Using Personality Traits to Understand Behavior Part One

Question 1

What are the Research Methods Used to Connect Traits with Behavior?

Answer 1

Single-trait approach
•Many-trait approach
•Essential-trait approach
•Typological approach

Question 2

The Single Trait Approach:

What do people with a certain personality trait do?

Answer 2

Research examines correlations between one trait and many behaviors

Question 3

What is the definition of Pseudoconservative

Answer 3

accept conventional and traditional values and also accept destructive values such as cynicism,punitiveness, and violent Anti-Semitism
A person who claims to be guided by and a follower of conservative ideals and principals, but in reality they are primarily and mostly just the opposite

Question 4

What is Authoritarianism

Answer 4

Turn one’s will over to an external authority to avoid having to make personal choices; enjoy giving orders, which they expect to be followed without question

Question 5

What is an example of Authoritarianism

Answer 5

ideas based on atrocities of Hitler and the Nazis – how could people do these things or allow these things to happen?

Question 6

What are some characteristics of Authoritarianism

Answer 6

–Prejudice against minority groups
–Antidemocratic and pseudoconservative
–The California F (fascism) scale: measures the 9 facets of authoritarianism
-More than just an acquiescence response set (tendency to agree with statements regardless of their content)

Question 7

What are some behaviors with Authoritarianism?

Answer 7

extremely deferential and respectful to people with higher power but rude and disrespectful to people with lower power; do not respond well to challenges about their seemingly inconsistent behavior and values

Question 8

What are some recent findings with Authoritarianism?

Answer 8

Some recent findings: uncooperative and inflexible, fewer positive emotions, support “strong” political candidates

Question 9

What is a construct that can explain Authoritarianism?

Answer 9

An individual-difference construct that can be used to explain which individuals would be most likely to follow a leader like Hitler (or follow orders in the Milgram experiment)

Question 10

How is the individual-difference construct a good example of personality traits?

Answer 10

Good example of how a personality trait can be used to understand a complex social phenomenon

Question 11

How is “Integrity” and conscientiousness defined?

Answer 11

–Responsibility, consistency, moral reasoning, etc.

Question 12

What is “Integrity” and conscientiousness used for?

Answer 12

–Used to select employees (predictive validity for supervisor ratings of job performance = .41)
–Predicts absenteeism, employee theft, and job performance

Question 13

What does “Integrity” and conscientiousness help predict?

Answer 13

Predicts success in college: better than Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and high school grade point average (GPA)
AND
Predicts longer life expectancy

Question 14

What is “Integrity” and conscientiousness correlated with?

Answer 14

Positively correlated with years of schooling

remember that correlation is not causation

Question 15

What might “Integrity” and conscientiousness help explain?

Answer 15

Might explain motivation in general

Question 16

“Integrity” and conscientiousness is…

Answer 16

less biased then aptitude tests

Question 17

What is Self-monitoring?

Answer 17

the degree to which inner and outer selves and behaviors are the same or different across situations

Question 18

What are High self-monitors?

Answer 18

discrepant selves and behaviors, look for cues in situation that signal how to act

Question 19

What are low self-monitors?

Answer 19

similar selves and behaviors, more guided by inner personality

Question 20

What does monitoring correlate to?

Answer 20

Correlates with several behaviors: performance in job

interviews and willingness to lie to get a date

Question 21

In regards to monitoring…

Answer 21

It’s not necessarily better to be high or low

Actors scored high and mental patients scored low

Question 22

The Many Trait Approach:

Who does that important behavior?

Answer 22

Examine correlations between one behavior and many traits

Question 23

What is the California Q-Set and what does it do?

Answer 23

100 personality descriptions
Sort into a forced choice, symmetrical, and normal distribution
Compare characteristics within an individual

Question 24

Give an Example from the California Q-set

Answer 24

Is critical, skeptical, not easily impressed

Is genuinely dependable and responsible person

Question 25

What is the definition of Delay of gratification

Answer 25

denying oneself immediate pleasure for long-term gain

Question 26

what are the sex differences for the delay of gratification

Answer 26

males delay less than females; delay in girls (ages 3–11) correlates with intelligence, competence, attentiveness, and resourcefulness; and, in boys of the same age with shyness, quietness, compliance, and anxiousness (correlates with planfulness, reflectiveness, and reasonableness in both girls and boys)

Question 27

What are two things that are related with the delay of gratification?

Answer 27

Ego-control: related to delay in both girls and boys

Ego-resiliency: related to delay only in girls (difference may be based on societal expectations

Question 28

What is a behavior predicted from the Q-set trials

Answer 28

Drug abuse: predicted by several characteristics rated

about 10 years earlier

Question 29

What is another behavior predicted from the Q-set trials

Answer 29

Depression: risk factors for women include overcontrol and being shy and reserved; risk factors for men include undercontrol and being unsocialized and aggressiv

Question 30

What is an additional behavior predicted from he Q-set trials?

Answer 30

Political orientation: conservatives were rated as tending to feely guilty, anxious in unpredictable environments, and unable to handle stress well when they were in nursery school; and liberals were rated as resourceful, independent, self-reliant, and confident (there are several possible interpretations of these findings and generalizability may be limited based on the sample)

Question 31

The Essential-Trait Approach

Answer 31

Which traits are the most important? Which traits really matter?
•Reducing the many to a few
–Theoretical approaches
•Murray: 20 needs (e.g. Need Achievement) •Block: ego-control and ego-resiliency

Question 32

What was Eysenck view of the essential-trait approach?

Answer 32

extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism (blend of aggressiveness, creativity, and impulsiveness); Eysenck worked from theory of biological basis and that important traits should be heritable, not just statistical analysis)

Question 33

What was Tellegen view of the essential-trait approach?

Answer 33

positive emotionality, negative emotionality, constraint (very similar to Eysenck)

Question 34

What was Cattell view of the essential-trait approach?

Answer 34

16 essential traits based on factor analysis of 1000s of adjectives (most consider 16 to be too many)

Question 35

Who discovered the big five and what was the hypothesis…

Answer 35

Lexical hypothesis: important aspects of life will be labeled with words, and if something is truly important and universal there will be many words for it in all languages

Question 36

What does the big five do?

Answer 36

Look for traits that have the most words and are the most universal across languages
Factor analysis