personality change+development Flashcards
key question
can personality change?
can personality change?
william james
most of us, by the age of 30, the character has set like plaster
shoda, mischel+peake 1990
marshmallow test
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
Personality stability
costa+McMrae
big 5
report correlations of ~0.65 for the Big 5 over a 2 year period over the age of 30
what 6 things cause personality stability
genetic influences environmental influences environmental selection freedom from disruptive life changes psychological resources identity formation
what are the 2 types of stability
mean-level stability
rank order stability
what is mean level stability
an absolute change in the individuals level of trait over time
what is rank order stability
a change in one’s personality trait relative to others
evidence for mean level stability
srivastava et al 2003
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
what causes a mean level personality change?
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
what causes a mean level personality change?
roberts et al 2003
found work attainment associated with increased confidence+sociability+decreased anxiety
Historical change in personality
Jean Twenge found;
self esteem increased
extraversion rises
neuroticism rises
woman’s assertiveness rises-war
Erikson and 8 life stages
how life stages impact personality
the 8 stages
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
Erikson and 8 life stages
what is this
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
2 lay theories of personality
incremental theory
entity theory
2 lay theories of personality
incremental theory
personality is malleable and people can change their characteristics
2 lay theories of personality
entity theory
personality is fixed+cannot change
what 5 reasons might we need psychology assessment
forensic psychology organisational psychology clinical psychology educational psychology counselling psychology
4 weaknesses of measuring personality
subjective assessment
no effective source of info about the person
the object being measured knows it is
traits are not directly observable
what is reliability
does the measurement give consistent, error free and dependable results
3 types of reliability
internal
inter-rater
test-retest
what is internal reliability
all test items should correlated with each other
what is inter-rater reliability
are the results the same when given by a different person
what is test retest reliability
are the results the same when given on a different occassion
what is validity
does the measurement measure what it intended to measure
2 types of validity
content
predictive
what is content validity
appropriate content being used
what is predictive validity
predicts a criterion that will happen in the future
4 examples of personality measurements
interviews
personality inventories
projective tests
implicit personality tests
personality measurements
interviews
critiques
can be structured, un+semi time consuming subjective half effect self fulfilling prophecy confirmation bias
personality measurements
personality inventories
most common method e.g self reports
use questionnaires or scales
X-random responding
defensive answers
personality measurements
projective tests
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
personality measurements
projective tests
evaluation
good- rapid responses
hard to fake
bad-time consuming
wild interpretation encouraged
personality measurements
implicit personality tests
automatic association between objects
2 attraction theory examples
repulsion hypothesis- people are repulsed by dissimilar people
similarity hypothesis- attracted to similar people
what is fatal attraction
when a quality a partner comes to dislike is an exaggerated version of a used to be positive one
e.g. caring to clingy
steinberg’s triangular theory of love
1998
romantic love intimacy compassionate love
commitment
passion fatuous love
what 3 ways is forgiveness important?
impact on mental health
positive methods of coping with hurt
revenge thoughts lead to anger
forgiveness+personality
O-non sig C-weakly positive E-positive A-positive N-negative
