Traits Flashcards

1
Q

How can we figure out which traits are most important?

A

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
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2
Q

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

A

Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis

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3
Q

Trait Taxonomy?

A
  • 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
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4
Q

Example of trait hierarchy - extraversion?

A

Extraversion

outgoing - friendly - social

Many clubs - Likes parties - Many friends - Club president

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5
Q

Lexical Class Exercise, What slang words do you use to describe a person?

A

Categorizing words, mid, vanilla, basic -> all mean average. We use more negative terms to gossip about people

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6
Q

Research Study: The Lexical Approach to Pride - Step 1?

A
  • 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)
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7
Q

Pride Lexical Study, Step 2?

A
  • 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
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8
Q

Statistical (Experiential) Approach to developing a Trait Taxonomy?

A

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

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9
Q

Developing a trait taxonomy, part 3? Theoretical Approach?

A

Think about how many traits should matter, based on some pre-articulated theory

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10
Q

Two Facet Theory of Pride?

A

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

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11
Q

What was going on in 1968? Walter Mitchel

A

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

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12
Q

Situationism?

A

Emphasis on the power of the situation to shape people’s behavior
- Asch’s conformity study
- Milgram’s obedience study
- Zimbardo’s prison study

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13
Q

Walter Mischel’s Critique of personality psychology?

A

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

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14
Q

The result of Walter Mischel’s critique?

A

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

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15
Q

Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique?
1. Personality traits do predict behavior, but over the long-term

A

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

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16
Q

Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique?
2. Broad traits predict broad behaviors,
narrow traits predict narrow behaviors

A

– Conscientiousness -> academic performance
– Punctuality -> showing up to class on time

17
Q

Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique?
3. People may differ in how they behave
across situations, but are consistent
relative to other people

A

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.

18
Q

Rank-order consistency?

A

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

19
Q

Personality’s response to Mischel’s critique? 4. Personality traits are stable over long
periods of time

A

– 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

20
Q

Adult personality is linked to child temperament?

A

Activity level (Temperament
Dimension) of the baby to related to (Big Five Dimension) extroversion….

Sociablity -> Extraversion, Agreeableness
Emotional reactivity -> Neuroticism

etc. etc.

21
Q

Situational charcheritcs are better predictors of behavior when…?

A

when situation is strong—with a high level
of constraint

22
Q

Personality charcheritcs are better predictors of behavior when…?

A

when situation is weak—with a low level of
constraint

23
Q

Degree of constrant?

A

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

24
Q

Failure to replicate in social psychology?

A
  • 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”
25
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')
26
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
27
Resolution of Person-Situation Debate?
Interactionism: Both personality and situation are important predictors of behavior