personality change+development

Question 1

key question

Answer 1

can personality change?

Question 2

can personality change?

william james

Answer 2

most of us, by the age of 30, the character has set like plaster

Question 3

shoda, mischel+peake 1990

marshmallow test

Answer 3

4 yr olds completed a gratification task
11-14 years later they were re-examined
delay as child was associated with;
greater planfulness,
greater stress tolerance
better SAT scores

Question 4

Personality stability
costa+McMrae
big 5

Answer 4

report correlations of ~0.65 for the Big 5 over a 2 year period over the age of 30

Question 5

what 6 things cause personality stability

Answer 5

genetic influences
environmental influences
environmental selection
freedom from disruptive life changes
psychological resources
identity formation

Question 6

what are the 2 types of stability

Answer 6

mean-level stability

rank order stability

Question 7

what is mean level stability

Answer 7

an absolute change in the individuals level of trait over time

Question 8

what is rank order stability

Answer 8

a change in one’s personality trait relative to others

Question 9

evidence for mean level stability

srivastava et al 2003

Answer 9

openness decreases
conscientiousness increases but plateaus after 30
extraversion increases in men but decreased in women
agreeableness increases, especially after 30
neuroticism decreased in women only

Question 10

what causes a mean level personality change?

Answer 10

life circumstances and social roles
may become a mother so become more responsible, tolerant, feminine, less sociable+self accepting
homemakers become more independent
become more confident due to becoming leader of group

Question 11

what causes a mean level personality change?

roberts et al 2003

Answer 11

found work attainment associated with increased confidence+sociability+decreased anxiety

Question 12

Historical change in personality

Jean Twenge found;

Answer 12

self esteem increased
extraversion rises
neuroticism rises
woman’s assertiveness rises-war

Question 13

Erikson and 8 life stages
how life stages impact personality
the 8 stages

Answer 13

INFANT-18 months
trust vs. mistrust
18 MONTHS-3yr
autonomy vs. shame
3-5YRS
initiative vs. guilt
5-13YRS
industry vs. inferiority
13-21YRS
identity vs. role confusion
21-39 YRS
intimacy vs. isolation
40-65YRS
generativity vs. stagnation
65+ ego integrity vs. despair

Question 14

Erikson and 8 life stages

what is this

Answer 14

psycho social conflicts that must be overcome to adjust well to the environment
we must face each crisis otherwise it impacts our psycho social development

Question 15

2 lay theories of personality

Answer 15

incremental theory

entity theory

Question 16

2 lay theories of personality

incremental theory

Answer 16

personality is malleable and people can change their characteristics

Question 17

2 lay theories of personality

entity theory

Answer 17

personality is fixed+cannot change

Question 18

what 5 reasons might we need psychology assessment

Answer 18

forensic psychology
organisational psychology
clinical psychology
educational psychology 
counselling psychology

Question 19

4 weaknesses of measuring personality

Answer 19

subjective assessment
no effective source of info about the person
the object being measured knows it is
traits are not directly observable

Question 20

what is reliability

Answer 20

does the measurement give consistent, error free and dependable results

Question 21

3 types of reliability

Answer 21

internal
inter-rater
test-retest

Question 22

what is internal reliability

Answer 22

all test items should correlated with each other

Question 23

what is inter-rater reliability

Answer 23

are the results the same when given by a different person

Question 24

what is test retest reliability

Answer 24

are the results the same when given on a different occassion

Question 25

what is validity

Answer 25

does the measurement measure what it intended to measure

Question 26

2 types of validity

Answer 26

content

predictive

Question 27

what is content validity

Answer 27

appropriate content being used

Question 28

what is predictive validity

Answer 28

predicts a criterion that will happen in the future

Question 29

4 examples of personality measurements

Answer 29

interviews
personality inventories
projective tests
implicit personality tests

Question 30

personality measurements
interviews
critiques

Answer 30

can be structured, un+semi
time consuming 
subjective
half effect
self fulfilling prophecy
confirmation bias

Question 31

personality measurements

personality inventories

Answer 31

most common method e.g self reports
use questionnaires or scales
X-random responding
defensive answers

Question 32

personality measurements

projective tests

Answer 32

a person responds to an ambiguous stimuli revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts
based on assumption personality will be projected onto stimuli
penetrate deeper levels of personality
E.g TaT test
Rorschach test

Question 33

personality measurements
projective tests
evaluation

Answer 33

good- rapid responses
hard to fake

bad-time consuming
wild interpretation encouraged

Question 34

personality measurements

implicit personality tests

Answer 34

automatic association between objects

Question 35

2 attraction theory examples

Answer 35

repulsion hypothesis- people are repulsed by dissimilar people
similarity hypothesis- attracted to similar people

Question 36

what is fatal attraction

Answer 36

when a quality a partner comes to dislike is an exaggerated version of a used to be positive one
e.g. caring to clingy

Question 37

steinberg’s triangular theory of love

1998

Answer 37

romantic love intimacy compassionate love
commitment
passion fatuous love

Question 38

what 3 ways is forgiveness important?

Answer 38

impact on mental health
positive methods of coping with hurt
revenge thoughts lead to anger

Question 39

forgiveness+personality

Answer 39

O-non sig
C-weakly positive
E-positive
A-positive
N-negative