Personality and Situations Flashcards
What are the three mentioned experiments on social content and behaviour, and what is the field theory
field theory
b = f (e, p)
asch’s conformity experiment
milgram’s obedience studies
zambardo’s stanford prison experiment
What are the two main claims of situationism and their respective supporting evidence
By Walter Mischel
“personality traits have a low correlations with the behaviours (r < .30)”
supporting evidence
> Hartshorne and May
> have children to work on a games that can cheat, and self-reporting measures on cheating
> results show that the reported cheating frequency and the instances of cheating have a low correlation (r~.20)
> pairs of cheating have a low correlations (r~.20), supporting the claim that behaviours vary across context
How did personality psychologists respond to the social psychologists claims
“personality traits have a low correlation with behaviours”
> indeed, but the correlation of situations is not much higher.
“behaviours vary across different situations”
> does not deny the fact that personality traits differ across situations
What is the correspondence bias
the tendency that people mistakenly explain behaviours by personality dispositions instead of situational constraints
providing the milgram experiment to people, who then mostly interpret the behaviours by personality traits instead of the contextual constraints
What is the Straw Person Argument, the reason to develop the principle of aggregation, and what is the principle of aggregation
straw person argument
> the variability of behaviours is compatible with the different effects of personality traits
the reason to develope the principle of aggregation
> since mischel and may used single instances, the consistency was pretty low
> single instances usually suffer from a high measurement error
> it is hard to therefore distinguish whether it is the measurement that has a low reliability or if the construct has a low consistency
Principle of aggregation
> measuring the behaviour over different occasions
> the error should be averaged out and the stand out results should be closer to the true score
What are the experiments that support the principle of aggregation
Epstein (1979)
> measured different events in classroom and dormitory settings
> supporting that the more measurement occasions = the higher consistency
Rushton et al. (1983)
> measuring 12 major areas, including the correlation between personality and behaviour and the correlation between behaviour and moral, supporting errors are averaged out
Borkenau et al. (2004)
> thin slice paradigm
> measured the consistency of behaviours in daily situations
> showing cross-situational behaviours increase as a function of aggregation
> relations of self and other-rated personality with behaviour increased as a function of aggregation
Fleeson
> used the example sampling methods (measuring the behaviour multiple times in a day)
> measured the personality state expressions over the last hour and the B5 traits
> showing that although the trait expression can vary, the B5 traits are stable
What are the four reasons that led to the debunk of situationism
> the correlation between personality and behaviour is not weak
behaviour is more consistent along the increase of measurement aggregation
there is consistency and flexibility of behaviour over different context
personality traits are also stable
the back-off of situationist
> the fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias) is disconfirmed
What is the situational strength that is created by Mischel, and the criteria of strong situations
strong situations actually compress the behaviours affected by personality traits of the person
> clear behavioural expectations
> incentives to comply
> individual abilities to meet the situation
What are the four personalities that can predict obedience, and what did Cooper and Withey propose
Milgram
authoritarianism
> higher authoritarianism = higher obedience
locus of control
> higher external locus of control = higher obedience
Begue et al., 2014
higher conscientiousness and agreeableness = higher obedience
Cooper and Withey proposed there is no empirical evidence supporting the situational strengths. They are sheer repetition
What are the alternative theories of the situational strength
Instead of the situations compressing the behaviours led by personality > more like the situations that the person is in = provoking certain behaviours and personality traits
> situational affordances
> different situations afford different personality traits
> trait activation theory
> in a working context
> certain situations strengthen certain personality traits
What did the meta-analysis by Judge & Zapata propose
both appear
> B5 personality traits are more predictive to working performance in a weaker environment
> traits are stronger predictors of job performance
openness higher in creativity demanding industries
What are the five other ways of person-situation transactions
contextualised descriptions of personality
situation selection
situation transformation
effects of situations on individual personality change
situation perception
What is the DIAMOND model?
comprehensive taxonomy that can be used to describe the types of situations perceived
Describe the two experiments that show how personality traits affect one’s choice selection
Matz & Harari (2020)
> showing that situations affect momentary personality expressions, but at the same time personality also affects the places that a person visits
> After controlling the personality traits, places visited have a smaller effect on momentary behaviours
Carnahan & McFarland (2007)
> recruiting participants using a near-identical advertisement to the Stanford Prison Experiment
> however, the term prison life vs without the term prison life
> showing that participants willing to do the experiment = more aggressive and narcissism traits
