2A. Narrow Personality Traits

What did Digman do in the hierarchy of personality description?

used different kind of factor analysis that is more sensitive to finding relationships between factors and identified two factors (alpha and beta) which he believed to capture the relationship between the 5 features

What is the alpha factor?

includes agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism - the extent to which someone can regulate their thoughts, feelings and emotions in line with social norms

What is the beta factor?

includes extraversion and openness - represent the extent to which someone was able to embrace and respond in an adaptive way to different situations

What did Musek (2007) find in hierarchy of personality description?

found general factor that includes all - combination of positive traits

What is the bandwidth-fidelity dilemma? (Cronbach & Gelser, 1965)

likely trade off between breadth and accuracy of prediction

What do higher level descriptors do?

broader, predict more behaviours but with lower accuracy

What do lower level descriptors do?

predict fewer behaviours but with more accuracy, provide narrower & richer descriptions

Describe Paunonen & Ashton (2001)'s study on lower level descriptors?

students complete a big 5 scale and looked at correlations between grades and pre-selected big factors and 'lower levels' traits - found conscientiousness, need for achievement and need for understanding had a significant positive correlation with grades

What are holistic models of entire personality?

aim for simple model of entire personality space, fewer, broad traits

What are narrow measures of specific part(s) of personality?

focus on part of personality relevant to specific behaviour - specific, narrow traits

What did Adorno et al (1950) attempt to do?

explain recent examples of prejudice and extreme views towards others

What are some characteristics on authoritarianism?

preference from unambiguous & familiar routines, strong views on crime & punishment, respect for institutions, uncritical acceptance of authority in society, reluctance to introspect, belief that pleasure is wrong

What did Bouchard et al (2003) find about attitude or personality trait?

evidence for heritability of conservatism for twins reared apart

What did Amodio et al. (2007) find about attitude or personality trait?

conservatism associated with decreased neural response to supressing a habitual response in Go/No-Go task (and lower response accuracy)

What is the Go/No Task?

clap your hands every time you see letter M (go trial) and make no response with letter W (no trial)

What does brain activity reflect in No-Go trials?

neural response to signals that require a non-routine response

What is the continuity hypothesis for schizotypy?

there is no discontinuity between 'normality' and illness (Cooper, 2002) therefore, we should be able to find personality traits in non-clinical populations that are related to psychosis.

What is schizotypy?

correlated items based on clinical descriptions of schizophrenia - reflects genetic/biological vulnerability to psychosis

What are the common symptoms of schizophrenia?

delusions (e.g paranoia), hallucinations, disorganised speech and behaviour, negative symptoms (e.g avolition, poverty of speech)

What are the two concepts/ measures of schizotypy?

Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (O-LIFE) and Schizotypal Personality questionnaire (SPQ)

What is Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (O-LIFE)?

based on factor analysis of several measures of psychosis related symptoms

What are the four measures within Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (O-LIFE)?

unusual experience, cognitive disorganisation, introvertive anhedonia, impulsive nonconformity

What are unusual experiences according to O-LIFE?

related to perceptual distortions, hallucinations and magical thinking - are your thoughts so strong that you can almost hear them?

What is cognitive disorganisation according to O-LIFE?

Related to cognitive difficulties, sense of purposefulness, anxiety etc - Are you sometimes so nervous that you are blocked? No matter how hard you concentrate, do unrelated thoughts always creep into your mind?

What is introvertive anhedonia according to O-LIFE?

Related to lack of enjoyment from social sources, and dislike of intimacy - Are you much too independent to really get involved with people?

What is impulsive nonconformity according to O-LIFE?

Related to impulsive and disinhibited behaviour - Do you ever have the urge to break or smash things? Do you overindulge in alcohol or food?

What is the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) (Raine, 1991)?

Items developed to capture the nine features of schizotypal personality disorder

What are the features of Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ)?

ideas of reference, excessive social anxiety, odd beliefs or magical thinking, unusual perceptual experience, odd or eccentric behaviour, no close friends, odd speech, constricted affect, suspiciousness

What is negative priming?

a measure of cognitive inhibition, reduced in schizophrenia. NP = priming - stroop

Describe evidence for conceptual validity of schizotypy (Steel, Hemsley & Jones, 1996)?

36 ppts took part in stroop test under three conditions: baseline control (no words just colour of ink), stroop condition (distractor word unrelated next to ink colour), priming condition (distractor word predicts next ink colour) and found reduced negative priming in high schizotypy scorers

What is Machiavellianism?

the degree to which someone uses power manipulatively

What are the machiavellianism principles for gaining and maintaining political power?

better to be feared then loved, trust no one, make decisions for the benefit of the group with the absence of morality, be cunning and strong, make friends with powerful people

Who developed Mach Scales to describe manipulative 'Machiavellian' personality?

Christie and Geis (1970)

What are some examples of Machiavellian advice?

'never attempt to win by force which can be won by deception'

What did Christie and Geis (1970) find from their likert scale about tactics?

the best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear. (one should take action only when sure it is morally right (-ve))

What did Christie and Geis (1970) find from their likert scale about views?

Generally speaking, men won't work hard unless forced to do so. It's hard to get ahead without cutting corners here and there

What did Christie and Geis (1970) find from their likert scale about morality?

All in all, it is better to be humble and honest than important and dishonest (-ve).

What were the findings of the study on cheating & eye contact?

confederates encouraged ppt to cheat on test and amount of eye contact with experimenter measures and eye contact decreased after accusation but more by low Mach then High Mach

What is the dark triad?

Three overlapping, yet distinct, 'dark' personality traits relating to social malevolence, coldness, aggressiveness, self-promotion and duplicity - involves narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism

What is narcissism according to the Dark Triad?

feelings of grandiosity, superiority, dominance, self-focus and entitlement. subclinical measure of narcissistic personality disorder

What is psychopathy according to the dark triad?

nonclinical features of psychopaths, impulsivity and thrill seeking, superficial charm, manipulative, low empathy, remorse and guilt

What is the measure of the dark triad?

The 'Dirty Dozen' Measure of the Dark Triad (Jonason & Webster, 2010)

What is the dark triad associated with?

preference for short term relationships, 'night time' chronotype, cruelty to animals, attractiveness to others

What was found with associations between the dark triad and big trait models?

agreeableness had significant negative correlations with each trait of dark triad, most associated but all measures were significantly negatively associated with psychopathy

What was found with associations between the dark triad and HEXACO model?

Shared dark triad variance correlated up to -.94 with Honesty/Humility