Traits Flashcards
How can we figure out which traits are most important?
Lexical Approach
- We can learn about personality by studying language
- If a trait is important, people everywhere will have a word for it -> cross-cultural universality
- If a trait is very important, there will be many words for it
-> synonym frequency
What Hypothesis is this quote?
“the most important individual
differences in human transactions will
come to be encoded as single terms in
some or all of the world’s languages”
-Goldberg, 1990
Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis
Trait Taxonomy?
- Comprehensive system that includes all of
the major traits of personality - Traits in a taxonomy are organized in
some systematic manner
– Hierarchical system
– Some traits more important (or “basic”) than
others
Example of trait hierarchy - extraversion?
Extraversion
outgoing - friendly - social
Many clubs - Likes parties - Many friends - Club president
Lexical Class Exercise, What slang words do you use to describe a person?
Categorizing words, mid, vanilla, basic -> all mean average. We use more negative terms to gossip about people
Research Study: The Lexical Approach to Pride - Step 1?
- Research Procedure (Step 1)
– Asked participants to “list words that
characterize what you think, feel, and do
when you feel pride”
– 205 participants listed a total of 795 different words
– 65 words were listed by at least 2% of the
sample (i.e., 4 people)
Pride Lexical Study, Step 2?
- Step 2: Figure out how words group
together
– Are there coherent sub-groups of words
within the pride domain?
– How are all the words related to each
other? - Some should be more similar to each other
than others
Statistical (Experiential) Approach to developing a Trait Taxonomy?
Factor analysis
– Step 1: Ask participants to rate (on a likert scale) the extent to which each trait describes them
– Step 2: Enter ratings into factor analysis
program, which tells you how traits “hold
together” in people’s experiences
Developing a trait taxonomy, part 3? Theoretical Approach?
Think about how many traits should matter, based on some pre-articulated theory
Two Facet Theory of Pride?
Authentic pride :)
- Promotes social investments
- Fosters genuine self-esteem
Hubristic pride :(
- Related to aggression, hostility
- Narcissism
If findings from conceptual study and factor analysis study converge with theoretical perspective, then we’ve probably found the structure of pride
What was going on in 1968? Walter Mitchel
Changes in field of personality;
– End of the era of mega-theories (Freud,
Jung, Maslow, Murray, etc.)
– Era of middle-level theories
* Domain-specific
* Personality traits used to describe and predict certain types of behavior
* B = f (P)
* Behavior is determined by personality
Rise of Social Psychology
– Lewin’s Interactionism
* Behavior as a function of person and situation -> B = f (P x S)
– Festinger’s Situationism
* Reduced to B = f (S)
* Personality = error variance, irrelevant
Situationism?
Emphasis on the power of the situation to shape people’s behavior
- Asch’s conformity study
- Milgram’s obedience study
- Zimbardo’s prison study
Walter Mischel’s Critique of personality psychology?
Personality does not predict behavior
* B = f (P) is wrong
People act differently in different situations
Knowing a person’s level on a particular trait does not allow you to predict their behavior
on any specific occasion
The result of Walter Mischel’s critique?
Personality psychology suffered!
- Fewer grad programs
- Fewer researchers in the field
- Fewer jobs
Social psychology blossomed
- Huge area of research
- Many grad programs, researchers, and jobs
But, over time, personality psychology fought back… and became stronger
Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique?
1. Personality traits do predict behavior, but over the long-term
Your level of extroversion is a good predictor of the total number of times a person will go to a party, but a weak predictor of whether they will go to a party this Friday
-> To predict behaviors, use aggregation
- Averaging/summing together a set of behaviors
Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique?
2. Broad traits predict broad behaviors,
narrow traits predict narrow behaviors
– Conscientiousness -> academic performance
– Punctuality -> showing up to class on time
Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique?
3. People may differ in how they behave
across situations, but are consistent
relative to other people
Clara and Essan, Clara might be less extroverted at a Church than a party, but across both situations Clara will be more extroverted than Essan.
Rank-order consistency?
Same slope = perfect rank order consistency
The higher extroverted person will consistenty be more extroverted than a less extroverted person
Compare different people in same situation instead of same person in different situations
Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique? 4. Personality traits are stable over long
periods of time
– The degree to which a person is shy,
organized, creative, friendly, etc. tends to
be consistent from week to week, year to
year, and even across the entire lifespan
Adult personality is linked to child temperament?
Activity level (Temperament
Dimension) of the baby to related to (Big Five Dimension) extroversion….
Sociablity -> Extraversion, Agreeableness
Emotional reactivity -> Neuroticism
etc. etc.
Situational charcheritcs are better predictors of behavior when…?
when situation is strong—with a high level
of constraint
Personality charcheritcs are better predictors of behavior when…?
when situation is weak—with a low level of
constraint
Degree of constrant?
High, people likely to show little variation in behavior (situation most important)
Situation:
- Church
- Job interview
- Elevator
Low, people likely to show most variation in behavior (personality most important)
Situation:
- Bar
- Park
- Own room
Failure to replicate in social psychology?
- Most findings that have failed to replicate, or are known to have been p-hacked, are social psychology findings demonstrating the power of the situation
- E.g., “ego depletion”, “power posing”,
“ideomotor priming”
Why is social psychology in crisis?
Social psych studies have historically tended to:
- Use small samples
– Maximize the apparent difference between
two conditions, or two situations (rather than
observe the relation between two variables)
– Not learned the lessons of personality
psychology (aggregation, narrow traits
predict narrow behaviors, etc.)
(Personality psychology already equipped
to deal with the crisis after the Critique 68’)
Personality psychology learned by the critique and personality psychology is back on the rise!
Leading personality psychologists gaining
fame
– Developing better methods to deal with
Questionable Research Practices (QRPs)
– Researchers seeking reliable effects, less likely
to be p-hacked, look to trait research
– So far, no major personality findings have been
targets of failed replication attempts
* Psych Depts seeking to employ researchers
who produce reliable research
Resolution of Person-Situation
Debate?
Interactionism:
Both personality and situation are
important predictors of behavior
