Personality Theories

Question 1

What are the plus of lay definitions of personality?

Answer 1

• they still impact our life
• • give a cultural/ age related perspective that can kickstart actual theories
• can highlight mistakes in those actual theories

Question 2

what is the main aim of PID ?

Answer 2

• understand what causes different behaviors, categorize them, and use those categorization to predict behaviors

Question 3

brief description of differences between nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality study :

Answer 3

• nomothetic:
• assumption: behavior is the combination of a finite number of features—> people can be put into categories according to what of these features they have
• methods: quantitative ( mainly self reports tests)
• pros: generalizable==>good predictors, good for educational purposes
  cons: risk of oversimplification
• idiographic:
• assumption: there are an infinite number of behavioral features ==> individual are too unique to be studies as classes
• methods: qualitative—>interviews, diaries, therapeutic sessions or narratives,
• pros: detailed , takes into account exceptions
• cons: not objective, not systematic scientific methodology==> difficult to generalize

reality is actually a mix: idiogarphic go beyond single cases and look for patterns among them , nomothetic recognize that there is a high variability among individuals

Question 4

situational vs dispositional explanation of individual differences

Answer 4

situational support that difference is due to environment set (supported by sociologist) –> meaning we all should behave similarly in similar situations

dispositional supports that personality differences are inserisci of the individual and hold constant despite of the situation

fusion: in socially prescribed situation( where behavior expl. is situational ) still individual differences are observed ( dispositional expo.) –> ex: walking on stage to get your diploma

Question 5

what are the 8 criteria to evaluate a theory?

Answer 5

1. description: does it describe and organize phenomena accurately ( the “how”)?
2. explanantion: dies it show the “why” of phenomena ?
3. empirical validity : are the predictions of the theory are coherent with empirically evidence?
4. testable concepts. can concepts of the theory be systematically tested?
5. comprehensiveness: does it encompass all necessary concepts?
6. parsimony. does it goes off tangent with explanation or is it too succinct ?
7. heuristic value. does it generate interest and some new research form it
8. Applied value. is the theory useful in practical terms ?

Question 6

what aspect to bandora and rotter have in common :

Answer 6

• they distance from behaviorism : take into account also the cognitive part pf behavior ( one’s perception, internal stimuli )
• both started with animal studies, then moved to human but kept lab approach
• both did not acknowledge the genetic inheritance as having a role in behavior

Question 7

which one are the learning theories of personality ?

Answer 7

Bandura
rotter
mischel

Question 8

what is reciprocal determinism ?

Answer 8

is the interaction of personal factors ( ones’ attitude, emotions, thought , perception, ecc..) environmental faros and the individual’ already present behavior ( one derived from experience ) that originates a new behavior

Question 9

what is bandura’s theory ?

Answer 9

social learning theory

Question 10

what are the key concepts of the social learning theory ?

Answer 10

reciprocal determinism 
observational learning 
agency 
self reinforcement
self efficacy

Question 11

” continue to do things that gives us pleasure, stop things that re harming us”

Answer 11

self reinforcement

Question 12

what is the role of forethought in Bandura’s theory ?

Answer 12

forethought allow us to anticipate reward or punishment following some action , so we can motivate ourself to perform that behavior

Question 13

what are the besot important factor for motivation

Answer 13

forethought and setting ourself goals

Question 14

what factors influence the extent of observational learning?

Answer 14

characteristic of the model : more similar , more likely to perform behavior
characteristic of the behavior : the more easy the more likely
consequences
characteristics of the observer: the more confident , the more likely

Question 15

the belief that by performing a behavior we will actually use the desired outcome

Answer 15

self efficacy

Question 16

how to increase self efficacy:

Answer 16

just do it
see someone else with low self efficacy perform the behavior and get the result ( vicarious experience)
perform the behavior simultaneously to the model who is obtaining the result ( participant modeling)

Question 17

define the three types of agency:

Answer 17

• personal agency = the belief that you can change things to make them better for yourself or others
• proxy agency = the individual enlists other people to help change some of the factors impacting on their life
• collective agency = a group of individuals come together believing that they can make a difference to their own and/or others’ life circumstance

Question 18

describe rotter’s theory

Answer 18

rotter’s believes that our behavior potential is determined by the product of our expectancy and the reinforcement value
basically when choosing what behavior to perform ( even not to perform it is a choice too), we gather all the option, evaluate how likely to be successful we are, then how motivated ( self reinforcement level) we are to perform it. the option with the highest evaluation according to those two criteria is performed

Question 19

correlated factors to internal end external locus of control

Answer 19

internal: better life style, academic success
external: mental illnesses, derives probably by early economic problems in life

Question 20

rotter’s main concepts:

Answer 20

behavior potential and locus of control

Question 21

describe the 3 traits of dark triad

Answer 21

machiavellinism : cinycal , self-focused, manipulative, double faced, interest only on personal gain at expense of deceiving others

narcisism: egocentric, egoist , self admiration, feeling of superiority , become aggressive if reputation and ego are threatened
psychopathy: socially withdrawn, apathy, no sense of guilt or remorse, impulsive, thrill seeking

Question 22

what are the influence of dark triad traits on personal life

Answer 22

narcisism: are natural leaders, good first impression ( seem confident and charismatic)
machiavellism: also good at portraying themself well to manipulate others
psychopathy: good at achieving their goals not being distracted by emotional stressors–>quality looked in high rank jobs

Question 23

what is evolutionary explanation of dark triad ?

Answer 23

those trait all have exploitation and self centered of other as a common factor, which might be a winner option in the survival game , which also might explain why this traits are passed down genetically

Question 24

what are the Big five outcomes in personal life?

Answer 24

openness: flexible mentality , resilience, rich life, creativity
conscientiousness: academic success, better life style
Low Conscientiousness predicts:
adolescent conflicts, substance abuse , criminal acts and even suicide attempts

extraversion: reduced cooperation: success seeking, leadership
agreableness. very social, good relationships
neuroticism: health and relationships problems, poor job performance

Question 25

what is the person situation dibate

Answer 25

originate when Mischel pointed out that behavior was not consistent across situations--> personality traits are not a good predictor of behavior across situations Mischel claimed that the correlation between personality trait self-report measures ( personality coefficient ) and behaviour was between 0.2 and 0.3, meaning that the trait was accounting for under 10 per cent of the variance in behaviour.

Question 26

what's mischel solution to the person situation dilemma ?

Answer 26

mischel suggest to measure situation dependent descriptors displaying how how individuals personally interpreted the world , as opposed to situation-free trait descriptors---> for that he developed CAPS

Question 27

what are ellis' main concepts?

Answer 27

REBT irrationality ABC

Question 28

describe REBT

Answer 28

is based on the assumption that emotion distress does result from the events themselves but from how individual percieve the events ( in a wrong way, irrationally ) ---> to relief distress, it is necessary to increase rational thinking

Question 29

what is ellis' concept of irrationality ?

Answer 29

he thinks that every one of us is born with a rational and a irrational part , and that psychological disturbances are largely the result of illogical or irrational thinkin irrational behaviour is that which prevents people from achieving their basic goals

Question 30

Describe the ABC principle

Answer 30

A represents the Activating event, the possible stressor B represents the clients’ Belief system, what set of criteria then person uses to interpret the possible stressor C represents the emotional and behavioural Consequences that occur as a result---> they can start a new A

Question 31

traits vs types

Answer 31

traits: - continuous - quantitative--> you can have a certain degree of a specific trait---> they are scored on a scale - ordinal ---> on trait can be more influential than the other types: - discontinuous - discrete ---> you are either one type or another - qualitative - categorical---> each type is sharp distinguishable from the others,

Question 32

what are the paradoxes of personality study ?

Answer 32

personality studies tend to take a dispositional approach which, bec cause situational approaches usually contrast with the idea that personality is continuous and consistent also they need to study big groups to understand the individual,

Question 33

what are kelly's main concepts

Answer 33

``` rep grid personal construct theory constructive alternativism fundamental postulate free will ```

Question 34

describe personal construct theory

Answer 34

kelly sees people as constantly trying to make sense of the wold around them, to do so, though, they do not use objective and impartial criteria and methods, but they use personal constructs, aka their personal way to interpret reality --.> this explains differences in behavior, and also creativity people have the capacity to change their personal constructs if they see that someone else's are more efficient in explaining the world's events (constructive alternativism )

Question 35

what is a rep grid

Answer 35

is a personality assessment technique. Patient is asked to make list of people that know them well and list of paired construct ( humorous- humorless) for each pair of construct their are asked to consider three o the people they have listed and indicate which are similar between them and which is different in the group there is no standard scoring , what is being analyzed is what people and construct have been chose,

Question 36

pros and cons of adoption and twin studies

Answer 36

``` adoption PRO: account for the influence of environment in personality CONS: adoption studies might also be biased, because children are usually given to middle to higher class family, which might not account for environment variability ``` twin: PRO: comparing different types of genetic makeup to show extent genetic influence CONS : overstimation of the role of genetics ( because identical twins have more similar environments than do same-sex fraternal twins),Also, research shows that identical twins are treated more similarly by their parents, spend more time together and have the same friends more often

Question 37

Five factor models stregths and weakneses

Answer 37

PROS: costa and mcrae demonstrated personality differences are stable over time and have a genetic basis ( mz twins and reared apart ones show higher correlations )---> concluded it is universal - found in different languages, ages of people and races. - Boyle (1989) found that the Big Five is largely compatible with Cattell’s 16PF and Eysenck’s Gigantic Three. -explained in evolutionary terms ( Buss) CONS: - offers a descriptive,---> not causal classification of individual differences and low predictive value - data driven----> no theory behind ( atheoretical ) - traits show intercorrelations--> multiple traits might be mediates by a single more general umbrella trait - labelling, meaning and number of traits are subjective

Question 38

behavior's 3 main characteristics from evolutionary psychology

Answer 38

functionality