Personality Psychology Exam 2

Heterotypic continuity

Traits remain stable over time, but their expression changes across different life stages

Person-environment transactions

Ways individuals shape and are shaped by their environments

Reactive transaction

Same environment leads to different responses depending on personality traits

Active transaction

Individuals choose environments that match their traits

Evocative transaction

Individuals evoke responses from others or shape environments based on their traits

Effect of person-environment transactions

They tend to stabilize or amplify existing personality traits

Rank-order stability

Individuals maintain their relative position within a group on a trait over time

Typical adolescent personality changes

Changes in Agreeableness, Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion

females often show increases in Neuroticism

Maturity principle

Personality traits change in ways that promote functioning in adulthood

Maturity principle trait changes

Increase in Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion (assertiveness)

decrease in Neuroticism

Person-situation interaction formula

Behavior = Personality × Situation

Situationist perspective

Situations are more important than traits for predicting behavior

Walter Mischel’s argument

Personality traits are weak predictors of behavior in specific situations

Typical trait-behavior correlation

Around 0.30–0.40

Strong situation

Clear expectations for behavior

little room for individual differences

ex: fire drill

Weak situation

Ambiguous expectations

personality differences are more expressed

ex: a party– some are wallflowers, some are party animals

Traits vs. situations (momentary behavior)

Situations are more predictive

Traits vs. situations (behavior over time)

Personality traits are more predictive

Level 1 (McAdams & Pals): Evolution and human nature

Universal traits and characteristics shared by all humans

Examples of human nature

Language, social interaction, learning, need for autonomy/competence/relatedness

Level 2 (McAdams & Pals): Personality traits

Stable, biologically influenced traits (Big Five)

Level 3 (McAdams & Pals): Characteristic adaptations

Context-specific goals, motivations, values, and behaviors

Examples of characteristic adaptations

Life goals, values, attachment styles, schemas

Level 4 (McAdams & Pals): Narrative identity

Internalized life story integrating past, present, and future

Level 5 (McAdams & Pals): Culture

Cultural context shaping personality

Culture’s influence

Weakest at Level 2 (traits), strongest at Levels 3–4

Erikson’s theory

8 stages of psychosocial development, each with a central conflict

Trust vs. mistrust (infancy)

Developing basic trust, a fundamental sense that the world is generally good, that people are generally trustworthy, and that you are worthy of love

These worldviews are determined by the quality of caregiving - are the baby’s needs consistently met?

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Developing trust in caregivers; success leads to security, failure leads to fear

Identity vs. role confusion (adolescence)

Exploring identity

success leads to stable identity, failure leads to confusion

Intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood)

Forming close relationships

success leads to intimacy, failure leads to loneliness

Generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood)

Contributing to society

success leads to purpose, failure leads to stagnation

Stage progression

Each stage builds on previous stages

Flexibility in Erikson’s model

Stages are not strictly linear

individuals can revisit earlier challenges

Narrative identity

Internalized life story explaining who we are and how we became that way

Life Story Interview

Method of collecting key life scenes and personal narratives

Key cognitive skill for narrative identity

Abstract thinking (emerges in adolescence)

Autobiographical reasoning

Ability to link life events to personal identity

Deductive coding

Using predefined categories to analyze data (top-down)

Inductive coding

Developing categories from observed data (bottom-up)

Agency

Degree to which a person sees themselves as in control of their life

High agency example

Overcoming obstacles and shaping outcomes

Low agency example

Feeling powerless or controlled by circumstances

Redemptive narrative

Story that goes from negative to positive

Contamination narrative

Story that goes from positive to negative

Master narrative

Script for how life events should unfold (can be cultural)

Alternative narrative

Deviation from cultural scripts

Exploration

Actively considering different identity options

Commitment

Making stable decisions about identity

Identity diffusion

Low exploration, low commitment

Identity foreclosure

Low exploration, high commitment

Identity moratorium

High exploration, low commitment

Identity achievement

High exploration, high commitment

Healthiest identity status

Identity achievement

Unhealthiest identity status

Identity diffusion

Identity domains

Career, relationships, religion, politics, gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity

Ethnic-racial identity (ERI)

One’s sense of belonging and meaning related to their racial/ethnic group

Phinney’s ERI statuses

Unexamined, Moratorium, Achievement

Positive ERI (minoritized individuals)

Pride, belonging, and cultural awareness

Positive ERI (white individuals)

Awareness of racism and active efforts to address it

Encounters

Experiences that prompt reflection on racial/ethnic identity

Private regard

Personal feelings about one’s group

Public regard

Perception of how others view one’s group

ERI socialization

Learning about identity through parents, peers, and school

WEIRD

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

WEIRD problem

Psychology research is based on a small, unrepresentative portion of the world

Percent excluded (2008)

Approximately 95% of the world

Percent excluded (2020)

Approximately 89% of the world

Overrepresented regions

Western countries (U.S., Europe)

Underrepresented regions

Majority world (Asia, Africa, Latin America)

Acculturation

Adopting the culture of a new environment

Enculturation

Learning one’s native culture

Exaggeration of cultural differences

Overestimating differences between groups

Outgroup homogeneity bias

Assuming members of other groups are all similar

Individualism

Prioritizing individual goals

Collectivism

Prioritizing group goals

Within-group heterogeneity

Variation within a cultural group

Life Story Interview prompts

Common prompts include high point, low point, turning point, and future script

High point (Life Story Interview)

A particularly positive or meaningful moment in one’s life

Low point (Life Story Interview)

A particularly difficult or negative experience in one’s life

Turning point (Life Story Interview)

An event that marked a significant change in one’s identity or direction

Future script (Life Story Interview)

A person’s imagined future and how their life story will unfold

Strong situation examples

Fire drill, courtroom, military training, structured classroom exam

Weak situation examples

Party, hanging out with friends, choosing hobbies, social media interactions

Additional characteristic adaptations examples

Coping strategies, religious beliefs, political attitudes, personal habits

Characteristic adaptations vs traits

Traits describe what a person has

characteristic adaptations describe what a person does in specific contexts

Person-situation effect size takeaway

Personality traits and situations have similar predictive strength (both moderate correlations)

Identity diffusion example

A student who has not explored careers and has no clear goals

Identity foreclosure example

A student who chooses a career based on parents’ expectations without exploring alternatives

Identity moratorium example

A student actively exploring majors but has not made a decision

Identity achievement example

A student who explored multiple options and committed to a chosen path

ERI socialization (minoritized individuals)

Parents are often the most important source of ethnic-racial socialization

ERI socialization (white individuals)

Peers and schools often play a larger role in shaping ERI awareness

Integrity vs despair

reflecting on life and feeling it was worth living

overall satisfaction, despite inevitable difficulties

success → satisfaction

failure —> regret