Ch 12.9 & 12.10 - Development of Personality & Cultural Aspects of Personality

Temperaments

Personality-like attributes present at birth (activity level, mood, attention span, distractibility)

Innate foundation on which personality is built

Predicts adult personality

Well adjusted: confident, capable of self control, not overly upset at new situations

Under-Controlled: impulsive; restless, volatile

Inhibited children: fearful, upset at new situations, uncomfortable

Personality over the Life Span

As personality changes, rank within population maintained (we all change in the same direction)

Personality stabilizes in middle age

Reciprocal Determinism

behaviour, internal factors and external factors interact to determine one another

ex; child who doesn’t like going to school > internal cognition, leads to not getting along with others = behaviour, this feeds back to other students = environment, reinforces the internal cognition and repeating cycle

Are the Big Five Universal?

Five Factor model is a construct developed by studying participants from Western countries (generalized studies, could bias conclusions)

• 96% of studies only represent 12% of population

Test-retest: go to any culture and personality survey should have the same conclusion

alternate forms reliability: have two different surveys with different questions that measure the same personality constructs, finding consistency and reliability

Building up from Each Language

Factor analysis on other languages identify equivalents of big five, but also culture-specific personality dimensions

we should use a bottom up approach by using all languages (adjectives) and see if the same factors emerge

ex: chinese has neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, but then interpersonal relatedness

Cultural Differences on Big Five

Differences emerge between cultures when using the five factor model.

Validity issues and response styles between individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Variability within cultures overwhelms any small cultural differences.

Limited evidence of a ‘national character’ driven by underlying personality structures.