PSYC1004 Personality

What is personality?

- Enduring characteristics and behaviours that comprise a person's unique adjustment to life
- Includes major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities and emotional patterns

How is personality measured?

- Self report (responses to questionnaires)
- Behaviour (depending on contextual factors)

What makes a measure of personality scientific - evidence based

- Dimensions or categories derive from experience
- Reliably predict behaviour, people stable in aligning with dimensions
- Big 5 inventory (CANOE)

CANOE

Conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion

Conscientiousness

- Organised, self disciplined, thorough
- Questionnaire items, schedules

Agreeableness

- Desire for social harmony
- Cooperative, considerate, kind, helpful, pathic

Neuroticism

- Tendency to have strong negative emotions
- Being stressed/worried

Openness to experience

- Intellectually curious, imaginative, introspective, creative

Extraversion

- Energetic, talkative, outgoing, focused on external sources

What makes a measure of personality scientific not evidence based

- Phrenology (using particular part of brain and mind for personality, brain expanding making lump in skull measuring characteristics)

- Projective tests (describing abstract images providing insight into personality, rigorous tests show it is not true, doesn't map into how people behave in other contexts)

Major theories of personality

Psychodynamic, trait, behavioural, humanistic, social-cognitive theory

Psychodynamic theory

- Freud
- Focused on unconscious processes
- Components of personality
- Defence mechanisms used by ego
- Stages of psychosexual development
- Controversial

Components of personality

- ID (primitive desires and impulses)
- Ego (only conscious part, mediates between ID and real world)
- Superego (internalised social ethical standards, moral component, provides rewards [pride] and punishment [shame])

Defence mechanisms used by the ego

- Projection (unconscious urge projected onto others)

- Displacement (transferring emotion reactions to other objects/situations)

- Repression (feeling forced to become unconscious, seen as unacceptable)

- Reaction formation (doing opposite of unconscious urge)

- Denial (refusal to admit threatening reality)

- Rationalisation (finding a seemingly logical explanation for unacceptable thought, feeling or behaviour)

Stages of psychosexual development

- Oral (0-1)

- Anal (1-3 - anal retentive/anal expulsive)

- Phallic (3-6 - Oedipus or Electra complex, penis envy)

- Latency (6-puberty)

- Genital (puberty onwards)

Trait theory

- These reflect core dimensions on which people vary

- They exist, cannot be observed but can be inferred

- More than just descriptions

- Big 5 model

Behavioural theory

- Observable behaviour rather than internal psychological processes
- External environment and how it shapes personality
- Personality as adaptation to environment
- "Individual's behaviour is shaped by consequences of that behaviour" B.F.Skinner (operant conditioning)

Humanistic theory

- Assumes humans are active agents who possess free will and make deliberate choices
- Basic human tendency to move toward being authentic and fulfilled (growth)
- Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow
- Focus on self concept (ideal self, actual self, self esteem)
- Conditions of worth to thwart someone becoming fully functioning
- Rogerian theory

Fully functioning

Congruency between ideal self and actual self

Ideal self

Drive to becoming fully functioning

Rogerian theory

- Client centred, therapist needs to be genuine and empathetic
- Cultivate unconditional positive regard to help resolve incongruence

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

- Self actualisation
- Esteem
- Love and belonging
- Safety needs
- Physiological needs

Social cognitive theory

- Albert Bandura
- Focus on observational learning (direct reinforcement cannot account for all human behaviour, behaviour learned through observation)
- Beliefs about abilities have a profound effect on motivation, performance, resilience and wellbeing
- Self efficacy

Self efficacy

A person's belief that they can perform a particular task effectively

Low self efficacy

- Avoids difficult tasks which are perceived as threats
- Focus on self doubts instead of thinking about how to perform
- Attributes failure to their intractable lack of capacity

High self efficacy

- Approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered
- Focus on how to perform successfully
- Attributes failure to lack of knowledge, skills or faulty strategy

Factors that shape self efficacy

- Mastery experiences
- Vicarious experiences
- Social persuasion
- Physiological feedback

Personality dimensions vs clinical categories

- Trait theory influential in personality psychology
- Traits are typically conceptualised as dimensions
- Clinical psychology has focused more on categories

Personality dimensions

- Advantages of dimensional approach
- Utility of personality dimensions in clinical psychology research
- Utility of personality dimensions in clinical psychology
- Contemporary clinical psychology is moving toward a more dimensional approach

Advantages of dimensional approach

- Provides more fine-grained information lost with categorisation
- Superior measurement sensitivity
- Allows for non-monotonic changes in outcome

Utility of personality dimensions in clinical psychology research

Analogue approach:
- Schizotypy dimension approach instead of people with schizophrenia vs people without schizophrenia to avoid confounds

Can reveal trans-diagnostic mechanisms:
- Intolerance of uncertainty

Utility of personality dimensions in clinical psychology

- No single score suffices for diagnosis
- Need to be mindful where there is not perfect alignment (e.g psychopathy vs antisocial personality disorder)

Interactions

- Considering this between personality and situation usually explains more than either in isolation

Interactions Example

- Predicting who is anxious at a given moment
- Individuals higher in trait anxiety = feel anxious at a given moment in time
- People waiting for important result more likely to be anxious
- Elevated anxiety for all in anxiety-provoking situation especially for those with high trait anxiety

Interactions Implications

- When you want to observe individual differences between people consider situations most likely to reveal these differences
- E.g. exam room vs oral presentation (personality and context interaction)

What is Psychopathy

- Personality dimension associated with selfishness, callousness, meanness, manipulativeness, boldness, disinhibition, proactive aggression

- High levels of this associated with lower levels of affective empathy but unimpaired levels of cognitive empathy

- Prison populations - high in this 3x more likely to reoffend, 4x more likely to violently reoffend

Theories of Psychopathy

- Amygdala dysfunction and fear deficits
- Attentional bottleneck theory

Amygdala dysfunction and fear deficits

- Reduced fear-potential startle
- Reduced amygdala activation
- Deficits recognising expressions of fear and sadness
- Startle to lower extent when shown something gory
- Not processing emotions (difficulty appreciating/recognising)

Attentional bottleneck theory

- Associated with intense goal-directed attentional focus
- Goal irrelevant stimuli ignored
- Fear potential startle, amygdala activation and vicarious brain activation modulated by attention
- Boys with callous and unemotional traits difficulty recognising emotional expressions unless attention directed to eyes
- Reduced distractor processing even with neutral stimuli

How is Psychopathy measured?

- Hare Psychopathy Checklist Original (PCL-22)
- Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R)
- Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP)
- Christian and Sellbom's Revised LRSP
- Triarchic Model of Psychopathy (TPM)

Hare Psychopathy Checklist Original (PCL-22)

- 22 item checklist or perceived personality traits and observable behaviours
- Completed as part of interview and based on background information
- Often used in forensic settings (prison)
- Items scored 0, 1 or 2 to how much each item reflects person

Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R)

- Dropped two underperforming items from PCL-22

- E.g. glibness and superficial charm, lack of sincerity and impulsivity

- Test must be administered by a professional who has earned an advanced degree in medical, behavioural or social science field

- Test must be administered by person who has wide ranging contemporary familiarity with psychopathy, someone registered with reputable organisation and someone specifically trained in use of this

Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP)

- Appropriate for community non-forensic samples
- 26 items designed to measure primary and secondary psychopathy
- Primary = selfishness, manipulativeness, callousness
- Secondary = self-defeating lifestyles, extreme impulsivity

Christian and Sellbom's Revised LSRP

- Found evidence of egocentric, callous and antisocial (3 distinct factors instead of 2)

- Egocentric = success is based on survival of the fittest, I enjoy manipulating others

- Callous = I tend not to think of others feelings, I'm not a very emotional person

- Antisocial = I am often bored, I know the rules are there but I don't tend to follow them

Triarchic Model of Psychopathy (TPM)

- Boldness = I'm a born leader, I can convince other people to do what I want

- Meanness = I don't mind if someone I dislike gets hurt, I've injured people to see them in pain

- Disinhibition = I've often missed things I promised to attend, I jump into things without thinking

Antisocial Personality Disorder

- Pattern for disregard for and violation of the rights of others
- Three or more of failure to conform, deceitfulness, irritability, impulsivity, lack of remorse, reckless disregard for others or consistent irresponsibility
- Individual must be at least 18 and must be evidence of conduct disorder before age of 15

Psychopathy vs APD

- APD = almost exclusively on observed behaviour
- Psychopathy = psychological processes underlying behaviour
- Only 20-30% of people with APD qualify as psychopaths
- Almost all imprisoned psychopaths qualify for APD

Altruism

- Batson challenges idea humans are always selfish

- This = caring for others for their own sake

Altruism vs egoism

- Altruism = feelings of empathy or compassion for another promote this motivation (doing it because you want the best for others)

- Egoism = feelings of personal distress and self focus promote this motivation (reducing own distress creating social or self praise and avoiding censure)

If motivation is altruistic

Escape from seeing a person in distress - easy or difficult:

- Variable would have no impact on helping rates
- They would remain high
- People who report feelings of empathy/compassion when witnessing person in distress likely to stay regardless of whether escape was easy

If motivation was egoistic

Escape from seeing a person in distress - easy or difficult:

- Variable would have a large impact on helping rates
- Helping rates would decline sharply when escape was easy
- People experiencing feelings of personal distress when witnessing person in distress more likely to take easy escape option when this was available

Factors that can influence whether a person feels empathy vs personal distress

- Trait empathic concern
- Emotional regulation ability
- Self concept clarity

Other factors that influence helping (altrusim vs egoism)

- Time pressure
- Threat to self

Psychopathy dimensions

- Selfishness
- Manipulativeness
- Boldness
- Disinhibition
- Proactive aggression
- Callousness
- Meanness

Executive functions definition

- General cognitive processes that enable planning, pursuing and executing goals without succumbing to distraction

- Typically associated with frontal lobe

- Characterised by diversity and unity

- Implicated in emotion regulation and perspective talking

- Poor this = impulsivity and antisociality

Diversity

- Distinct subsets of executive functions that correlate more highly with one another

Unity

- Correlations between all executive function tasks

Executive functions

- Shifting
- Updating
- Inhibition

Shifting

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION:

- This between tasks or mental sets

- E.g. task switching

Updating

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION:

- This and monitoring or working memory

- Active manipulation rather than passive storage

- E.g. n-back task

N-back task

Updating executive function:
- Tests working memory by asking participants to identify when the current item matches one shown "n" items ago in a sequence
- N makes it harder - requires more memory

Inhibition

EXECUTIVE FUNCTION:

- This of prepotent responses

- E.g. stroop task

Cognitive Failures

- To err is human *all make mistakes
- Everyday failures can have trivial or profound consequences

Trivial cognitive failure

Forgetting why we went from one part of the house to another

Profound cognitive failure

Failing to notice another driver at an intersection

Cognitive failure questionnaire (CFQ)

- Clear and meaningful differences in frequency
- 25 items where respondents indicate frequency of experiencing cognitive failures within the past 6 months

CFQ question examples

- Do you find you forget why you went from one part of the house to another?
- Do you fail to notice signposts on the road?
- Do you find you forget why you went to the shops?
- Do you daydream when you ought to be listening to something?

CFQ scores correlate differences in (positive correlation)

- Performance on executive tasks
- Brain function in attentional-control related regions
- Car crash risk
- Depression/anxiety
- Burnout
- Impulsivity
- Procrastination
- Affective empathy
- Driving aggression
- Stress
- Difficulties with emotion regulation

CFQ scores correlate differences in (negative correlation)

- Reappraisal
- Cognitive empathy
- Life satisfaction
- Successful ageing

CFQ 2.0

- Included more contemporary instances of cognitive failures
- Could identify true factor structure
- 5 studies

Study 1 CFQ 2.0

- Developed additional items to capture potentially different underlying psychological processes
- 64 new items + 25 original items
- Exploratory factor analysis - EFA (3 factors)

Factor 1 CFQ 2.0 (Study 1)

Inattentiveness/Forgetfulness:
- 15 items
- Do you find why you forget why you went from one part of the house to the other?
- Do you forget passwords you need to remember?

Factor 2 CFQ 2.0 (Study 1)

Emotion Regulation and Planning Failures:
- 11 items
- Do you have trouble making up your mind?
- Do you often feel overwhelmed by your emotions?

Factor 3 CFQ 2.0 (Study 1)

Organisation and Tidiness:
- 5 items
- When packing a suitcase do you neatly fold items? (reverse school)

Study 2 CFQ 2.0

- Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
- Tested 1 factor and 3 factor structures of CFQ 2.0
- Also tested original CFQ
- Showcased that original CFQ did not fit the adequate model indices

Study 3 CFQ 2.0

- Replicated study 2 CFA (1 factor outperformed 3)
- CFQ 2.0 stronger predictor of objective performance on attentional control task than original CFQ

Study 4 CFQ 2.0

As per original CFQ found that CFQ 2.0 scores associated with:
- Reduced focusing
- Reduced shifting
- Reduced cognitive empathy
- Increased affective empathy
- Increased negative affect

Study 5 CFQ 2.0

- R = .88 test re-test reliability over 1 week period

Individual Differences in Crash Risk

- Can enable participation in social activities and other important parts of life contributing to health and wellbeing
- Crashes = large economic burden

General predictors of crash risk

- Experience and age
- KMs driven

Two types of driving-related predictors

- Driving skill
- Driving style

Driving skill

- Vehicle control skills once acquired not predictive of crash risk
- Hazard perception is predictive of crash risk
- Hazard perception training is effective in reducing crash risk

Driving style

- Speed choice
- Following distance
- Gap acceptance
- Distraction
- Fatigue/mental state

Cognitive predictors of crash risk

- Higher cognitive failures = greater crash risk
- Worse performance on useful field of view (UFOV) task = greater crash risk
- UFOV training reduces crash risk 10 years after training

Attentional deployment

- Selection and attention
- Visual attention
- Spatial attention
- Preference vs ability

Selection and attention

Too much to process

Attention = this

Visual attention

- Changes in breadth of attention
- Feature based attention
- Object based attention
- Space based attention

Spatial attention

- Shifts of attention
- Changes in size of attentional breadth

Preference

- What an individual chooses to do when task or context does not compel or favour a particular approach

Ability

What an individual does when compelled to do a task or context (how well they can regulate their attention)

Ability in different backgrounds

- Eastern = broader preferred attentional breadth than Western (no differences in ability)
- Himba = narrower preferred attentional breadth than British (outperformed British on ability)
- Autism = narrower preferred attentional breadth than neurotypical people (no dofferences in ability)
- Openness to experience = eye movements with smaller saccades and shorter scan paths (more absorbed engagement with visual information)

Attention overarching statements

- Higher working memory capacity = greater efficiency of frequent contraction of attentional breadth
- Trade off between persistence and flexibility

Trait Anxiety definition

- Enduring tendency to attend to, experience and report negative emotion such as fears, worries and anxieties across many situations
- Stable perception of situations and events as threatening
- More prone to state anxiety
- Related to neuroticism in big 5 model

Social anxiety

- Pervasive fear of negative evaluation by others often accompanied by avoidance of social settings (worry specific to social domain)

Trait anxiety correlations

- Higher levels = diagnostic category of Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Attentional bias around threatening stimuli (vigilance avoidance)
- Interpretation bias toward threatening interpretations of stimuli and events

Evidence of trait anxiety

- Attentional Control Theory predicts anxiety impacts efficiency more than effectiveness
- Meta-analytic evidence consistent with trait anxiety being associated with impaired efficiency of executive functions, including inhibition and shifting

Findings of trait anxiety

- Strongly negatively correlated with self reported attentional control (elevated cognitive failures)
- Stronger correlation than for attentional control measured via behavioural task performance)
- Associated with increased affective empathy
- Reduced use of adaptive emotion-regulation strategies

Emotion regulation

- Process of attempting to amplify or reduce emotional experiences
- Intrinsic and extrinsic

Intrinsic emotion regulation

Regulating one's own emotions

Extrinsic emotion regulation

Regulating another person's emotions