Personality & Social psych Flashcards

Question

Describe characteristic adaptations

Answer 1

○ A recognition that many constructs we study are not traits ○ One conceptualisation: § They are variables that tend to be about motivation, social-cognitive, and developmental adaptations contextualised in time, place, and/or social role § Time = stage of life § Place = specific situation (eg work, with friends) § Role = function or duty ○ Another conceptualisation § Relatively stable goals, interpretations, and strategies, specified in relation to an individual's particular life circumstances § Goals = desired future states § Interpretations = appraised current states □ Eg perceptions of one's own abilities § Strategies = plans and actions to move between states □ Eg study routines, degree choice

Answer 2

• The richest level of personality description • Narrative identity ○ The internale, dynamic life story that an individual constructs to make sense of his or her life • Shapes the unity and purpose of the self • A 'personal myth' ○ Constructed, not objective

Answer 3

``` ○ Structured interview § 8 key life events § Significant people § The future script (where your life is going) § Stresses and problems § Personal ideology § Life theme ○ From interviews, analyse § Emotional tone □ Optimistic/pessimistic § Themes □ Defining preoccupations and concerns, typically about goals § Form/structure □ Stability vs change, slow vs rapid progress, inertia □ Coherence ○ Common life narrative elements § Prominent themes □ Agency and communion (interpersonal connection) § Redemption sequences □ When a story goes from worse to better § The growth story □ Personal development ```

Answer 4

• Form of bivariate analysis ○ Relationship between two variables ○ Correlation quanitifies a linear relationship between two variables in terms of direction and degree • Correlation can be pos or neg • Associations can be linear or non-linear • Perfect correlation: r=1 or -1 • Correlation of zero indicates no relationship between the variables

Answer 5

• Variability ○ How much a given variable varies from observation to observation • Covariability ○ How much two variables vary together

Answer 6

○ With an imperfect correlation, an extreme score on one measure tends to be followed by a less extreme score on the other measure § Because: □ Extreme scores are often due to chnace □ If it's due to chance it's unlikely that the other value will also be extreme (eg people guessing a coin flip by chance and accidentally get it consistently right, they're unlikely to get other chance things right)

Answer 7

• To get around the issue with correlation not implying causation, need to conduct an experiment and control for the variables

Answer 8

* Noted as rs * Used when the data is ordinal (ranked) * Also used when data is one-directional but not linear * Need to convert data to ranks before calculating correlations * Can linearise non-linear data

Answer 9

``` • The consistency of a measure • Measured using cronbach's alpha ○ Requires at least 3 items or scales ○ Calculated by the average covariance of items pairs divided by the total variance ○ Ranges from 0 to 1 § 0 = 0 completely unreliable § 1 = 1 completely reliable ○ Value directly represents the proportion of reliable variance ```

Answer 10

○ Correlation is an association between two variables | ○ Regression is predicting one variable from another

Answer 11

- If we know two variables are related we can use this to to make predictions about behaviour - Unless correlation is perfect, then the prediction will not be exact ○ Used for observed scores

Answer 12

○ Independent ○ Normally distributed (with a mean of zero) ○ Homoscedastic - Equal error variance for levels of predicted y

Answer 13

○ A regression should always report the varaince explained ○ It is how much of the variation in the outcome variable is explained by the predictor ○ When it is perfectly explained R2=1.00

Answer 14

○ The F test tells us whether the variance explained is significantly different from zero ○ If the F test is not significant, the regression is worthless - predictor does not explain the outcome variable at all

Answer 15

-whether there is a significant association between the predictor and the outcome variable, and the sign tells you whether it is a positive or negative association ○ Can estimate the amount that Y changes when X increases by 1

Answer 16

§ Convert X and Y into z scores and then do regression standardised regression coefficient (called beta in JASP) ○ Can get confidence intervals for regression coefficients

Answer 17

○ We want the errors to be normally distributed ○ Residuals plot - homoscedasticity § Scatterplot of the residuals against predicited values to check for heteroscedasticity □ Want there to be an equal balance of variance - homoscedasticity

Answer 18

``` ○ Self concept § Knowledge of the self § Mental representation of all of a person's knowledge about who he/she is and their attributes § Beliefs, thoughts, memories § Roles, relationships, groups ○ Self-esteem § How we feel about the self ```

Answer 19

○ Defined self as entire set of beliefs, evaluations, perceptions that people have about themselves ○ The 'me' to the 'I': the object to the subject

Answer 20

``` ○ Content dimensions ○ Self-aspects ○ Self-organisation: schemas ○ All these frameworks are very static and do not indicate devleopment So, to account for this, can also use: • Narratives ```

Answer 21

§ Big Two □ Communion (warmth): social relationships (friendly, fair) □ Agency (competence): goal attainment (ambitious, capable) □ One defines the self's self-oriented characteristics □ The other dimention is other-oriented □ Could be a third: morality ® People can attach more value to a moral self-value than a self-oriented ® Some people say morality is just a subset of the communion dimension § Big Five

Answer 22

§ Summaries of a person's beliefs about the self in specific domains, roles, or activities § Who you are in different contexts and with different people § Personal aspects (personal selves, personal idenitities, individual selves) □ Features that distinguish you from others □ Often traits (warm, extraverted) § Social aspects □ Roles (relational) ® Features we possess in the virtue of the roles and relationships we have ® Boss, sister, friend □ Group/social category memberships ® Features we possess because we are group members, that we share with others ® Woman, Australian § Domains: at work, aat home, with friends □ Sometimes roles and groups overlap, someitmes not

Answer 23

§ Self-schemas: the knowledge and structure that links, organises, and weights self-concept components □ Provides summary of core, important characteristics that a person believes define him or her across situations □ Important, core aspects likely to be accessible □ Self-schemas guide interpretations of the environment and performance of behaviour

Answer 24

○ The story of who I am ○ Internalised, evolving story of the self that binds, organises and provides meaning to self-component aspects across time

Answer 25

○ Self in time § Past and future § Possible selves ○ Future selves can act as 'self-guides' § Standards help us guide behaviour § Self Discrepancy Theory: □ Ought self: who should I be? □ Ideal self: who do I want to be? § Perceived discrepancies between our actual selves (who I am) and these self guides can drive behaviour ○ Promotion-focused § People who focus more on ideal selve - more concerned with succeeded than failing, take more risks ○ Prevention-focused § People who focus on ought selves § More cautious, concerned with not failing rather than succeeding

Answer 26

○ How self-concept is shaped by culture ○ In East-Asian cultures, the self is more focused on the collective § Shaped more interdependece - self is part of group ○ In Western cultures, more individualist § Self is separate from group

Answer 27

○ Working self-concept § The now self, guides acting, thinking, and feeling in the moment ○ Components of the social situation may make some aspects of the self more accessible ○ Fazio study: § Situational cues encourage activation of introversion vs extraversion-related self knowledge § Accessible self-knowledge impacted behaviour

Answer 28

○ Social comparison | ○ Social feedback

Answer 29

§ Process of comparing oneself to others § Social comparison theory □ Self-knowledge comes from comparing one's own traits, abilities, attitudes, emotions to those of others □ Especially when people are uncertain □ Medvec et al. study: facial expressions and body language of medalist during Olympic ceremonies ® Gold medalists were happiest ® Contrary what one would expect, is silver medalist seems less happy than bronze ® Because they had to content being the lesser to the gold medalist (negative social comparison), whereas bronze medalist is happy that they beat everyone else (positive social comparison) ® Therefore, target is important □ Social comparison can lead to assimilation or contrast (depending on target) ® If compare to an extreme target - contrasting away from target (evaluating yourself in extreme opposition to target) ◊ Contrast effect ® If we compare to a moderate target, assimilate towards target □ Accurate self-concepts come from comparing yourself to similar others

Answer 30

§ Internalise our perceptions of how others see us § Other people act as mirrors into our own self-concepts § Our selves are shaped by how we think others see us § Miller study: □ When children received a message signalling a perception (ie you're very tidy), end up becoming more tidy compared to control group who receieved no message, and a group who was told 'you should be tidy' □ They are viewed by others as being tidy, which is internalised into self-concept, and manifests in behaviour

Answer 31

○ Introspection | ○ Self-perception

Answer 32

§ Looking inwards at the contents of consciousness (thoguhts and feelings) § Reasonable route to knowing what one is feeling or experiencing § Less reliable in informing us about why - the reasons we think, feel and act as we do § Can still be functional □ When processing deeply, it can improve accuracy of self-knowledge □ When introspection reveals that one meets one's standards, positive feelings can result □ Can increase consistency in behaviour - more likely to act in accordance with one's values

Answer 33

§ People infer self-knowledge by observing their own behaviours § Most likely to occur when knowledge is weak or ambiguous and for behaviours that they have freely chosen □ If people don't have a good situational explanation, they infer a self-related explanation § Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett study □ Children who were rewarded for doing certain things were less likely to repeat those things in the absence of reward, compared with children who received no reward, or whose reward was not linked ot the behaviour □ Extrinsic motivation of the reward replaced the intrinsic motivation for the reward □ Implication is that you should not reward people for doing things that they would already do

Answer 34

• Helps regulate yourself • Helps maintain and manage behaviour around others • We construct and present ourselves not only in the service of mastery goals, but also in the service of belonging and self-enhancement ○ Our selves also help us fit in and feel good • Main aim of the master goal is to achieve control and accuracy of our environment

Answer 35

§ Seek accurate slef-knowledge § One way of checking for accuracy is to seek confirmation of one's self views □ Self-verification: confirming what one believes about the self □ People prefer relationship partners who agree with their own self-image, even if those views are negative

Answer 36

§ People make upward social comparisons to motivate behaviour and seek rewards § Blanton study □ Upwards comparisons can improve grades § This process can: □ Provide info on how the task is done □ Change expectations about what is possible to achieve □ Increase motivation § Need to compare yourself to others whose success is attainable

Answer 37

``` ○ Self-enhacement motive § Desire to maximise the positivity of one's self views § Define our self-concepts in ways that make us feel better about ourselves ○ Self-esteem § Trait self esteem □ Cross-situationally stable § State self-esteem □ Temporary, situation-specific ```

Answer 38

○ Better than average effect § Most people see themselevs as above average ○ Self-enhancement may be different in different cultures § Higher self esteem in the US than in Japan § More tolerance of self-criticism in Japan than US ○ High self-esteem can help us cope with threats § Can act as a buffer and can help deal with stress § Although excessively high self-esteem can bleed into narcissm □ Can then become unstable and easily damaged

Answer 39

○ Protecting ourselves from criticism ○ Self-defensive attributions § Explain negative behaviours as stemming from the situaiton § Claim positive behaviours as arising from the self ○ Self-affirmation § When one aspect/domain of the self Is under threat, people can protect themselves by affirming the importance of a different aspect/domain ○ Self-defensive social comparisons § Under the self is under threat, people make downwards social comparison § Making the self come out on top - someone is worse off

Answer 40

○ Just as the self is constructed via social processes, the self operates in a social matrix ○ Define and present ourselves in ways that make us fit in § Impression management, self-preservation to achieve belonging needs ○ Ingratiation: seeking acceptance of others § One way to achieve this is through presenting a likeable self § Does not work if it is too overt, or in too trivial situations

Answer 41

§ Ingratiation (belonging): seek affection § Self promotion (mastery): seek respect § Intimidation (mastery): seek fear in others § Exemplification (mastery): seek emulation § Supplication (belonging): seek compassion

Answer 42

○ First impressions are based on multitude of rudimentary cues ○ Relatively accurate given the little information they are based on ○ Very impactful ○ Impressions of others consist of a liking component and an assessment of specific characteristics ○ Physical characteristics § Often first signal we perceive § Attractiveness □ Beautiful is good § Height □ Taller presidents are more likely to be voted in □ Perceived to be greater, with more leadership and communication skills § Clothing ○ Social category characteristics (stereotype) § Gender, nationality… ○ Context - environment § We are reflected in the spaces we occupy § Gosling et al. □ Observers were able to infer characterisitcs of targets by viewing their environmnets such as their office ○ Behaviours § Verbal and non-verbal § Intentional and unintentional (conspicuous consumption - the luxury goods might indicate status signal)

Answer 43

○ These sense datas are integrated with our existing knowledge structures - attitudes, self-schemas, beliefs - in automatic first impressions ○ Our existing knowledge structures (esp that info accessible) give meaning to sense data § Accessible informaiton gets more weight in the interpretation of cues ○ Salient cues get more weight in impression § Product of context and person

Answer 44

○ Concurrent activation § Depends on whether an association is related to a construct (eg stealing with dishonesty) ○ Frequent activation § Eg if you view yourself as an academic, and as a result this concept is frequently activated in self-percdeption, might judge others more readily by academic criteria than other domains ○ Recent activation § Higgins et al study □ When primed people with words associated with adventure, they would view pictures of people doing risky things as more adventurous □ When primed with words associated with risk-taking, they were more likely to see the person as reckless

Answer 45

○ Ability of cue to attract attention § Unpredictability - stand out from context § Eg if you saw a suited man with a pram in an office, the pram would stand out, so you would evaluate him as a caring father, whereas if you saw the same suited man with a pram in a playground, the suit would stand out, so you would consider him to be more stiff

Answer 46

○ In social psych: § Focus on understanding how people explain other peoples' behaviour ○ Make attributions: § Attributing behaviour to causes § Attribute behaviour to causes inside a person - internal, dispositional causes - or in the situation - external, situational causes

Answer 47

○ Connecting behaviour with internal cause, then ascribe the trait to the individual ○ Used in first impressions ○ See behaviours as reflecting something about the person (rather than the situation) ○ Although some conditions warrant correspondent inferences § Free choice, unique effects, unexpectedness (eg socially undesirable) ○ People tend to form such inferences even in the absence of such conditions § I.e suffer from a correspondent bias □ Tendency to draw correspondent inferences when the conditions do not warrant such conclusions § Fundamental attribution error (FAE)

Answer 48

□ The tendency to overestimate the importance of personal or dispositional factors relative to environmental factors, and to underestimate the contribution of contextual factors □ Tends to happen when judging people's undesired behaviour □ Jones & Harris study ® Had people evaluate the attitude of people who had written a pos or neg essay of Fidel Castro ® Told the participants that the writers were able to choose whether they wrote pos or neg ◊ Voted that the writers were for castro if they wrote positively, and against him if they wrote negatively ® However, even when told the writers were forced to take a particular side, the participants still assumed that the writers were for if they wrote pos and against if they wrote neg ® Demonstrates correspondence bias because people still draw those inferences even when it isn’t warranted □ Miller study FAE is more common in Western cultures

Answer 49

○ Motivation to do so ○ Ability to do so § Time and conditions available to do so • If these conditions are met, might be able to overcome initial automatic/biased inferences

Answer 50

○ Researchers had participannts watch a video of a woman without sound, but who showed nonverbal cues of anxiety ○ Textual cues on screen revealed the topic she was talking about ○ Some participants were told she was talking about sensitive topics § Explained the anxious behaviour - external attribution ○ Some were told that she was talking about inocuous topics (such as going on holiday) § Topic does not describe anxious behaviour - lead to internal attribution (she was an anxious person) ○ Another condition, people were told to also memorise the topic she was talking about § Higher cognitive load prevented them from making deliberate and deeper attributions about cause of anxious behaviour § Resulted in higher FAE

Answer 51

§ Consensus □ Does everyone else perform the same behaviour towards the same stimulus § Distinctiveness □ Does the person perform the same behaviour towards other stimuli § Consistency □ Does the person always perform this behaviour towards this stimuli? ○ Only when consensus and distintiveness are low and consistency is high - internal is attribution warranted

Answer 52

more to explaining behaviour than making internal and external attributions § Model developed by Malle □ Distinguishes several causes of both intentional and unintentional behaviour ® Generating Factors: ◊ States or events that bring about other states or events ® Behaviour explanations ◊ Cite generating factors of behavioural events ® Reasons ◊ Agents' mental states whose content they considered and in light of which they formed an intention to act ® Mere causes ◊ Generating factors of behavioural events that are not reasons ® Reason explanations ◊ Behaviour explanations that cite agents' reasons for intentding to act or for acting intentionally ® Cause explanations ◊ Behaviour explanations that cite mere causes for an unintentional behavioural event □ Provides the boundaries for which FAE is likely to occur ® More likely when evaluating someone's negative behaviour or unexpected behaviour

Answer 53

• Could be Simple addition or averaging ○ Adding all the positives and subtracting all th enegatives ○ But are all traits equal? Are some weighted more than others? ○ What determines importance ○ Negativity bias § Tendency to weight negative information as more important ○ But still is a positive bias § Overall people tend to form positive information around people § Need for connectedness • Inter-trait relationships ○ Traits are viewed holistically - are not completely independent ○ Two traits might combine to mean more than individually ○ Eg intelligent + cold = sly ○ Intelligent + warm = wise • Agency and communion ○ Traits we use to summarise others' behaviours organise along two major dimensions § Communal (social) § Agentic (intellectual)

Answer 54

No, despite best intentions to be as objective as possible, often still fall prey to deeper needs and goals when trying to form impressions • Mastery ○ People seek accurate impressions when they will be held accountable or when their own outcomes depend on the other person • Belonging ○ People evaluate others differently depending on whether this evaluation threatens or strengthens their existing relationships ○ Belonging goals § Priming people with affiliation goals makes them more likely to infer positive traits from other peoples' behaviour than when affiliation goal is not primed or when pos non-affiliation concepts are primed § As seen in Rim et al. • Me and mine ○ People form positively biased impressions to make themselves feel good or when they want to see good outcomes

Answer 55

* 2 or more people who share common characteristics or goals that is socially meaningful to themselves and others * Groups differ wiith regards to how much interaction and interdependence exists between members

Answer 56

• Interdepedence: the extent to which each group member's thoughts, feelings and actions impact others ○ Task interdependence § Reliant on each other fro mastery of material rewards through performance of collective tasks ○ Social interdependence § Reliant on each other for feelings of connectedness, respect, and acceptance ○ Most groups have a combination of the kinds of interdependence, but most are skewed to one or another

Answer 57

``` • Types of groups ○ Primacy/intimacy groups § Family, circle of close friends § Most concern for social interdependence □ But can solve problems together ○ Secondary/task groups § Work teams/committees § Most concern task interdependence □ But social interdependence can influence performance ```

Answer 58

Group formation occurs in series of stages (typical, but not always the same for every group) -Forming □ Storming Norming □ Performing □ Adjourning § Performance drops in Storming phase, after initial high in forming phase, but then steadily climbs back up to peak during performance phase § Not all stages need to occur and not in all the same order § May remain in the performing phase for a long time § Might fall back to prior phase as members leave/join § Was not developed to tell us about when a member enters a developed group, only about every member of the group going through the same process

Answer 59

® Individuals come together to form the group ® Potential members come to learn the nature of their interdependence, group structure, group goals ® Clarity can only emerge when these things are sorted out ® This is often facilitated by a leader who can articulate what's happening with the group

Answer 60

® Once group has formed, there is a process of negotiation: determining the different group roles ® Can involve conflict ◊ Relationship (personality clash) ◊ Task conflict (different views on content, structure and goals of group) ◊ Process conflict (differing opinions on strategies and tactics ® Conflict can impact performance and commitment t group ◊ Relationship and process conflict can decrease later performance ◊ Task performance which is managed correctly can increase/improve performance in long run

Answer 61

® If conflict decreases, norms emerge ® This stage is characterised by: ◊ Consensus ◊ Harmony ◊ Stability ◊ Commitment ◊ Cohesion ◊ Development to group-related social identity ® Disagreements are often resovled into consensual norms ® Members feel a sense of trust and liking ® Commitment to group is high

Answer 62

® Members cooperate to solve problems, make decisions, produce outputs ® Characterised by ◊ Effective exchange of information between group members ◊ Productive resolution of disagreements ◊ Continued commitment to group goals

Answer 63

® Dissolution of group ® Group has fulfilled purpose or was set to end at a particular time ® Often marked by a period of evaluating work, sharing feelings about group ® Can be stressful if commitment has made it important identity for members

Answer 64

□ Cognitive, affective and behavioural changes that occur as individuals leave and join groups

Answer 65

□ Mutual processes ® Investigation ◊ Potential member seeks information about group and vice versa ® Socialisation ◊ Group tries to mold the individual into becoming one of them - a 'team player', member acquires and internalises group knowledge, adopts norms, becomes committed, forms identity ® Maintenance ◊ Now a fully committed member, individual takes on a specific role within the group □ Also not all stages need to be completed

Answer 66

○ An increase in the likelihood of highly accessible responses, and decrease in likelihood of less accessible responses, due to presence of others

Answer 67

§ One of first experimental social psychological studies performed § Asked kids to wind a fishing line onto wheels § Two kids could do it at the same time § Found that kids performed faster and more efficiently in the presence of others than by themselves § Therefore showed that presence of others improved task performance § Questions were raised as to whether presence of others can make it worse sometimes

Answer 68

§ Participants were asked to do familiar task: putting on and taking off shoes § And unfamiliar task: putting on and taking off a new item of clothing with some form of complication to it § Did both either alone, in the presence of others (who weren't watching), and in the presence of others who were watching § Looked at performance time § People were faster doing familiar task than unfamiliar taks § When people were there, they performed faster when doing the familiar task § However, with unfamiliar task, they took longer when people were there and performed better by themselves § (Slower for condition whereby they were being watched than when the audience was not watching) § Explanation: presence of other people can increase arousal □ Can increase evaluation apprehension: worrying about what others are perceiving you □ Increase distraction § Increased arousal can lead to better performance for well-rehearsed, accessible responses (dominant responses), and worse for novel, complex, and inaccessible responses (nondominant responses)

Answer 69

○ Tendency to exert less effort on task when in a group than when alone

Answer 70

○ Latane, Williams, and Harkins study: § Got participants to clap/cheer as loudly as possible § Either asked to do this in a group or alone § Found that there was a decrease in individual loudness the more people who are present (peak being when alone, and decreasing as the group size increases)

Answer 71

§ Target the factors that relate to it: change the nature of the task □ People loaf less when task is interesting/involving to them - more likely to perform regardless of whether people are there § Increase accountability § Reduce group size § Increase commitment to, or identification with the group □ Cross cultural differences □ People from collectivist cultures show less loafing than those from individualist cultures

Answer 72

§ Psychological state in which group or social identity completely dominates personal or individual identity so that group norms become maximally salient □ One acts as a prototypical group member ○ Caused by anonymity, wearing uniforms, being in a crowd of group members § By being just one among many similars ○ Increase accessibility of group norms § Decreases accessibility of personal standards § Can produce negative or positive behaviour

Answer 73

○ Johnson & Downing study § Manipulated norms (positive/negative) and anonymity § Dressed as either nurse (pos) or KKK (neg) members § Some were given a mask, and others not § Asked to deliver shocks in a learning task § Found that people in KKK robes gave much stronger shocks than those in nurse outfit § Also found that participants wearing a mask, group norm was exacerbated □ Nurse outfits wearing a mask were completely de-individuated and were much more cautious giving the shock than those not wearing masks (who were still cautious, but less so) □ People in KKK outfits with masks gave much stronger masks when in masks □ Emphasised the norms of the group norms when members were de-individuated

Answer 74

○ A process whereby one or more group members are enabled by the group to influence and motivate others to help attain group goals

Answer 75

○ The ability to provide or withhold rewards and punishments from others • All leaders have power, not everyone in a powerful position are leaders

Answer 76

○ People who are prototypical of a leader § Assertive behaviour § Dominant body posture (height esp) § Frequent speech § Gender § Stereotypical masculine gender norms: more likely to view men as leaders than women ○ People who are prototypical of the group § Share characteristics with the group stereotype § Especially among high identifiers ○ Stereotypical leaders in terms of representatives of the group are judged less harshly when they make a mistake

Answer 77

• Leaders can either be ○ Focused on achieving the task at hand (setting goals, providing structures, directing behaviour and correcting failure) § Serves mastery goal ○ Focused on people (building trust, increasing psychological safety, setting norms for cooperation, coaching members) § Serves connectedness goal

Answer 78

• Homan and Greer study: whether a considered leadership style (supporting people and team processes) was related to better team performance ○ Found that leaders with low consideration behaviour did not significnatly impact team performance § Considerate leadership did not predict general performance ○ Found that high consideration leadership did show to improve team performance esp among teams with high diversity ○ Homogenous groups (not diverse groups) § Level of consideration leadership has no impact on team performance ○ Heterogenous groups (diverse groups) § High consideration leadership results in better performance than low consideration leadership

Answer 79

○ Started to recognise the importance of the third motivational drive (valuing me and mine) in defining leadership effectiveness ○ Emphasise members' commitment to the group and its leader as well as promoting symbolic values and group identity as important components of effective leaderhsip ○ Tranformational leadership § Provides inspirational vision § Moral direction § Group dedication § Well-being and morale § Eg Obama ○ Identity leadership § There is no group without social identification § Leadership is management of social identity § Creating, representing, and advancing group identity

Answer 80

• Social groups are important ○ Influence what we feel, think, do • So important that they form one of the key bases of social perception • Others' group membership are used as the basis of social categorisation ○ The process of perceiving people as members of social groups/categories rather than individuals ○ Allows us to quickly draw inferences about other people ○ Manages limited cognitive resources by ascribing characteristics to people based on group membership • Process can be automatic ○ Especially for certain features (age, gender, race)

Answer 81

``` ○ Seeing oneself as a group member ○ Social identities are accessible ○ In extreme form: de-individuation ○ This is likely when § We experience direct reminders of group membership § In the presence of outgroup members □ In the presence of people who don't belong to our groups § In a minority ```

Answer 82

○ Through self categorisation, you see yourself as one of 'us' ○ Through social categorisation, you see the other as one of 'them' ○ Us vs them structure ○ Structural consequence § Captured in Category differentiation model □ When conditions are set for social and self categorisation, exacerbate differences between us and them □ Also exacerbate similarities within each group □ Increases intergroup differentiation □ Increases outgroup homogeneity ® Leads to cross-race identification bias/other-race effect ® Eg 'they all look the same' ® Platz and Hosch study ◊ Participants were texas convenience store clerks ◊ They were either Anglo-Americans, African-Americans, or Mexican-Americans ◊ Sent confederates into the stores who represented the three racial groups ◊ 2hrs after, researchers showed clerks a set of photos: one was a pic of the confederate who came in, and the other ones didn't ◊ Found that people were better at identifying people of their own group (ie if the clerk was Mexican-American, they were better and getting it right with a Mexican-American confederate), than people of other racial groups ◊ Find it difficult to idenitfy people of the outgroup because of outgroup homogeneity ◊ See them all as alike □ 'Group-ness' is amplified ○ Content-related consequence § Stereotypes □ Cognitive representation that is formed by impressions and representations of a certain group □ Associate a group with a range of characteristics □ Different from prejudice □ Stereotype = beliefs, prejudice = attitudes § Stereotype Content Model □ Organised around competence and warmth □ People's stereotypes tend to form within one of four quadrants, which are the intersections of warmth and competence

Answer 83

□ Can be automatically activated □ Even mere presence of a social category cue can be enough to activate a range of stereotype content □ One way to measure it is through the Implicit Associations Test (IAT) ® Formed around the idea that mind is an associative network ® Can see how closely two ideas are conneted in a participants mind by seeing how quickly/accurately they respond to words relating to the different categories ® Measure associations between social categories and other concepts ® Respnse-time paradigm ◊ Patterns of RTs tell us something about underlying mental representations ® Categorisation task ◊ Targets are placed into categories by pressing one of two response keys ◊ Arrangement of categories on screen makes sections of the task more or less difficult ◊ Comparing RTs on different sections of the task gives and indication of stereotypes ◊ Not necessarily a measure of attitudes and behaviour because it is so implicit

Answer 84

□ Change the way that ambiguous behvaiour is interpreted □ Duncan study ® White-Amercian participants witnessed an ambiguous shove (aggressive or playful) between confederates of different social categories ® When participants saw African-American pushing an Anglo-American, 70% viewed it as violent ® When white person shoves African-American person, only 17% think it was violent ® Aggression was (and still is) part of African American stereotype - shapes the interpretation of ambiguous behaviour

Answer 85

○ Stereotype = beliefs ○ Prejudice = positive/negative evaluations of a social group or its members (attitudes/affective component) ○ Discrimination = pos/neg behaviour directed toward a social group or its members

Answer 86

□ People prefer to have a positive self-concept (valuing me and mine) ® Pos self esteem □ Our selves are composed of group identities □ We are motivated to increase the positivity of our own groups relative to outgroups □ Valuing mine (my group) as a way of valuing me □ Can emerge in minimal conditions ® Tajfel study ◊ Asked school children which paintings they liked better: Klee paintings or Kandinsky paintings ◊ After, they were labelled as 'Klee lovers' or Kandinsky lovers } Wasn't based on their actual preferences - randomised ◊ Then asked to imagine that they had to give out points between members of their own group and members of the other group ◊ Even where categorisation was based on minimal criteria, participants gave more points to ingroup members than outgroup members ◊ Ingroup favouritism ◊ Group doesn't have to be meaningful or linked to preferences ◊ About our innate human response to value that which is associated with ourselves to that which is not associated with ourselves □ This reasearch method = minimal group paradigm

Answer 87

○ Oskam and Harty: § The same behaviour is viewed more positively when done by the ingroup than by the outgroup ○ Ultimate Attribution Error § Pattern of attributions that maintain the positivity of the ingroup image § Ingroup behaviours is seen as based on disposition (eg good people), while outgroup pos behaviours is seen as based on the situation § Vice versa for negative behaviours

Answer 88

○ Categorisation lays the groundwork ○ Other aspects also escalate us vs them framing into conflict § Competition □ Realistic competition theory ® As different groups have competing interests, this increases intergroup hositility □ Taylor and Moriarty study ® Two groups ® Creativity task ® Told that they coulf either get a prize at the expense of the other group and vice versa (win/lose situation), or that aspects of both groups would be combined into a collective effort and that would define whether they would get a prize or not ® In competitive context: see a clear distinction in terms of ingroup and outgroup differentiation/how positively they viewed members of their group as opposed to members of the other group - much stronger than you would normally expect § Threat □ Integrated threat theory ® Three types of threat: ◊ Realistic threats about material resources ◊ symbolic threat (threats to the ingroups values) ◊ Intergroup anxiety } Feelings of anxiety people experience during intergroup interactions associated with negative outcomes for the self (embarassed, rejected, ridiculed) ® Riek et al. meta-analysis showed this ◊ Realistic, symbolic, and anxiety positively correlated with negative outgroup attitudes

Answer 89

* Contact * Changing categorisation * Superordinate goals

Answer 90

○ Two types § Extended contact □ Knowledge that other ingroup members have positive contact with intergroup members □ Wright study ® Two groups were formed supposedly based on personality : blue and green groups ® One participant (a confederate) from each group were chosen to interact with each other either in a hostile way, a friendly way, or a neutral way ® Ingroup and outgroup evaluations based on traits and personal qualities to determine how much they like/dislike outgroup members ® When watching a hostile interaction, they like their ingroup member better than the outgroup member, but when watching a friendly interaction, there is no ingroup bias ® Extended contact can reduce ingroup bias § Imagined contact

Answer 91

§ The more contact one has with an outgroup, the less prejudice one has towards that group § Contact is most effective when: □ There is equal status □ Shared goals □ Authority sanction □ Absence of competition § Why does it help? □ Knowledge (knowing more about the group) □ Anxiety (intergroup contact might reduce anxiety about interactions with other groups □ Empathy/perspective taking (intergroup contact can help with that) □ (Mainly anxiety and empathy) ® Galinsky and Moskowitz study ◊ People were instructed to count the number of dots they saw on the screen, and based on randomness, were assinged to groups: overcounters/undercounters ◊ Then asked to evaluate members of other group ◊ Some of them beforehand were asked to take the perspective of a member of the other group ◊ When no perspective taking was done, there was an ingroup bias ◊ In perspective-taking condition, no ingroup bias

Answer 92

○ Recategorisation § Us and them become superordinate 'we' ○ Decategorisation § 'They' become individuals rather than group members ○ Gaertner study § Participants form 2 3-person groups and interact with-in groups § Asked to come up with group names § Then, need to do tasks either as their original groups, forming new groups with new names, or as individuals with nicknames § Found the biggest group-valuing differentiation when the original groups maintained § In both re-categorisation and decategorisation conditions, the ingroup bias was reduced

Answer 93

○ Robber's cave study § Kids at summer camp put in two groups - high amounts of competition between groups § Tried to reduce hostility by having them do activities together, but that didn't work § Only thing that did work was creating superordinate goal - groups had to work together to achieve a goal

Answer 94

○ Mental representation of a summary evaluation of nan attitude object § Variety of attitude objects □ Things, actions, events, ideas □ Self: self esteem □ Groups: prejudice □ Other people: global impression □ In various domains: politics, health etc

Answer 95

○ Attitudes that people openly and deliberately express § Consciously accessible § Revealed in explicit measures □ Involve asking people to report attitudes (eg self-report scale) ® Likert scale ® Semantic differential scales (ask them to rate an object and then average their scores to get their general attitude) □ Limitations ® Social desirability bias ◊ People may distort their self reports ® Implicit attitudes ◊ May not be consciously assessed, thus can't be reported on

Answer 96

○ Automatic, uncontrollable evaluations § Might be consciously inaccessible § Might be accssible but not willing to report § Revealed in implicit measures □ Designed to overcome desirability bias and limits of introspection □ Some use physiological responses □ Some use fake physiological responses □ Most common use reaction time paradigms ® Assume that the patterns of response times to stimuli can reveal underlying attitudes

Answer 97

§ Attitudes can be based in a variety of different components: □ Affective □ Behavioural □ Cognitive § Most attitudes have a combination of the three bases, but often some bases carry more weight than others

Answer 98

§ Knowledge function □ Have/express attitudes to make sense of the world § Instrumental/utilitarian function □ Have/express attitudes to help guide behaviour: achieve rewards, avoid punishment § Social identity/value expressive function □ Have/express attitudes to express one's identities and values § Impression management function □ Have/express attitudes to fit into groups or relationships § Self esteem/defensive function □ Have/express attitudes to protect the self

Answer 99

§ Strength □ Strong ® Held with confidence/certainty ® Usually based on one-sided info ® Persistent, resistant and predictive of intentions and behaviour □ Ambivalence ® Contain positive and negative evaluative components and bases

Answer 100

○ Multiple routes to attitude formation ○ Often multiple roles at play (ABC) ○ Affective routes to attitude formation § Mere exposure: familiarity breed liking □ Repeated exposure increases ease of processing attitude object; ease feels good; positivity becomes attributed to attitude object § Evaluative conditioning □ Pairing a pos or neg stimulus with a neutral target: effects the attitude with the stimulus to the target ○ Behavioural § Direct behavioural influence □ Repeatedly performing a behaviour on an attidue object, the valence of the behaviour gets transferred onto attitude object § Self-perception □ Learn what we like by observing what we do § Cognitive dissonance reduction □ Attitudes are inconsistent with certain behaviours □ Inconsistency can feel unpleasant and lead us align our attitudes and behaviours ○ Cogntitive § Reasoned inference □ Think through facts about an object and draw evaluative inferences

Answer 101

○ Social influences (conformity, obedience) ○ Perceived norms (descriptive, injunctive) ○ Cognitive dissonance reduction ○ Persuasion § Change of an attitude via processing of a message about an attitude object ○ The standard persuasion frame § Source --> message --> recipient --> context/situation § Amount/nature of attitude change depends on attributes of each of these elements § In conjunction with depth of processing

Answer 102

○ Heuristic schematic model ○ Elaboration Likelihood mode (ELM) ○ Both models propose that people can process messages deeply or superficially § It's a continuum ○ This leads to two implications § The amount and kind of change depends on processing route § Factors influencing attitude change and manner of influence are contingent on the processing route

Answer 103

§ Attitudes can be changed by processes that involve more or less attitude object-relevant elabortation or thinking □ Low elaboration characterises the peripheral route of persuasion □ High elaboration characterises the central route of persuasion ® Attitudes formed (or changed) based on more elaboration (central route) are ◊ Stronger ◊ More persistent ◊ Resistant to further change ◊ Predictive of intentions and behaviour ® On lower levels of elaboration (under peripheral route): ◊ Weaker ◊ Less persistent ◊ Susceptible to change ◊ Less predicitve of intentions or behaviour § What influences route selection □ If one is motivated and capable, they will tend to process the message deeply □ What influences adoption of processing route? ® Motivation ◊ Goal, value, or self-relevance ◊ Accountability ◊ Need for cognition: desire and enjoyment in thinking ® Capacity ◊ Ability ◊ Distraction □ What influences attitude change in each route? ® Different messages and sources ® Central route factors ◊ Argument quality matters ◊ Petty and Cacioppo study } Presented participants with a message containing strong or weak arguments } Presented to participants who were either highly or lowly involved in the issue } Low = peripheral, high = central } Found that for those with low involvement, the strength of argument made no difference } For people with high involvement (central route) argument strength mattered in their attitude changes } Shows that argument quality influences persuasion in the central route ® Peripheral route factors ◊ Rely on heuristics (quantity matters) ◊ Same study as above } Alos presented participants with 9 arguments or 3 arguments } Found that for people with high involvement, number of arguments made no difference, but for people with low involvement, the number of arguments influenced their attitudes } Shows that it is not quality but quantity for peripheral route } Also familiarty: when you are exposed to a message multiple times, you are more likely to like it } Also effected by source of the heuristics } And more likely to be influenced if they are attractive (or sources who are liked)

Answer 104

○ La Pierre study: § Took a chinese couple around to various restaurants (in 1934) § Found that despite a general prejudice against Chinese people at the time, the restaurants sat and served them § When questioning the restaurant staff about their feelings towards Chinese people, they all felt negatively towards them § Demonstrates attitude-behaviour discrepancy ○ But they are linked in various ways

Answer 105

○ Direct behavioural bases of attitudes | ○ Cognitive dissonance and the maintenance of cognitive consistency

Answer 106

§ Acting on the object with a valenced behaviour can shape attitude formation and change § Laham study □ Participants sat in front of computer doing a foraging task □ Shown shapes some of which were 'alien fruit' □ Had to collect the alien fruit and discard the other objects □ Collect has positive connotation, discard has negative □ Found that the participants had formed more positive implicit attitudes towards objects they had collected than the discarded ones □ Suggests that when people act upon an object in a valenced way, the pos or neg can transfer onto the object

Answer 107

§ Sometimes behaviours are inconsistent with our attitudes § People generally want attitudes and behaviours to align § Inconsistencies can be unpleasant □ Known as cognitive dissonance ® Experienced negative arousal resulting from inconsistency § People may be motivate to reduce dissonance □ Modifying attitudes to restore consistency

Answer 108

□ Induced compliance paradigm ® Participants do a boring task and form a neg attitude towards the task ® They are asked to tell other participants that the task was fun ® That is incompatible to the attitude ® Experimenter said they would either pay $1 or $20 for saying it was fun ® Found that people who were paid $1 liked it more afterwards ® People who got $20 had sufficient justification for their behaviour ® Those who got $1 got insufficient justification - the lie wasn't worthwhile, so they experience dissonance and then change their attitudes to resolve it □ Effort justification and liking ® Aaronson and Mills study ◊ Participants were assigned to groups: control, mild effort/initiation, high effort/initiation ◊ People in the groups had to give speeches about sex ◊ Control group speech was inoffensive and not very explicit, mild effort group had to give a speech that was a bit more uncomfortable, and the high effort group had to give a speech that was very explicit and uncomfortable ◊ Then had to listen to a discussion about sex (boring convo) ◊ Found that the people who went through the high effort initiation recorded liking the discussion much more than the other groups ◊ Because dissonance caused between effort put in and discussion the listened to, so justified the high effort by liking it □ Post-decisional liking ® Participants were asked how much they liked household appliances ® Then participants were asked to choose between two appliances that the participants had ranked quite similarly ® After made the choice, they had to rate how much they liked the appliances again ® Spreading alternatives ◊ People justify the choice they made by increasing their ratings of their positivity of the chosen object relative to the other one ® Attitude changing to resolve dissonance caused by a freely made decision

Answer 109

□ Most likely to occur when ® Action is perceived as inconsistent with attitude ® When action is perceived as freely chosen ® When individual experiences physiological arousal ® When the arousal is attributed to perceived inconsistency between attitude and action

Answer 110

○ Depends on kinds of § Behaviour § Attitude § Attitude-behaviour compatibility (Principle of compatibility)

Answer 111

® Intentional behaviour ◊ Requires conscious intention ◊ Enacted via application of behavioural intentions ◊ Intentions guided by attitudes, norms and efficacy beliefs ◊ Attitudes have an indirect effect (esp explicit attitudes) ® Habitual behvaiour ◊ Does not require conscious intention ◊ Repeated often in stable contexts ◊ Enacted via automatic repetition of established routines ◊ Triggered by environmental cues rather than attitudes ® Uncontrolled, spontaneous behaviour ◊ Does not require conscious intention, but is not repeated ◊ Enacted via automatic processes (though not established routines) ◊ Attitudes have a direct impact (esp implicit attitudes) ® Implicit vs spontaneous behaviours study ◊ White american undergrad students: researchers measured their attitudes towards white and black target people ◊ Then researchers staged an interracial interaction with various confederates (of different ethinicities) and the participants ◊ Interactions were coded for verbal friendliness (intentional), and non-verbal friendliness (spontaneous) ◊ Found a correlation between explicit attitudes and verbal behaviour, and implicit attitudes and spontaneous behaviours ◊ Implicit attitudes do not predict intentional behaviour, and explicit attitudes do no predict spontaneous behaviour

Answer 112

□ Accessible, strong, and stable tend to influence behaviour □ What increases accessibility, strength, and stability? ® Elaboration (motivation and capacity) ® Repeated expression ® Direct experience ® Direct experience with attitude object ® One sidedness of informational base ® Confidence ® Attitudes aren't the only things that shape behaviour ® They can predict intentional behaviour via intentions ® They can predict intentions, but aren't the only things that predict intnetions ◊ Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) } Attitudes and norms combine to predict intentions, which in turn, predict actions } This was updated to form the Theory of Planned Behaviour – Added perceived behavioral control (ability to do it) as an influential factor

Answer 113

□ Increased match between properties of the action and the attitude increases the prediction □ Study ® Wanted to try and predict birth control use in the next two use ® Measured attitudes at a variety of level of specificity ® Found that as the attitude asked about became more specific to the behaviour in question, the correlation goes up ® Attitudes predict behaviours more strongly when attitudes match the behaviour

Answer 114

• Need to belong ○ Fundamental human need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships § Early in development, children to to affiliate and form bonds with others § People readily form social attachments under a range of conditions and resist the dissolution of relationships

Answer 115

○ An association between two or more people | • Interpersonal relationship = Between two people

Answer 116

Close | Distant

Answer 117

○ Patterns of exchange between relationship partners ○ Exchange rules: § Patterns according to which relationship partners exchange reward/punishment

Answer 118

§ Different relationships are governed by different rules of exchange § Four relational models □ Communal Sharing (CS) ® Organises individuals into groups/pairs within which they feel a shared identity or sense of equivalence ® Eg family, romantic partners ® Key ideas: Sharing, empathy, need-based giving, solidarity, community □ Authority Ranking (AR) ® Involve linear ordering of social status ® Bosses and employees, teacher and students ® Key ideas: Hierarchy, order, duty, respect protection, discipline □ Equality Matching (EM) ® Even balance (1:1 reciprocity) ® Colleagues, housemates ® Key idea: equality, reciprocity □ Market Pricing (MP) ® Proportionality metric to coordinate relationships ® Cost-benefit calculations (get out what you put in) ® Customer sales-person relationships, business partners § Clarifications □ Many relationships are mixed-model ® Romantic partner: mostly CS but some EM can creep in □ Different stages of the same relationship can be characterised by different exchange rules ® Eg might start as EM but move towards CS

Answer 119

• Close relationships provide us with social support ○ Emotional and physical coping resources provided by other people • Social support is associated with great psychological and physical well-being ○ Effects on mortality risk are comparable to a range of other lifestyle factors that are typically associated with high-mortality risk § Social support can protect us from a variety of mortality-related concerns • Costs of loneliness ○ Loneliness = negative feelings arising from unmet needs of affection and self-validation (not being alone, but feeling a sense of isolation) ○ Loneliness increases risk of negative health conditions, cognitive decline and impaired executive funcitoning

Answer 120

○ Physical attractiveness ○ Similarity ○ Positive interaction

Answer 121

§ Physically attractive characteristics vary across culture and time periods § Some factors are generally appreciate □ Facial symmetry § Effects of physcial attractiveness □ Stereotype of attractive people is that they are warm and friendly ® Beautiful is good □ Can become self-fulfilling ® Self-fulfilling prophecy study ◊ Had the participants have a phone converstaion with other participants ◊ Men were told they were talking to either an attractive woman or an unattractive woman ◊ Found that men were more sociable, bold, humorous when they believed they were talking to an attractive woman } Led women to reciprocate, and this led to mutual liking ◊ Shows that stereotypes influenced the men's behaviour, which influenced the women's behaviour, which increased the mutual liking (and reinforced the stereotype)

Answer 122

§ Similarity-attraction principle study □ Participants expressed attitudes about things (eg god etc) □ Came back in a couple of days later and asked to make a judgement about another participant □ Were told the other participant was either similar to them or not □ Found that as attitude similarity increases, people become more attracted to the person they were judging □ Encourages positive interaction over a common interest □ Similar others can also validate beliefs and attitudes □ Inferred reciprocal attraction ® We assume people like us - if we like people who are similar, we believe that they will like us

Answer 123

§ Proximity □ We like others we frequently interact with □ (Usually people we are close to in proximity) □ Festinger, Schachter, & Back study ® Looked at relationhsip formation and attraction in WWII veterans who returned and went to uni ® Assigned to rooms for married couples ® Interested in how room allocation would influence liking ® They had to nominate their top 3 friends in the living complex ® 63% of the friends lived within 2 apartments of the original person ® Proximity increases familiarity, which increases liking § Mimicry □ Face to face interaction opens up the possibility of non-verbal processes to impact liking □ Non conscious mimicry study ® Participants interacted with a confederate - sit down opposite and have to describe a picture (taking in turns) ® Confederate was told to either occasionally rub their face, or tap their foot ® Found that when confederate rubbed their face, participant was more likely to as well, the same as with foot shaking ® Shows that participant non-consciously mimicked confederate's actions ® Then got the participants to interact with confederate, who was subtly mimicking the participant's actions ® Found that participants liked confederates who mimicked them more than those who didn't § Familiarity □ Mere exposure effect □ Moreland and Beach study ® Had female confedeerates come into lecture theatre (roughly of same physical attractiveness) ® They each came in different amounts of times during sem (0, 5, 10, 15 times) ® At end of sem, other students were asked how attractive they each were, and how similar they were to the confederate ® Found that seeing the person more lead to higher attractiveness (the one who came in the most was voted to be the most attractive) ® Same was found for similarity

Answer 124

``` • Self-disclosure ○ Revealing information about yourself • As a relationship develops, self-disclosure increases in ○ Breadth § More topics ○ Depth § Level of intimacy ```

Answer 125

○ Deepen and strengthen relationships: § Increases liking □ Mutual self-disclosure can increase perceived similarity □ Although depth needs to be calibrated with relationship stage □ Study ® Participants had conversation with confederate who self-disclosed either really early on or later in the conversation ® Found that participants liked the confederate when they disclosed later § Signals trust □ Via vulnerability § Better enables behavioural coordination □ Working towards common goals is easier when relationship partners know about each others preferences and abilities

Answer 126

○ Women more than men § About feelings and emotions ○ Reis study § College students were asked to rate the intimacy and frequency of disclosures they had recently □ Found that female participants disclosed more than males □ Male-maale self-disclosure was lower: males were more likely to disclose to females ○ People from individualistic cultures are more likely to self-disclose than those from collectivist cultures

Answer 127

○ Interdependence § Each partner's thoughts, feelings, behaviours influencing the other ○ Close relationship § A relationship involving strong, frequent interdependence § Not defined in terms of positive feelings § Dimensions: □ Cognitive ® Overlapping of concepts of self and partner ® Inclusion of Other in Self scale: ◊ People are asked to identify which pair of circles them and their partner identify as □ Behavioural ® Each person has influence on partner's decisions, activities and plans ® May involve moving to CS from EM, in which the mode of interaction is each according to need ◊ Giving becomes less contingent on possibility of reciprocation ◊ Study: } Participants are given sum of money to share with themselves and someone else (either friend or stranger) } Some are lead to belive that the person they will be sharing with will know that the participant shared the money in this way, whereas with others, the participants' role is not known } Found that participants were more likely to give more money to themselves than to a stranger, than when it was with a friend } When other person is a friend, knowledge of the role makes no differences, whereas it does for a stranger } Because knowledge opens it up for reciprocation - that matters with strangers, not with friends □ Affective ® Intimacy ◊ Positive emotional bond that includes understanding and support ◊ With increasing closeness, relationships move beyond mere recirpocal disclosure to deeper relations of } Acknowledgement } Acceptance/understanding } Emotional responsiveness } Increasing sensitivity and care ® One of primary bases of the important social support functions played by relationships

Answer 128

• Interdependence in the long-haul ○ Long-term orientation towards a relationship, with the intention to maintain it over time and foster lasting strong emotional bond to the partner ○ Develops over time ○ Allows partners to trust that the other will be there for them § Projects interdependence into the future

Answer 129

Three major predictions of commitment Satisfaction level Recognition of the net cognitive, affective, and behavioural benefits Quality of alternative Desirability of alternatives to relationship Investment size Time, emotional energy, money, possessions, friends More satisfaction and investment, with fewer viable alternatives increases commitment • Satisfaction is not commitment ○ Can be satisfied and not committed, or dissatisfied and committed § Study on women who were in abuse relationships □ Found that quality of alternatives and investment size had more of an impact on whether they stayed or not than satisfaction levels Commitment is about more than satisfaction

Answer 130

• Strong feeling of affection • Study on what love is ○ People were asked to list the type of love § Found lots of different kinds § Variety of definitions • Components of love ○ Sternberg's triangular theory of love § Intimacy § Commitment § Passion ○ Kinds of love § Consummate love = high intimacy, commitment, and intensity § Romantic love = high intimacy and high passion § Companionate love = initimacy and commitment § Fatuous love = passion and commitment § Liking is intimacy alone

Answer 131

``` ○ External § Financial strain § Gender roles □ Eg expectations § Rivals ○ Internal § Illness § Change/mismatch in preferences/expectations ○ Not necessarily bad - can lead to growth and strengthening, but needs to be dealt with in a constructive way ```

Answer 132

○ Had people report on break ups, then made a list of rules, which, when broken, would likely lead to break ups: § If parties are in a close relationships, they should □ Foster autonomy ® Acknowledge individual identities and lives beyond the relationship (more important for females than males) □ Similarity display ® Express similar attitudes, beliefs, behaviours □ Supportiveness ® Enhance self-worth and self-esteem □ Openness ® More important for females □ Loyalty □ Shared time □ Equity ® More important for females □ Romance ® More important to males than females

Answer 133

○ Accommodation § Responding to a negative action by the partner § Destruction accommodation (four horsemen) □ Criticism □ Contempt □ Defensiveness □ Stone-walling □ If conflict is dealt with in terms of these accommodation processes, then negative outcomes are more likely § Constructive accommodation □ Open discussion □ Patience □ Forgiveness □ Can have a strengthening itself ○ Consequences of accommodation strategies § There are constructive and destructive strategies § Also active and passive strategies ○ Fostering constructive accommodation § Commitment § Idealisation of partner □ Putting partner on pedestal § Implicit theories (beliefs on how the world works) □ Growth vs destiny theories ® Found that people who believed that relationships were about growth and change were more likely to use constructive accommodation ® People who thought relationships were about destiny and fate were less likely □ Incremental vs entity theories of personality ® Incremental theory = people can change ® Entity theory = personality is fixed and people can't change ® Study ◊ Found that incremental theories fostered active constructive processes, whereas entity theories fostered passive contructive processes

Answer 134

○ Behaviour intended to help someone else

Answer 135

○ Making it easier for someone to do something by offerring services or resources

Answer 136

○ Prosocial behaviour without any prospect of personal rewards for the helper ○ (or with clear costs to the helper)

Answer 137

○ Behaviour motivated by the desire to obtain personal rewards

Answer 138

○ Two or more people working togther toward a common goal that will benefit all involved

Answer 139

○ Helper needs to perceive that the recipient needs help | ○ Need to believe that the person is deserving of help

Answer 140

§ This is facilitated by attention and hindered by distraction § Ambiguity of the situation can make this unclear § Often look to others' reactions to reduce ambiguity □ Smoke filled room' study ® Participants put in a room either alone or with confederates ® See smoke come in under the door ® When they are alone, 75% of people act to get help ® When with confederates who do not respond, only 10% of people act

Answer 141

§ Even if there is a need, the helper might believe they are not deserving of help § Factors influencing the perception of deservingness □ Relational models exchange norms ® Helping should depend on different things in different relationship contexts ◊ Comparing communal sharing (CS) relationships with equality matching (EM) relationships: for CS, the perception of need is sufficient to help someone - deservingness doesn't come into play ◊ Whereas EM - pattern of interaction is governed by reciprocity - will help them if they've helped you in the past □ Attributions of recipient responsibility ® Have they brought it on themselves □ Recipent attributes ® Identity of recipient/victim ◊ People are more likely to help ingroup vs outgroup members ◊ Indentifiability of victim } Indentifiable victim effect: tendency to offer greater help to specific , identifiable victims than to anonymous, statistical victims – Study w Participants given 2 descriptions: one was based on statistics, the other was a personal story relating to one specific person w People donated more to the identifiable person than to the statistical w Because evokes empathy □ Helper attributes ® Individual differences ◊ Eg agreeableness ® Accessibility of prosocial thoughts ◊ Study } Participants were asked to either play prosocial or neutral video game } Asked to report prosocial thoughts } Afterwards, had a box of pencils, and experimenter knocked the box on the floor } Found that those who played prosocial game were more likely to pick up more pencils – Had more prosocial thoughts □ Situational and social factors ® Do I need to help (as opposed to other people) ◊ Role of others: social inhibition of helping } Bystander effect – Number of other people who could possibly helps decreases the likelihood on an individual helping – Called diffusion of responsibility ® Is help expected? ◊ Norm of privacy } Study – Staged a physical attack between man and woman (man against woman) – Either woman said 'I don't know you', or 'I don't know why I married you' – When passers by think they are strangers, 65% intervened to help – When they thought they were married, 19% of people helped – Because there is a norm around expectations around intervening in affairs surrounding a man and wife ® Do I have time? ◊ Good Samaritan study } Seminary students were asked to give a speech either about jobs or about the good samaritan } Asked to go and give it in another building } Some were told they have plenty of time to get there, some were told not to dawdle, but they weren't late, and others were told to hurry } Planted a person who needed help on the way to the building } Found that regardless of what they were giving a speech about, if they had time, 63% would help, in intermediate condition 45% helped, and in hurried condition 10% helped

Answer 142

○ Helping feels good § Study □ Participants were given $5-20 to spend on others or themselves □ Spending money on another feels better than spending it on ourselves

Answer 143

□ If helping is about making yourself feel better, I should help more when I'm feeling bad (to relieve negative states) □ Negative-state relief model ® Most people don't like watching others suffer - makes us feel a negative state ® Help to remove the negative state ® Egoistic ® Evidence: ◊ Cialdini et al. Study } Negative state induced (either by causing, or witnessing suffering) } Some participants were praised or given money to relive negative state, others weren't } Afterwards, were given a chance to help other people } Found that helping was greater for people experiencing negative state (whether witnessing or causing) without praise } Suggests that helping Is greater when one has a negative state that is no relieved ◊ Harris et al. study } Solicit donationns pre confession (when they were feeling guilty) or post confessions in church (after being relieved of guilt) } Asked them for donations } People gave higher donations pre confession than post confession

Answer 144

□ Do people help regardless of personal rewards and costs □ Empathy-altruism model ® When seeing someone suffer can induce negative state ® This can influence helping if there is no other way of reducing negative state ◊ This is egoistic helping ® Can also experience compassion, concern, warmth towards person ◊ This can moves us to help regardless of other means of reducing negative state } Altruistic helping □ Batson et al study on the empathy-altruism model ® Participants watch confederate do learning task where they get shocked if they get things wrong ® After receiving 2 shocks, she asks for water and says she's been scared of electricity her whole life ® Conveys that she is suffering ® Manipuated experiment ◊ whether or not participants would empathise with her } Making her more or less similar to participants ◊ Ease of escape from situation } Easy (did not have to watch for long) or difficult (watch her suffer for a while) ® Found that people who did feel empathy, and who it was easy to escape for, were much more likely (90%) to swap in for the confederate than those who could easily escape but didn't feel empathy (20%) ® When escape was difficult, but they didn't feel empathy 60% swapped in for her ® The results for the group who didn't feel empathy support the egoistic response, because if they can resolve it by leaving they will, but otherwise they will stay and swap to relieve their negative feelings ® However, the empathy condition shows support for the empathy-altruism model ◊ They helped regardless of the whether there was an easy alternative way of reducing aversive states

Answer 145

○ Reduce ambiguity ○ Teach and activate prosocial norms ○ Infuse rather than diffuse responsibility ○ Promote idenitifcation for those who need help

Answer 146

○ Dependency-oriented vs autonomy-oriented help § Dependency-oriented □ Provides one with full solution (but limited knowledge/tools for future problem solving)) § autonomy-oriented □ Enables one to independently solve problems ○ Generally recipients prefer autonomy-oriented help ○ However § Alvarez & Van Leeuwen study □ Problem solving task □ Received help from professor or peer □ Either autonomy-related or dependency-related □ Found that autonomy-related was preferred regardless of who gave the help □ However, when asked about the perceptions of the helper, those feelings are dependent on who gave the help ® When autonomy-related help comes from expert, people feel respect and trust towards expert ® When autonomy-related coming from a peer, they have less respect and trust towards peer □ Autonomy-related help can make you feel empowered, but can have paradoxical effects in judgements about helper which can undermine the relationship § Need to make sure the type of help given matches the person giving help

Answer 147

``` ○ Behaviour intended to harm someone else ○ Can be § Instrumental □ Used as a means to an end § Hostile □ Driven by anger ```

Answer 148

○ More men than women ○ Cultures § Cultures of honour are more aggressive □ Generally norms of aggression - approval for aggression in certain circumstances □ Men should be tough, loyal, ready to fight □ Enforce one's rights and protect family, home and possessions □ Such reputations serve as deterrents □ Especially likely in places in which institutions (eg police, government) don't work very well □ Seen in the mafia □ Southern United States and honour culture ® Cohen et al. study looking at responses to insult amongst people from southern USA compared to northern USA ◊ Experimenters bumped into the participants and insulted them ◊ Found that people from the south were much more likely to insult with anger than amusement and vice versa with the north ◊ Also found that after insult, southern participants were much more likely to display non-verbal aggression (encroaching on personal space, and firmer handshakes) ◊ Shows that people in cultures of honour are much more likely to respond to insult aggressively

Answer 149

§ Possible source of aggression is lashing out in frustration § Frustraion □ Follows blocking of an important goal § Frustration-aggression hypothesis □ Frustration inevitably triggers aggression □ Not from the goal blocking per se, but the negative feelings arising from it

Answer 150

○ Aspects of environment that are linked to aggression can activate thoughts of aggression ○ Weapons effect § Mind as an associative network - activation spreading § Seeing an aggresion-related stimuli can spread activation to thoughts related to aggression § Study □ Used priming computer tasks □ Saw the names of weapons or animals □ Then would see a word (either related or not related to aggression) □ Then have to make judgement about that word □ Idea is that when presented with a weapon, there RT would be faster to aggressive words □ Suggests that aggressive stimuli can activate aggressive thoughts and make them more accessible ○ Social learning § Aggressive role models □ Exposure to violent role models increases aggression § Video games a violence □ Study ® Played violent or non-violent video games ® Measured the accessibility of their aggressive thoughts ® Computer task processing aggressive and non-aggressive words and RTs ® Task to measure aggressive behaviour ◊ Competitive RT task - against other participant ◊ When they lost they would receive a noise blast that they thought was sent by their opponent ◊ When they won, they could choose how loudly they would set the noise for their opponent (volume ws measure of aggression) ◊ Found that exposure to the violent video games increased aggressive behaviour (sent higher intensity noises, and accessibility of aggressive thoughts)

Answer 151

○ Initial, automatic aggressive tendencies can be overcome by deeper processing ○ Factors that impair deep processing increase likelihood of aggressive impulses being realised in aggressive behaviour § Arousal § Time pressure § Alcohol □ Study ® Participants were given alcohol ® Did an RT competition task - if they lost, they got a shock ® They could set shock level for opponents ® Some participants belived their opponent was very kind and poses no threat, whereas other participants thought their opponent was a threat and would set high shock levels ® Regardless of alcohol, if the threat level was low, the aggression was low ® When under threat, alcohol increases aggressive behaviour ® Alcohol doesn't increase aggression, but increases the extent to which aggressive tendencies can manifest in behaviour

Answer 152

○ Personal variables (like traits) and situational variables (frustration, violent media etc) can influence Present Internal State (their affect, cognitions, and arousal) ○ Whether the internal state manifests in behaviour is dependent on appraisal and decision processes (superficial or deep processing)

Answer 153

§ Catharsis/venting □ Thought is that anger builds up like steam and needs expression, so venting is like have an aggressive outburts □ Not true □ Study ® Wrote an essay, and received negative feedback (very harsh) from confederate - arousing anger ® Some participants hit punching bag some just sit quietly ® Those who hit punching bag were asked to ruminate on the feedback, and the others were asked to think about something else ® Then did the competitive RT task ◊ Measured aggression ® The distraction and rumination conditions were much higher in aggression than the quiet group ® Shows that venting physically doesn't decrease aggression, but increases it ® Suggests that catharsis wouldn't work

Answer 154

§ Promoting norms of non-aggression □ Changing role models, eg prosocial video grames § Minimising/undermining environmental cues § Cognitive re-appraisal □ Think about situation in different way □ Self-distancing □ Study ® Provoked participants ® Asked them to reflect on it ◊ Control: just reflect ◊ First-person condition: asked to put themselves back into the situation and imagining it again ◊ Self-distancing condition } Asked to look at siutation from third-person position ® Then given implicit measure of accessibility of aggression, ◊ Found the self-distancing decreased the accessibility of aggressive thoughts ◊ Also found that it results in less anger than other two conditions § Increase empathy □ Study ® Teaching empathy to students, then found that their aggression was reduced

Answer 155

○ Decrease accessibility of aggressive thoughts, can decrease negative affect ○ Bushman § Can do this through □ Delay, distraction, relaxation, incompatible responses □ Target Present Internal State

Answer 156

○ Change in inherited characteristics within a population over successive generations

Answer 157

§ Individuals of a species show variation in traits (behavioural, morphological, psychological, physiological) § Some of this variation is heritable: some traits will be passed on from one gen to the next § Some traits provide benefits in terms of survival and reproductive success (adaptation)

Answer 158

§ Those individuals with greater chances of survival and reproductive success will leave more offspring, and those offspring will have inherited traits § Certain adaptive traits are selected for, over the course of generations § These adaptive traits increase in frequency in future generations, coming to be widespread within species

Answer 159

○ Application of evolutionry theorising to understand human psychology and behaviour ○ Assumptions of EP § Mind is composed of collection of evolved psychological mechanisms □ Adaptations □ Domain specific ® Designed to solve various specific recurrent problems faced by our evolutionary ancestors, such as ◊ Disease avoidance, mate selection etc

Answer 160

○ If evolution tailors ogranisms to behave in ways that facilitate their own reproductive success, doesn't this mean organisms will be selfish? § Not necessarily § Need to take a 'gene's eye view' □ Selfish genes, not selfish organisms □ If you were a gene, what would facilitate your reproduction? ® Get the host to behave in ways that increase the chances of me proliferating § If a prosocial behaviour happens to increase the likelihood that one's genetic material is passed on to future generations, then such a behaviour will be selected for

Answer 161

Inclusive fitness

Answer 162

◊ Capacity for genetic information to be spread in the population } Direct (classical) fitness: number of offspring (encourage host to have more offspring to spread more genetic information) } Indirect fitness: increase classical fitness of other organisms in which that same gene is shared – Eg kin – But not all kin are equal ◊ Predicts that evolution will have shaped patterns of helping such that we are more likely to help those more closely related to us

Answer 163

} In non-humans (Belding's ground squirrels) – They give an alarm call in response to predators – Can be seen as altruistic, because it is helpping the others to make sure they can be more safe, but also because it makes themselves more in danger by letting the predator know where it is – More likely to call in the presence of sisters, aunts, and nieces

Answer 164

} In humans: LA women – Women were asked to provide examples of recent instances in which they were helped by various people – Found that helping is much more likely to be given and received among those who are more highly related

Answer 165

◊ Parents and children } Largest predictor of child abuse and homicide = presence of step-parent } 40-100 times higher if there's a step-parent at home } Shows that genetic relatedness constrains negative relationships of this kind

Answer 166

◊ Mums vs Dads } Paternity uncertainty complicates things } Even though they are equally related, the mother is always certain the child is theirs, while the fathers aren’t } Mothers tend to be more likely to invest in their offspring (be nicer) than fathers because of this ◊ Grandparental certainty } Mother's mother are more nice to grandchildren, because they have two levels of certainty, whereas father's father has two levels of uncertainty } Similarly, grandchildren feel more warmly towards mother's mother than other grandparents, decreasing incrementally as levels of uncertainty increase } Although found that mother's father was nicer to grandchildren than father's mother even though they both have same amount of uncertainty } Could be explained by the fact that the father's mother could have more certain grandchildren to be nicer to whereas the mother's father could not } Found that this is the case when there are other cousins, but when there aren't, there isn't a difference between the grandparents

Answer 167

○ EP is pan-adaptationist § Claim that everything is an adaptation (all psychological characteristics) § Not true ○ Genetic determinism § Eps think that everything is to do with genes, and htat environment does not have any part § Not true ○ Implications for morality § That EP implies that things about adaptations are morally good □ Naturalistic fallacy § Not true

Answer 168

○ Provides organising framework for understanding complex aspects of human social behaviour ○ Explicitly questions the function: not just how things happen, but also why ○ Generative/fruitful - can lead to development of novel hypotheses that aren't easily got to by other theories

Answer 169

○ Code of conduct or set of rules pertaining to right/good, wrong/bad held by an individual or group ○ Definitions vary

Answer 170

○ Turiel et al. and the moral/convention task § Asked children to make judgements about some rule violations □ One child hitting another □ One child pushing another off a swing □ A child wearing a dress to school □ A child talking out of turn in class § Asked □ Is it wrong? □ Is it punishable? □ Is the wrong authority-dependent? □ Is it general in scope (would it still be wrong in another context)? □ How is the wrongness explained? § Found that for some, the signature model response (SMR) was given □ SMR was given to stimuli involving harm, violation of welfare, or violating justice and rights § Morality consisted of harm, justice and rights □ If SMR is given, that is judged as morally wrong

Answer 171

``` □ SMR= ® Judged as wrong and serious ® Judged as punishable, ® Authority independent ® General in scope ```

Answer 172

• Challenged by Haidt et al ○ Gave people rule violations that didn't obviously involve harm or injustice, and asked people for their judgements ○ Some people still judged these with the SMR ○ Shows that morality can be about more than harm and justice

Answer 173

□ Autonomy ® Harm/rights □ Community (hierarchy) ® An action is wrong if someone fails to carry out duties to the community □ Divinity (purity) ® Causes impurity to with degradation to themselves or others § Scope for morality is bigger than in the other account

Answer 174

§ Expanded other accounts to five domains □ Harm/care ® Concerns about violence and suffering □ Fairness/reciprocity ® Representing norms of reciprocal relationships, equality, rights and justice □ Authority/respect ® Moral obligations related to hierarchical relations □ Ingroup/loyalty ® Moral obligations relating to group membership □ Purity/sanctity ® Moral ideal of living in an elevated, noble, less carnal way § For liberals, harm and fairness are much more morally relevant § For conservatists, they value authority and purity more

Answer 175

○ Moral Black box | § Debate about whether it is guided by reasoning, or emotion and intuition

Answer 176

○ Moral reasoning § Conscious mental activity that consists of transforming given info about people to reach a moral judgement § Conscious ○ Moral intuition § Sudden appearance in consciousness of a moral judgement, includening affective valence § Not conscious § Largely dependent on emotions

Answer 177

○ Moral dumbfounding § People will defend the wrongness of an action even when the reasons they give have been diffused § Because reasoning processes aren't accessible here, are they even employed? § Could argue that they are using reasons just to justify intuitions ○ Social Intuitionist model § Moral judgement is a function of affect-laden intuitions § Reasoning is a post-hoc rationalisation

Answer 178

○ They are competing against each other ○ Trolley Problem § Most say it's ok to switch the track, but that you can't push the man, even though it is killing the same amount § What's the difference? □ Each problem pits a deontological option (based on rule: do not kill innocent people) against a utilitarian option (greatest good for greatest number □ But most have a utilitarian response to the switch and a deontological response to the footbridge □ Greene ® Deontological responses are driven by gut-reactions and emotions ® Utilitarian response is driven by controlled, effortful reasoning processes ® Because footbridge involves direct contact with another to kill them, sacrificing that one person is more emotionally aversive making the deontological response more appealing ® Switch has less contact and therefore less emotional aversion

Answer 179

○ If you could reduce the negative emotion when processing a footbridge-type dilemma, they should be more likely to deliver a utilitarian response ○ Study § Shown a clip of SNL or a documentary § Given footbridge version of trolley problem § Found that in doco (control) condition, most people say you shouldn't push the man (deontological) § In the SNL condition, people were more likely to use utilitarian approach than in the contro condition § Shows that experiencing pos emotion allows one to deliver a utilitarian response □ Pos emotion dampens the emotional aversiveness of pushing the man

Answer 180

○ An agent intentionally does something to a patient/recipient ○ Fundamental template of moral psychology

Answer 181

§ For each relationship moral, there is a moral value attached to it that people are trying to pursue in that relational context □ CS: unity □ AR: hierarchy □ EM: equality □ MP: proportionality § There regulate the kinds of relationships § An implication is that the way we judge an action to be right or wrong depends on the relational context in which the action takes place ○ Study: do people deliver different moral judgements in different relational contexts § Gave people vignettes describing moral violations relevant to each of the moral foundations in 4 relational contexts § Found that in CS relationships loyalty violations are perceived to be more wrong than in other relational contexts § Respect violations are much more wrong in AR relational contexts § Shows that we deliver very different judgements for the same action but in different relational contexts

Answer 182

§ The moral circle = the category of entities in the world worthy of moral concern § Historical expansion of the moral circle

Answer 183

§ Inclusion-exclusion discrepancy (IED) □ Inclusion mindsets (circling and selecting those) lead to smaller final choice sets than exclusion mindsets (crossing out and rejecting some) □ Because borderline options are treated differently under different conditions ® Inclusion-mindset: seeking sufficient evidence to include things from the list and anything that doesn't have sufficient evidence is left out ® Exclusion-mindset: seeking sufficient evidence to exclude things, and anything that doesn't have sufficient evidence is left in § Does the same hold for moral categories? □ IED and the moral circle study ® Given a list either of various no-human animals, and the other was a set of various entities including humans of different margins of life ® Asked some to circle the things on the list that they deemed worthy of moral consideration, or to cross of those that were deemed unworthy ® Found that those with exclusion mindset had larger moral circles ® Then asked people about their attitudes towards outgroups Found that people in exclusion mindset had more positive attitudes towards outgroups than those with ingroup mindset

Answer 184

• Personality is relatively stable • William James ○ In most of us, by the age of 30, the character has set like a plaster

Answer 185

○ Mischel study: delay of gratification § 4 year-olds presented with marshmallows § Told if they don't eat them all before experimenter comes back, then they can have more § Looked at wait times § Average wait time was 8 mins § Amount of time they waited predicted □ In adolescence (10 years later): ® Higher SAT scores (for longer wait times), coping skills ® Aggression (for lower wait times) □ Adulthood (up to 30 years later) ® Educational achievement ® Drug use (for lower wait times) ® Health □ To do with ability to self-regulate -Suggests stable personality

Answer 186

§ Found that temper tantrum frequency in early childhood predicts occupational instability § Inhibited 3-year olds tend to have low positive emotionality, social potency, and well-being at age 26 § 3rd grade aggressiveness predicts adult criminality ○ suggests that personality is stable over time

Answer 187

§ Criminology □ If you are trying to reform people who have aggression-related criminal behaviour which remains stable § Clinical psych □ The aim of clinical psych is to try and improve the traits that can be problematic for the individual □ If traits are stable, does that mean clinical psych doesn't work? § Employee selection □ On the flip side, if it isn't stable, how can we choose an employee if they won't retain the traits you're looking for ○ Attitudes towards self-improvement § Predicated on the idea that personality can change ○ Making optimal life decisions § How can we make long-term decisions? § Will the person you want to marry be the same in 20 years? Will you be the same in 20 years

Answer 188

Rank-order Mean-level Individual stability

Answer 189

□ Refers to relative position in a population | □ Looks at whether the ordering remains the same

Answer 190

□ Costa and McCrae studying the test-retest stability of personality over about 30 years ® Rank-order of personality is relatively stable ® Correlations approx 0.65 for the big five traits over multiple studies up to 30 year periods ® Indicates that if one is above average on a trait at 30, the probability of being so at 50 is 83% (5:1 odds) □ Damian et al: looked at it from 16-66 ® Correlations were approx 0.3 for the big five □ Roberts and DelVecchio ® Lessons from a review of rank order stability findings ◊ Test-retest correlations indicating rank-order stability: } Are relatively high } Increase with age (from approx 0.41 at childhood to 0.55 at 30, to 0.7 at 50-70) } Decrease as the test-retest interval increases – .55 over a 1 year period, 0.24 over a 4 year period } Trait general, so do not vary across: – Big Five – Assessment method – Gender

Answer 191

Genetic influences Environmental channeling Environmental selection

Answer 192

◊ Probabilistic influences of genes on behaviour/experience ◊ Longitdinal twin studies } McGue – 70-90% of stability was owing to genetics – 70% of change was owing to environmental factors – So similarities were due to genetics, and differences were due to environment } Johnson et al – Genetic effect on stability: 0.95

Answer 193

® Environmental channeling ◊ Because our environment becomes more stable (as we settle down more), increased stability in environment, friends, routine etc } Johnson et al – Environmental effect on stability: 0.5 } Caspi and Herbener – Looked at married couples given personality assessments – Found that rank order stability was higher for couples with similar personalities ® Environmental selection ◊ We seek environments that match, support, and maintain our traits ◊ Assortive mating } Trait correlations between romantic partners and friends up to r=0.35 } Suggests that we are actively selecting social environments to reinforce our own traits } May be underestimated due to the reference group effect: people are likely to use other people as their reference points for their own traits - exaggerates the differences between themselves and others ◊ Migration } People prefer to live among people with similar personalities, values, interests etc ◊ Vocational choice } People gravitate towards educational and vocational career paths that fit their personality

Answer 194

□ Refers to actual score | □ Looks at whether the group has changed on average

Answer 195

□ Cost and McRae ® O, E and N drop over adult years ® A and C rise over adult years ® General tendency for people to become nicer, more responsible, more set in their ways, less outgoing, and more stable □ Meta analysis by Roberts et al ® Social vitality aspect of extraversion (energetic, vivacious part) decreases with age, but the social dominance aspect of extraversion (leading etc) increases □ Uni students study by Robins and Mroczeck ® A and C rise ® O and N fall ® Negative affect drops and pos affect rises through adulthood ® Change tends to be positive: psychosocial maturity

Answer 196

® Genetic | ® Environmental

Answer 197

◊ Evolved maturation processes ◊ Developmental tasks } E and O are more helpful around reproductive age } C is more helpful during parenting ◊ Loehlin twin study } Personality change scores correlated 0.5 for MZ twins, 0.18 for DZ twins } Shows that the pattern is more similar for people with 100% same DNA } Suggests there are genetic switches that may be partially responsible for systematic patterns of change ◊ However, Hopwood } For conscientiousness the genetic effect on mean level change was stronger than the environmental effect } But for neuroticism, there was only a significant environmental effect

Answer 198

} Cohort effects – Generation me w People who are typically group in gen X/Y cohorts had an increase in affluence and quality of life w This resulted in changes of mean-level personality traits associated with inflated self-esteem, egotism, and expectations of the future/entitlement – Problems with generation me w She didn't use representative samples w Over-estimation of effect sizes (she used individual vs aggregated scores) – An attempt to confirm generation me w Used a more representative sample w Did not find eveidence for inflated self-esteem/egotism w Moderate increases in aspirations, and decreases in concerns about social problems w All other trends were v small w Therefore little support for any marked cohort effect during this period } Generational change – Another cohort hypothesis – Focused on iGen – Found that kids in this generation grew up with more parental supervision – This creates heightened vulnerabilities in adulthood – Explains trigger warnings, micro aggressions, moral panic ◊ Cross-cultural comparisons } If environments drive mean-level change, then change patterns should differ markedly across different environments } McCrae et al – Examined age-personality relations across cultures – Found that mean-level change across culures were quite similar to the US – Suggests that if the mean-level change is relatively similar across different cultures, then perhaps the environmental argument is not very plausible – Suggested a universal maturation – But the critical environmental factors may be quite similar (eg going to work, going to school, raising kids etc), so it might not show much ◊ Cross-species comparisons } Found that there were similar patterns of personality change in chimps to humans, suggesting a cross-species universal maturation

Answer 199

® Part of 'implicit personality theory: ◊ Laypeople's understandings of traits and trait structure ◊ May impact our decision making - choices now might be influenced by how much we expect to change ® Halsam study ◊ People's beliefs about normative personality change through lifespan are relatievly accurate ◊ Undergrad students predicted that A and C would increase over lifespblan, and that happens ◊ Also predicted N would go down - true ◊ Thought E would go down: partially true - some aspects go down some go up ◊ Thought O would go down, when it actually increases ◊ But broadly pretty accurate ◊ Also thought personality changes less with age } True about rank-order stability - increases over lifespan ® However, ◊ People underestimate how much their own persoanlity will change in the future ◊ End of history illusion } Tendency to believe that we are complete when we are always a work in progress } Can recognise that you have changed in the lead up to this moment, but have trouble acknowledging that there will be further change in the future ◊ Implications for decision making based on predications that we are complete and unchanging } Marriage, tattoos, children etc ◊ Quoidbach et al study: demonstrating end of history illusion } Participants completed personality inventory } Then assigned to one of two conditions where they completed the inventory again – Reporter: complete it for yourself 10 years ago – Predictor: complete it for yourself in 10 years } Showed that people reported about half a standard deviation of personality change in the reporter condition } Found that people remember much more change than they predict } Perhaps it is the case the the predications are actually right, and their memories are exaggerated - maybe people just don't change that much } Contrasted remembered and predicted changes in personality to actual changes in a separate longitudinal sample } Actual personality change was virtually identical to the amount remembered, and quite different to the amount predicted ◊ Another demonstration using bands } Asked how much they would pay to see their fave band from 10 years ago today } Or how much would they like to pay to see their fave bands today in 10 years } People were willing to pay much more to see their current bands in 10 years than their past faves } Suggests that people think that value will stay the same over time } Interesting because people usually discount future rewards, people are much more willing to pay to have an experience today than in the future

Answer 200

□ Looks at the change of the individual □ The Big Five vary across individuals in direction and rate of change □ Because of the role of unique experiences □ Individual change has important consequences ® Rapid increases in C predicts better health ◊ Mediated by changes in 'health promoting behaviours' ® Longitudinal study of ageing men ◊ N predicts mortality ◊ Changes in N predict mortality even more } High and increasing levels in N predicts ealier death

Answer 201

□ Transition to work ® Roberts study: looking at how major life events are experienced differently across individuals ® Found that personality predicted the degree to which one's work experiences were positive ® But positive work experiences also predicted changes in personality ◊ Increase in E, decrease in N ® The most likely effect of life experience on personality development is to deepen the characteristics that lead people to those experiences □ Travel ® Uni students on travel abroad for 1 or 2 sems vs control students ® Extraverted and conscientious students were more likely to study abroad for short term (1 sem) ® Extraverted and Open students more likey to study abroad for longer (2 sems) ® Effects of travel ◊ Increases of O and A ◊ Decreases in N ® Could reflect different motivations ◊ Maybe people high in C did short term travel for career aspirations ◊ Maybe people high in O did long-term for the immersive experience ◊ For O and N, personality change was mediated by increases in relationship gains □ Clinical interventions ® Meta-analysis ◊ Found that clinical interventions decreased N (if for a month or more) and (to a lesser extent) increased E } The longer the intervention, the larger the effect ◊ Stronger for anxiety and depression } Wanting to work on their personalities □ Life-events ® Does personality change because of, or in anticipation of life events ◊ 9-year longitudinal study with data from every month ◊ Looked at personality change in the lead up to, and after reports of the classic significant life events } Employment } Marriage } Divorce } Children ◊ Found most personality change occurred in anticipation of life events ◊ Increase in C and O after transition to work, but a lot of that change happened in the lead up to the transition

Answer 202

® Little: Free traits, and personal projects ◊ Personalities, while stable, are not comlpetely anchored - we can move them around ◊ We can pursue personal projects: } Acting out of character to effect some longer change in ourselves ® Fleeson: traits vs states ◊ Acting temporarily more extraverted or conscientious than we normally are ◊ I certain situations, we can act against our usual traits ◊ Are we motivated to act more counterdispositionally? □ We change our personality states to pursue goals ® Study ◊ State extraversion increased as a function of different goals people held } When people want to attract attention, come across as an effective leader, make pos friendships, have fun ◊ State C increases } To use tie effectively, to get things done, to direct energy where needed

Answer 203

® Two studies following up students over 16 weeks ® 3 questions ◊ Do people want to change traits } Yes } 90% of people want to change their personality in some way } People tended to want increased E, O, A, C, and decreased N – Psychosocial maturity ◊ Do people change as desired } Yes } People tended to change according to their goal } Small changes though – 0.2 standard deviations over the 16 weeks } But if this were to continue linearly over a large period of time, these changes would actually be very large ◊ How do they change } Counter-dispositional behaviour – Goals --> personality states ---> trait change – Fake it until you make it – Only for E A and N } Personal identity – Goals --> change in traits --> personality states – Only for E C and N – Not very persuasive – Says that people who want to become more extraverted, identify as more extraverted, and this makes them act accordingly } No mediators for changes in O

Answer 204

○ Direct effects - from general to specific § Eg does conscientiousness predict specific expressions of conscientious behaviour ○ Indirect effects - mediation § Eg via situation selection ○ Interactive/conditional effects - person x environment iteractions ○ Eg via differential reactivity to events/situations

Answer 205

○ Knowing what a person is like helps us predict what a person is likely to do § Foundation of lexical hypothesis ○ Also in animals § Eg chimps: as they get to know other chimps, they will make predictions about their behaviour as they learn to preferentially trust some individuals over others ○ Example from bible § Military leader selected soldiers for his army based on a test where they were asked to drink water from the stream - some drank upright, and some drank by leaning down § He picked the people who sat up and drank, because he felt it showed vigilance ○ The lexical hypothesis § Important characteristic will, over human history, be coded in language § Important in terms of making predictions

Answer 206

○ Educational contexts § Binet and Simon □ Identification of children requiring alternate education □ Developed the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) during 1920s ○ Occupational contexts § Military selection and placement under Robert Yerkes § In beginning of WW1 there was interest in figuring how to better select and place recruits § Formed the basis for occupational testing and selection in context of human resources in years after first and second world war, which were characterised by a diversification of work and mobility of work

Answer 207

§ Schmidt and Hunter - conducted first huge meta-analysis in this area § Looked at range of predictors including abilities, personality traits, work experience, references etc § Criterion was job performance - measured in terms of supervisory ratings, or sales numbers etc § Predictor correlations: □ Years of education: r=.1 □ Job experience (years) r=.18 □ Reference checks r=.26 □ Employment interviews, r=.38-51 □ Personality: conscientiousness: r=.31 □ Integrity test (blends C and A): r=.41 § Strongest individual differences predictor was cognitive ability/intelligence: r=.51 § But personality adds to predicitive validity of cognitive validity

Answer 208

○ Barrick and Mount focussed just on Big 5 § Conscientiousness predicts performance across all occupations: r=.20-.23 □ For 'will do' criteria: criteria relating to effort, r=.42 § Extraversion predicted performance well in 2 specific job areas □ Management, r=.18 □ Sales: r=.15 ○ Hunz and Donovan retested this § Conscientiousness again predicts broadly I the region of r=.2 § A, O, low N predict performance in customer service roles § E and low N predicts in management and sales roles

Answer 209

§ Not so much how highly you are rated as perfoming in your job, but more how successful you are in terms of the job you have § Indices typically reflect popular views of job desirability or prestige related to wages, years of education required etc § Eg Duncan Socioeconomic Index § Top scorers include doctor, lawyer, dentist etc § Predictive validity for □ O: r=.18 □ E: r=.16 □ C: r=.15

Answer 210

§ Openness vs intellect □ Intellect reflects engagement with semantic info (eg liking to solve complex problems □ Openness reflects engagement with perceptual info (eg enjoying the beauty of nature) § Both predict creative achievement □ Intellect - achievement in sciences (eg discovery and inventions) □ Openness - achievement in the arts (eg visual arts, dance, acting)

Answer 211

○ Educational achievement § Educational performance can be measured using some sort of grade avergage system § Combination of cognitive ability and conscientiousness predicts achievement across programs § Poropat: predicting school/uni GPA from □ Cognitive ability: r=.25 □ C: r=.22 □ O: r=.12 □ A: r=.07 □ Only conscientiousness added to cognitive ability ○ Educational attainment § O consistently the strongest B5 predictor, r=.35 ○ Educational engagement § Openness predicts intrinsic motivation in uni students: r=.35 § And breadth/depth of reading, r=.25

Answer 212

§ E □ Economics, political science, med § N □ Arts, Humanities, Psych § A □ Med, psych, sciences, arts, humanities § C □ Science, Law, engineering, med, psych § O □ Humanities, arts, psych, political science

Answer 213

○ Direct effects? § Eg expressions of conscientiousness □ Performing well is, in essence, being conscientious □ Makes sense when you see that conscientiousness predicts most strongly for effort-related criteria ○ Indirect effects? § Eg Selecting a program of study that increases later likelihood of particular kinds of outcomes □ Eg conscientiousness and extraversion predict occupational success (eg wages etc) via choice of major (eg law) □ Eg openness predicts creative achievement (eg publications and awards etc) via choice of major (eg arts) ○ Interactive effects § Eg responding to demands of work □ Extraverts may respond to well to the interpersonal challenges of leadership and management roles □ Those high in N may respond poorly to those same situations § Many of these pathways can happen simultaneously

Answer 214

§ Indirect effects on educational achievement via study strats study (Cocker et al) □ Conscientiousness assessed in college students at beginning of sem □ Assessed study strategies later in sem, just before exams □ Use of more effortful study strategies explained the relation between conscientiousness and educational achievement

Answer 215

§ Role of rewards □ Extraverts respond more strongly to rewards □ Salesforce control systems make use of rewards □ Management roles bring a range of rewards (eg pay, status) □ Is this why Extraverts perform well in sales and management roles? § Study: extraversion should only predict performance when performance is linked to rewards □ If new sales are rewarded, then E should predict new sales, but not customer retention □ If customer retention is rewarded, E should predict customer retention but not new sales □ Found that this is exactly the case

Answer 216

• Personality predicts longevity up to 76 years later ○ C is strongest predictor ○ E/low N next ○ Then N, followed by A ○ All big 5 are more predictive than SES

Answer 217

○ Participants were followed up over 70 years § Measured their conscientiousness in childhood § Conscientiousness at adulthood was assessed at two points § Looked at age and cause of death, as well as various health/risk behaviours (eg smoking) ○ Found that people who were consistenly lower in conscientiousness were consitently more likely to die across large portion of lifespan (with a 15% difference at age 75)

Answer 218

○ Studies show that conscientiousness predicts better health and longer life ○ Substantial evidence suggests this is explained by engagement in health-promoting behaviours ○ Armon and toker study: what would predict participation in periodic health checks ○ Findings: § Odds of returning for 2nd health check within 7 yeats: □ C: +ve predictor □ E and O: -ve predictors □ N: curvilinear predictor ® For low and high N levels, the health check likelihood levels are also low ® Because people low in N don't perceive the risks, people high in N perceive the risks and are very concerned about them and want to avoid finding out what the doctor has to say

Answer 219

○ Study: looked a preventative health behaviours (eg exercise, healthy eating etc) ○ Also assessed current health ○ Found an indirect link ○ Changes in conscientiousness associated with changes in preventative health behaviours and overall health ○ Changes in preventative health behvaiours mediated the association between changes in conscientiousness and changes in overall health

Answer 220

○ Measures of psychological wellbeing predict longevity ○ Danner et al. study looked at diaries of 22 year old nuns from 20th century ○ Found that positive emotional content of the diaries predicted longevity approx 60 years later ○ Wellbeing is highly predicted by E and low N ○ Links between E and wellbeing may be partly due to quality of social connections

Answer 221

○ Type A personality § Competitive, ambitious, restless, impatient, hositle § Risk of heart disease § The link between type A personality and heart disease tends to be hostility - low A ○ Agreeableness § May protect against biological risk factors for heart disease □ Reduced sympathetic nervous system response to stress and frustration

Answer 222

Yes ○ Dyrenforth study § A and C lead to higher marital satisfaction § Both actor and partner effects □ Actor: my agreeableness contributes to my martial satisfaction □ Partner: my partner's agrreableness contributes to my marital satisfaction ○ Schmidt § A and C relates to lower likelihood of infidelity § Actor effects ○ Kelly and Conley § N relates to decreased marital stability § Both actor and partner effects • Divorce ○ N, low C, and low A predicts divorce up to 45 years later

Answer 223

§ Relationship dynamics □ Indirect effects □ Personality traits of the individuals within the relationship have some impact on the dynamics of that relationship □ Those relationship dynamics have an impact on whether that relationship is sustained or not □ Types of dynamics ® Enduring dynamics ◊ The reason there are actor, partner and combined effects of people's personalities and relationship dissolution is that throughout the entire life of the relationship, there are relationship dynamics, which impact on the satisfaction with that relationship ® Emergent distress ◊ Over time, there is some change in the relationship satisfaction that is related to the personality traits ◊ Any dynamic change that shifts the dynamics ◊ How the traits of the individuals in the relationship play a role in responses that that shift/stressor that helps explain relationship dissolution

Answer 224

® Clearer support for the enduring dynamics ◊ Personality consistently impacts on relationship dynamics in ways that may ultimately lead to its dissolution ® Eg ◊ Low A and C associated with negative communication patterns ◊ High N associated with negative emotionality and reactions

Answer 225

® Personality traits of person in the relationship impact on their behaviour ® That impacts on other's immediate impressions of the individual (which are also influenced by their own personalities) ® That in turn effects how they behave in the relationship, which impacts on original person's behaviour ® Over time, this informs the broader social environment, which has an impact on the person's personality □ A (partial) test of this model ® Pairs of participants (A and B) interact for 5mins ® Behaviour is videotaped and coded, personality assessments are administered, and reputation ratings are collected ® Pattern of findings (focussing on extravrsion) ◊ A and B's personalities impacts in how they behave in that task, which in turn impacts on how the partner perceives the other one ◊ These over time impact on the social reputation

Answer 226

○ The patterns by which people might sort themselves into romantic coupling pairs ○ Birds of a feather flock together (not opposites attract) ○ People are more attracted to people whose personalities are like their own, and people are more likely to stay in relationships to the degree that their personalities are complementary ○ Study on couples (McCrae et al) § Positive correlations between partner's personality traits □ Rs up to .35 for big 5 □ Highest for O

Answer 227

○ Recurring role for low C and A § Antisocial behaviour and aggression § Involvement in criminal gangs § Delinquency and vandalism in Aus youths ○ C can also be a positive predictor § White collar crimes (tax evasion, embezzlement etc) § To do so, you need organisation § Higher C can predict this ○ Explanations § Direct effects □ Eg aggressive behaviour is simply a state expression of low agreeableness § Indirect effects □ Eg disagreeableness predicts aggression via moral disengagement ® Beliefs that fighting can be justified, and teasing is not harmful

Answer 228

○ Aristotle said that the reason we have different forms of government stems from individual differences ○ Political orientation or ideology § Liberal/progressive □ Equality, equal opportunity, protection of human rights § Conservative/traditional □ Personal responsibility; protection of individual freedoms, mainiting order and tradition in society ○ Multidimnesional approaches § Right wing authoritarian (RWA) □ Respect for traditions and social norms (traditionalism) □ Deference to authorities and insititutions (conservatism) □ Belief in the need for coercive social control (authoritarianism) □ AKA social conservatism § Social dominance orientations (SDO) □ Endorsement of hierarchies and social group/inequality □ AKA Economic conservatism § Self identified liberals (vs conservatives □ Higher on O/intellect: r=.2 ® Also lower in RWA and SDO □ Lower on conscientiousness, r=-.1 § Sibley and Duckitt meta-analysis □ Openness/intellect: RWA, r=-.36; SDO r=-.16 □ Conscientiousness: RWA, r=.15 □ Agreeableness: SDO, r=-.29 § Explained in terms of values □ People high in O value change and inclusiveness □ People high in C value order/structure □ People high in A value harmony/cooperation

Answer 229

○ Replicability crisis § Study attempting to replicate 100 findings across all of psychology □ Only 39% were replicated □ Those 39% had much smaller effect sizes than in the original findings ○ The Life Outcomes of Personality Replication (LOORP) project § Attempted to replicate 78 previously reported associations between personality traits and consequetial outcomes § Found that 87% of the previously reported findings were successfully replicated § Effect sizes were approximately 75% as strong as reported in original studies • Implications ○ What is the value of these findings § Theoretical value □ Help us test theories of personality ® Eg are extraverts more sensitive to reward? □ Help us evaluate personality-based explanations ® Eg how can we understand and explain crime § Predictive validity □ Does a measure predict what it should □ Eg conscientiousness ® As a predictor of effort-related performance criteria § Predictive power □ What are the practical implications? □ Eg behaviour change for health ® Should we seek to promote higher levels of A and C? □ Eg job selection ® Should we include measures of C in selection protocols

Answer 230

○ B= f(P, E) ○ Behaviour is a function of § The person and § The environment (esp socially environment - psychological field) ○ When we are trying to account for behaviour, many of the factors we might draw on are factor ○ In the 1930's

Answer 231

• Post WWII, there was a shift in focus from dispositional factors to powerful situational drivers of behaviour ○ Some things in WWII were so bad they defied explanation ○ How could ordinary citizens do some of the things they did? ○ Didn't seem plausible that suddenly a whole generation in germany could suddenly exhibit such toxic personality traits ○ Rise of field: Social influence § Eg milgram's obedience studies (delivering shocks if told to by a knowledgeable person) § Asch's conformity studies (line length) § Stanford prison experiment: Bad people vs bad situations □ College students randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners for 2 weeks □ Guards given uniforms, prisoners were arrested and charged (fake) □ Found that prisoners revolted, guards grew sadistic □ Study aborted on day 6 □ Showed that the power of bad situation to overwhelm the personalities and good upbringing of even the best and brightest among us • Rise of situationism

Answer 232

□ Personality is a weak predictor of behaviour (r=.3) □ Behaviour varies considerably over situations § Concluded that the concept of a stable personality trait is unrealistic: behaviour is largely driven by situations

Answer 233

○ Impact on reputation of personality psychology § Much smaller field now § People would still study aspects of personality, but label them differently because of the stigma against personality psych

Answer 234

§ AKA correspondence bias § People mistakenly explain behaviour in terms of dispositional factors rather than situational factors § Eg impressions of the Milgram obedience study □ Got participants to predict what people would do in that situation □ Participants assumed that a particular subject's obedience reflected their distinguishing personal dispositions rather than the potency of situational pressures and constraints □ They expect much more disobedience than was actually displayed in the study

Answer 235

§ How people classify is mistaken as how to classify people § Coherence of personality traits simply reflect judgements of conceptual similarity □ Do not necessarily similarly describe a target, but they similarly describe a concept § Might explain why two questionnaire items are correlated § But can it explain why two people are rated differently on those questionnaire items § But in a later study, it was found that items are more strongly correlated with behaviour ratings than conceptual similarity ratings

Answer 236

§ Yes and no: □ Traits do rarely predict behaviour much beyond r=.3 □ But this does not suggest that situations are better predictions □ In fact, effects of situations on behaviour turned out to be no stronger than that of traits § What is a weak correlation? □ Back then, there was no real contextualisation of effect sizes □ Richard et al. tried to find what a strong and weak effect size was for P&S psych ® Across 25 000 studies of 8 million people ® Found that average r value was.21 ® If we say that .3 is weak, then that is saying that all effect sizes across P&S psych are weak ® Also, Mischel overestimated the effect size of personality (is actually .21)

Answer 237

§ Of course it does § Saying this is having a 'straw man' argument □ Arguing against something which wasn't a tenet of Personality psych § Cross-situational flexibility of behaviour is not incompatible with trait theory § But consistency is implicit to the concept of a trait

Answer 238

□ Epstein ® Reviewed Mischel's work and came to the conclusion that mischel was focusing on single instance of behaviour - a behaviou ron one occasion was unrelated to that behaviour on a second occasion ® But single instances of behvaiour cannot be measured reliablly ® Need to aggregate across multiple observations of that behaviour, and then see if those aggregations are consistent ◊ Why we have many items on a personality questionnaire ® Studied consistency of behaviour as a function of aggregation across four diary studies ◊ As aggregation increases, consistency/reliability increases ◊ Demonstrates that by just looking at single behaviours, you won't have very reliable measures □ Borkenau ® Tried to replicate Epstein's study but in a more rigorous way ® Had participants complete a self-report of B5 personality traits, and someone close to them do one for them as well (peer-report) ® Got them to do certain behaviours ◊ Tell a joke to a confederate ◊ Build a tower of blocks ◊ Persuade a neighbour (confederate) to turn down their music after 11pm ◊ 120 judges rated behaviour based on the video footage ® Thin slices paradigm ◊ Get glimpses on kinds of behaviour naturally unfolding throughout the day in a systematic, controlled way ® Findings ◊ Replicates Epstein: stability of cross-situational behaviour increased as a function of aggregation ◊ Relations between other-rated personality and behaviour increased as a function of aggregation } Eg knowing someone is extraverted doesn't guarantee that they will go to a party tonight, but knowing they are extraverted can accurately predict whether they generally more likely to go to parties than someone low on E □ Fleeson: experience sampling methods (ESM) ® ESM: techniques for assessing behaviours/experiences multiple times per day for several days/weeks ® Students were given a mobile device ® Sent survey alerts 5x per day for 13 days ® Described their personality state expressions (eg extraverted behaviour) over the last hour ® 4 items per Big 5 traits ® Found that individuals vary in their personality state expressions over time and space ® But averages of the sates are relatively stable □ Summary by Sherman et al ® Personality traits are useful for predicitng state expressions across many situations ® A single state expression by a given individual in a specific situation is substantially dependent on the characteristics of their situation □ Personality is to climate, while behaviour is to weather □ Consistency of time, not over siutations is most relevant to the concept of a trait

Answer 239

- Both traits and situations influence behaviour, but personality will cease to predict behaviour in strong situations - What is a storng situation? - Clear behavioural expectations - Incentives for compliance (or threats for non-compliance) - Individual ability to meet the demands of the situation - Eg Milgram's obedience study - Shouldn't see many individual differences in this study - But this situation didn't completely drive behaviour 35% did not deliver max shock - Milgram measured personality in one of his 20 studies, and found - Authoritarianism: more obedience from those who respect and value authority - Locus of control: more obedience from those with an external locus of control (external forces have more control over your behaviours than internal forces) - Conceptual replication of Milgram study - Television game show scenario - deliver shocks, but less intense - C and A predicted administering larger shocks - So above-average trait-behaviour effects emerge even in strong situations - However, while these studies may indicate situation strength, almost no studies directly assess situational strength - Ie participant's perceptions of situational strength - Is situational strength the best way to conceptualise person x situation interactions? - Dispositionalist vs situationist descriptions: § No way to reconcile these views, just depends on how you choose to see it

Answer 240

○ Strong situations might also activate relevant personality effects ○ Tett and Burnett § Latent traits are activated by trait-relevant situations § A trait may not manifest until the person is in a relevant situation § Thus, trait-relevant situations strengthen trait-behaviour associations ○ DeYoung § Personality traits are probablistic descriptions of regularities in behaviour and experience arising in response to broad classes of stimuli and situations ○ Meta-analysis to compare strong situations, and trait activation theory § According to situtational strength, for stronger situations trait effects should be weaker § Trait activation suggests that in strong situations, trait effects on behaviour should be stronger § Findings □ Both ® All of the Big 5 predicted job performance more strongly in weak job situations (support for situational strength) ® But also, in strong situations that were trait-relevant, specific trait performance effects increased

Answer 241

○ Joint effects of persons and situations § Eg contextualised aspects of personality (such as characteristic adaptations) - wk 2 § Methods for studying both within-person variation and between-person differences (ESM) § Questions of generality □ For whom is the effect of a situation most strong? Eg obedience and authoritarianism □ When or where are the effects of personality strongest? Eg conscientiousness and effort-related job performance (wk 11)

Answer 242

§ Situation and person are really intertwined § Situation selection □ Where traits predict entering a strong or consequential situation ® Eg O and studying abroad (wk10) § Situation evocation/transformation □ Where traits impact on the dynamics of a particular situation ® Eg effects of traits on divorce (wk 11) § Situation perception □ Traits shape appraisals of a situation, and thus an individual's experience of that situation ® A--> opportunities to cooperate ® N ---> negativity and frustrations ® O --> Intellectually engaging § Example: could situation selection have explained what happened in the Stanford Prison experiment? □ Put up the same study advertisement as the original study, and another one that didn't mention prison □ Looked at personality characteristics of people who enrolled in the study across both groups □ Participants who self-selected on into the prison life group scored significantly higher on ® Aggression ® Authoritarianism ® Narcissism ® Social dominance ® Machiavelliasm □ And lower on ® Empathy ® Altruism

Answer 243

□ 3 two week experience sampling studies □ Assessed B5 traits prior to each study and personality states 4x a day □ Assessed places visited 4x per day □ Found that ® Personality predicitng places: ◊ E more likely to be at a bar ◊ C more likely to be at gym ◊ No personality predictor for being at home ◊ Also small effects for work ® Places impacting personality ◊ On campus/in library higher O ◊ On campus, in gym, at work - higher C ◊ Café, with friend, on campus, in bar - higher E ◊ When you control for traits, these effects are much smaller ® Shows transaction between person and situation

Answer 244

○ Rauthman et al § Across six studies, endeavored to develop a comprehensive taxonomy for describing the structure of situations § Like a B5 framework for situational characteristics § Big 8 DIAMONDS model □ Duty ® Job needs to be done □ Intelect ® Situation includes intellectual or cognitive stimuli □ Adversity ® Someone is being criticised □ Mating ® Includes stimuli that could be construed sexually □ pOsitivity ® Potentially enjoyable □ Negativity ® Potentially anxity-inducing □ Deception ® Possible to deceive someone □ Sociality ® Close personal relationships are present ○ Persons and situations study § Compared B5 with DIAMONDS as predicitors of behaviours and affects □ Findings ® State expressions vary widely between and within participants ® Traits and situations were both predictors of behaviour and experience ◊ Very similar effect sizes