Traditional & contemporary sources of personality data

Question 1

Personality Data Types (David Funder)= BLIS:

Answer 1

Behaviours, Life outcomes, Informant reports & Self-reports

Question 2

Contemporary sources of data: TWIN

Answer 2

Traces, Words, Images, Networks

Question 3

Funder’s 2nd law:

Answer 3

there are no perfect indicators of personality: there are only clues and clues are ambiguous

Question 4

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Behaviours»

Answer 4

• direct observation of what people do

Question 5

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Behaviours» Methods of studying>

Answer 5

> Lab research:
-performance tests
-delayed gratification
Field research:
-ethnographic (family dynamics, workplace)
-code behaviour

Question 6

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Behaviours» Strengths & weaknesses>

Answer 6

> Strengths:
-most direct way of objectively observing personality
-range of contexts/ ways of capturing behaviour
weaknesses:
-what does behaviour mean? does it indicate meaningful personality differences? what about ‘non-behaviour’?

Question 7

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Life outcomes»

Answer 7

objective information about one’s life outcomes as they move through life

Question 8

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Life outcomes»measured via:

Answer 8

> archival records:
- educational attainment
- medical records
- legal documents
- where live
- salary
- ‘residue’ of behaviours (e.g. social media data)

Question 9

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Life outcomes» Strengths (3) & weaknesses (3)»

Answer 9

> strengths:
-more ‘objective’ than human reports
- verifiable
-reflects personality in situ
weaknesses:
- life outcomes are highly multi-determines (& outside control)
- risk of over interpreting based on personality biases
- not a widely accepted source of personality data

Question 10

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Informant report»

Answer 10

judgements made by knowledgeable informants (e.g. family, friends, colleagues)

Question 11

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Informant report» format>

Answer 11

• similar format as ‘self-report’ (e.g. open-ended qns)
• typically includes multiple judges

Question 12

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: informant report» strengths (3) & weaknesses (4)»

Answer 12

> strengths
-contextualised knowledge (e.g. situation & typicality)
-“definitional truth” (e.g. likeable, funny)
-SOKA model (self-other asymmetry) & thus some traits not best judged by self
weaknesses
-limited info (e.g. private experience)
-observation changes behaviours
-cognitive errors (regency effect, saliency bias)
- social biases>overly positive (e.g, biases towards) > or negative (e.g. jealousy)

Question 13

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Self-report»

Answer 13

asking a person about themselves; relies on self-expertise

Question 14

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Self-report> format

Answer 14

questionnaires: mostly face-valid items, open-ended qns

Question 15

Funder’s personality types: 4 types of clues: Self-report» strengths (5) &weaknesses (4)

Answer 15

> strengths:
- simple, easy to collect
- large amount of data
- access to thoughts, feelings , intentions
-“definitional truth”- some self-reports are inherently true
- self-fulfilling/causal (“we are what we pretend to be”)
weaknesses:
-lack of ability to report accurately (emotional immersion)
- distorted/inaccurate info- personality disorders
- difficult to control for social desirability bias or acquiesence bias….

Question 16

Problems with BLIS>

Answer 16

> Personality data doesn’t seem to fit with a “typology” (as changeable, & mixable)
BLIS was devised in a pre-digital age> doestn account for impact of smart phones, social media etc

Question 17

Contemporary sources of P data: personality in a digital age>

Answer 17

• modern technology expands how personality can be expressed
• new paradigms unknown in 20th c (e.g. social media)
• changes what constitutes as psychologically meaningful experiences (e.g. virtual reality, google maps)

Question 18

Contemporary P data: (Gosling, 2011)

Answer 18

study into how personality manifests in online social networks
results: differing ‘behavioural residue’ between extraverts & introverts

Question 19

What is “behavioural residue”>

Answer 19

the wake of information our past, present and future behaviours leave behind- to tell something about one’s activities & character

Question 20

Contemporary P data>: Back, 2010>

Answer 20

looked into “extended real-life” hypothesis vs “virtual identity” hypothesis
results= supported extended real-life hypothesis (i.e. facebook profiles reflect actual personality, not self-idealisation)