Theories of Personality Midterm

Psychological Triad

Thought, Emotion, and Behavior

Personality Psychology vs. Clinical Psychology

Overlap occurs in extreme patterns of Personality

Goal of Personality Psychology

Understanding the whole person through the triad and other psychological mechanisms

Basic approaches

Trait, Biological, Psychoanalytic, Phenomenological, Learning/ Cognitive

Trait Approach

Individual differences in personality traits

Biological Approach

Genetic/ physiological/ evolutionary aspects

Psychoanalytic Approach

Unconscious mind and mental conflict

Phenomenological Approach

conscious experience of the world

uses either Humanistic psychology and cross-cultural

Humanistic Psychology

Conscious awareness produces uniquely human attributes

Learning

Classic behaviorism

Social Learning

Cognitive Personality

Cognitive Personality

Focuses on cog. processes like perception, memory, thought

Funder's First Law

great strengths are usually great weaknesses and vice versa

Types of Personality Data

S- data (self reports)

I-data (informants Reports)

L-data (Life outcomes)

B-data (behavioral observations)

Funder's Second Law

There are no perfect indicators of personality, only ambiguous clues

Funder's Third Law

something beats nothing, 2 times out of 3 (evidence is important no matter how irrelevant it's perceived)

Personality Test

Projective (rorschach ink, TAT)

Objective (MMPI, CPI)

Reliability

consistency of measurement

Validity

The ability of a test to measure what it is intended to measure

Cross-Validation

determine whether the test can predict behavior/diagnosis/category membership in new sample

Types of research designs

Case/ Experimental/ Correlational studies

Enhances Reliability

• Proofreading/ Constant + scripted procedure

• Measure important items

• Aggregation ~ averaging (Most useful)

Spearman-Brown Reliability Formula

Add more equivalent items to test to increase reliability

Construct Validity

the extent to which variables measure what they are supposed to measure

Case Method

studying specific event/ person to find out as much as possible

Case Method Advantages/ disadvantages

• describes the whole phenomenon

• illuminates + prevents future disasters

• need to deal with events + individuals not common

• generalizability unknown

Experimental Advantages/ Disadvantages

Establishes causal relationships/ uncertainty about what's really manipulated/ not always possible/ often require deception

Correlational Studies Advantages/ Disadvantages

The range is realistic

-demonstrates a relationship/

only option sometimes/

does n't= causality/

Third variable problem

Type I error

false positive

Type II

false negative

open science

Emerging remedy for incomplete reporting

Publication Bias

studies with strong results are more likely to be published

Effect Size

the magnitude of a relationship between two or more variables

person-situation debate

debate on whether personality traits or situational factors play a greater role in shaping behavior

Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM)

Personality judgment accuracy through 4 stages: relevance, availability, detection, utilization

Relevance

Right environment that allows person to be themselves

Availability

spend time with person, in different situations

Detection

Pay attention to other person, listen rather than plan next speech

Utilization

focused here on getting judges to "think better", use "good logic", avoid bias

Moderator variables on Personality Accuracy

Judge/ Target ( person being judge)/ Trait being judged / Info. on which judgment is based

Constructivism

Humans create or construct their own reality

Critical Realism

Gather info. to determine validity of judgment

Big 5 Traits (OCEAN)

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Openness to experience

creativity, curiosity, intellectual exploration

Conscientiousness

Organization, responsibility, discipline

Agreeableness

compassion, cooperation, trust

Extraversion

Sociability assertiveness, energy

Neuroticism

Emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness

4 ways to study personality

Single-trait/ many-trait/ essential-trait/ Typological approach

Single-trait

Examines behaviors associated w/ a particular trait

Many-trait

Looks for traits associated with a particular behavior

Essential-trait approach

Identifies which traits are most important

(Most prominent Big Five)

Typological approach

focuses on the patterns of traits that characterize whole persons/ tries to sort these patterns

Self-monitoring (single-trait)

The ability to regulate behavior to accommodate social situations

High self-monitors

adaptable, flexible, popular, able to fit in wherever/ wish-washy, 2-faced, lacking integrity + slick

Low self-monitors

Self-directed, have integrity, consistent/ insensitive, distrustful, touchy, inflexible, irritable, stubborn

Narcissism (Single-Trait)

Excessive self-love and need for admiration ( can become disorder)

make good first impressions but disliked later

California Q-set (Many-trait)

Sort personality into 9 categories

ranging from highly uncharacteristic of the person to highly characteristic

rank-order consistency

tendency for individuals to maintain personality traits over time

Maturity principle

the idea that traits associated with effective functioning increase with age

Part of brain associated with fear/emotion

amygdala processes these

Role of dopamine in personality

Linked to motivations/reward-seeking behavior/ extraversion/ impulsivity

Serotonin Influence on personality

regulates mood/ emotional stability: low levels associated with high neuroticism

Behavioral Genetics

the study of the effects of heredity on personality/behavior

Epigenetics

the study of environmental influences on gene expression, potentially altering personality traits over time

Social Clock Theory

you must do things at certain times in your life (marriage, children)

Life history Strategies (Fast)

Early reproduction, lower parental investment, adapted for unstable environments

Life history Strategies (Slow)

Delayed reproduction, higher parental investment, adapted for stable environments

Frontal Cortex and Personality

involved in decision-making/impulse control/ planning/ personality expression

Cortisol and Personality

Released in response to stress; chronically high levels are linked to anxiety/emotional instability

Testosterone and Personality

Linked to dominance, competitiveness, and aggression

Flynn Effect

The rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the decades in many nations influence rise of problem-solving and adaptability.

Criticisms of the evolutionary approach to personality

Relies on speculation/ difficult to test scientifically/ may justify harmful behaviors as "natural."

Temperament

personality in infants and mostly determined by genetics

Heterotypic continuity

expression of fundamental tendencies change with age

Person-environment transactions

People respond to/

seek out/

create environments compatible

may magnify personality traits

Active Person-environment transactions

seek out compatible environments/ avoid incompatible ones

Reactive Person-environment transactions

respond differently to the same situation

Evocative Person-environment transactions

change the situation

Cohort effects

Effects due to a person's time of birth, era, or generation but not to actual age.

La Dolce Vita effect

Older people are more interested injust relaxing and enjoying life

Narrative identity

story that you tell about your life. We develop how we see ourselves and our sense of who we are over time

Narrative identity Actor

develop social skills, traits, and roles that one needs to take a place in society

Narrative identity Agent

a person guided by goals and values; plan for the future to align with desired outcomes

Narrative identity Author

to be able to tell your life story

Narrative identity Themes

Agency/ Redemption

Neurotransmitters

are critical for communication acrossthe synapses between neurons

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)

Make negative emotions less severe; useful in reducing neuroticism

Big five stability

Includes conscientiousness/ agreeableness/ associated with serotonin + Brain stem

The Big Five: Plasticity

Extraversion/ Openness/ associated w dopamine/ Behavioral Activation System

Mentalizing

Understanding what others are thinking

Prefrontal leucotomy

damages small areas of white matter behind each frontal lobe with intention of decreasing pathological levels of agitation/emotional arousal

Prefrontal lobotomy

Removes whole sectors of the frontal lobes

Aggression Positive (Evolution)

help person to protect territory/ property/ mates

Aggression Negative (Evolution)

leads to fighting/ murder/ industrial-scale murder (war)

Sociometer Theory

a theory linking level of self-esteem with level of belongingness

Genetic Confounding

arises when trying to understand the effects on development that parenting styles/ childhood environments have

Eugenics

humanity can improved through selective breeding

Heritability coefficient

Reflects degree to which variance of trait in pop. attributed to variance in genes

Molecular genetics (gay gene?)

Determine whether differences in traits are correlated with differences in a particular gene