Personality Flashcards
What is meant by personality?
- Traits that are stable across time and situations
- Preferences on certain ways of behaving
What can affect personalities?
-The situation you are in can help determine your behaviour
What is the fundamental attribution error?
-Individuals tendency to overemphasise internal characteristics in explaining behaviour rather than external factors
What is actor-observer bias?
-People overestimate role of situation and underemphasise personality
How many dimensions of personality are there?
-5
What is the percentage of variance and what is the explanation for this?
- 50% variance
- Explained by genetic factors
What external factor also plays a role in personality?
-Environment
What should be aware of when determine inherited characteristics?
-Beware what is inherited are more likely to be limits around set points rather than absolute characteristics.
What are the 5 dimensions of personality?
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Neuroticism
- Openness
What statistical technique determines personality?
- Factor analysis
What is extraversion?
-How sociable and “loud” someone is
What is agreeableness?
-How easy it is to get along with someone
How does agreeableness depend?
- How agreeable you want a person will depend on the situation
- eg lawyer doctor
What is personality disorder determined by during assessment?
-behaviour
What is meant by Conscientiousness?
-how hard working someone is
What are issues with conscientious people?
- they have difficulty relaxing
- see everything in life as a task
What is issue with unconscientious people?
-Have difficulty focusing on the task
What is Neuroticism?
-having the tendency to think negatively and think of the word in a negative way
What is non-neurotic?
-Think positively
What is advantage to neuroticism?
- see threats quicker
- more balanced decisions made
- increases survival likeliness
-What is negative of neuroticism?
-more likely to have depression at some point in your life
What is openness?
-Willingness to explore new things
What is negative of openness?
-more exposure to risk
How is personality assessed?
-Self report questionnaire
What is potential problem with self-report questionnaire?
- do not know if it is truthful response
What are the three forms of personality based outcomes?
- Individual
- Interpersonal
- Social/Interpersonal
What is social well-being comprised of?
- A cognitive component
- An emotional component
What is the cognitive component?
- personal judgement on life satisfaction
What is the emotional component?
-The experience of positive and absence of negative emotions
How does extraversion and neuroticism affect the way people see things?
- people high in extraversion and low in neuroticism tend to see events and situations in a more positive light
What factors are related to happiness?
- extraversion
- neuroticism
How are demographic factors related to well-being?
-weakly/moderately related
Examples of demographic factors?
- age
- sex
- marital status
- employment
What do personality traits have a stable effect on?
- health
- longevity
- those with more meaningful and longer relationships are more likely to live longer
What does low agreeableness appear to correlate?
-predicts poorer health
What traits leads to better health?
- extraversion (want to live longer, make and keep friends)
- conscientious
What is conscientious associated with?
-Reduced physical and mental health risk
What is neuroticism associated with?
-Increased physical and mental health risk
What is empathy a combination of?
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- emotional regulation
What is empathy best predicted by?
-best predicted by low neuroticism
What personality traits can affect negative relationship outcomes?
-Neuroticism and low agreeableness
What does conscientiousness predict?
-work performance across occupations
How does agreeableness affect job performance?
-Relates to job performance when a teamwork is important
What is years of education related to?
-intellect, or openness
What traits perhaps indicate how one feels about work?
- extraversion
- emotional stability
What is emotional stability related to?
-Financial stability
What is low conscientiousness consistently associated with?
-criminal/anti social behaviour
What is low agreeableness and low conscientiousness associated with?
- Low agreeableness, and low conscientiousness
What traits improve as you age?
- age conscientiousness and emotional stability
- agreeableness
What decreases across lifespan?
- openness
