Personality Flashcards
Who is the father of the science of personality?
Hans Eysenck
What are personality traits?
Relatively enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that reflect the tendency to respond in certain ways under certain circumstances
What are the Big Five dimensions of personality?
▪️ Extraversion
▪️ Conscientiousness
▪️ Agreeableness
▪️ Neuroticism
▪️ Openness to experience
What is the modern day industry standard for measuring personality?
The Big Five
What must be considered when thinking about applied implications of personality?
They don’t operate in isolation so need to look holistically
(e.g., they interact with cognitive ability, IQ, etc)
How does intelligence relate to personality?
▪️ Some believe it is another dimension of personality
▪️ Some believe it is functionally different - represents problem-solving ability and processing speed?
How might personality link with employability?
Higher levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness associated with highly reliable and cooperative personality which increases employability
Which personality traits are thought to be associated with occupational outcomes?
Agreeableness and conscientiousness
Which personality trait has been positively associated with job performance?
Conscientiousness
Which personality trait has been positively associated with non-contracted behaviours that benefit organisational cohesion (e.g., being helpful)?
Agreeableness
What must you be aware of when researching the association between a personality trait and an outcome?
The direction of the relationship and “causality”
E.g., low A and C may lead to worse employment but worse employment back also lower A and C
What did the Terman study find?
Children with ‘employment-resistant’ personality profiles had worse:
▪️ Work records
▪️ Health
▪️ Personal relationships
They controlled for IQ but all were from quite wealthy families
What did the Dunedin study find?
Individuals with low levels of self-control (generally low A and C) as children went on to have less satisfactory life histories in almost all domains, including work.
(Much more representative and varied sample that Terman)
How many sub-traits of the Big Five relate to moral judgement?
3 - alturisim (A), modesty (A), and dutifulness (C)
What did Blake and colleagues find when examining the development of fairness in children?
▪️ Disadvantageous inequity aversion emerged by middle childhood in all (bothered by less cake than others)
▪️ Advantageous inequity aversion only later in development and in US, Canada and Uganda (bothered by more cake than others)
▪️ Sense of fairness to others more common in WEIRD cultures
Why was the HEXACO model of personality proposed?
Because the Big Five does not sufficiently measure moral judgement
What are the HEXACO personality traits?
▪️ Honesty-humility
▪️ Emotionality (neuroticism)
▪️ eXtraversion
▪️ Agreeableness vs anger
▪️ Conscientiousness
▪️ Openness to experience
What are the main facets of honesty-humility?
▪️ Sincerity
▪️ Fairness
▪️ Greed avoidance
▪️ Modesty
How might anxiety be associated with morality?
It informs our choices, self-awareness and personal responsibility - enables self-conscious reflection
What are the three main types of moral dilemma?
- Moral-personal
- Moral-impersonal
- Non-moral
What is an example of a moral-personal dilemma?
Doctor performing transplant of a healthy patients organs to save 5 other people
You play an ACTIVE role
What is an example of a moral-impersonal dilemma?
Hitting the switch to divert the trolley from hitting 5 people to instead hitting just one
You play a more PASSIVE role
What have neuroimaging studies found about brain activation during a moral dilemma task?
Emotional systems are more strongly engaged by moral-personal dilemmas
Emotional engagement inhibits utilitarian responding
How does anxiety and psychopathy influence performance on the moral dilemma task?
▪️ Low anxiety psychopaths = more likely to endorse utilitarian behaviour compared to high anxiety or controls
▪️ Both low and high anxiety psychopaths more likely to endorse utilitarian acts that cause indirect/remote harm
What is an example of a low conflict (selfish) moral dilemma?
Pushing your mean boss of the wall so it looks like an accident
What is an example of a high conflict (utilitarian) moral dilemma?
Killing a fatally ill crew member on crashing submarine so that there is enough oxygen for everyone else
How do anxiolytics like lorazepam affect performance moral-personal dilemmas?
Higher dose = more ruthless responses, regardless of whether it was selfish or utilitarian
(no effect on impersonal or non-moral dilemmas)
What are the two main types of moral-personal dilemma?
▪️ Low conflict (selfish)
▪️ High conflict (utilitarian)
What is psychopathy?
Dimensional construct defined by specific patterns of traits and behaviours including:
▪️ Grandiosity
▪️ Lack of empathy and shallow emotions
▪️ Irresponsibility
▪️ Deceptiveness
▪️ Sensation-seeking
▪️ Socially deviant lifestyle
How is psychopathy most commonly measured?
Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist
(20 item semi-structured interview with three point response scale)
What do the majority of people score on the psychopathy checklist (PCL)?
0
How many traits were identified by Hervey Cleckley as indicative of psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder?
16
How does psychopathy and homicide relate?
Can be associated but not necessarily
Psychopathy is _______ but _____________________
Rare but expensive
