Personality Overview

Question 1

Personality.

Answer 1

Enduring patterns of thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviours that are expressed by individuals in different circumstances. Relatively stable. Personality influences interactions with others and with our environment.
Occurs through a process of interactions: perception, selection, evocation, manipulation.
Personalities have an adaptive function, allowing us to adapt to environments (physical, intrapsychic, and social environment).

Question 2

Three ways we describe personality.

Answer 2

Human nature- like all others.

Individual and group differences- like some others.

Individual uniqueness- like no others.

Question 3

Traits.

Answer 3

Emotional, cognitive and behavioural tendencies that constitute underlying dimensions of personality on which individuals vary.

Question 4

Eysenck’s super traits.

Answer 4

Extraversion – Introversion.

Neuroticism – Emotional Stability.

Psychoticism – Low Psychoticism.

A super-trait is a group of traits that correlate highly with one another. Traits are groups of correlated behavioural tendencies (habits). Habits are abstractions derived from observations of specific instances of behaviour.

Question 5

BAS & BIS.

Answer 5

Behavioural approach systems (BAS) attuned to rewards. Stronger in extroverts.

Behavioural inhibition system (BIS) attuned to punishment. Stronger in introverts.

Question 6

The Factor Model Traits.

Answer 6

Openness to experience

Conscientiousness

Agreeableness

Extroversion

Neuroticism

Question 7

Feline five traits.

Answer 7

Neuroticism

Extraversion

Dominance

Impulsivity

Agreeableness

Question 8

Cattell’s Taxonomy.

Answer 8

Reduces Allport & Odbert’s list of traits to 16, criticised for too many traits.

Question 9

Trait Perspective of Personality.

Answer 9

Also called dispositional perspective. Gordon Allport developed the trait approach in the 1930’s. The goal is to identify and measure how individuals differ.

Question 10

Three approaches to identifying traits.

Answer 10

Lexical Approach- looking at all of the traits that are evident in language and using that as a starting point to identifying traits.

Statistical approach- Uses traits that emerge from the lexical approach and then uses statistical analysis to determine which ones are the key traits. Combines those traits that are similar together. This is typically used most frequently.

Theoretical approach- This approach uses theory and what theory suggests is the most important traits and then that’s what is focused on.

Question 11

Two ways to think about traits.

Answer 11

Internal casual properties- traits are internal, casual and can lie dormant.

Purely descriptive summaries- only descriptive and cannot assume internality or causality.

Question 12

Orca Personality.

Answer 12

Extraversion

Conscien-agree (conscientiousness and agreeableness)

Dominance

Careful

Question 13

Extroversion

Answer 13

The tendency to be sociable, active and willing to take risks.

Question 14

HEXACO model of personality

Answer 14

Comprises of six factors: Honesty–Humility (H), Emotionality (E), Extraversion (X), Agreeableness (A), Conscientiousness (C) and Openness to Experience (O).

Question 15

Neuroticism

Answer 15

A continuum from emotional stability to emotional instability.

Question 16

Psychoticism

Answer 16

A dimension on which the low end is defined by people who display empathy and impulse control and the high end is defined by people who are aggressive, egocentric, impulsive and antisocial.

Question 17

Agreeableness

Answer 17

Altruism, trust, compliance, modesty, straightforwardness, and tenderness.

Question 18

Openness

Answer 18

Artistic interests, flexible in actions, open to new experiences, emotionally open, and intellectual.

Question 19

Contscientiousness

Answer 19

Competence, order, achievement striving, self-discipline.

Question 20

The Barnum effect.

Answer 20

A broad interpretation of personality that is so broad it could apply to anyone, and so is accepted as fact.