Personality Traits and Behavior Part One Flashcards
What is the Trait Approach?
Mostly correlational
Emphasis on accurate measurement of traits
What does the Trait Approach focus on?
It focuses on individual differences
It also focuses on how we are like some other people
Name a Pro of the Trait Approach
assesses and attempts to understand
how people differ
Name a Con of the Trait Approach
neglects aspects of personality common to all people
What are Traits viewed as?
Traits are viewd as the “building blocks” of personality
What other factors control behaviors other than personality traits?
Situations are also important
What is the debate concerning the Trait Approach?
Debates continue about whether traits
really exist, or if everybody is basically the same and behavior changes according to the situation?
What does the data show in relation to trait stability
Data do show that trait stability increases
with age and is related to psychological adjustment (but the same is true for situational stability).
What were Walter Mischel’s belief in the person-situation debate?
behavior is too inconsistent across situations for individual differences to be characterized by traits
What were some other questions raised in the person-situation debate?
Does the personality of an individual
transcend the immediate situation and provide a consistent guide to his or her actions, or is what a person does utterly dependent on the situation at that time?
What were some other questions raised in the person-situation debate?
Are common, ordinary intuitions about
people fundamentally flawed or basically correct?
What were some other questions raised in the person-situation debate?
Why do psychologists continue to argue
about the consistency of personality when the basic empirical questions were settled long ago?
Name an argument presented by the situationist
There is an upper limit to how well one
can predict what a person will do based on any measurement of that person’s personality, and this upper limit is a small one.
Name another argument presented by the situationist
Situations are more important than personality traits in determining behavior.
Name an additional argument presented by the situationist
The professional practice of personality assessment is a waste of time, and everyday intuitions about people are fundamentally flawed.
What is the The First Situationist Argument: Predictability focus on?
Focuses on how Personality is not a good predictor of behavior
What did Mischel focus on in the first situationist argument: predictability?
Mischel looked at relationships of self,
informant, and behavioral data to behavioral data
◦ Ability of trait judgments to predict behavior
◦ Using past behavior to predict future behavior
◦ Most behaviors were assessed in the lab
What do correlations rarely exceed?
Correlations rarely exceeded .30 (Nisbett -
.40)
What Was The Response to the First Situationist Argument: Predictability
Unfair, selective literature review by
Mischel
◦ Studies with poor methodology
◦ But some found evidence of consistency
What was an additional response to the first situationist argument: predictability
A correlation of .40 is not small
◦ Comparison to an absolute standard: number
of correct and incorrect predictions
BESD: r = .40 70% accuracy
◦ Comparison to a relative standard: other methods used to predict behavior
What was another response to the first situationist argument: predictability
We can do better
◦ .40 limit may be due to poor methodology
◦ Get out of the laboratory ◦ Study individual consistency as a moderator variable (a variable that alters the relationship
between two other variables)
◦ Focus on behavioral trends; use aggregation
◦ This is difficult
What does the The Second Situationist Argument: Situationism focus on?
Behavior is determined by situations, not
personality
How do you determine how personality affects behavior with The Second Situationist Argument: Situationism
correlate personality and behavior
How do you determine how situations affect behavior with The Second Situationist Argument: Situationism
total variance minus “variance explained” by personality
◦ Not legitimate
◦ Could be due to other personality traits
◦ Says nothing about important aspects of the situation
What is a question raised by the second situationist argument: situationism? and what was the conclusion of this question?
How the effects of situations on behavior should be determined: based on social psychological experiments
◦ Convert statistical significance tests to effect
sizes
◦ Funder & Ozer, 1983: situational effect sizes = .36 to .42
◦ Conclusion: both personality and situations are important determinants of behavior
What does the The Third Situationist Argument: Person Perceptions are Erroneous focus on?
The effects of personality on behavior are large enough to be perceived accurately
AND
The importance of traits is reflected in our language
