personality psych

basic psychological need: competence

feeling effective, taking on and mastering challenges, feeling competent in things you care about doing

basic psychological need: autonomy

feelings of volition and self-ownership, feeling in charge of your own actions

basic psychological need: relatedness

feeling a connection to others and a sense of belonging to groups

big 5 personality traits

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

what is social psychology?

the scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way people perceive, influence, and relate to others.

conservatism

existing beliefs and opinions are slow to change

accessibility

accessible information has the most impact on thoughts, feelings, and actions

processing depth

information can be processed with various levels of depth

personality definition

regularities in affect, behaviour, and cognition. an individual’s unique variation on the general evolutionary design for human nature, expressed as a developing pattern of dispositional traits, characteristic adaptations and self-defining life narratives

life narratives: level 3

biographical account we have constructed about who we are, individualised

characteristic adaptations: level 2

an individual’s particular life circumstances, contextualised

dispositional traits: level 1

probabilistic descriptions of regularities in affect, behaviour, and cognition arising in response to very broad classes of stimuli and situations.

allport and odbert (1936)

18,000 lexical terms to describe people - too many words

factor analysis

method to identify groups of variables that vary together, and represent their shared variation using a smaller number of underlying dimensions in order to reduce how many groups there are.

cattell (1943)

reduced the list through many techniques, including factor analysis. now down to 16 traits. issues: subjectivity, poor replicability, and redundancy.

goldberg and the big 5

extraversion: enthusiasm, outgoing

agreeableness: warm, friendly

conscientiousness: hard working, organised

neuroticism: tense, volatile, ancious

openness to experience: curious, creative

conceptualisation of characteristic adaptations

different ways we might adapt to our circumstances in terms of time, place, or social role - sometimes called personal concerns

characteristic adaptations

what you are ‘working’ in your life with respect to time, place, and role. some argue there are relatively stable goals, interpretations, and strategies.

narrative identity

internal, dynamic life story that an individual constructs to make sense of their life. usually described in two ways: themes (concerns) and structure (how it is organised together).

correlation

associations of relations between two variables can be quantified with a Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R)

correlation forms

positive (X increases and Y increases)

negative (X increases and Y decreases)

degree: range in size from -1 to 1 - an r of 0 indicates no linear association between the variables.

r only works for linear, not non-linear

cohen’s rule of thumb

small = .1

medium = .3

large = .5

average in psych is .2

variance vs covariance

variance = how much a given variable varies from observation to observation

covariance = how two variables vary together

sum of squares

squared differences between each observation and the mean summed

sum of products

difference between each observation and the mean for each variable multiplied together

null hypothesis significance testing

first assume the true correlation is 0 (null), determine whether we have evidence that allows us to reject this assumption, p <.05 is alpha level that we usually reject the null hypothesis at. if we reject the null, the correlation is significant. degrees of freedom is n-2.

spearman’s correlation

data converted to ranks before calculating correlations. converts data to ranked variables prior to calculation of correlation

william james vs erik erikson arguments

william james = personality was stable/fixed

erik erikson = personality continually develops across the lifespan

mischel study

participants completed a delay gratification protocol. wait times predicted higher SAT scores, coping skills, lower aggression, etc.

temperament definition

individual differences in affect, behavioural activity, and self-regulation. traits are mostly patterns of behaviour and emotion. temperament refers to earlier forms of the traits

mary rothbart’s model

1. surgency (high activity, positive emotion)

2. negative emotionality

3. effortful control (sustained attention, persistence)

4. affiliativeness (enjoyment of social contact)

5. orienting sensitivity (enjoyment of sensory experiences

temperament characteristics

changes over childhood, some traits emerge earlier than others, activity gradually absorbed by high extraversion and low conscientiousness, temperament becomes psychologically elaborated.

rank order stability

rank order = where they rank within the population; their position. rank order stability is test-retest reliability. it is moderate to high, increases over lifespan, decreases as the test-retest interval increases

mean level stability/change

average in the population

what influences rank order stability?

genetic influences, environmental channeling (our environments naturally stabilise over time), environmental selection (we actively choose environments that match and reinforce our traits).

evidence that personality influences environment selection

assortive mating: trait correlations between romantic partners

migration: personality predicts movement

vocational choice: personality predicts choice of major and vocational choice

patterns of mean-level personality changes

are adaptive, linked with positive outcomes + desirable, or positively evaluated.

what influences mean level change?

genetic influences, environmental effects (twin studies), influenced by major life transitions (into parenthood).

big 5 individual changes

for all traits besides N, magnitude of individual change gradually decreases over the lifespan. individual change may have important practical implications - around mortality. individual personality change has been linked with various life events/experiences - evidence for both socialisation effects (change following events/experiences) and selection effects (change precedes event/experiences)

why might personality predict life outcomes?

direct effects - from general to the particular

indirect effects - statistical mediation; one variable mediates the effect of the other

interactive/conditional effects - person x environment interactions; trait might predict an outcome in one setting but not another

domains personality can be influenced in

job performance (schmidt + hunter), achievement at work (barrick + mount) (zimmerman), educational achievement (poropat), choice of college major, health outcomes (martin et al)

college majors for extraversion

economics, law, political science, medicine; achievement and choice for some work areas.

college majors for neuroticism

arts, humanities, psychology

college majors for agreeableness

medicine, psychology, sciences, arts, humanities

college majors for conscientiousness

science, law, economics, engineering, medicine, psychology; broad predictor of educational and occupational achievement

college majors for openness/intellect

humanities, arts, psychology, political science

what does conscientiousness predict?

less alcohol use, less drug use, less unhealthy eating, less risky driving. health-promoting behaviours and overall health

type a personality

competitive, ambitious, restless, impatient, and hostile. high risk of heart disease. hostility = a facet of low agreeableness.

personality + relationships

couples tend to be similar with respect to personality - particularly with openness and agreeableness. assortative mating - select others like us. other explanations: convergence over time - become more similar, selective breakup - dissimilarity leads to dissolution

actor vs partner effects with relationship outcomes

actor effects: does my personality influence the relationship outcomes i experience?

partner effects: does my partner’s personality influence the relationship outcomes i experience?

schmitt, 2004 - A and C lower likelihood of cheating and higher satisfaction for both effects.

solomon & jackson, 2014

4 year study of 8,000 aus - married or committed relationship. Low A and C via negative communication patterns, high N via negative emotionality - can predict divorce.

reproductibility project 2015

attempted to replicate 100 findings from across all psychology, only 36% replicated, with roughly 50% of effect size.

life outcomes of personality replication project (LOOPR)

attempted to replicate 78 previously reported associations between personality traits and consequential outcomes. 87% reported findings were replicated, effect size was 75% as high.

predictive validity

does a measure predict what it should, in theory?

predictive power

what are the important implications, in practice?

lewin’s field theory, 1936

behaviour is a function of: the person (needs, beliefs, values, abilities) and environment, especially the social environment or situation.

stanford prison experiment; zimbardo

either a guard or a prisoner. guards became sadistic, prisoners revolted. study aborted on day 6 for ethical concerns.

mischel (1968) and the rise of situationism

measures of personality are weak predictors of behaviour, behaviour varies considerably over situations - personality shouldnt be thought of at all. behaviour is largely driven by situations; the concept of a stable personality is untenable

hartshorne & may (1928)

11,000 school children, administered various games with possibility to cheat, and a self-report measure of lying. correlations: self-reported lying and instances of cheating and among pairs of instances of cheating r =.20

fundamental attribution error

people are likely to mistakenly explain behaviour in terms of dispositional factors (rather than situational factors). tended to assume milgram’s participants acted that way because of personality and not because of the situation and obedience pressure

situationism evaluated

1. personality is weak predictor of behaviour; yes, traits rarely predict beyond r=.3. issue is to assume this correlation as weak. the correlations are relatively large

2. varies over situations; of course it does

observed score equation

true score (reliable variance) + measurement error (random, occasion-specific noise)

principle of aggregation

aggregation across multiple measurement occasions reduces measurement error, increasing reliability. states that the sum of a set of multiple measurements is a more stable and representative estimator than any single measurement. this greater representation occurs because there is inevitably some error associated with measurement.

experience sampling methods (ESM)

techniques for assessing behaviours/experiences multiple times per day for several days a week

fleeson (2001)

46 students given a mobile device, sent survey alerts 5x per day for 13 days, described their personality state expressions each time. results: individuals vary over time and space in their personality state expressions. but can also be highly stable.

situationism debunked: the empty self metaphor

ignores or downplays the role of the self and asserts/implies that people are empty vessels that are passively/reactively filled by the contents of the situation

situationism to interactionism

morphed into interactionism as evidence grew that traits and situations influence behaviour in combination. interactionism = trait and situation can combine to influence behaviour.

strong situation conditions + interactionism

clear behavioural expectations, incentives for compliance or threats for non-compliance, individual ability to meet the demands of the situation.

locus of control definition

degree to which you see your life as self-determined or influenced by external forces (external LOC). more external locus = more obedience

trait activation theory

underlying traits are activated in ‘trait-relevant’ situations

situational affordances

different situations afford different traits - can demonstrate certain traits in some type of situation

ways the person and situation combine

1. contextualised descriptions of personality

2. situation selection: personality traits can predict entering a consequential situation

3. situation evocation/transformation": personality traits can shape the dynamics of a situation

4. effects of situations on individual personality change: role of unique experiences

5. situation perception: where traits shape appraisals of a situation, and thus an individual’s experience of that situation

rauthman’s characteristics of perceiving situations (2014)

duty, intellect, adversity, mating, positivty, negativity, deception, sociality

the self definition

object of self-reflection or the subjective perceptions and evaluations an individual has about themselves

self-concept/image

knowledge and information we have about ourselves. can be defined and organised in different ways. mental representations of a person’s knowledge about themselves: beliefs, thoughts, memories, roles, etc. and self esteem: how a person feels about themselves

self aspects definition

summaries of a person’s beliefs about the self in specific roles, domains, or groups

personal aspects definition

traits that define you as an individual

social aspects definition

part of your self that is derived from your social relationships

roles/relational definition

features we possess in virtue of the roles and relationships we have

DOMAINS: work, home, with friends

SOCIAL CATEGORY MEMBERSHIP: features we possess because we are group members that we share

self-schema definition

knowledge structure that links and organises self-concept components. provides organised summary of characteristics a person believes defines them across situations, aspects closer to core more central to self, aspects closer to each other more likely to be accessible together, self-schemas guide interpretation of the environment and performance of behaviour

working self-concept definition

the now self that guides acting, thinking, and feeling in the moment. components of the social situation may make some aspects of the self more accessible. some salient self-aspects depending on the situation. it is contextual

narrative self/identity definition

the story of who i am and how i have become me. internalised, evolving story of the self that organises and provides meanign to self components across time. situational cues can activate working self-concepts which in turn influence our behaviour.

self-perception definition

people infer self-knowledge by observing their own behaviours. most likely to occur when self-knowledge is limited to ambiguous behaviour.

introspection

looking inward at the contents of consciousness (thoughts and feelings). reasonable route to self-understanding, rich and more private, can improve accuracy of self-knowledge, positive feelings

social comparison theory

self-knowledge comes from comparing one’s own traits, abilities, attitudes, emotions, to those of others. can lead to contrast or assimilation effect. contrast away if compared to an extreme target, or assimilation/contrast yourself closer if compared to a moderate target.

social feedback

our selves are shaped by how we think others see us. internalise our perceptions of how others see us, other people act as mirrors into our own self-concepts.

self-fulfilling prophecy

you think people perceive you a way so you begin to act that way and internalise it

what does the self do? + its functions

main function: regulating, protecting, and guiding self in a dynamic and complex world.

1. mastery: accurate self-knowledge guides behaviour towards mastery goals. but also seek confirmation of one’s self views - needs self-verification.

2. valuing me and mine: self-esteem. feeling good about yourself protects you psychologically from adverse events

3. connectedness: our selves help us fit in. can adapt and present myself favourably to a complex social world

self-esteem

evaluations of the self.

trait self esteem vs state self esteem

trait self esteem: cross-situationally stable

state self esteem: temporary, situation-specific

self-enhancement

better than average effect - most people see themselves as above average. it serves the self, and is a universal concept

self-protection

protecting ourselves from criticism. high self esteem associated with self-defensive attributions.

self-affirmation definition

when one aspect/domain of the self is under threat, people can protect themselves by affirming the importance of a different aspect/domain

self-monitoring

process of observing, tracking, and adapting one’s own thoughts, feelings, and actions in response to social demands

high self monitoring: seeking the acceptance and approval of others through impression management

low self monitoring: presenting and reinforcing one’s true self to others, regardless of fit

perceiving others; first things

perceive the most salient and accessible traits first: physical characteristics, attractiveness, height, clothing, gender, etc. our existing knowlege structures give meaning to sense data; accessible knowledge structures shape the interpretation of cues, salient cues are the first to be noticed

cue salience

ability of a cue to attract attention

attributions

process of attributing behaviour to causes. causes can be internal/external. see behaviours as reflecting something about the person, rather than the situation.

correspondent inference

assuming that behaviours correspond to traits, linking that trait to the person

correspondence bias

people tend to make correspondent inferences even when they are unwarranted

move beyond first impressions

with more motivation, ability, and time, with deeper processing.