Personality Psychology Exam 1

Personality

a set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual organized and relatively enduring and that influence his or her interactions with and adaptations to the intrapsychic, physical, and social environments

Psychological traits

characteristics that describe way sin which people are different from each other

Psychological mechanisms

processes of personality

Murray's 3 Levels of Personality Analysis

Every human being is:

1) Like all others (human nature level)

2) Like some others (individual/group level)

3) Like no others (individual uniqueness level)

6 Domains

1) Dispositional: ways individuals differ

2) Biological: genetics, psychophysiology, evolution

3) Intrapsychic: mental mechanisms of personality

4) Cognitive-Experiential: cognition and subjective experience

5) Social and cultural: personality affects and is affected by social and cultural contexts

6) Adjustment: personality plays a key role in how we adjust to our everyday lives

Don't Buy Swiss Cheese, It's Aged!

Is there a grand theory of personality

NO

The 6 domains can ultimately provide foundations for a unified theory

Sources of Personality Data

S-data

O-data

T-data (fMRI, projective techniques, experiments)

L-data (life outcome--info gleaned from events)

Agreement across data sources is ___ to____

low to moderate

some traits more observable

depends heavily on research questions

Triangulation

examine results that transcend data sources using two methods to check the results

Reliability

the degree to which an obtained measure represents the true level of a trait

3 Types of Reliability

1) test-retest

2) inter-rater

3) internal (measures that test the same construct should yield similar results)

Validity

extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure

5 Types of validity

1) Face--appears to "look good"

2)Construct--contains all necessary parts

3) Predictive/Criterion--predicts criteria external to test

4) Convergent--correlates with similar measures

5) Discriminant--does not correlate with dissimilar measures

2 Views of Traits

1) Traits as internal properties that CAUSE behavior

2) Traits as purely descriptive summaries with NO assumptions about causality

Act Frequency Approach

Traits are categories of acts

3 Ways to Identify most important traits

1) Lexical Approach--all important traits have become encoded within the NATURAL LANGUAGE

~synonym frequency

~cross-cultural universality

~"starting point"

2) Statistical Approach--identify major dimensions of personality map

*factor analysis--which items COVARY

3) Theoretical Approach--theory-driven

Eysenck 3 Main Heritable Traits

psychophysiological-->internal

1) Psychoticism (aggressive, DISAGREEABLE)

2) Extraversion-Introversion (extraversion=sociable, sensation-seeking)

3) Neuroticism (anxious, tense)

Eysenck developed a ____ model

hierarchal--starts with broad traits

Cattell: ___ Personality ___ System

16, Factor

descriptive

Essential Theorist

~Personality factors, named alphabetically like vitamins

~Oblique traits

Orthogonal

Traits are opposite

Five Factor Model

Costa & McCrae

OCEAN

Each of the Big 5 has a set of specific ____

Facets

Subtlety, nuance

EX: Conscientiousness factors=competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self-discipline, deliberation

Fifth Factor Causes problems

Openness

Lack of evidence cross-culturally

Variety of definitions

Trait Approach= ____ Approach

Quantitative--statistically oriented

Rank Order

If all people show a decrease on a particular trait over time, they might still maintain the SAME RANK relative to each other

Traits are consistent across ____

situations

Mischel

SITUATIONISM

Two necessary concepts of trait psychology

1) Person-situation interaction

2) Aggregation--averaging as a tool for assessing personality traits--most reliable

Strong situation

Situation in which nearly all people react in similar ways

Situational Selection

tendency to choose the situations in which one finds oneself

Evocation

Certain traits may evoke specific responses from the environment

Barnum Statements

Generalities that could apply to anyone (horoscopes)

Personality Testing in Workplace

MMPI or CPI

personnel selection aids

Integrity testing

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

MBTI

Forced-choice format

Extraversion-Introversion

Sensing-Intuition

Thinking-Feeling

Judging-Perceiving

Based on JUNGIAN concepts

Problems with MBTI

1) People don't come in "types"--cutoff scores

2) Unreliability of typology scheme

3) Assumes large between-category differences and no within-category differences

Good to get people thinking, maybe not very valid/reliable

Hogan Personality Inventory

HPI

aspects of Big 5 relevant to ACCEPTANCE, STATUS AND CONTROL, PREDICTABILITY

used in workplace settings

True-false items

Highly reliable

Big 5 Facets

EXTRAVERSION: warmth, talkativeness, assertiveness, activity level, excitement seeking, positive emotion

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS: competence, order, dutifulness, achievement-seeking, self-discipline

NEUROTICISM: anxiety, hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, stress vulnerability

OPENNESS: fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas

AGREEABLENESS: trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, tendermindedness

Funder Moderators of Accuracy

1) Good Trait: visible and observable, accurately judged

2) Good Info: More is better, High quality (know someone longer=better judge)--quantity has an edge?

3) Good Judge: Agreeable, consistent, content with life, often HIGH CONSCIENTIOUSNESS (E in males, O in women)

4) Good Target: Person is psychologically healthy and well-adjusted

McAdams 3 Layers

Traits: Social Actor

Characteristic Adaptations: Agent Behind Action

Identity as a Life Story: Author

McAdams Types of Life Stories

Contamination: positive event happened, but then ruined

Redemption: event starts low, ends positively

MMPI= __ Data

T, appears like S Data

Depends on HOW you answer, not WHAT you answer?

Ex: "I am a religious messenger of the Lord"

L Data Disadvantages and Advantages

Pos: Appearance of objectivity

Neg: MULTIDETERMINISM (life outcomes not totally due to personality)

T Data Disadvantages and Advantages

Pos: Remains objective, Range of contexts

Neg: Psychological interpretation of data meaning

S Data Disadvantages and Advantages

Pos: you have access to yourself only you can discuss, DEFINITIONAL TRUTH, Causal force (what you think of yourself can influence behavior)

Neg: Social desirability, don't understand themselves fully, imperfect memory

O Data Disadvantages and Advantages

Pos: Info rooted in real world, Definitional Truth, Causal force

Neg: Limited behavioral info

Allport

father of personality psych

Trait

single, meaningful unit of personality

4 Trait Qualities

1) Internal Dispositions: stable over time and across dispositions

2) Bipolar: traits exist on a continuum (high-low), usually exist on normal distribution

3) Additive and Independent: can use many traits to describe someone but each trait is independent

4) Broad Individual Differences: social/emotional functioning

3 Approaches to Traits

1) The Single: what do people like THAT do? Refers to an important personality trait

EX: self-monitoring inventory

2) The Many: WHO does that? constellation of charactersitics--> certain behavior

EX: California Q Set (make comparisons within individual), Delay of Gratification

3) The Essential: Big 5, WHAT is the most important?

Mate Poaching Example of Extraversion Domain

characteristics that make people "poachers" or the "poached"

Social Psych

1968--end of maga-theories

Rise of social psych: interactionism and situationism

Criteria for Accuracy and First Impressions

Convergent Validity on:

1.self-other

2. other-other (consensus)

3. behavioral prediction

Ways First Impressions Matter

~Facial judgments

~Music--associate who likes which music based on clothing, etc. Can be very accurate

*music preferences more accurate for first meeting for traits of O,A,N

`

Realistic Accuracy Model 4-step Process for Judgments

Funder

1. Relevant: trait must be relevant and available (ex: courageousness only relevant sometimes)

2. Available: only in certain situations

3. Detect: must be paying attention to judge

4. Utilize: use all of this info to form a judgment

Rats are Definitely Ugly

Personality Development

Stable; measures at age 3 associated with measures at age 30

Friends can predict life events ____ than self report

better

Across lifespan, agreeableness and conscientiousness ___, neuroticism ____

increase

decrease

Personality changes related to changes in meaningful ___

experiences

Education, Health, Military Experience

Idiographic Approach

Allport--Traits, everyone is unique

Nobody has ever been born or ever will be born exactly like you

Understanding a person based on life story

Individual difference approach

Nomothetic Approach

All encompassing general laws and principles in a group

Statistical Analysis

Similarities

Observer Reports are the best indicators of ___ and ____ success

Academic

Career

Types of Unstructured Questions

"Tell me about..."

Twenty Statements Test

Types of Structured Questions

Forced-choice

Likert scale

Semantic differential format

Q Set

100 Questions, interested in MANY traits

TIPI

Ten Item Personality Inventory based on Big 5

Problems with Lexical Approach

~some words are more common than others

~words other than adjectives can convey personality "knucklehead"

Problems with Theoretical Approach

~"theory is as theory does"

Problems with Statistical Approach

~only as good as what goes into it

Hexaco

Model of Personality

6 domains

Big 5+ 6th factor (Honesty-Humility)

Orthogonal vs. Oblique

Independent

vs.

Dependent on other traits

~Cattell's factors=oblique

~Big 5= orthogonal

Big 5 is NOT a ____, it is a ____

theory

it's a TAXONOMY

Extravert Study

more difficult for extraverts to act like introverts

~introverts have an easier time of acting like extraverts

Who is the most "poachable?"

Extraverts!

Who accepts the least poaching offers?

Agreeableness, Conscientiousness

Who is most likely to accepts poaching offers?

Neurotics

Rank-Order Consistency

maintain rank among population

Mean Level Change

Population changes over time with respect to Big 5

Personality Coherence

Manifestation of traits changes, but traits still exist

2 Qualities of Change

1) Internal

2) Enduring

Temperament

Early years of personality

Thomas and Chess

3 types of babies (easy, slow to warm up, difficult)

Mary Rothbart

6 dimensions of temperament (Activity Level, Smiling, Fearfulness, Distress, Soothability, Duration of orienting)

Modern Temperament Science

Higher-order traits

Goldberg: Tellegan

Big 3 of modern temperament science

Positive Emotionality

Negative Emotionality

Effortful Control

Infancy Temperament Assessments

Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire

Children's Behavior Questionnaire

Longer delay between infant assessment and childhood assessment = __ stable

less

Lab Assessment Advantages

Evoke emotional reactivity

~Direct, Objective

~Sharper differentiation of closely related traits

~Can elicit infreqent emotions

Parent Report

Can be biased

~Parents tend to over/underestimate traits

Projective Measures: __ Data

T

T vs. S Data

how you respond

v.

what you think about yourself

Big 5 traits are ___

Orthogonal

Factor Analysis

Essential traits

How items covary

Start with list of traits, what they have in common, go up from there

STATISTICAL APPROACH

FA "Nonsense Factor"

Weird factor that has nothing in common with anything else

Relationship among items that makes no sense

FA Disadvantages

"Garbage in, garbage out"

Nonsense factor

Freudian Circumplex

Dimensional

Non-Big 5

Orthogonal, oblique, etc.

Higher generativity= ____ redemption

Increased

Redemption negatively correlated with depression

McAdams

If O data and S data disagree, ___ are right

YOU

Life outcomes, O data ___ than S data

better

Music and Traits

Factor Analysis

Some music is more predictive of traits than others

Religious, Country, Classical--most accurate

Some stereotypes are accurate, but not all are created equal

Not high for rap or soul