Topic 1: The taxonomy of individual differences Flashcards
Main goal of personality
- capture consistency or continuity within a person
- the term describes a causal force within –> influence actions
- few qualities can summarize what a person is like, because qualities are prominent in behavior
The term personality conveys a sense of consistency, internal causality and distinctiveness
Definition of personality by Allport
Dynamic organization within the person, of psychological systems that create characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts and feelings
2 issues of personality
- individual differences in personality exists
- intrapersonal functioning- processes within influence behavior.
Allport: dynamic organization creates continuity, even if the person acts differently in different circumstances –> same processes involved, even if the results differ
Perspectives of personality
- trait/dispositional perspective
- stable qualities inside
- shown in different settings in different ways
- motives perspective
key element in human experience is the motive force that underlies behavior
- inheritance and evolutionary perspective
- human nature is rooted in our genes
- personality is genetically based
- dispositions are inherited
- biological process perspective
since humans are biological creature, personality is genetically based, and depends on hormones and the nervous system
- psychoanalytic perspective
- internal forces compete and conflict with each other
- main focus: dynamic of these forces
- neoanalytic perspective
- focus on ego and its development
- emphasis: social role and relationships
- psychosocial perspective
-most important aspect of human nature: formation of relationships with other people and how these play out (historical link to psychoanalytic theories)
- social learning perspective
- behavior changes systematically as a result of experiences –> change
- personality = integrated SUM of learned experiences
- self-actualization and self-determination perspective/organismic perspective
- everybody has potential to grow and develop into valuable human beings if permitted to do so
- natural tendency towards self-perfection
- self-regulating perspective
- people are complex psychological systems
- recurrent processes form organized actions to attain specific endpoints
- assumption of organization, coherence, and patterning
- synthesizing goals and moving towards them
- cognitive self-recognition
- cognitive processes form the basis of personality
- interpret, store, receive and hold information
Methods
- case study: 1 person, can go deeper into the personality
- generalized: need to test many people over many countries to generalize the findings
- parsimony- simple as possible
- correlation: strength and direction
- experimental: cause and effect. independent variable manipulated, other variables are controlled
lexical hypothesis
adjectives are used to label all human attributes
factor analysis
- to structure the adjectives
- if strong correlation = same category
- way of finding the main traits and their sub-categories
- aim is to find the supertraits with many sub-traits
- traits arranged on the basis of behavior –> are abstract descriptions of a person’s behavior
factor analysis continued
- if 2 or more characteristics co-vary when assessed across many people, they may fall under the same category of trait
1. reduces reflections of personality into smaller set of traits
2. can reflect that some traits matters more than others
3. helps in creating assessment devices
Eigenvalue: sum of loadings of each factor
steps of factor analysis
- selecting variables
- computing the intercorrelations of the variables
- factor extraction: determining the number of factors (supertraits)
- factor rotation: making it a simple structure
- computing the factor loadings: the measure between the measured variable and the computed variable
- label the factors
Humoral psychology
Allport, Hippocrates, Galen
Allport: nature is composed of 4 elements: air, earth, fire and water
Hippocrates: the 4 elements are represented in human body as 4 humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm
-1 humor can predominate in the body –> can be linked to a similar predominant temperament –> humors are linked to personality
Galen: humors are the root of diseases
physiognomy
- outside appearance (facial expressions, movement and gestures) give information about personality
- bone structure and body texture: info about innate and unchanging temperament
- muscular structure and movement: reveal features of personality
phrenology
Franz Joseph Gall
- mind and body are related therefore personality must have an outward expression
- brain is the most important organ of the mind, and it’s shape tells us something about personality
lexical hypothesis
- inventor: Galton (1884): collected 1000 different words with overlapping meanings
- Allport: collected 18 000 words and organized it into 4 categories
- Cattell: used the first column of Allport’s list, took 4505 words and reduced it to 171 bipolar words
- Fiske: reduced Cattell’s 16 PF to Big Five
- genotype: underlying properties
- phenotype: observable properties
2 assumptions:
- the most important personality characteristic will become a part of people’s language
- the most important personality characteristic will have more words for it
16 PF -Cattell
- the first to use factor analysis
- used existing words as a starting point and put them in categories
- used language to determine what factors made up personality
- lexical criterion: any trait that matters, has more words for describing that trait
Method
- took 4500 adjectives
- removed synonyms
- left with 171 trait names
- collected raitings of these words and factor analysis of the ratings
- result: 16 trait names
PEN model- Eysenck
- personality is influenced by genetic makeup, biological factors and environment
- we are born with some traits at birth
- used the typology of Hippocrates and Galen, and the observations of Jung and Wundt (used theories and observations made by others)
- wanted to examine if the types identified by Jung and Wundt could be created by combining high and low levels of 2 supertraits
- came up with 2 supertraits:
1. extraversion vs introversion (E)
2. emotionality vs stability (N) - these 2 supertraits have a biological basis –> variance creates the types of Hippocrates and Galen
- continuous dimension; not many are on the extreme ends, more flexible, often in the middle of both scales
- EPQ: Eysenck personality questionnaire
-3rd supertrait added later: psychoticism (P)
lack of concern and detachment with other people
high P: hostile, cold, unhelpful, impersonal
- Hierarchial model: each supertrait is made up of traits-each trait reflects habits
- N & E linked to nervous system functioning
Support for PEN-model
- strongly determined by genetic factors
- all dimensions have biological factors- high degree of heritability
- given rise to much empirical research
- dimensions do not overlap
- clear distinction between intellectual and emotional processes
low N/ low E
phlegmatic, calm, careful, thoughtful
low N/ high E
sanguine, sociable, outgoing, talkative, carefree, leaderly
high N/ high E
choleric, active, optimistic, impulsive, excitable, aggressive, touchy, restless
high N/ low E
melancholic, quiet, pessimistic, unsociable, rigid, moody, anxious, reserved
Big Five
Fiske
- the first to reduce the number of factors to only five by taking Cattel’s 16 PF and reducing them:
1. social adaptability (E)
2. emotional control (N)
3. conformity (A)
4. will to achieve (C)
5. inquiring intellect (O)
Goldberg
lexical hypothesis: those individual differences that are most salient and socially relevant will come to be encoded as terms in the natural language
- listed 2700 personality related words and took away nouns and adjectives not well-known to common people
- remained with 1710 adjectives
- factor analysis
- no biological basis
- not hierarchal (like OCEAN)
- the factors forms a circle in 2D space
- items have been generated that represent all possible “blends”
extraversion/surgency
- level of happiness
- spontaneity
- assertiveness
- energy
- dominance and confidence
- interact more with people daily
- have social impact
- more confident among women
- value achievement and stimulation
emotional stability/neuroticism
level of anxiety and general stress
agreeableness
- concerned with maintaining relationships
- emotional supportiveness-requires inhibition of negative affect
- have social impact
- less revenge seeking, more agreebale among others, less angry, more cooperative
-low in agreeableness: more hostile, choose power display to resolve social conflict, experience more conflict
Five factor model
Costa and McCrae
-factor: a large category that consist of many smaller personality traits
Five factor model
Costa and McCrae
- factor: a large category that consist of many smaller personality traits
- no biological underpinning for OCA, only used in the Big Five Model
- O is also known as “culture”
- NEO was constructed by Costa and McCrae
Extraversion
outgoing/energetic vs solitary/reserved
sociability, assertiveness, emotional expression
-have social impact
-value achievement and stimulation
-high: perceived as attention-seeking, outgoing, warm, seeks adventure
-low: reserved and reflective personality, quiet and withdrawn
Agreeableness
friendly/compassionate vs analytical/detached
cooperative, trustworthy, good-natured
-maintain positive relations with others
-empathy and responsiveness in parenting
-value family
-more cooperative
-high: naive, submissive, helpful, trusting, empathetic
-low: competitive, challenging, critical, uncooperative, suspicious
Conscientiousness
organized vs careless
competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven
-desire for career
-responsive parents
-organized and dependable
-high: may be perceived as stubborn and obsessive, hardworking, dependable, organized
-low:
Conscientiousness
organized vs careless
competence, self-discipline, thoughtfulness, goal-driven
-desire for career
-responsive parents
-organized and dependable
-high: may be perceived as stubborn and obsessive, hardworking, dependable, organized
-low: flexible and spontaneous, can be perceived as sloppy and unreliable, impulsive, careless, disorganized
Neuroticism
sensitive/nervous vs secure/confident
- the tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily
- refers to the degree of emotional stability
- high need for stability: stable and calm personality
- low need for stability: reactive and excitable personality
- high: anxious, unhappy, prone to negative emotions
- low: calm, even-tempered secure
Openness to experience
curious vs cautious
-appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas
-high: can be perceived as unpredictability or lack of focus
–> said to pursue self-actualization by seeking out intense experineces
curious, wide range of interests, independent
-low: practical, conventional, prefers routine
Order of the Big Five
- extraversion (loner, quiet, passive, reserved vs joiner, talkative, active, affectionate)
- agreeableness (suspicious, critical, ruthless, irritable vs trusting, lenient, soft-hearted, good-natured)
- conscientiousness (negligent, lazy, disorganized, late vs conscientious, hard-working, well-organized, punctual)
- neuroticism (calm, even-tempered, comfortable, unemotional vs worried, temperamental, self-conscious, emotional)
- openness to experience (down-to-earth, uncreative, conventional vs imaginative, creative, original)
Alternative Big Five
Zuckerman
- his own 5 supertraits differ both conceptually and psychometrically
- assumption: basic factors have a biological-evolutionary basis, as evident by comparable traits in non-human species, biological markers and moderate heritability
- used psychobiological self-report measures to find the traits
- excluded openness because it was not present in non-humans
- developed Zuckerman-Kohlman PQ
Impulsive sensation seeking
19 items (low C)
- 2 components: impulsivity and sensation seeking
- impulsivity: lack of planning, act very fast without thinking
- sensation seeking: general need for thrills and excitement , need for change
Neuroticism-anxiety
19 items
-describes the emotional upset, fearfulness, tension, worry, lack of self-confidence, sensitive to criticism
Aggression-hostility
17 items (low A)
- readiness to express verbal aggression
- rude, thoughtless or anti-social behavior (quick temper, impatience)
Sociability
17 items
2 components:
1. parties and friends: liking interacting with many people, having many friends
2. isolation and intolerance: intolerance for social isolation
Activity
17 items
- need for general activity: restlessness when there is nothing to do
- need for work activity: challenge and hard work, busy life
