Personality Flashcards
How does Judith Harris define personality?
The development during childhood of chronic patterns of behaviour that differ from one individual to another.
How does the book define personality?
THe relatively consistent patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour that characterize each person as a unique individual.
What is a trait?
A relatively stable predisposition to behave in a certain way
Differentiate between a state and a trait
Someone can be in a state of anger while not being an aggressive person (trait.) While a person might have a certain trait this may not manifest in their behaviour until they experience a cue or trigger in the environment.
What do trait theories of personality attempt?
Specify a manageable set of distinct personality dimensions that can be used to summarize the fundamental psychological differences among individuals.
What is factor analysis, what is its use in studying personality?
A method of analyzing patterns of correlations in order to extract mathematically defined factors, which underlie and help make sense of those patterns. This is used to distill all trait terms of everyday language into a manageable number of meaningful, different dimensions of personality.
What is the steps of factor analysis are used for personality traits
- Participants are asked to rate themselves on various personality traits from 1-5.
- The results are the checked to determine the correlation between the various traits.
- Factor extraction is then used to determine which traits correlate strongly with each other. These are placed in a ‘dimension’ and a lable is placed on them such as ‘agreeableness.’
How did Raymond Cattell create the first personality test?
First he condensed all 17,953 english adjectives for personality down to 170 which he considered to be logically different from one another. He then identified 16 basic trait dimensions and created a questionaire called the 16 PF Questionaire to measure them. The questionaire contained about 200 statements.
What is the five factor modal? Name these five factors.
A test which efficiently describes a subjects personality in terms of their score on each of five relatively independant global trait dimensions: Neuroticism (vulnerability to emotional upset, Extraversion, Openness to experience and conscientiousness. (OCEAN.)
What is argued to be a possible sixth trait in the 5 domain personality test?
Honesty- Humility
What is grit in terms of personality? What are the factors?
Perseverance and passion for long term goals, the factors are perseverance of effort and consistency of interest.
Briefly describe the grit personality test
Originally 12 item,now 8 item test where subjects rate how much they agree to a statement such as ‘I finish everything I start’ from one to five. It has decent predictability for success in careers and other fields.
What of the 5 factors correlate strongly with the grit test?
Consciousness
What does the dark triad consist of
Narcissism, machiavellianism (manipulative/Deceptive) and psychopathy.
What do you call the exam used to measure the Big Five Traits?
NEO Personality Inventory (newest version- NEO-PI-3)
Name one problem with most personality questionnaires
They are quite transparent
How is the NEO-PI tested for validity?
If it correlates positively with the persons real world behaviour.
What real world behaviours is neuroticism correlated with?
People who score high on neuroticism tend to pay more attention to threats and other unpleasant information, manifest more distress in response to a math test, experience less marital satisfaction and be more susceptible to mental disorders.
What real world behaviours is extraversion correlated with?
People who score high on extraversion attend more parties, be rated as more popular, be seen as leaders, live and work with more people, mimic the behaviour of others, be less disturbed by loud noises.
What real world behaviours is openness to experience correlated with?
Enrolling in a liberal arts programme, change careers, Perform better in jobs training, more likely to play an instrument, more tolerant, exhibit less prejudice.
What real world behaviours is agreeableness correlated with?
More willing to lend money,have fewer behavioural problems during childhood, manifest les alcoholism or arrests in adulthood, more successful in the workplace, more satisfying marriages.
What real world behaviours is conscientiousness correlated with?
More faithful, higher ratings of job performance, put more effort into academic studies that are uninteresting, smoke less,drink less, drive more safely, healthier diets and live longer.
When are a person’s traits most apparent
In novel, ambiguous, stressful situations when cues as to which actions are appropriate are weak.
Comment on the stability of personality
There is a .50 to .70 correlation in test retest between adults on the NEO-PI. This tends to increase with age