Personality and Life Outcomes Flashcards
Law-Abidingness versus Criminality Life Satisfaction Vocational interests: How do people differ in terms of job interests?
Personality and Life Outcomes:
Law-Abidingness vs. Criminality
Influence of social groups, exposure to temptations or provocations -> criminal or unethical behavior
Personality?
Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990):
The self-control theory of crime
“acts of force or fraud undertaken in pursuit of self-interest”
What differentiates criminals from non-criminals?
What differentiates criminals from non-criminals?
Impulsivity, immediate gratification and pleasure despite negative consequences
Failure to inhibit selfish impulses
Motivational factors are the same for criminals and non-criminals
Supporting evidence for the role of self-control:
Romero, Gomez-Fraguela, Luengo, and Sobral (2003)
Study among Spanish university students:
- Personality traits of poor self-control
- Delinquent or criminal activities
Findings: Overall delinquent behaviour was most strongly related to impulsive risk taking (r > .40)
Willingness to take risks and the tendency not to inhibit one’s impulses influence criminal behaviour
In line with the self-control theory
-> lack of self-esteem leads to criminal behaviour
Primary and secondary psychopathy
Some serious offenders / psychopaths are very rational / coolly calculating, others have very poor self-control
Karpman (1948):
Primary vs. secondary psychopaths
Primary: manipulation, deceit, grandiosity, callousness, and selfishness
Secondary: impulsivity, irresponsibility, lack of planning, and poor self-control
Both primary and secondary psychopathy are positively correlated with delinquent activities
e.g. Thefts, vandalism, intoxicated driving, antisocial actions
As they are lack of self-control and manipulativeness/selfishness
People can score high on both factors
Being exploitative and manipulative of others but with enough self-control to avoid criminal behaviours
Or score low on one and high on the other factor
Lower on primary psychopathy but high on secondary psychopathy
Impulsively committing a crime without deliberate intention to harm others
Dark triad (Paulhus & Williams, 2002)
Psychopathy
Narcissism
Machiavellianism
Psychopathy
Callous (cold), remorseless manipulation and exploitation
-> Impulsive, callous thrill-seekers
衝動, 冷酷無情的尋求刺激的人
Narcissism
dominance, exhibitionism, exploitation, feelings of superiority and entitlement
-> Grandiose self-promoters who continually crave attention
不斷渴望關注的宏偉自我推動者
Machiavellianism
manipulativeness, insincerity, callousness
-> Master manipulators
Lee and Ashton (2005): relations with Five-Factor model
Narcissism - Extraversion
Machiavellianism - less agreeableness and conscientiousness
Psychopathy - less agreeableness
Lee and Ashton (2005): relations with Hexaco model
Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, Narcissism less likely to be honest-humility
Narcissism: positive related to extraversion
Outcomes of Dark Triad can impact across different aspects
Furnham, Richards, & Paulhus, 2013
Workplace behaviour:…
Educational behaviour…
Intergroup behaviour…
Antisocial behaviour…
Workplace behaviour
Toxic leadership; snakes in suits; bad bosses
Dark triad + high IQ and/or physical attractiveness: adaptive in some context
Educational behaviour
Cheating and essay plagiarism
Mating behaviour
Psychopaths: Short-term impulsive mating strategy
Machiavellians: More strategic and regulated style that maintains the relationships
Intergroup behaviour
prejudice
Antisocial behaviour
Psychopaths: criminality, bullies, aggressors
Machiavellians: less impulsive, corporate / white-collar crimes
Personality and Life Outcomes:
Life Satisfaction
A person’s subjective evaluation of his/her own life
Depends on many variables unrelated to personality
Life Satisfaction
Stability of life satisfaction over 4 years in a sample of American students: r = .50
.40 can explained by heritability
Personality traits & life satisfaction
Furr and Funder (1998)
Positively related to life satisfaction
- Self-esteem (about .60)
- Cheerfulness (about .40)
- Assertiveness (above .30)
- Sociability (above .30)
Negatively related to life satisfaction
- Depressiveness (about -.50)
- Anxiety (about -.30)
- Anger (about -.30)
Life satisfaction and Big Five Personality
Strongest relations with Extraversion and Emotional Stability (positively correlated)
Modest relations with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness (positively correlated)
People with a general disposition to feel positive emotions tend to have high life satisfaction
People with a general disposition to feel negative emotions tend to have low life satisfaction
Vocational Interests
- How Vocational Interests are Measured
- Major Dimensions of Vocational Interests
- Vocational Interests and Personality
- Vocational Interests and Mental Abilities
- Validity of Vocational Interests Surveys
- Origins of Vocational Interests
- How vocational interests are measured
Single-stimulus items
- Clear and simple
- tendency towards response biases
Forced-choice items
- Level of interest in one area relative to other areas
- Different combinations of areas of interests pitted against each other
- Longer time to complete the survey
Reports
- Interests in various areas of work
- How much the respondent would enjoy various kinds of work activity
- Similarity to a typical worker in a given occupation
- Major Dimensions of Vocational Interest
John Holland’s RIASEC model
RIASEC model
Job choice = expression of personality
Interest surveys = personality surveys
Stereotypes about occupations have psychological and sociological meaning
People with the same occupation have similar personality characteristics and development
Job satisfaction, performance, stability are dependent on person-environment match
RIASEC model
Realistic Investigative Artistic Social Enterprising Conventional
Realistic - the “Doers” (work with their hands
People who have athletic or mechanical abilities, prefer to work with objects, machines, tools, plants, animals or to be outdoor
Mechanics
Engineers
Woodworkers
Drafters
Investigative - the “Thinkers”
People who like to observe, learn, investigate, analyse, evaluate or solve problems
Physicians
Psychologist
Software engineers
College Professors
Artistic - the “Creators”
People who have artistic innovating it intuitional abilities and like to work in unstructured settings using their imagination and creativity
Advertising Executives
Journalists
Dancers
Copywriters
Social - the “Helpers”
People who like to work with people to enlighten, help, train or cure them, or are skilled with words
Counsellors
Teachers
Ministers
Social workers
Enterprising - the “Persuaders”
People who like to work with people, influencing, persuading, performing, leading or managing for organisational goals or economic gain
Real estate agents Travel agent Politicians Food service managers Bartenders
Conventional - the “Organisers”
People who like to work with data, have clerical or numerical ability, carry out tasks in detail or follow-through on others’ instructions
Accountants
Bookkeepers
Actuaries
Data processors
Prediger’s model
Reconceptualization of RIASEC:
Two bipolar dimensions & taking into account a person’s overall level of interest
Data/Ideas and Things/People
Vocational interests and Personality
Larson, Rottinghaus, and Borgen (2002): Meta-analysis
The Big 5 personality match really well onto the Big 6 interests
C - conventional
E - enterprising, social
A - social
O - artistic, investigative
- Vocational interests and Mental ability
Correlation of .70 between interest and self-perceived skills in the same area of work (Campbell et al. 1970)
Much weaker correlation when abilities are measured by tests but still tend to be positive (Ackerman & Heggestad, 1997)
Is there a match between interest and ability in the same area of work?
Yes, there is a overlap in mental abilities and vocational interest
Trait complex theory
e.g. Ackerman & Heggestad, 1997
complex and overlap in vocational interest and personality traits
- Validity of Vocational Interest Surveys
Job satisfaction and lack of turnover
Is job satisfaction positively related to workers’ scores on vocational interest scales that are relevant to their occupations?
YES:
correlations ranging from .25 to .35 (Hough, Barge, & Kamp, 2001) modest predictive validity
Are turnover intentions/behaviour negatively correlated to workers’ scores on vocational interest scales that are relevant to their occupations?
YES:
correlation about -.20 for actual turnover and slightly less for turnover intention (Van Iddekinge et al 2011)
scored high = less likely want to leave the j0b area
Job performance (Hough et al. 2001; Van Iddekinge et al 2011)
Is job performance positively related to workers scores on vocational interest scales that are relevant to their occupations?
Job performance rated by supervisors or objective records
Somewhat higher correlations when using objective records of job performance and when using occupational scales (vs areas of work interests scales)
More interested More effective?
YES:
correlations ranging from .20 to .30 for job performance at work and in training programs modest predictive validity
Only modest predictive validity
Most really dissatisfied workers will not remain in that job, thereby reducing the variation in job satisfaction
Job satisfaction is also influenced by specific job features such as pay and benefits as well as supervisor and co-workers
Incompetent workers will not remain in that job, thereby reducing the variation in job performance
Job performance is also influenced by work ethic and by ability
- Origins of Vocational Interests
Stability of vocational interests
Genetic and environmental influences
Stability of vocational interests
Low, Yoon, Roberts & Rounds (2005)
The stability of vocational interests from early adolescence to middle adulthood:
the vocational interests were more stable compare to personality traits
Degree of stability in people’s vocational interest was fairly high across all age groups,
even during adolescence and became even more stable during young adulthood
Genetic and environmental influences
Mean correlation across interests and talents:
- 512 MZ twins raised together = .49
- 54 MZ twins raised apart = .42
- 390 DZ twins raised together = .23
-> Heritability do exist; around .50
Conclusion
Vocational interests have become an important domain within differential psychology and are of practical importance
Vocational interests tend to be stable across long periods of time
Holland’s model is the most important approach
Fit between person and environment
More research needed
To detect the biological mechanisms
To integrate different individual difference factors (trait complexes)
