PSYCH2750 (Part I): Final Exam Flashcards
What is Trait-dispositional Paradigm?
Trait-dispositional Paradigm is an approach to studying human personality and behavior. It is the measurement of steady patterns of habit in an individual’s behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
Trait theorists focus on the measurement of traits, which lead to a better understanding of human personality. Over time traits become relatively stable, depending on an individuals and their social/ environmental surroundings that influence behavior.
Trait-dispositional paradigm: What is the source of behavior?
- Person (internal) vs. situation (external)
- Recurring patterns vs. momentary states
Trait-dispositional paradigm: What is a trait? Two uses?
- Trait as behavior: descriptive, “Sam talks a lot”, tautological
- Trait as mental construct: Explanatory, Causes or predisposes behavior, “Sam is talkative”
Trait-dispositional paradigm: What is Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory in his own words?
“A generalized neuropsychic structure (peculiar to the individual) with the capacity to render many stimuli functionally equivalent, and to initiate and guide consistent forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior” -Gordon Allport
Trait-dispositional paradigm: What are contemporary trait approaches
Goals
1. Can a finite number of traits capture the most important differences among individuals?
2. Develop self-report methods to assess traits.
3. Investigate how traits predict behaviors and outcomes
Trait-dispositional paradigm: Trait-dispositional theories
Abstract view: general consistency in behavioral tendencies across time and situation
Definition of personality?
Psychological structures and processes of a person that account for unique, consistent and stable patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving.
T/F: Traits create Functional Equivalence.
True.
Functional equivalence is defined as the similarity between the patterns of brain activation during mental practice and physical performance.
In order for mental practice to be as effective as possible, it should be as similar as possible to physical performance.
“Thought for Thought”
Trait-dispositional paradigm: What is Gordon Allport’s Trait Theory
Central traits work together to shape a person’s personality.
Instead of having one dominant trait, a person will have multiple smaller traits.
What is Gordon Allport’s Unique Trait Structure?
Trait structure determines behavior. It is unique to each person. Even the same trait can be expressed differently.
According to Allport what are: Central Traits
Central traits serve as the basic building blocks of most people’s personality.
-5-10 primary descriptors: honest, friendly, generous, anxious
According to Allport what are: Secondary Traits or Attitudes?
Traits of lesser importance, those that are not quite as obvious or as consistent as central traits.
-Situationally-sensitive traits; present under specific circumstances and include preferences & attitudes
According to Allport what are: Cardinal Traits?
-Life defining (Scrooge, Mother Teresa, etc.)
-Rare & dominating, usually developing later in life.
-Tend to define a person to such an extent that their names become synonymous with their personality.
Trait-dispositional paradigm: What are contemporary trait theories 2 goals?
1st Goal of Theory: Define & measure
2nd Goal of Theory: Prediction
What are the Big 5?
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
-Five Factor Model that breaks personality down into 5 components. Personality tests that are based on this model measure where an individual lies on the spectrum of each of the 5 traits.
Big 5: Why the BIG in Big 5?
The Big 5 was reduced from 1000s of trait words to only 5 words.
Uses a hierarchical structure of 5 words (OCEAN), and is divided into 6 facets. Each facet has different behaviors.
BIG 5: Barnum Effect
Accurate for everyone because the results are dramatic.
-People seem to be more critical about the actual feedback
-Rating scale is bias for accuracy
Big 5: What is Psycho-lexical Hypothesis?
-People encode in their everyday languages all those differences between individuals that they perceive to be salient and that they consider to be socially relevant in their everyday lives.
- Most important personality characteristics are embedded in a culture’s lexicon.
BIG 5: Traits
- Traits: (gentle, trustful, timid, etc.) Consistent across situations and time; chronic.
- Internally caused/motivated
BIG 5: States
States: pleased, angry, aroused. Transitory and short-term; less consistent across situations and time.
- externally caused by stimuli in the environment
BIG 5: Activities
Ranting, snooping, reveling.
- Behaviors; not consistent across situations & time.
What is Reliability in tests?
“Take the same test on different days, you should get the same result”
-Consistency in results
What is Validity in tests?
Predicting something that we think it is predicting.
-“Does it measure what it says it measures?”
*Predictive Validity: “does it predict life outcomes & events?
Limitations of Big 5?
Most of us are average: may not capture uniqueness.
-Inferences about variability in population
Strengths of Big 5?
-Defines most important traits: validated across cultures.
-Developed measures to assess traits
-Predict consequential outcomes
What are the 3 ways change and stability are studied?
- Are there NORMATIVE changes to personality with age?
- Are INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES in personality stable?
- Do some people show more stability or change?
What are the 2 views of Personality Development?
- Biological View
- Contextual View
(personality is relatively stable & consistent over time)
What are the 2 types of environmental influences?
- Normative (shared): social, cultural, historical contexts; Norms
- Nonnormative (Idiographic): 1- selection, 2- attract, 3- evoke
What is empirical support for change and stability?
- Plaster hypothesis: “Does personality stop changing around 30 years of age?”
- Plasticity hypothesis: “Does personality continue to change after 30?”
- Normative Level: “What is the typical pattern of stability/ change over time?”
What are the 3 ways change is studied through Empirical Support?
- N = 132,515 (age range: 21-60)
- Big-5 questionnaire administered via the internet
- Cross-sectional study (20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s)
What are the issues with interpreting findings of Empirical Support for change and stability?
What is the Biological View in Personality Development?
Exclusively from biological causes = GENES
(Biology = Traits, Environment does NOT = traits)
What is the Contextual View in Personality Development?
Personality inextricably linked with situational context
(If context differs, personality differs. If context changes, personality changes)
Why are personality judgments important?
who to trust, hire, vote for, friend, date, marry.
social life, professional success
Factors that affect judgement?
- Target Effect
- Perceiver Effect
How do we establish “accuracy” of judgments?
- Not Quite Accuracy (Consensus)
- Self-other Agreement (Accuracy)
- Behavioral Prediction (Accuracy)
Not Quite Accuracy
(Consensus):
-Other-other agreement, interjudge agreement
-target looks as if they possess a trait, but may not
Self-other Agreement
(Accuracy)
Who is right? Target may not describe herself accurately or may have more information
Snap Judgments?
- Attractiveness
- Ethnicity
- Sexual orientation
- Social economic status
- Extraversion
- Trustworthiness
- Competence
When forming an impression of another person, which personality traits are most likely to be inferred FIRST?
Warmth & Competence
-Warmth: intelligence, skill, creativity and efficacy
-Competence: friendliness, helpfulness, sincerity, trustworthiness and morality
Perceiver effects x Target effects
(idiosyncratic preferences)
-“You like person B more than you like other people, and more than other people likes person B”
Empirical Evidence (Expression)
Information obtained through observation
-empirical evidence of expressions (Hartshorne & May 1928; trait = honesty vs. dishonesty in children in an academic setting)
Walter Mischel’s 1968 Challenge
Consistency in self-reports of personality: self/ peer reports ‘ self-reports at different times
(BUT)…
1. r between self-report personality measures & specific behaviors = (r < .3)
2. Cross-situational r is < .3 (hartshorne & May 1928)
If then profile or “Behavioral Signatures”
- Yes, variability across situations
- But, not random; not “noise”
- Stable intraindividal variability
- Profile meaning reflection of personality system
- Personality reflects traits but also social cognitive factors (values, goals, expectations, strategies)
Interactionist (P x S) Models
Contrasts to additive models (P + S)
-The effect of the person depends on the situation (person’s behavior varies depending on the situation)
-The effect of the situation depends on the person (not everyone responds to the same situation in the same way; 7 x 5 = 5 x 7 = 35)
Triple Typology
Model consists of 3 components:
- Typologies of person, situation, behavior classes
- Hierarchical relations between the classes of each typology
- A characterization of the person types in terms of different sets of if (situation class) then (behavior class) rules by with the 3 typologies are
