Psych Lecture #16: Psychology and Technology + Lecture #17: Who Are You: The Psychology of Personality

What is Offloading?

the use of tools to reduce the mental demand of a task

For example, not memorizing the parts of a bicycle because you can easily check.

Having a lot of information accessible made participants more/less likely to believe that they know more about everything.

more

What is Personality?

a person’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, feeling, and interacting with others

A good personality test should have… (2 pts)

describe

test-retest reliability: the same person taking the same test again should get the same score

validity: the test accurately measures what it is supposed to measure

What are two personality tests with very low reliability and validity?

Roschach inkblot test

Myers-Briggs type indicator

Compare State vs Trait

A state is the current condition (ex. Being anxious right now but not later)

A trait is a long-lasting personality trait (ex. Being generally anxious constantly).

Describe the “Big Five” personality traits.

Hint Available

• Openness to experience: Openmindedness, adventurousness

• Conscientiousness: organization, discipline

• Extraversion: sociability

• Agreeableness: friendliness, politeness, trust, conflict-avoiding

• Neuroticism: emotional stability

Are the “Big Five” personality traits good or bad?

They are value-neutral.

Each trait has upsides and downsides.

Differing personalities result from…

(2 pts)

a combination of genes and environment

Compare Monozygotic vs Dizygotic twins.

Monozygotic, identical, twins develop from the same egg that divides.

Dizygotic, fraternal, twins develop two eggs fertilized independently.

What is Heritability?

the proportion of trait variation (difference in traits) that is explained by genetic variation

aka, how “genetic” differences (in a trait, across different people) are

What is the heritability of eye color?

1, eye color is almost always determined by genetics

What is the heritability of heart disease?

0.5, heart disease can result from a combination of genetic factors and lifestyle

What is the heritability of eye color?

0, when people differ in the number of eyes, it is usually caused by accident/injury—not genetics

When asked to shock a puppy, how many people say they would shock the puppy?

How many would actually shock the puppy?

about 25% said they would

about 75% actually did

How many participants in a study would be willing to deliver a fatal shock to another person when prompted to by an “authority figure”?

about two-thirds of the participants

Behavior is a result of… (2 pts)

personality and the situation

When asked a very easy question, would a person give the correct answer if everyone else gives the wrong answer?

What if everyone else but one person gives the wrong answer, except for one person who gives the correct answer?

When all the actors gave a wrong answer, the participant tended to give the same wrong answer even if they knew that answer was wrong.

When all the actors except one gave the wrong answer, and one actor gave the correct answer, the participant was more likely to give the obvious correct answer.