W.2 Individual differences: cognitive ability, personality, and emotional intelligence Flashcards
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory
Inner psyche comprised of 3 parts:
- The Id → primal desires for pleasure, basic nature, (wild child, eg infant, unconscious impulsive part)
Doesn’t reflect on what it needs just wants - Ego→ enables us to reason and practice self-control
- Superego → quest for perfection, influenced by philosophical and spiritual ideals, culturally influenced, tells us what we should & shouldn’t do, punished if we do something bad
If the Id, Ego and Superego aren’t in harmony what results?
If these aren’t in harmony there’s tension
Why is Freud’s psychoanalytic approach criticised?
Criticised as being unscientific, no support in scientific research
Behaviourism
BF Skinner → reinforcement theory
BF Skinner’s Behaviourism & reinforcement theory: key determinants of behaviour are
Stimulus- external factor tirggering behavioural response
Response- action/behaviour caused by the stimulus
Reward- (positive reinforcement) something of value a person receives after performing a desired response (encourages repetition of desired response)
Could be a punishment (negative reinforcement)
criticisms of behaviourism
Not this simple, ppl behave in different, complex ways, lots of possible responses
Exert more effort, alter one’s goals
Fails to explain range of human behaviours that are possible, but also mental events (thoughts, feelings & goals which influence our behaviour)
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory Holds that a person’s behaviour is influenced by:
his or her environment and their personal characteristics, including their personality, values, goals, etc.
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory is what type of model?
Triadic
- personal factors, (environment & behaviours)
- Environmental factors
- Behavioural factors
What is the model that most people subscribe to and why?
as has greater explanation and recognition of factors
Behaviourism and B. F. Skinner’s reinforcement theory
(operant conditioning) SRR model of reinforcement
- Stimulus (triggers a behavioural response)
- Response
3a) reward (+Ve reinforcement to promote repetition of desired response)
3b) punishment (-ve reinforcement to distinguish undesirable response)
Cognitive Ability
capacity to learn, reason, problem solve, plan, think abstractly, and comprehend complex ideas (Arvey et al., 1995)
What’s the hierarchical model of cognitive ability
- General cognitive ability
2. Broader cognitive abilities (numerical, verbal reasoning, abstract reasoning, etc)
Frank schmidt & john hunter looked at individual differences & job performance and found cognitive ability was
the single strongest predictor of performance
Individual differences in personality
Personality refers to a person’s unique and relatively stable
set of characteristics or patterns of behaviour, thoughts, and
emotions (Funder, 2012).
There are three basic beliefs underpinning personality theories:
- Personality traits, characteristics, and dispositions are relatively stable and enduring.
- They are major determinants of one’s behaviour.
- They are likely to influence behaviours across a wide variety of situations.
Are situational or personal factors more influential?
Depends on the strength of personal traits or situation
There’s a continuum (extrovert - introvert which determines the strength of the personality trait in response to a situation)
In strong situations, people act similarly (like a funeral)
Weak situations personality is more apparent, since there are less social constraints
behaviour is a product of what?
of person & situation acting together
trait based models of personality
- Conscientiousness- degree to which someone is well organised & uses disciplined ways to achieve goals, think before acting
- Emotional stability- can easily handle stressful situations, slow to anger, rarely becomes discouraged
- Extraversion- degree to which someone enjoys being around others
- Agreeableness- degree to which individual is easy going & tolerant, willing to help others, dislikes conflict, sensitive to feelings of others
- Openness to experience- extent to which they think creatively, appreciation of art and beauty, broad intellectual curiosity
how is personality linked to career success?
Influencing jobs selected
Job performance
Interactions at work
emotional intelligence
ability to monitor one’s own and others’ emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use the information to guide one’s thinking and actions
three main assumptions underpinning the concept of EI:
Emotions play an important role in life and work.
People vary in their ability to perceive, understand, use, and manage emotions.
These differences affect individual adaptation in a range of contexts, including the workplace
characteristics of EI
Strong self awareness,
Awareness of own emotions
Accurately detect emotions in others
Uses this to manage interactions with others
models of EI
Mixed models → ei seen as broad construct including personality traits & ability
Ability based model→ sees EI as ability in its own right, focuses on the notion that we vary in aptitude to processing affective or emotion based info
4 main EI abilities (each ability builds on the previous one)
- Self-awareness (understand emotions, strengths & weaknesses, what, why makes you feel)
- Self-management → Ability to generate use and feel emotions you need
- Social awareness
- Relationship Management
what is bandura’s social cognitive theory called?
triadic reciprocal determinism (TRD).
Triadic because there are three factors (person, environment and behaviours).
Reciprocal because there is a two-way, mutual influence between each pair of factors.
Determinism because each factor influences, or determines, the others.
fixed mindset
believe everyone is born with a certain amount of intelligence, bc of this there’s little need to improve yourself (ie someone with high iq thinking they know everything or defeatist attitude)
humility is an
asset to the organisation, they prioritise their firm over themselves
EI not as clearly related to
performance at work as personality and
intelligence.
EI predicts
academic performance, and
is associated with a 10 to 12 % increase in grades at University.
Upsides to Dark and Downsides to Bright Personality: A Multidomain Review and Future Research Agenda.
(Smith et al, 2018)
(Smith et al, 2018)
Upsides to Dark and Downsides to Bright Personality: A Multidomain Review and Future Research Agenda.
What does research focus too much on?
downside of dark traits & upside of light traits
Advantages and disadvantages of light and dark traits vary
based on situation
Effects of personality in organisations are far
more complex than previously observed
extreme levels of bright traits can be bad → TOO organised → NOT flexible
Thus, there are optimum levels of bright traits
HEXACO model focuses on
bright traits, viewed as desirable
HEXACO
Honesty-humility Emotionality Xtraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness to Experience
(it’s the 5 big personality traits + humility)
Need to consider the influence of what tied to dark personality traits?
contextual factors & non-linear effects (when llooking at organisational behaivour)
Reported positive effect between narcissism and
creativity
Initially, narcissists are considered popular, but
make fewer friends over time
Bright Traits ie, Conscientiousness, long considered a key predictor of performance may
hurt team performance when change is necessitated
Bright traits may enhance
undesirable relationships, and be detrimental when taken to the extreme (e.g. being too nice) or in certain situations (e.g. too agreeable –>bad ideas form)
dark trait workers more likely to get
leadership roles (overconfidence traits, more likely to take risks & stand out)
Positive relationship between narcissism and leader emergence, but not between
narcissism and leader effectiveness
Bright traits, such as extraversion, are common predictors of leader emergence and effectiveness → BUT can be bad egs:
E.g. diligent leader → micromanager, organised but restricts freedom of workers
High emotional stability → may be seen as lacking attachment or concern
CEOs higher in hubris and/or overconfidence are bad for organisations
because eg
Engage in fewer socially responsible activities, strategy choices fail more
Tend to be very bold → take risky action
Narcissistic CEOs good to help firms recover from shocks and innovation
Light traits → charismatic CEOs may easily
manipulate others for personal gain
Too many narcissists in group lead
to decreased creativity
→ intergroup hostility
True or False. Type-based models of personality, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has better reliability and validity than trait-based models of personality, such as the Big Five Factor model.
False Although the MBTI is widely used, there is little evidence supporting its reliability and validity. As such, most researchers prefer to use a trait-based model of personality, such as the Big Five Factor model or the HEXACO model.
