Personality Psychology Flashcards
3 Levels of Personality Analysis
- Human Nature
- Individual and Group Differences
- Individual Uniqueness
Human Nature
How we are “like all others”
- Traits and mechanisms of personality that are typical of our SPECIES and possessed by NEARLY EVERYONE
Individual Differences
How we are “like some others”
- EACH PERSON is like some other
people
- e.g., extraverts, sensations-
seekers, high self-esteem persons
Group Differences
- The people of ONE GROUP differ from people in another group
- e.g., cultural differences, age differences)
Individual Uniqueness
How we are “like no others”
- every individual has personal
and UNIQUE qualities not shared by
any other person in the world
- nomothetically or ideographically
Most current personality research
addresses…
- Individuals and groups differences
- Specialize in a particular domain, such as biological aspects of personality or how culture impacts personality
- Not human universals
Nomothetic
- Group differences
- Need sample size
Idiographic
Case study research
Grand Theories of Personality
UNIVERSAL account of the FUNDAMENTAL psychological processes and characteristics of our species
- Psychoanalytic theory
Domains of Knowledge
- Learning about specific and limited aspects of human nature
- Reasonable, but we must strive to integrate diverse domains of knowledge to get the “big picture” of
personality - Contrast to the grand theories of personality
Six Domains of Knowledge
- Dispositional
- Biological
- Intrapsychic
- Cognitive-Experimental
- Social and Cultural
- Adjustment
Dispositional Domain
- Individual differs from one another
- Across all other domains
- Number and nature of fundamental dispositions
- Identify and measure the most important individual difference
- Origin and development of individual difference
Biological Domain
- Humans are collections of
biological systems, and these systems provide building blocks for behavior, thought, and emotion - Behavioral GENETIC of personality
- PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY of personality
- EVOLUTIONARY personality psychology
Intrapsychic Domain
- Mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operate outside conscious awareness
- UNCONSCIOUS
- PSYCHOANALYSIS: repression,
denial, projection, and motives for power, achievement, and affiliation
Cognitive-Experiential
Domain
Cognition & Subjective experience
- Conscious, Thoughts, Feelings, Beliefs, Desires about oneself and others
- Self and self-concept
- Goals
- Emotional experiences in general and over time
Social and Cultural Domain
Personality affects, and is affected by, cultural and social contexts
- Cultural differences or between groups (e.g., in social acceptability of aggression)
- individual differences within cultures
- sex differences and gender differences in personality processes
- Traits and mechanisms
Adjustment Domain
- How we COPE, adapt, and adjust to events in daily life
- health outcomes
- problems in coping and adjustment
What is theory?
An integrated set of PRINCIPLES that
EXPLAIN and PREDICT observed events
What is hypothesis?
A TESTABLE PROPOSITION that describes a relationship that may exist between events.
Characteristics of a good theory
- Comprehensive
- Heuristic value
- Testability
- Parsimony
- Compatibility and integration across domains and levels
Two Ways of Trait Study
- Traits are the cause of behavior.
- Descriptive summary of individuals’ habits
Traits
Identification:
3 Approaches
- Lexical
- Statistical
- Theoretical
Lexical Approach
Individual differences manifest in
VOCABULARIES in each culture.
Statistical Approach
- Organize the groups of vocabularies/items
- Factor analysis
- Factor loading
Theoretical Approach
A theory that determines which variables are important
Sociosexual orientation
2 alternative sexual relationship strategies
- Single committed relationship
- Promiscuity
Eysenck’s Hierarchical Model of Personality
3 Levels
1. Super traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism
2. Narrower traits
3. Habitual acts
Wiggins circumplex
Interpersonal traits
1. Love (Warm/Cold)
2. Status (Dominant/Submissive)
Interaction: Adjacency, Orthogonality, Bipolarity
Five-factor Model of Personality
Lexical + statistical approach
1. English dictionary
2. Stable traits
3. Clusters
4. Factor analysis
Personality Traits that fall outside of the Big-5
Conventionality, Seductiveness, Manipulativeness,
Thriftiness, Humorousness, Integrity, Femininity, Religiosity, Risk Taking, and Egotism
Personality Development
Stability and Change
Three Key Forms of Stability
- Rank order stability
- Mean level stability
- Personality coherence
Rank Order Stability/Change
Maintenance or failure of maintaining of individual position within a group (across time)
Mean Level Stability/Change
The average level of traits in a group remains the same or change over time.
Personality Coherence
- Maintaining rank order in relation to other
individuals - But changing the manifestations of the trait
- e.g. aggression
Personality Change
- Internal and not merely changes in the external surroundings
- Enduring over time, rather than being merely temporary
Personality Stability Over Time (Correlation)
- Average correlations across traits, scales, and time intervals is about +.65
Consistency Over time
- Personality rooted in biological basis is difficult to change e.g. extraversion, sensation seeking, activity level, shyness
- Attitudes, interests, opinion could be changed more easily
“Big five” Stability Over Time
- A consistent mean level stability over time after 50 years old
- Openness, extraversion, and neuroticism decline until 50
- Conscientiousness and agreeableness gradually increase over time.
Self-esteem Changes
- Early adolescence to early adulthood: harder on women
Self-esteem Variability
- Magnitude of short-term changes
- An indicator of vulnerability to stressful life events.
Flexibility & Impulsivity
Decrease a long the age
Ambition
Age 20 to 40
- Ambition is highly decreased in the first 8 years
- Continue to decrease in 12 years later
Autonomy, Dominance, Leadership Motivation, & Achievement
Increase over time
Sensation Seeking
Peaks: 18 to 20
1. Thrill and adventure seeking
2. Experience seeking
3. Disinhibition
4. Boredom susceptibility
Femininity
- Personality changes: 40 to 50
- Consistent drop: 40 to 50
- Menopause or estrogen decrease
Competence
Women showed a sharp increase: 52
Men: stable
Cohort effects
Personality change over time due to different periods of time that individuals exist
Personality Coherence examples
- Marital Stability, Marital Satisfaction, and Divorce
- Alcoholism and Emotional Disturbance
- Education, Academic Achievement, and Dropping Out
Prediction of Personality Change
- Stability: Marrying the similar
- Change: Marrying the different
Psychoanalytic Approaches
Unconscious
Interaction between id, ego, and superego
Id
Pleasure principle
Ego
Reality principle
Superego
Moral principle
The process of psychoanalysis
- Interpretations
- Insight
- Resistance
- Transference
Needs and Motives Model
Need + Press -> Motives -> Behaviors
7 Types of Press
- Lack of companionship
- Family discord
- Lack of variety
- Betrayal of trust
- Inconsistent disciple
- Friendships
- Confinement
3 Types of Motive
- Need for Achievement
- Need for Power
- Need for Intimacy
Erickson’s 8 Stages of Development
- Trust & Mistrust
- Autonomy & Shame and Doubt
- Initiative & Guilt
- Industry & Inferiority
- Identity & Role Confusion
- Intimacy & Isolation
- Generativity & Stagnation
- Integrity & Despair
Karen Horney’s Psychoanalysis
- Social power
- Culture
- Fear of success
- Gender differences
Object Relations Theory
Developing relationships with significant external others, particularly parents
Relationship style
- Secure relationship style
- Avoidant relationship style
- Ambivalent relationship style
Cognitive Approaches
Individual differences in cognitive processes
3 Levels of Cognition
- Perception: organize information from sensory organs
- Interpretation: give meaning or describe the
surrounding environment/events - Beliefs and desires: standards and goals that individuals use to evaluate oneself and others
Perception
- Field-dependent: unable to see the trees in
the forest - Field independent : able to see objects
independent from the background
Interpretation
- Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory
- Locus of Control
- Learned Helplessness
Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory
Constructs interpret and predict events
- e.g. Anxiety comes from inability to understand and predict an event
Explanatory style
- Optimistic: External, Unstable, Specific
- Pessimistic: Internal, Stable, Global
Emotion & Personality
- Emotional states
- Emotional traits
- Happiness & life satisfaction
- Positive illusions
3 Components of Emotion
- Subjective feelings or affects
- Physical change esp. nervous system
- Behavioral tendency
Issues in Emotion Research
- Emotional States Vs. Emotional Traits
- Categorical approach Vs. Dimensional approach
- Pleasant/Unpleasant
- High Arousal/Low Arousal - Content Vs. Style
Does money make people happy?
At 7,000$ income and higher only 30% of people are very happy
Personality & Well-being
Extraversion -> Positive Affects -> Well-being
Neuroticism -> Negative Affects -> Well-being
Biology of Depression
Low level of Serotonin secretion
Beck’s Cognitive Model of Depression
3 Dimensions
- The self
- The world
- One’s future
4 Contents
- Overgeneralizing
- Arbitrary inference
- Personalizing
- Catastrophizing
Type A personality
- Achievement strivings
- Impatience
- Competitiveness,
- Hostility
Style of Emotional Life
- Affect intensity
- Variability
Shyness
- When objective self-awareness become chronic
- Evaluation apprehension
- Social anxiety
- Amygdala being sensitive to fear
Defensive Pessimism
Expecting the failure so that when the failure happens, it will not add on the negative aspects to our own self
DISC
2 Dimensions: Task-People Orientation and Outgoing- Reserved
- Dominance
- Influence
- Steadiness
- Conscientiousness
