Personality Psych Chapter 3

Internal

why people do what they do. within the person not caused outside. 

Ex: Roommate leaving dirty dishes bc they were running late

Casual

▫  they explain behavior of the people who cause those traits

▫ Can be dormant: Expression behavior that. Not always an opportunity to expression but doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist

▫ If view traits as causal must rule out other causes

Descriptive Summaries

We are labeling behaviors. Descriptive summaries only

▫ Identity individual differences and then develop causal theories to explain them

▫ Acknowledges the variety of potential causes of behavior

Approaches to identifying Traits

Lexical, Statistical, Theoretical

Lexical Hypothesis

All important individual differences have become encoded within the natural language over time

Lexical Approach

Synonym Frequency

▫ One the list is created the researchers would looking at those words and they will try to find synonym for those words. Words more important have more synonyms

  -Ex: Finding synonym for Envy (jealousy).

Lexical Approach

Cross Cultural University

We want traits that are more important. Words ending up in a lot of languages. Reoccurring

-Challenges for this technique: Time consuming

  -Ex: Gay having more than one meaning

Lexical Approach

Problems and Limitations

• Not finding enough

• Starting point for identifying traits

Statistical Approach

Starts with a large, diverse pool of personality items

-Ex: Identifying word and find those   synonyms and characterize it with individuals

Statistical Approach

Goal

Identify major dimensions of personality - statistical technique called factor analysis

Statistical Approach

Use of Factor Analysis

▫Identifies groups of items that covary (go together), but tend not to covary with other groups of items

▫Cautionary note: How each item is correlating to that factor

Theoretical Approach

• Starts with a theory, which then determines which variables are important

• Strengths coincide with strengths of a theory, and weaknesses coincide with the weaknesses of a theory

• Evaluating the Approaches for Identifying Important Traits

Taxonomies of Personality

• Eysenck’s Hierarchical model of personality

• Cattell’s Taxonomy: the 16 personality factor system

• Five factor model

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model

Extraversion-interversion (e)

Care free easy going, has energy, higher energy level

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model

Neuroticism-Emotional stability (N)

worriers, more prone to anxiety and depression have trouble sleeping, experience psychosomatic symptoms, tend to over reactivity for negative emotions

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model

Psychoticism (P)

score higher in solitary, lack empathy, cruel, inhuman, unconcerned with pain and suffering of others, more likely to enjoy violent films|| linked to testosterone, higher levels of MAO

Ex: Aggressivness, antisocial, cold, egocentric, impersonal, tough minded

Eysenck's Hierarchical Model'

Biological Underpinnings-limitations

• Many other personality traits show moderate heritability

• Eysenck may have missed important traits

5 Factor Model

Originally based on the combination of lexical and statistical approaches

Openness

• Openness to new ideas and experiences

• High Openness: Theres a path and ppl with high openness will go there (could look spontaneous)

Conscientiousness

Being organized, detailed oriented, systematic, punctual, achievement oriented, and dependable

Extraversion

Outgoing, talkative, sociable in situations

Agreeableness

Trusting, kind, warm. High =Cooperative behavior

Neuroticism

High= high emotional instability. They experience a lot of stress and get upset easily, many others struggle after a traumatic effect

Ex: Anxious, Irrational, Depressed, guilt, moody, low self-esteem, emotional, tense