The Nature of Personality Flashcards
Defining Personality: Consistency and Distinctivenes
the concept of personality is used to explain (1) the stability in a person’s behaviour over time and across situations (consistency) and (2) the behavioural differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness).
Personality–> refers to an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioural traits.
Personality Traits: Dispositions and Dimensions
A personality trait–> is a durable disposition to behave in a particular way.
adjectives such as honest, dependable, moody, impulsive, suspicious, anxious, excitable etc. describe dispositions that represent personality traits.
Raymond Cattell – personality traits
used the statistical procedure of FACTOR ANALYSIS to reduce a huge list of personality traits compiled by Gordon Allport to just 16 basic dimensions of personality.
resered Outgoing less intelligent more intelligent affected by feelings emotionally stable submissive dominant serious happy-go-lucky expedient conscientious timid venturesome tough-minded sensitive trusting suspicious Practical imaginative Forthright shrewd self-assuredapprehensive conservativeexperimenting Group-dependentself-sufficient uncontrolledcontrolled relaxedtense
Factor analysis
correlations among many variables are analyzed to identify closely related clusters of variables.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits (Robert McCrae and Paul Costa)
Robert McCrae and Paul Costa have used factor analysis to arrive at an even simpler, five-factor model of personality
- Extraversion 2. Neuroticism 3. Openness to experience 4. Agreeableness 5. Conscientiousness
This is know as the big five
Researched conducted on the Big Five shows that:
- the big five traits are predictive of specific aspects of behaviour - correlations have been found between the Big Five traits and quite a variety of important life outcomes - The big five have been found to be related to feelings of subjective well-being - -recently, it has been found that there are interesting relationships between the Big Five and socio-economic status --> the prevalence of high scores on openness and extraversion also increase, although more gradually, as socio-economic level rises.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits (1) Extraversion
Characterized as outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive, and gregarious.
Referred to as positive emotionally.
They tend to have a more positive outlook on life and are motivated to pursue social contact, intimacy and interdependence.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits (2) Neuroticism
tend to be anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure, and vulnerable.
Tend to overreact more in response to stress than others.
They also tend to exhibit more impulsiveness and emotional instability than others.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits (3) Openness to experience.
associated with curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy, imaginativeness, artistic sensitivity, and unconventional attitudes.
To be tolerant of ambiguity and have less need for closure on issues than others.
McCrae argues that this trait is the key determinant of people’s political attitudes and ideology.
The Five-Factor Model of Personality Traits (4) Agreeableness
Tend to be sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest, and straightforward
Associated with constructive approaches to conflict resolution, making agreeable people less quarrelsome than others.
Agreeableness is also correlated with empathy and helping behaviour.
The Five-Factor model of Personality Traits (5) Conscientiousness
Tend to be diligent, disciplined, well-organized, punctual, and dependable.
Associated with strong self-discipline and the ability to regulate one self effectively.
Conscientiousness foster diligence and dependability in the workplace and that it is related to impression management.
Personality Theories (four broad groups that share certain assumptions, emphases, and interests)
- Psychodynamic perspectives
- Behavioural perspectives
- Humanistic perspectives
- Biological perspectives
