Personality Midterm 1 Flashcards
Personality
No one single definition -
* o A set of psychological traits and mechanisms
o Existing within an individual
o Organised and enduring
o Influencing interactions with (and adaptions to) the intrapsychic (in the psyche), physical (environment), and social environments (environment of people)
Trait
Something long-lasting
State
A temporary type of presentation of behaviour
Psychological traits
Characteristics that describe ways in which people are similar AND different from each other; describe the average tendencies of a person
• Help to describe people and the dimensions of difference between people
• Help to explain behaviour
• Help to predict behaviour
Psychological Mechanisms
Inputs: Traits may make people more sensitive to certain kinds of information from the environment
Decision rules: Traits may make people more likely to think about specific options
Outputs: Traits may guide people’s behaviour toward certain categories of action
Organized
Organized mechanisms and traits are linked in a coherent fashion; contain decision rules that govern which needs are activated
Enduring
Stable over time; state vs trait
Perceptions
How we see or interpret an environment
Selections
Way in which we choose situations
Evocations
Reactions we produce in others; often unintentional (evoking/bringing out something in another person)
Manipulations
Intentional attempts to influence others
Physical environment
Threats to survival
Social environment
Competition for jobs, mates, friends
Intrapsychic environment
Within the mind; includes memories, dreams, desires, fantasies; we evaluate our self-esteem based on the degree to which we are attaining our goals
Human Nature
Like all others
Ways in which we are all alike; universals
Individual and group differences
Like some others
Ways in which we are like some people but unlike others; particulars
Individual uniqueness
Like no others
Ways in which we are unlike any other person; uniqueness
Nomothetic Approach
(To individual uniqueness)
Statistical comparisons of individuals or groups; identify universal human characteristics and dimensions of individual or group differences
Idiographic Approach
Focus on a single subject; observe the general principles that manifest in a single life over time e.g, case studies (“Gold standard”, although not quite feasible)
Grand theories
Human nature level of analysis; focus on universal accounts (Universal psychic structure of id, ego, superego)
Contemporary theories
Focus on the ways individuals and groups differ (biological sex differences and/or cultural differences in terms of a trait)
Dispositional Domain
Identify and measure the most important ways individuals differ from one another; origins of differences and how they develop and are maintained
Biological Domain
Role of genetics (e.g., using twin studies), psychophysiology (i.e., nervous system functioning), and evolution (i.e., survival and reproduction)
Intrapsychic Domain
Mental mechanisms of personality; often operate outside conscious awareness; psychoanalytic theory; role of motives
Cognitive-experiential Domain
Subjective experiences; role of self, self-esteem, and self-concept; goal-striving behaviours; role of emotions and emotional expression
Social and Cultural Domain
Influence of social and cultural environment in what personality traits are displayed
Adjustment Domain
Personality plays a role in how we cope, adapt, and adjust to the events of our daily lives; impact of personality on mental and physical health
A Good Theory
o Provides a guide for researches
o Organizes known findings
o Makes predictions
What are the 5 Scientific Standards for Evaluating Personality Theories?
- Comprehensiveness
- Heuristic value
- Testability
- Parsimony
- Compatibility and integration across domains and levels
Comprehensiveness
Explains most or all known facts
Heuristic Value
Guides researchers to important new discoveries
Testability
Makes precise predictions that can be empirically tested
Parsimony
Contains few premises or assumptions
Compatibility and Integration across Domains and Levels
Consistent with what is known in other domains; can be coordinated with other branches of scientific knowledge
Self-report Data (S-Data)
Information a person reveals about themselves
Observer-report Data (O-Data)
information about a person’s personality from other people; can use people who know or do not know (professional personality assessors) the participant
Naturalistic observation
Witness and record events that occur normally in a participant’s life; but there is issue of a lack of researcher control
Artificial observation
Observe how a participant behaves in a constructed setting but the issue of a lack of realism for the participant
Test data (T-Data)
Results of standardized testing; elicit behaviour in a controlled context to test specific hypotheses
Life-outcome Data (L-Data)
Information from events, activities, and outcomes in a person’s life that are available to public scrutiny
Reliability
Degree to which an obtained measure represents the true level of the trait being measured (Measure weight with a scale)
Repeated Measurement
Repeat a measurement over time; if the two tests are highly correlated, measure has high test-retest reliability
Internal Consistency Reliability
Examine the relationship among items on a test; need to ensure items all correlate well with each other
Inter-rater reliability
Examine measurements from multiple observers; need observers to agree with one another
Response sets
Tendency of people to respond to questions on a basis that is unrelated to the question content; aka noncontent responding
Face validity
Whether the test [on the surface] appears to measure what it is supposed to measure
Predictive validity
Whether the test predicts criteria external to the test (aka criterion validity)
Convergent validity
Whether a test correlates with other measures that it should correlate with
Discriminant validity
Refers to what a measure should NOT correlate with; evaluated simultaneously with convergent validity
Construct validity
Broadest type; includes face, predictive, convergent and discriminant validity; can the measure claim to be a valid way of assessing the construct?
Generalizability
Degree to which the measure retains its validity across various contexts
Experimental methods
Used to determine causality; how one variable influences another variable
Variable
Quality that differs for different people; e.g., height, weight, aggressiveness
Random Assignment
If there are groups, randomly assign participants to either experimental or control groups; equal chance of being assigned to a condition
Counterbalancing
If participants are exposed to both groups, the order is balanced so half the participants get Group 1 first then Group 2, and other half get Group 2 first then Group 1
Mean
Average
Standard Deviation
Measure of variability within each condition
T-test
Statistical formula; calculates the difference between two means
p-value
Difference between means that is significant at .05 implies that the finding would be likely to occur by change alone only 5 times out of 100 (statistically significant)
Correlational studies
Determining if there is a relationship between variables w/o manipulation
Correlational coefficient
Procedure for gauging relationships between variables
o Range from +1.00 through 0.00 to -1.00
o Can be positively related, unrelated, or negatively related
Disposition
Inherent tendency to behave in a specific way; used interchangeably with trait
Act nomination
Procedure that identifies which acts belong in which trait categories; e.g., what acts fit the category of impulsivity?
Prototypicality Judgement
Which acts are central to each trait category? E.g, what acts are representative of impulsivity?
Recording of act performance
Securing information on the actual performance of individuals; often use self-reports
Lexical Approach
Language/words used to describe differences among people
Statistical Approach
Factor analysis/stats to identify major personality traits
Theoretical Approach
Reliance on theories to identify important traits
Lexical Hypothesis
All important individual differences have been encoded within the natural language; allow us to communicate w/ others
Statistical Approach
Starts w. a pool of personality items and then identifies groups or clusters of items; goal is to identify the major dimensions
Factor Analysis
Identifies groups of items that covary (go together) but do not covary w/ other groups of items
Factor Loadings
Indexes of how much of the variation in an item is explained by the factor; degree to which the item correlates or loads on an underlying factor
Theoretical approach
Starts w/ a theory that determines which variables are important to measure
Taxonomies of Personality - Eysenck
- Psychoticism (P)
- Extraversion-introversion (E)
- Neuroticism-emotional stability (N)
Psychoticism
Impulsivity; lack of empathy; antisocial tendencies (not psychopathy, but could be precursor
Extraversion
High activity level; require having people around
Introversion
Prefer quieter activities, prefer routine, predictable lifestyles
Neuroticism
Overactivity on negative emotions; greater emotional arousal to stress; trouble returning to baseline emotional self after stressful event
Hierarchical Model
Super-traits at the top; narrower traits at second level; habitual acts at third level; specific acts at fourth level
o When specific acts are repeated frequently become habitual acts
o Clusters of habitual acts become narrow traits
o Clusters of narrow traits become super-traits
Heritability
Genetic evidence; PEN have moderate heritability
Identifiable Physiological Substrate
Can identify properties in the brain/CNS that are part of a causal chain that produces personality traits
o Psychoticism: levels of testosterone (+) and MAO (-) (neurotransmitter inhibitor)
o Extraversion: linked to CNS arousal/reactivity
o Neuroticism: linked to lability (changeability) of the ANS
Cattell’s Taxonomy
16 Personality System
Named factors A, B, etc.
Believed true factors of personality should be found across different data sources (S- data, T-data)
Strong empirical strategy for identifying basic personality dimensions
Criticized for not being concise enough
Leary and Wiggins Taxonomy
Circumplex (circle) taxonomies of personality
- Expanded on Lexical assumption – trait terms specify different kinds of ways in which individuals differ
Strengths:
- Explicit definition of interpersonal behaviour
- Specifies relationships between each trait and every other trait in the model
Limitations:
- Interpersonal map is limited in two dimensions; need a more comprehensive taxonomy
Interpersonal traits
(Leary&Wiggins)
What people do to/with each other
Temperament traits
(Leary&Wiggins)
e.g., nervous, gloomy, excitable
Character traits
(Leary&Wiggins)
e.g., moral, principled, dishonest
Material traits
(Leary&Wiggins)
e.g., miserly, stingy
Attitude traits
(Leary&Wiggins)
e.g., clever, logical, perceptive
Physical traits
(Leary&Wiggins)
e.g., healthy, tough
Adjacency
How close the traits are to each other, positively correlated
Bipolarity
Traits on opposite sides of the circle, negatively correlated
Orthogonality
Traits that are perpendicular to each other are unrelated, zero correlation
Five-Factor Model (Big 5)
OCEAN
- (I): Extraversion or surgency
- (II): Agreeableness
- (III): Conscientiousness
- (IV): Neuroticism or emotional instability
- (V): Openness-intellect or openness to experience
Formed from lexical and statistical approaches
Extraversion (Surgency)
- Key feature of social attention; have a strong impact on their social environment
- More involved in their work/enjoy their work
- More cooperative and outgoing
- Engage in risk-taking behaviour (which can be dangerous)
Agreeableness
- Favour using negotiation to resolve conflicts; withdraw from social conflict
- Prosocial, empathic; value prosocial behaviours in others
- Disagreeable individuals are aggressive and often engage in social conflict
Conscientiousness
- Hardworking (industrious), punctual, and reliable
- Higher GPA, greater job satisfaction/security BUT risk of poor mental health when unemployed
- More positive/committed social relationships
- Don’t procrastinate, perfectionists, and score high on achievement motivation
Neuroticism
- Key feature is variability of mood over time
- High scores report poorer physical health, more physical symptoms, fewer attempts to engage in health-promoting behaviours
- High scorers struggle with everyday stresses/strains; more susceptible to emotional fatigue and burnout
- Engage in self-handicapping behaviour
Intellect-openness
- High scorers remember their dreams more, have more waking dreams; also have more vivid, prophetic, and/or problem-solving type dreams
- Linked to experimentation w/ new foods and experiences
- More creative and more open to receiving information from a variety of senses
Comprehensiveness of the Model
- Critics think factors are missing such as: Positive evaluation (e.g., outstanding vs. ordinary), negative evaluation (e.g., awful vs. decent), religiosity and spirituality, attractiveness, sexiness, and faithfulness
- Approach of looking at personality-descriptive nouns rather than adjectives
- Importance of facets: e.g., need for achievement (facet of conscientiousness)
Dark Triad
- Narcissism: self-admiration
- Psychopathy: antisocial tendencies (go against social norms [rule-breaking tendencies])
- Machiavellianism: exploitative and manipulative interpersonal style
Meyers-Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI)
o Tests eight fundamental preferences (Table 4.1)
o Reduces preferences to four scores: extraverted OR introverted; sensing OR intuitive, thinking OR feeling; judging OR perceiving
o Four scores combine to yield a type; 16 types total
Issues with the MBTI?
o Based on the theory of psychological types which has not been widely endorsed by research; personality is dimensional, not categorical
o A typology system assumes large between-category differences and no within-category differences; e.g., all extraverted types are not the same
Be careful about using for employment purposes!!
Why is it used?
- Popular
- Easy to score/administer
- Makes you think about how to work with others who differ from you
