Task 6 - Plasticity of Personality Flashcards
Spouse Similarity
Spouses only slightly similar for most characteristics (small positive correlations)
-> higher similarity for mental ability, religiosity, political attitudes
Marital Satisfaction
People higher in Agreeableness and Emotional Stability (.30,.40) have higher marital satisfaction
Attachment styles
Relationship quality only weakly related with attahment style
Parenting styles
Nurturing: affectionate and supportive
Restrictive: demand obedience and are punitive
Knowledgeable (know aobut friends and activities)
-> higher Openenness and extraversion: more nurturing, less restrictive
Friendship and similarity
Friends tend to be similar in Honesty-Humility and Openness to Experience
-> might be due to value-sharing
Popular children
Low in aggression, high in sociability
Rejected children
High in aggression, low in sociability
Neglected children
Low in aggression, low in sociability
Substance use and personality
abusers:
lower in conscientiousness,
low in Emotional stability,
Longevity and Personality
Relatedness of personality with long life
- > associated with conscientiousness, social dependability
- > less likely to engage in health-damaging behaviors
Heart Disease & Personality
Type A personality associated with increased probability of heart disease
Type A personality
Competitiveness, impatience, excessive job involvement, hostility, time urgancy
Academic Performance & Personality
Conscientiousness: strongest and most consistent predictor
-> correlation with GPA: .25
Law-abidingness/criminality & Personality
Criminality ssociated with self-control
-> criminals not more motivated but worse at inhibiting
Primary Psychopathy
Active, intentional psychopaths;
-deceitful, grandiose, selfish, manipulative
Secondary Psychopathy
Passive, unintentional psychopaths;
-impulsive, irresponsible, might harm in affect (not on purpose)
Aggression and personality
Aggression displayed by people with low self-esteem and narcissism
Life Satisfaction & Personality
Heritable: .40
- increases or decreases in response to life events
- positively correlated with self-esteem, cheerfulness,
- negatively associated: depressiveness
- > .20 with Extraversion and Emotional Stability
Selection Effects
Personality predicting the kinds of events you tend to experience
Socialization Effects
Major life events shaping your personality
Increases of Personality Traits over life duration
Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability and assertive aspects of Extraversion tend to increase
Maturation of personality
Phenomenon of most personality factors gradually becoming higher throughout life
- > esp. better impulse control and more stable behavior
- > no increases in Openness or sociability
- > might reflect greater sense of purpose and direction
Social Investment Hypothesis
Explanation for change in personality traits after being put in certain social role
-> personality traits change according to social role you are put in
Personality Stability
Stable across several year, less stability over longer periods of time in adulthood
-> slight changes during several years become more significant in total after many yeasr
Personality Stability during adolescene and young adulthood
Traits are stable, but not as stable as for older adults
-> personality undergoes some changes during adolescence and adulthood
Personality Stability during childhood and infancy
The younger the less stable, but still quite predictive of later personality
Self-Esteem
Related to Extraversion and Emotional Stability
- > high during childhood
- > drops during adolescence
- > levels moderate during young adulthood
- > higher levels during middle ages, drop in old age
Major Life Events
Events that have an impact on personality
-> how one thinks, feels, and behaves
Neo-Socioanalytic Model
Major life events resulting in important new social role
- > expected to result in personality changes
- > requirements: awareness of expectations of new role and ability and willingness to change personality
Plasticity Principle
Assumes personality changes can occur at any age
Social Investment Principle
Assumes individuals can change because of investment in social roles
Transactional Paradigm
Major life events impact personality development differently depending on the type of event
-> only if transparent role demands are available
Dynamic Equilibrium Model
Assumes: personality changes in reaction to major life events only temporary
- > individuals differing in set points
- > people will gravitate back to set point (speed depends on severity of event)
Paradoxical Theory of Personality Coherence
Expects personality to be stable in face of major life events when info lacks about which traits are adaptive
-> change only if role demands clear
Personality in response to stressful events
Decrease in emotional stability (adverse events)
Increase in reactino to positive events (positive events)
State artifact position
Changes in personality trait measures appearing as result of therapy attributed to state-level variance in personality
-> evidence against: therapy actually produces lasting changes
Cause-correction hypothesis
Changes through psychological outcomes result from changes in trait component and not just state component
-> supported by evidence (therapy interventions with lasting personality changes)
Heritability
Estimate of individual differences explained by variability
GE interplay
Gene-environment correlation & gene-environment interaction
Malleability
Determined by independent environmental effects and GE interplay
-> the more environment causes in variation the higher malleability
Gene-environment correlation (rGE)
individuals with particular genotypes more likely to experience particular environments
- passive
- reactive/evocative
- active
Gene-environment interactions (GxE)
Genotypes vary in environmental sensitivity
-> different genotypes have different experiences to the same environment
Heritability of intelligence
Heritability high, still greatly affected by normal environmental variation
-> high heritability and malleability
