Personality Psychology Prelim 1

What is a lay theory of personality?

Informal explanations based on intuition, e.g. beliefs about specific people (self, significant others), general beliefs about personality (stability/ability for change, nature vs. nurture, overt behaviors reflecting underlying personality)

How do psychologists define “personality”?

Psychological structures and processes of a person that account for consistent and stable patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving

What are two key ways that scientific personality theories differ from lay theories?

1. Explicitly describes assumptions and beliefs

2. Systematic, empirical (data) investigation

What are five widely held assumptions of personality?

1. Personality influences interactions with social world

2. There are multiple expressions of personality (behavior, feeling, thought)

3. Personality has continuity, stability, and coherence across situations and over time

4. Personality is an organized psychological system – many processes interact with and influence one another

5. Personality is a psychological concept with a physical, biological basis

What are the three areas of study of personality psychology?

1. Human nature

2. Individual differences

3. The individual

1. Human nature

• Universalities, commonalities, “normative”

• Freud, Skinner, Erikson, Maslow, Bowlby, etc.

• Species-level psychological processes & behaviors

• Agressive? Altruistic? Do we have free will? Need for self-fulfillment, mastery?

2. Individual differences

• Focus on systematic differences among people

• Are there basic dimensions that capture differences (e.g. extroversion-introversion, agreeable-disagreeable)?

• Most commonly studied

• Predict behaviors & life outcomes

3. The individual

• Focus on a given person & their experiences

• What makes a particular individual unique?

• How do they make sense of their life (life story)?

• Case studies, interviews, narratives (qualitative; non-numeric, descriptive)

• Quantitative ideography – intensive data tracking (quantitative, numeric), to identify personalized pattern

Why do we need to study personality? What are the goals of studying personality?

Lay theories help us make sense of ourselves and others but based on limited, biased, subjective perceptions and may not be accurate; they are also implicit

What is a paradigm? What effect do paradigms have on the research process?

A set of beliefs in a scientific discipline that guide:

• Hypotheses (what questions are asked)

• Data (what is to be examined, e.g. behavior, hormones)

• Methods (how data are collected and how hypotheses are tested)

• Interpretation (how results are interpreted)

Each paradigm addresses the above in different ways. When integrating the six major paradigms, we see the person as a whole.

Name the six major paradigms in personality psychology.

1. Trait-dispositional

2. Biological

3. Psychodynamic-motivational

4. Behavioral-conditioning

5. Phenomenological-humanistic

6. Social cognitive

Trait-dispositional

What is a person generally like? How are people similar vs. different from others? Look at behavioral tendencies and infer traits.

MJ’s behavior: Oprah quote “He’s very likable there, and I can tell you I really, really liked him…After the interview, I thought I could be his friend, because I felt that he was really honest”

Biological

Neural systems, genes, hormones; how biology shapes personality and vice versa

MJ’s behavior: biological predisposition for anxiety? Constant public scrutiny/social isolation affected neural systems that increased his sensitivity

Psychodynamic-motivational

Internal psychological dynamics and conflicts, nonconscious thoughts and feelings, early childhood influences

MJ’s behavior: in early childhood, “his father called him ugly, beat him and frightened him”

Behavioral-conditioning

How behaviors are shaped by rewards and punishments in the environment (reinforcement)

MJ’s behavior: may have wanted to adhere to common American beauty standards (light skin, thin lips, small noses, straight hair) to receive praise from others

Phenomenological-humanistic

Most eclectic, less cohesive; subjective experience as a person, focus on positive human qualities

MJ’s behavior: how does he see himself and the world (said he didn’t like seeing himself in the mirror); what made him one of the most creative and influential artists of all time?

Social cognitive

The mind as an information processing system: input (situation) → system (mind) → output (behavior); structure and dynamics of processing system

MJ’s behavior: how do his thoughts (cognitions) and feelings (affects) influence what he does? Much occurs implicitly.

“I try not to look in the mirror…I’m never happy with what I see” self image → negative, hatred → avoid

How do the paradigms differ from one another in the types of questions they ask, the types of methods they use, and the data they collect?

Think about things like interviewing, etc. (for example, for humanistic

What are the four ways of knowing what is “true”?

1. Intuition: it seems to be so (lay theories)

2. Authority: someone (e.g. with greater experience) tells us it is so

3. Reason/logic: given X, Y logically must be so

4. Scientific method: a process by which the validity of statements are evaluated and updated based on systematically collected empirical evidence

What is a scientific theory?

• Conceptual map of a phenomenon

• Logically organized set of propositions

• Explains what, how, and why

• Abstract model that enables understanding of specific events

What are the four goals of scientific theories?

1. Define and measure: what one is interested in and how it is measured

2. Predict: when do events occur

3. Explain: why does it occur

4. Intervene/control: control when it occurs

Construct (latent variable)

a hidden, unobservable concept inferred from statistical patterns among multiple observed indicators – conceptual

Example: psychologically abusive relationships

Operational variable

A measured variable used to identify and quantify a construct

Examples: life outcomes, informant reports, self report, behavioral data

Life outcomes

L-data, e.g. police & medical records indicating domestic violence

Informant reports

I-data, e.g. peer reports of experiencing abusive behaviors

Self reports

S-data, e.g. reports of experiencing abusive behaviors

Behavioral data

B-data, e.g. lab-behavioral assessments of interaction with past dating partner

What is meant by a testable, falsifiable hypothesis? Provide an example of a hypothesis that is not falsifiable.

Testable: possible to collect data (non-testable: love is the most powerful force in the universe)

Falsifiable: could observe findings that do not support the hypothesis (non-falsifiable: there are invisible, undetectable spirits that live on earth)

What is meant by “research design”?

How data/responses will be collected (experimental design vs. passive/correlational design vs. quasi-experimental design), implications for the conclusions that can be made (prediction vs. causal explanation)

Experimental designs

Independent variable where different levels are randomly assigned, then the dependent variable is measured; allows for causal inference

Within-subject experimental design

Each participant is exposed to all experimental conditions (levels of independent variable applied), with the order of conditions randomized within-subject; can be causal as long as the order of conditions is random

Between-subjects experimental design

Randomly assign participants to one of two conditions; allows for causal inference

What are the two defining features of the experimental design?

1. Independent variable manipulated

2. Random assignment

What is the benefit of random assignment and, conversely, what issues arise when there is “self-selection?

Benefit of randomization: preexisting differences among participants get randomly distributed across the conditions

Issues with self-selection: poses confounds (confounding variables)

What is a dependent and independent variable?

Dependent variable is measured; independent variable is manipulated

What is a “confound”? If variables X and Y are correlated, what are alternative possibilities regarding their causal relationship?

An outside factor (not the independent variable) that changes along with the dependent variable, which obscures the true effect of the independent variable; if X and Y are correlated but there is a confound Z, then it may actually be that Z and Y are correlated which creates the appearance of a correlation between X and Y

What research design has been the most common in personality psychology and why?

Passive (correlational) because experimental environments do not reflect reality

We cannot infer causality from correlation. Why is correlation useful, nonetheless?

It still helps predict and shows a relation between variables

What is a mediational hypothesis?

Asks what the mechanism is and how it occurs: proposes that a mediator is a third factor transmitting a relationship between an independent and dependent variable (e.g. instead of jut asking IF X affects Y, a mediation hypothesis asks HOW or WHY X affects Y through the chain X → mediator → Y)

For studies with an individual difference measure as a “moderator,” how do researchers interpret the results pertaining to the passive component versus the experimental component?

The passive component represents the baseline, observational relationship between the individual difference measure (e.g., personality trait, working memory capacity, baseline anxiety) and the dependent variable, completely independent of the experimental manipulation. The experimental component captures how the experimental manipulation alters the relationship between the individual difference and the outcome—or conversely, how the individual difference alters the effectiveness of the treatment.

Discuss the generalizability of research findings to other people, contexts, and methods.

For whom do the conclusions apply? In what settings do the conclusions apply?

Be able to discuss limitations of any single research study.

Experiments: ethical (balance between benefits to society and cost to the individual), theoretical (personality reflects chronic, naturally occurring processes – experimental control vs. realism)

Passive design: correlation does not equal causation; direction unclear (X → Y? Y → X?); reciprocal effects (X → Y & Y→ X?); a third variable (Z → X & Z → Y?); spurious (illusion?)

Conclusions: are there alternative plausible explanations? May not tell us why or how the effect emerges

Quasi-experimental design

Mix of experimental and not, conducted in times when participants can’t be randomly assigned: use groups that preexist and see how they differ (e.g. classroom 1 vs classroom 2: they can’t sort students into classrooms just for the experiment, so they just make each classroom one treatment group)

Experimental component: what is actually being done/treatment (e.g. giving one group a pill)

Passive component: the difference between the two test groups due to their different attributes (e.g. difference between boys’ results and girls’ results)

What is personality from trait perspective?

In what ways are people psychologically different from each other? Abstract view: general consistency in behavior tendencies across situation and time; dominant view of personality

Main assumptions of trait theories

A trait is behavior (descriptive, e.g. Sam talks a lot) AND a mental construct (explanatory, causes or predisposes behavior; e.e.g Sam is talkative)

Primary research questions and research goals pursued by trait approaches

1. Can a finite number of traits capture important differences among individuals?

2. Develop self‑report methods to assess traits

   1. 1 and 2 define and measure

3. Investigate how traits predict behaviors and outcomes

   1. 3 helps with prediction

Greek views of the biological sources of personality types

Hippocrates Humors: blood (sanguine), yellow bile (choleric), black bile (melancholic), phlegm (phlegmatic) need to be balanced for the body to be healthy

Galen first typology of temperament: made the theory extend to personality types: sanguine (lively, sociable), choleric (egocentric, aggressive), melancholic (serious, introverted), phlegmatic (inward, thoughtful)

The practical implications of trait theories (why the interest in personality)

Used for: knowing yourself; career decisions; hiring (80% of Fortune 500 companies); predicting behavior under stress; dating/marriage

Know key characteristics of trait-dispositional, including types of research questions being asked, and measures, research designs, and statistical procedures used to address the questions

• Research questions: identifying traits, measuring traits, predicting outcomes

• Measures: self‑report (98% of papers include them; 70% only had self‑report as a measure)

• Procedures: factor analysis

Which approaches did Gordon Allport’s trait theory reject?

Rejected behavioral/learning approaches and psychoanalytic approaches.

Wait is a trait according to Allport?

“A generalized neuropsychic structure… that renders many stimuli functionally equivalent and guides consistent forms of adaptive and stylistic behavior.”

What is functional equivalence?

Traits unify different stimuli and responses by making them functionally equivalent. Example: friendliness → similar responses across meeting strangers, working with peers, visiting family, dating

What are different types of traits?

Cardinal, central, secondary

Central traits

5–10 primary descriptors (e.g. Dwight Schrute: How would I describe myself? Three words: hard working, alpha male, jack hammer. Merciless. Insatiable.)

Cardinal traits

Life‑defining (e.g., Scrooge, Mother Teresa)

Secondary traits

Situationally sensitive traits; preferences and attitudes (e.g. Angela: I am not a bad person…I have a great capacity for love. For instance, I love my cats.)

What was Allport’s view of personality? E.g., trait structure, implications of traits for behaviors, and how personality should be studied?

Personality = unique configuration of traits; traits determine patterns of thinking, feeling, behaving; idiographic, qualitative approach (in-depth study of lives); complexity: even the same trait can be expressed differently

What is a common (vs. unique) trait and how does focus on common traits influence contemporary approaches?

Common traits: shared by many people due to shared biology/culture; recognized by everyone and possessed by everyone to different degrees

• Shift from focusing on single individual to comparative assessment across individuals

• Shift from qualitative to quantitative approaches

Unique traits: each person has a unique configuration of traits, and the same traits can be expressed differently

What are the scientific goals of contemporary trait theories? (How do they differ from Allport’s perspective?)

Goals: identify finite traits; develop self‑report measures; predict outcomes

Difference: contemporary = quantitative, comparative; Allport = idiographic, qualitative

What do multiple trait theories agree and disagree on?

Agree: traits (not types) explain behaviors and outcomes

Disagree: number, content, structure of traits

What are the Big-5?

Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Psycholexical hypothesis

Most important personality characteristics are embedded in a culture’s lexicon; many trait words; appears across languages

Explain the difference between traits, states, and activities

Traits: consistent across situations and time, internally caused/motivated

States: transitory, externally caused; less consistent

Activities: behaviors, not consistent across situations/time

Factor analysis

Statistical method examining correlations among items; reduces thousands of trait words to 5 dimensions

Barnum effect

People rate vague, general personality feedback as highly accurate

How do we know that personality tests, such as the Big-5, are good measures?

• Reliability: consistency in results (test‑retest, split‑half, alternative forms)

• Validity: measures what it claims; predictive validity (e.g., extraversion → social network size; conscientiousness → performance).

What are concerns with popular personality tests such as Myers-Briggs Inventory and Enneagram?

Many popular tests have poor evidence of validity. People think they are good, but they are not supported

What is the hierarchical structure of Big 5 (traits, facets, and behaviors)?

Traits → Facets → Behaviors. Example shown: Openness trait → facets (fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, values) → behaviors such as artistic concerns, absorbed in music, intrigued by patterns, affected by poetry, etc.

Why is Big-5 called BIG-5?

The Big‑5 are the five broad, overarching trait dimensions (rather than narrow, specific habits)

Extraversion

• Facets: Gregariousness, Assertiveness, Positive Emotions, Activity, Excitement‑Seeking, Warmth/Friendliness

• Behaviors: enjoying parties, leading groups, thrill‑seeking, smiling with strangers

• Advantages: happiness, well‑being, longevity, popularity, leadership, dating variety

• Disadvantages: loneliness when alone, perceived as poorer listeners, overly dominant, more peer conflict, lower status in small groups

Conscientiousness

• Facets: Dutifulness, Order, Deliberation, Self‑Discipline, Competence, Achievement‑Striving

• Behaviors: paying debts, neatness, considering consequences, efficiency, workaholism

• Advantages: less antisocial behavior, success, reliability, health, longevity.

• Disadvantages: uptight/rigid, obsessive‑compulsive PD, negative affect, sensitivity to negative feedback, worse performance in some contexts

Openness

• Facets: Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Intellect, Values

• Behaviors: active imagination, trying new foods, enjoying abstract ideas, tolerance for controversial speakers

• Advantages: intrinsic motivation, creativity, tolerance, forgiveness, “brokers” connecting groups, beneficial in academia/arts/journalism

• Disadvantages: substance abuse

Agreeableness

• Facets: Compliance, Straightforwardness, Altruism, Modesty, Tender‑Mindedness, Trust

• Behaviors: cooperation, honesty, charity, modesty, concern for poor/elderly, belief people are well‑intentioned

• Advantages: popularity, harmonious relationships, less bullying, psychological health, longevity, job performance

• Disadvantages: difficulty negotiating, peer influence, conformity to group/authority

Neuroticism

• Facets: Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression, Self‑Consciousness, Impulsiveness, Vulnerability

• Behaviors: fearfulness, anger, bleak outlook, dread of social mistakes, cravings, difficulty in crises

• Disadvantages: vulnerability to anxiety, depression, substance abuse, shorter life, lower SES; partners less happy

• Advantages: “healthy neuroticism” when paired with conscientiousness

Describe how people’s scores on the Big-5 scales are naturally distributed. Based on the distribution, how do we interpret a certain score?

Scores follow a normal (“bell curve”) distribution; interpretation: scores are relative to other people in the population/class

What is an extravertist society? Explain what is meant by the “Extrovert Ideal” and the “Culture of Personality”.

• Extravertist society: society values extraversion as the norm

• Extrovert Ideal: extraverts seen as “big‑hearted,” “vibrant,” “warm,” “people person.” Introverts labeled “guarded,” “loner,” “reserved,” “private”

• Culture of Personality: emphasis on personality traits (e.g., sociability) rather than character traits (honesty, courage, loyalty)

What are some of the differences between personality and character?

Personality traits (e.g., sociability) are easier to assess; character traits (honesty, courage, trustworthiness, loyalty) are more difficult to assess

Describe the method, analyses, and results of the study that examined extraversion scores and social networks. What did the study find about the relationship between E and density and closeness?

Method: N=200 college students; completed self‑report extraversion measure and GENSI network measure. Analyses: correlations between E and network size, density, closeness. Results: Size: r = .324*** (positive). Density: r = .069 (near zero). Closeness: r = –.022 (near zero)

Extraversion is significantly tied to having a larger social network, but it does not predict how interconnected those network members are (density) or how emotionally close the individual feels to them (closeness). In simpler terms, extraverted college students tend to know more people, but their personality doesn't inherently dictate the tightness or structural interconnectedness of their social circles 

Why is openness to new experiences considered a cognitive style?

Openness to experience is considered a cognitive style because it defines how a person processes information, thinks, and relates to abstract ideas rather than just dictating what they do

What is the link between agreeableness and psychopathy (i.e., callousness and indifference)? What did researchers find about the personality of US Presidents?

Psychopathy: callousness and indifference to suffering; linked to low agreeableness. Predators/serial killers low on Agreeableness

US Presidents: lower on Agreeableness than average, especially low on Straightforwardness and Modesty

Limitations and advantages of trait approaches for understanding personality

Advantages: powerful for describing, measuring, predicting systematic individual differences

Limitations: does not tell complete story; focuses on variability in population; “psychology of the stranger”; may not capture uniqueness

Why do we make personality judgments?

Social prediction necessary for interaction; anticipate others’ thoughts, feelings, actions; use knowledge of others’ states (tired) and traits (agreeable) to make predictions

Why are personality judgements important? What are their consequences?

Consequences for perceiver: who to trust, hire, vote for, friend, date, marry

Consequences for target: social life and professional success depend on others’ judgments

Judgments affect opportunities encountered

How do we assess “accuracy”? What are the limitations of each assessment?

• Consensus (not quite accuracy): other–other agreement, inter-judge agreement; limitation: target may look like they possess a trait but may not in actuality

• Self–other agreement (accuracy): limitation: target may not describe themselves accurately or may have more info

• Behavioral prediction (accuracy): accuracy assessed by predicting behavior

What information do we use to form first impressions?

Facial characteristics, body movements, tone of voice, body scent, clothing/jewelry/piercings, music preferences, room décor, Facebook profiles, explicit statements

What aspects of personality may be inferred from one’s physical space? How did the researchers study this?

Room décor used to infer personality, e.g. openness or conscientiousness (Gosling 2002)

• Interobserver Consensus: Independent observers who looked at the same rooms formed very similar impressions of the occupants

• Observer Accuracy: The impressions formed by looking at the rooms matched the occupants' actual personality self-ratings and peer-ratings

• Trait Variations: Observers were most accurate at judging Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness, but less accurate at picking up on Extraversion just by looking at a silent, vacant room

What types of snap judgments can be inferred from the face? Which judgments have been shown to reflect the target’s actual personality, and which judgments reflect consensus among perceivers, but not necessarily accuracy?

Snap judgments: attractiveness, ethnicity, sexual orientation, SES, extraversion, trustworthiness, competence

Accuracy: attractiveness, ethnicity, sexual orientation, SES, extraversion, trustworthiness show accuracy

Competence shows consensus

What are the two primary dimensions that people make sense of others? Why might these be central? How are these related to the Big-5?

Dimensions: Warmth (friendliness, sincerity, trustworthiness, morality) and Competence (intelligence, skill, creativity, efficacy)

Evolutionary rationale implied by importance of trustworthiness and capability

Mapping: Warm ↔ Agreeableness; Cold ↔ Disagreeable; Competent ↔ Openness/Conscientiousness; Incompetent ↔ Impulsive/Conventional

Snap judgments of sexual orientation: basic set up, key findings, importance, limitations

Setup: Facebook photos; men/women (gay or straight); photos shown for 50 ms; standardized; Ps judged 96 photos per gender

Findings: 60% accuracy (p < .001)

Importance: minimal info needed; intuitive, automatic, efficient judgments

Limitations: “better than chance” ≠ “high accuracy”; ability does not imply proficiency

What factors affect how we judge someone? What is the Social Relations Model?

Factors: target effects, perceiver effects, perceiver × target effects, unexplained effects/noise

Social Relations Model: framework assessing sources of behavior/judgment; components (above factors) sum to 100%

Target effects

The degree to which characteristics of the person being judged (the target) consistently elicit similar ratings from different observers; this reflects the actual "signal" or objective traits present in the target

Perceiver effects

A general tendency for a specific observer (the perceiver) to rate all targets in a similar manner, regardless of who the individual target is; this captures individual biases, generalized stereotypes, or stable rating styles (such as acquiescence)

Perceiver x target effects

Unique relationship between perceiver and target (e.g. you like person B more than you like all other people, and more than other people like person B)

Noise

Unexplained residual variance

Based on Hehman et al. (2017), which traits reflect target effects and which reflect perceiver effects? How much do judgments reflect each source?

Target effects stronger for traits like race‑typicality, youthful/attractive, trustworthiness, dominance. Perceiver effects stronger for traits like creativity. Unique judgments largest source (~40%)

Why are perceiver x target effects important?

They are variances showing that a specific perceiver forms a specific impression of a particular target that deviates from general main effects

Do judgments predict real-life outcomes? Study on predicting US elections. Do judgments need to be accurate?

Judgments of competence from 100‑ms face presentations predicted 68.6% gubernatorial and 72.4% Senate races. Judgments need not be accurate to be consequential

Describe the study on judgment based on a photograph and live interactions: basic set up and key findings, mechanism behind snap judgments predicting later liking

Setup: Participants rated liking based on photos; later interacted (structured Trivia Game, unstructured Getting to Know)

Findings: photo‑based liking predicted liking after interaction (β = .62 and β = .56)

Mechanism: behavioral confirmation/self‑fulfilling prophecy—perceiver expectations influence behavior, shaping target behavior

What is self-fulfilling prophecy and behavioral confirmation?

Perceiver expectations affect perceiver’s behavior toward target; target responds in ways that confirm expectations; creates a cycle where perceiver’s beliefs become reality