Personality Flashcards
Explain the different approaches to personality
Nomothetic - Differences defined in terms of pre-defined criteria
vs
Idiographic - Cannot define people based on predefined criteria as everyone is unique.
Dispositional - Based on consistent and unchanging dispositions to act, think and feel regardless of context.
vs
Situational - Behaviour is determined by situational factors
Explain the difference between trait and state
Trait - Internal dispositions which affect how you behave. Stable across lifetime.
State - Situational
Taxonomy
System of classification. Identifies the major factors by which people differ e.g. personality factors
Describe the history of personality
Ancient Greeks - Personality based on four temperaments which everyone can be described on. Has a distinction between types and traits. Argued that biological differences cause behavioural differences and associated types with organs and bodily fluids. Yellow bile - Choleric, liver. Blood - Sanguine - Liver, viens, heart Black Bile - Melanchloic, Spleen Phlegm - Phlegmatic - Brain
18th century physiognomy believed that the shape of an individual’s skull determines their character.
Explain Eysenck’s Gigantic Three
States that behaviour is represented by 3 factors
- Neuroticism vs emotionally stable - An individual’s level of emotionality and tendency to worry
- Extraversion vs introversion - Degree to which individuals show a tendency to be talkative
- Psychoticism vs impulse control - An individual’s level of conformity, aggressiveness and feelings for others.
- Grounded in biological differences like Greeks as looked at twin studies and found a genetic influence. Explains why personality doesn’t change throughout the lifespan.
Explain the biological basis to Eysenck’s Gigantic Three
Cortical arousability to stimulation
- Extraverts seek stimulation whereas introverts don’t need activation of the reticulo-cortical system as are over stimulated.
- Neurotic’s sympathetic NS responds quickly to stress whereas a stable person’s is less reactive to stress in the reticulo-limbic system.
Psychoticism said to be associated with dopamine levels which is associated with experience and regulation of emotionality.
Explain the measurements used in Eysenck’s Gigantic Three
- Maudsley Medical Questionnaire (MMQ) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ).
- The dimensions are independent. High scores on one trait do not provide information about scores on the other traits.
- They rely on a self-report inventory.
What are the criticisms of Eysenck’s theory?
- Complex
- Neuroticism and extraversion are meant to be unrelated, but said to have physiological interdependence of the underlying processes.
- Lack of sufficient technological instruments.
Explain Gray’s BIS/BAS personality theory
It is a biopsychological theory related to physiological arousal. Said to be universal and overlap with other theories.
BAS (Behavioural activation system)
- Motivates behaviour towards a reward
- Positive emotions
- Comparable to extraversion
BIS (Behavioural Inhibition System)
- Anxiety system that inhibits behaviours associated with potential punishment or lack of reward.
- Negative emotions
- Comparable to neuroticism
Psychoticism characterised by risk-taking while neuroticism characterised by risk-avoiding.
Explain Cattell’s 16 PF
Identified 16 dimensions of personality via a systematic analysis of English language. Lexical hypothesis.
No1 = Factor A Warmth (Reserved vs warm) No2 = Factor B Reasoning (Concrete vs abstract)
Criticised for wide range of behaviours which have intercorrelations between several dimensions. Taxonomy can then be reduced to fewer factors.
Explain the Big Five (Costa and McCrae, 1985).
OCEAN
- Openness - Fantasy, ideas, values
- Conscientiousness - Competence, achievement seeking
- Extraversion - Warmth, excitement
- Agreeableness - Trust, Modesty
- Neuroticism - Anxiety, vulnerability
Similar to gigantic 3, but differ in their assessment of traits other than neuroticism and extraversion.
What are the criticisms of the Big Five?
- Lack of theory, not known where differences in traits arise
- Supposed to be independent but there are correlations between traits
- Not universal as there are cultural differences
- 6 dimensions in some studies
- Need to focus on differences in personal goals and values rather than artificial categories
- Traits do not explain the causes of behaviour/uniqueness
Evaluate the effectiveness of basing personality traits on lexicon
Pro-social bias - Language develops to facilitate communication with others which means that there are more social things in language which affects analysis
Negativity Bias of Emotion - There are more words for negative emotions than positive.
Describe the Myers-Briggs Type indicator
- Extraversion (E) – Introversion (I)
Where you prefer to get or focus your energy - Sensing (S) – iNtuition (N)
The kind of information you prefer to gather and trust - Thinking (T) – Feeling (F)
The process you prefer to use in coming to decisions - Judging (J) – Perceiving (P)
How you prefer to deal with the world around you
Explain the relationship between personality and social behaviour
- Carlo et al. (2005) - Extraversion and agreeableness most important personality correlates of prosocial behaviour.
- Antisocial predicted by low conscientiousness and neuroticism like Eysenck’s’ view that conscientiousness is a negative correlate of psychoticism.
