Personality and Individual Differences

How are individual differences measured?

self-report + behavioural/performance-based measures (e.g alternate uses tests, remote associations tests, etc).

How are individual differences data distributed?

normally distributed, reflecting trait and state effects, and types of individual differences interacting

How do individual differences have practical value?

predictive value, therefore they are useful in clinical, forensic, occupational, educational + health psychology

What are the ethical issues of individual differences?

high, personal stakes, face validity can be misleading, susceptible to misinterpretation, group differences can be politically sensitive

What are the 4 approaches to understanding personality?

nomothetic, dispositional, idiographic, and situational.

What is the nomothetic attitude?

predefined attributes can explain individual differences

What is the dispositional attitude?

dispositions are internal + consistent over varying situations

• Does not deny the role of context/situation as a moderating variable 

• Proposes a significant correlation between traits + behaviour, which also influences the type of situations encountered 

What is the idiographic attitude?

individuals are too unique to be categorised under attributes

What is the situational attitude?

there is no core disposition, just unrelated responses/states to varying situations that are determined by situational factors instead. Behavioural signatures and dynamics exist, but do not define a disposition

What is an early model of personality?

Galen’s 4 Temperaments model

What is Galen’s 4 Temperaments model ?

• Linked physical and mental imbalances + illnesses 

• The balance of the 4 humours (bodily fluids) controlled illness (Hippocrates), and controlled the balance of temperaments (Galen) 

• 4 temperaments: Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic 

• e.g Black bile levels correspond to melancholic (depression), yellow bile levels correspond to choleric (anger), blood levels correspond to sanguine (happiness), and mucus levels correspond to phlegmatic (calmness) 

• These early categorisations of temperaments have influenced modern theories 

What are the 2 main biological models of personality?

• Eysenck’s PEN theory

• Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity theory

What is Eysenck’s PEN theory?

• 2 dimensions of personality: extraversion + neuroticism 

• Can be plotted orthogonally from each other 

• Developed from Galen’s 4 Temperament model 

 

• Expanded the theory to include psychoticism (an outlier that is not normally distributed and dependent on N) 

This category does not mean someone is psychotic (in psychosis from a mental disturbance), it is linked to psychopathy instead

 

• Extraversion scale relates to the arousal levels of the reticulo-cortical system 

  • Extraverts = lower levels = seeking external stimulation 

  • Introverts = higher levels = avoiding external stimulation 

• Neuroticism scale relates to arousal levels in the reticulo-limbic system 

  • Limbic system is responsible for emotional processing 

  • Neuroticism (High N) is due to greater arousal 

  • Psychoticism is linked to male hormones + dopamine levels 

What are the strengths of Eysenck’s PEN theory?

• Cross-cultural supporting evidence 

• Major contribution to biological theories 

• Major development to tools to measure personality (questionnaires) 

What are the limitations of Eysenck’s PEN theory?

• Psychoticism is less accepted 

• Emotional processing in the neuroticism scale is reductionist 

• Large focus on biology/genetics is also reductions

What is Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity theory (RST) ?

• Developed from animal studies 

• Proposes the amygdala, ventromedial hypothalamus + midbrain grey matter are involved 

• 2 systems: Behavioural Activation System (BAS) + Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) 

• Measured by Likert scales 

• Measured against 2 orthogonal scales: impulsivity + anxiety 

• BAS – activates “approach” behaviour toward a goal, motivated by reward-seeking, and conditioned by positive events. 

  • Relates to high impulsivity + low anxiety 

• BIS – activates cost-benefit thinking and “retreat” behaviour away from harm, motivated by punishment-avoidance, and conditioned by negative events. 

  • Relates to low impulsivity + high anxiety 

• Does not include Eysenck’s Psychoticism  

What is the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory?

Includes the “Fight/Flight/Freezing” system into the model, proposing the BIS is an evaluative comparator for response conflicts 

What are 3 key methods/measures for analysing personality?

• lexical hypothesis

• Catell’s 16 personality factor model

  • Costa & McCrae’s Big 5 model

What is the lexical hypothesis?

• All aspects of personality can be described from everyday single words in language. 

• Because psychological variables can’t be observed, they are inferred through psychometrics (scientific measurement) 

|__ e.g. extraversion cannot be directly measured, so talkativeness, sociability, friendliness, liveliness, etc are 

• Latent factors are a representation of related psychological variables, found through data reduction techniques and factor analysis identifying correlations 

|__ both strong negative and positive correlations signify relation to a common latent factor 

• In factor analysis, the researcher has to decide how many factors to extract, whether they are independent (low cross-loading of variables), or dependent (higher cross-loading of variables) 

• Correlation matrix reflects the relationship between each related psychological variable 

• Multivariate data reduction identifies a set of latent factors to explain a pattern of correlation 

What was the method for creating Catell’s 16 personality factors?

• Grouped dispositional synonyms and antonyms, creating 171 latent factors 

• Got 100 people to rate people all 171 terms 

• Factor analysis identified 60 correlation clusters --> summarised into 45 surface traits --> Summarised into 16 personality factors, source traits 

What are Catell’s 16 personality factors?

scales not categories 

What are the strengths of Catell’s 16 personality factors?

• Highly methodical, and data-driven 

• Promoted the use of factor analysis 

• The 16PF questionnaires are still used 

• Formed the basis for the Big 5 models 

What are the limitation of Catell’s 16 personality factors?

• Analysis relied on subjective interpretations 

• Failure to replicate 

• Too many factors, needs simplifying 

• Factors were highly cross-loaded + dependent 

What is Costa & McCrae’s Big 5 model?

• Developed from Cattell’s 16 factors + lexical hypothesis, converging models to find 5 independent factors 

• 5 factors (OCEAN or NEOAC): neuroticism, extraversion (from Catell), agreeableness, conscientiousness (from Goldberg), openness to experience. 

• NEO-Personality Inventory measures 6 facets (primary traits) of each super trait on Likert scales 

• Neuroticism: Anxiety, Vulnerability, Angry hostility, Depression, Self-consciousness, Impulsiveness 

• Extraversion: Warmth, Gregariousness, Assertiveness, Activity, Positive emotions, Excitement-seeking 

• Openness to experience: Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Ideas, Values 

• Agreeableness: Trust, Altruism, Straightforwardness, Compliance, Modesty, Tendermindedness 

• Conscientiousness: Competence, Order, Dutifulness, Self-discipline, Deliberation, Achievement-seeking 

What are the strengths of Costa & McCrae’s Big 5 model?

• There are correlations between Eysenck’s PEN scores and Costa & McCrae’s OCEAN scales 

• Cross-cultural supporting evidence for stable factors 

• Emerging evidence for biological basis 

• The most widely used model 

What are the limitations of Costa & McCrae’s Big 5 model?

• Singular word factors are too simplistic, needing paragraph descriptions 

• Correlations are too simplistic and do not capture complexity of relationships (e.g wittiness correlates to intelligence, but intelligence does not always correlate to wittiness) 

• Analysis relies on subjective interpretations and labels 

• Missing important factors like narcissism 

What is the hierarchy of personality description?

• (Musek, 2007) There is an overarching, general personality factor (‘Big One’) 

• (Digman, 1997) There are two smaller factors: alpha factor (‘stability’) + beta factor (‘plasticity’) 

• alpha factor (‘stability’) includes agreeableness, conscientiousness + neuroticism 

• beta factor (‘plasticity’) includes extraversion + openness 

What is the bandwidth-fidelity dilemma?

there is a trade-off between breadth + accuracy in prediction.

• broader, higher-level personality descriptors predict more with less accuracy 

• Holistic model of Entire Personality 

• narrower, lower-level personality descriptors predict less with more accuracy 

• Narrow model of Specific Part(s) of Personality 

What are 4 examples of narrow traits?

• authoritarianism/conservatism

• schizotypy

• Machiavellianism

• dark triad

What is authoritarianism/conservatism?

• Preference for clear, familiar routine 

• Strong opinions on and respect for power/discipline/authority 

• Reluctancy for introspection 

What is evidence for authoritarianism being a personality trait rather than an attitude?

• Twin studies found it is genetically heritable (Bouchard et al., 2003) 

• Studies found it is associated with decreased neural response to suppressing impulses in Go/No-Go task 

What is schizotypy?

• Correlated features to schizophrenia, reflecting a genetic vulnerability to it 

• Does not = having schizophrenia 

• There is no discontinuity between normality + illness, so traits fall between  

How does Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings define schizotypy?

• Unusual perceptual and cognitive experiences 

• Cognitive disorganisation (challenges, anxiety, purposelessness, etc) 

• Introvertive anhedonia (lack of enjoyment from socialising/intimacy) 

• Impulsive nonconformity (disinhibited/deregulated behaviour) 

How does the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire define schizotypy?

• Excessive social anxiety 

• Odd beliefs/magical thinking 

• Unusual perceptual experiences 

• Odd behaviour 

• No close friends 

• Odd speech 

• Constricted affect 

• Suspiciousness 

What is evidence for schizotypy being a valid personality trait?

Evidence for conceptual validity, finding that there is reduced negative priming (a measure of cognitive inhibition) in high schizotypy scorers, which is likewise in schizophrenic individuals 

What is a machiavellian personality type?

Deeply manipulative, self-serving, cynical 

Who was Machiavelli?

• An Italian founder of modern political science 

• Created principles for gaining political power 

What measures Machiavellianism?

• Mach-IV scales  

• Measure tactics, views + morality 

• Have strong evidence + validity

What is the dark triad?

• 3 overlapping, “dark” personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism + Machiavellianism 

• Narcissism: superiority, dominance, entitlement 

• Psychopathy: impulsivity, adrenaline-seeking, superficial charm, manipulative, low empathy/guilt 

• Associated with short-term relationships, cruelty to animals, night owl, etc 

• Dirty Dozen Measure is a Likert scale of 12 statements 

• The Dark Triad negatively correlates with honesty/humility