limited in ________________ because the samples of patients that he studied were unrepresentative of the general population.
a) external validity
b) internal validity
c) demand characteristics
d) experimenter bias
A
82
Freud often engaged in reinterpreting evidence that contradicted his theories into further sources of support for his theories. In particular, he often used ____________ to protect his pet hypotheses from refutation.
a) displacement
b) the overconfidence barrier
c) ad hoc manoeuvres
d) reaction-formation
C
83
Genie is completing a personality test her psychologist gave her. She wants to appear as if she is traumatized (even though she feels fine) following an accident at work. What type of response set is Genie engaging in?
Malingering
84
According to Freud and his followers, what is the most significant event that occurs during the anal stage of psychosexual development?
Toilet training
85
Many people are familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, because it is widely available and used heavily in business and industry. However, few students are knowledgeable about the fact that this popular personality assessment instrument has
a) high reliability and high validity.
b) low reliability and low validity.
c) low reliability and high validity.
d) high reliability and low validity.
B
86
According to Carl Rogers, when do conditions of worth typically arise in our development?
Childhood
87
Conflicts over toilet-training and other attempts by a 2-year-old to exert control over his or her environment are most evident during the ________ stage of psychosexual development.
anal
88
__________________ refers to the idea that medications may be able to produce long-term alterations in personality.
Cosmetic psychopharmacology
89
A key point of agreement between contemporary psychologists and the ideas of Sigmund Freud is that adult personality
is relatively stable across time.
90
According to Freudian theories, the purpose of dreaming is for ____________ and involves the expressions of the _____________.
wish fulfillment; id
91
Which of the following results demonstrates that shared environment plays very little role in adult personality?
a) Fraternal twins reared apart are less similar than fraternal twins reared together.
b) Identical twins reared together are more similar than fraternal twins reared together.
c) Identical twins tend to be more similar than fraternal twins.
d) Identical twins reared apart are as similar as identical twins reared together.
D
92
Which of the following tests is based on a rational/theoretical model of test construction, where test items are created based on a theoretical concept?
a) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)
b) Rorschach test
c) NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R)
d) Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
C
93
Which neo-Freudian theorist strongly disagreed with Freud's ideas about women and their feelings of inferiority and the Oedipus complex?
a) Jung
b) Horney
c) Klein
d) Adler
B
94
The empirical method of test construction is to ___________ as the rational/theoretical method of test construction is to ___________.
a) MMPI; NEO-PI-R
b) NEO-PI-R; MMPI
c) Rorschach; NEO-PI-R
d) MMPI; TAT
A
95
According to Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, there are ________ stages that each person must pass through between birth and adulthood.
5
96
According to Freud, the child is born into the world with a psyche equipped with
an id.
97
When reviewing Freud's theory of personality development, a critical thinker would be most concerned about the
a) high level of support for many key aspects.
b) lack of falsifiable hypotheses for key aspects.
c) lack of extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims.
d) confusing correlation with causation.
B
98
Conflicts over toilet-training and other attempts by a 2-year-old to exert control over his or her environment are most evident during the ________ stage of psychosexual development.
anal
99
According to Freud, which structure serves as the moral component of one's personality?
Superego
100
If someone has a very strong superego, then which emotion will they experience often?
guilt
101
The ________________ assumes that the most crucial features of personality are embedded in our language.
lexical approach
102
Every time she is afraid or nervous (but is not necessarily consciously aware of these feelings), Brandy starts to laugh and has difficulty controlling her laughter. This is an example of what Freudian defense mechanism?
Reaction-formation
103
Based on evidence from longitudinal studies, which personality traits tend to increase during early adulthood?
a) Extraversion and openness
b) Neuroticism and agreeableness
c) Openness and neuroticism
d) Agreeableness and conscientiousness
D
104
Which of the following proposed physical markers of personality is actually supported by research evidence?
a) We can generally identify people with aggressive tendencies based on facial photos.
b) Ectomorphs tend to be tall and skinny, and also tend to be introverted.
c) People with heavy brow ridges or low brow lines tend to be less intellectual.
d) People with type A blood are more extroverted than average.
A
105
Which component of a person’s personality contains the sex drive, or libido?
Id
106
Many projective assessment tools lack
a) subjectivity.
b) standardization.
c) validity and reliability.
d) theoretical foundations.
C
107
What have the results of several studies comparing twins that were reared apart or reared together have concluded about the shared environment?
shared environment plays little or no role in adult personality.
108
The neo-Freudian Carl Jung suggested the existence of a collective unconscious that contains images shared by all people. These images are called
archetypes.
109
For Freud, the mind is divided into ___ levels.
3
110
The Big Five personality traits were categorized using a ______________ to personality.
lexical approach
111
Kelly is known for accusing others of cheating during games, but she herself is very prone to cheating. Which of the following Freudian defense mechanisms is reflected by Kelly’s behaviour?
Projection
112
Kate’s friends generally describe her as a very sweet and reliable person who really likes to take care of other people. She volunteers at a local animal rescue group, where she uses her excellent organizational skills to coordinate all of the donations and supplies. She likes talking to familiar people one-on-one or in small groups, but she tends to avoid big parties. In fact, sometimes she’d rather talk to the dogs at the rescue shelter than with new people! Kate is currently finishing her degree in fine arts, specializing in theatre, and she wants to become a set designer. Lots of people go into theatre so that they can be on stage, but Kate prefers working behind the scenes. She considered being a director, but she knows that she has a hard time telling other people what to do and she doesn’t like conflict or arguments. She loves drawing and other creative activities, and one director that she worked with says that Kate has a talent for designing really creative sets with very little money or materials. And she always gets everything done on time! She’s got a job interview soon, to work on sets for the local theatre company, and she’s a bit nervous. She knows that she has all the right qualifications, and great letters of reference, but interviews make her feel very self-conscious and jittery.
If you predicted that Kate would perform very well if she gets the new job, because she is organized and reliable, which trait are you using for your prediction?
Conscientiousness
113
Kate’s friends generally describe her as a very sweet and reliable person who really likes to take care of other people. She volunteers at a local animal rescue group, where she uses her excellent organizational skills to coordinate all of the donations and supplies. She likes talking to familiar people one-on-one or in small groups, but she tends to avoid big parties. In fact, sometimes she’d rather talk to the dogs at the rescue shelter than with new people! Kate is currently finishing her degree in fine arts, specializing in theatre, and she wants to become a set designer. Lots of people go into theatre so that they can be on stage, but Kate prefers working behind the scenes. She considered being a director, but she knows that she has a hard time telling other people what to do and she doesn’t like conflict or arguments. She loves drawing and other creative activities, and one director that she worked with says that Kate has a talent for designing really creative sets with very little money or materials. And she always gets everything done on time! She’s got a job interview soon, to work on sets for the local theatre company, and she’s a bit nervous. She knows that she has all the right qualifications, and great letters of reference, but interviews make her feel very self-conscious and jittery.
Describe Kate's level of neuroticism and why?
She has moderate levels of neuroticism because she gets nervous about things, but it doesn’t seem to be causing her any major problems.
114
Kate’s friends generally describe her as a very sweet and reliable person who really likes to take care of other people. She volunteers at a local animal rescue group, where she uses her excellent organizational skills to coordinate all of the donations and supplies. She likes talking to familiar people one-on-one or in small groups, but she tends to avoid big parties. In fact, sometimes she’d rather talk to the dogs at the rescue shelter than with new people! Kate is currently finishing her degree in fine arts, specializing in theatre, and she wants to become a set designer. Lots of people go into theatre so that they can be on stage, but Kate prefers working behind the scenes. She considered being a director, but she knows that she has a hard time telling other people what to do and she doesn’t like conflict or arguments. She loves drawing and other creative activities, and one director that she worked with says that Kate has a talent for designing really creative sets with very little money or materials. And she always gets everything done on time! She’s got a job interview soon, to work on sets for the local theatre company, and she’s a bit nervous. She knows that she has all the right qualifications, and great letters of reference, but interviews make her feel very self-conscious and jittery.
Which of the following Big Five traits would Kate score rather LOW on?
Extraversion
115
Kate’s friends generally describe her as a very sweet and reliable person who really likes to take care of other people. She volunteers at a local animal rescue group, where she uses her excellent organizational skills to coordinate all of the donations and supplies. She likes talking to familiar people one-on-one or in small groups, but she tends to avoid big parties. In fact, sometimes she’d rather talk to the dogs at the rescue shelter than with new people! Kate is currently finishing her degree in fine arts, specializing in theatre, and she wants to become a set designer. Lots of people go into theatre so that they can be on stage, but Kate prefers working behind the scenes. She considered being a director, but she knows that she has a hard time telling other people what to do and she doesn’t like conflict or arguments. She loves drawing and other creative activities, and one director that she worked with says that Kate has a talent for designing really creative sets with very little money or materials. And she always gets everything done on time! She’s got a job interview soon, to work on sets for the local theatre company, and she’s a bit nervous. She knows that she has all the right qualifications, and great letters of reference, but interviews make her feel very self-conscious and jittery.
Which personality trait is associated with Kate’s friends’ description of her as ‘sweet’ and ‘taking care of other people', along with her avoidance of conflict?
Agreeableness
116
Kate’s friends generally describe her as a very sweet and reliable person who really likes to take care of other people. She volunteers at a local animal rescue group, where she uses her excellent organizational skills to coordinate all of the donations and supplies. She likes talking to familiar people one-on-one or in small groups, but she tends to avoid big parties. In fact, sometimes she’d rather talk to the dogs at the rescue shelter than with new people! Kate is currently finishing her degree in fine arts, specializing in theatre, and she wants to become a set designer. Lots of people go into theatre so that they can be on stage, but Kate prefers working behind the scenes. She considered being a director, but she knows that she has a hard time telling other people what to do and she doesn’t like conflict or arguments. She loves drawing and other creative activities, and one director that she worked with says that Kate has a talent for designing really creative sets with very little money or materials. And she always gets everything done on time! She’s got a job interview soon, to work on sets for the local theatre company, and she’s a bit nervous. She knows that she has all the right qualifications, and great letters of reference, but interviews make her feel very self-conscious and jittery.
Which behaviour provides you with evidence about Kate’s “openness”?
Her creativity with sets.
