Definition of Personality
Individual's characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, behavior. An individual’s unique and relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving
Psychological triad
Feel, behave, think
Personality psych overlap
clinical psych, social psych, industrial psych, goal is to show they come together to explain the whole person
Clinical psychology
personality disorders, 4 D's (deviance, danger, distress, dysfucntion, duration)
Social psychology
the person/situation debate
Industrial/organizational psych
personality assessments for understanding vocational interests, occupational success, and leadership
Goals of personality psych
explain whole person in daily environment (not always easy to do)
Basic approaches
trait approach, biological approach, psychoanalytic, phenomenological approach, learning approach
Trait approach
how differences may be conceptualized, measured, and followed over time. "personality traits". Big Five.
Biological approach
understanding the mind in terms of body. focusing on anatomy, physiology, genetics, evolution. understanding depression as a function of abnormal levels of neurotransmitters
Psychoanalytic approach
focus on unconscious mind and internal mental conflict. id, ego, superego. understanding anxiety as a result of a mental conflict
Phenomenological approach
unique conscious experience, humanistic psych (innate good in people). conscious awareness can lead to existential anxiety and creativity. cross cultural psych
Learning approach
how behavior changes due to awards/punishments. includes social learning (how observation/self evaluation determines behavior). cognitive personality (perception, memory, thought)
Competitors or complements?
Psychologists believe their way is the only way. not good to have One Big Theory (OBT), each field can address a different set of questions
Funder's First Law
Great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and surprisingly often the opposite is true as well
Account for whole person/real life concerns
inclusive, interesting, important/over inclusive or unfocused research
Basic approaches (advantages)
great at addressing specific issues, topics/ignores everything else
Within individuals...
their strengths are their weaknesses
You have to test things to know if they're true or not!
develop procedure, collect data (pay attention to results), interpret results (how many tests need to be "correct" before the question is answered?)
Psychology's emphasis on method
research is constantly critiqued, improving methods, isolating variables, trying new conditions, asking new questions, seek new knowledge, question what is already known to find out more
Personality data
personality is a construct, like gravity, observable aspects of personality are clues, piece together clues to form a clear portrait of personality
Person's behavior (chart)
test scores, GPA, how many friends on facebook, how often they smile during convo, what friends say about you, how they describe themselves (things that could make up a person's personality)
Caution! about personality
appearances can be deceiving, people behave differently in different settings
Funder's Second Law
there are no perfect indicators of personality; there are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous
Funder's Third Law
something beats nothing, two times out of three
Face validity
directly asking about what the researchers want to know (ex: "are you friendly?" if researchers want to know about friendliness)
Four kinds of clues
SILB (all sources of data are useful, none are perfect, may not fit all neatly into separate categories)
S data
self judgements, ask person directly, self report, T/F questions, usually matches the way others describe the person, have face validity (intend to measure what they seem to measure)
Advantages of S data
large amount of info, access to thoughts/feelings/intentions, definitional truth (self view), causal force (self efficacy), simple and easy
Disadvantages of S data
bias (think we are better or worse than we are), error (fish and water effect, when completely immersed you can't notice your envt), too simple and easy, over 70% of articles are S data
I data: informants
ask people what they know about the target, people form accurate impression w/o training, can be more accurate than self judgements, based on observation
I data advantages
large amount of info, real world bias, common sense based on context, definitional truth (outside perspective), causal force (if people are reporting the subject in a certain way, you will align with that more)
I data disadvantages
limited behavioral info (an informant cannot be with the target all the time), lack of access to private experiences, error (certain events can stick out and assume personality traits), bias (how do you feel about the person you're describing?)
L data: Life Outcomes
verifiable, concrete, real life facts that may hold psychological significance. "residue" of personality. how a person has affected the world. been arrested? married? divorced? graduate? how does your bedroom look rn?
L data advantages
objective/verifiable, concrete data (often numerical form), intrinsic importance, goal is to predict outcomes/consequences
L data disadvantages
multi determinism (might have many causes, difficulty establishing causality), may lose a job that has nothing to do with their personality, other examples
B data: Behavior
direct observation and recording behavior (how many times did they smile today?), can be in a lab/natural situation
Natural B data
incorporate self report through diary/experience sampling. spying would be best but we can't do that. mix of S data, but no self judgment, beeper method, electronically activated recorder, small wearable cameras, social media
Lab B data
can use experiments and physiological measures, create scenarios to elicit reactions, blood pressure, sweat, heart rate, brain function
B data advantages
can make contexts happen in a lab and in real life, only limited by resources/imagination/ethics, can be very precise, still subjective in terms of what to observe/define behavior
B data disadvantages
difficult to recruit, instruct, and motivate to complete. expensive equipment. long time to sift through data. but does smiling mean openness or agreeableness? appearances can be deceiving. B data often overlaps with S, I, and L data
Quality of data
if the data are bad, so are the results and interpretation. are the data reliable? + are the data valid? --> are the data generalizable
Reliability
are the data dependable? can you get the same result more than once w/ the same group of people? if yes = then reliable. if no = measurement or error variance. (only if you are measuring a trait rather than a trait)
4 things undermine reliability
low precision 2. state of participant 3. state of experimenter 4. environment of the study
4 things improve reliability
be careful with data 2. standardize research protocol 3. measure something important 4. aggregation (average data to reduce data)
Validity
does it actually measure what it is supposed to? for a measure to be valid, it has to be reliable. IQ test is valid if it measure intelligence (but what is intelligence?) need to test from multiple angles to try and get the same results to be valid
Generalizabilty
do your results also apply to other kinds of people across time?
Gender bias
up until 60/70s only men were used in studies, now women are used more, women are more likely to sign up and show up, the men that do aren't always able to be applied to the general population
Shows vs no shows
shows different from no shows, used I data to correlate to these people, shows = over expressive, compulsive, needy. no shows = self adoring, low in assertiveness
Ethnic and cultural diversity
WEIRD, very different from people in poor, uneducated, pre industrialized people, new policies ensure diverse populations have money to be studies
WEIRD
western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
Assessment
personality is revealed by a person's characteristics patterns of behavior, thoughts, experiences. relatively consistent over time. motives, intentions, goals, strategies, perceptions
The business of testing
most tests online are fake, tricking you into giving them money, possibly cults, people cannot tell the difference between valid money and scams, people are desperate to learn who they are
Personality tests
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), California Psychological Inventory, Strong Vocational Interest Blank, Hogan Personality Inventory
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
used in clinical assessment of psychiatric difficulties, employment screening
Rent a Center example
Karracker vs Rent a Center, had to take management tests to be promoted, MMPI was used, "failed" the test, not given promotion, won because they were discriminated against because of mental disorder
California Psychological Inventory
designed for people without psychiatric difficulties, assesses social engagement , poise, morals, interpersonal style, cognitive function, used in law enforcement recruitment
Strong Vocational Interest Blank
used to help people choose suitable careers
Hogan Personality Inventory
used by employers for personnel selection, using scales to determine if you will align with the needs of the company
Projective tests
ambiguous stimuli draw out "hidden aspects of the mind", stimuli don't mean anything, interpretation must be a projection of your own needs, feelings, fears
Rorschach inkblot test
show a person an ambiguous picture, the patient describes what they see, the clinician takes responses and interprets what they could mean about the patient. takes 45 minutes to administer, 1.5 to 2 hours to interpret. not a sure thing. 82% of psychologists use this. 4th most commonly used
What does the Rorschach test do?
breaks the ice, provides convo between psychologist and patient, may detect something important about pathology (disease?), can show usual/unusual perceptions, can predict suicide
Negatives of Rorschach
over pathologizes, time consuming, expensive, validity questionable. looking for what's wrong with you so they could say everything is bad. other measures work just as well and are cheaper
Draw a Person (DAP)
someone (child) is asked to draw a person. clinician interprets drawing, looking for size, color, distortions, shading, exaggerated body, and multiple erasures. excessive shading = aggression, large eyes = fear, erasing = anxiety
Thematic perception test
show a picture and ask the client to create a story around the picture. could be given prompts. who is in the picture? what were they doing before? measure motivational states, can use LIWC program to analyze
"Objective" tests
nothing is really objective with personalities yes/no, true/false, numeric scales, scored by computers, objective tests and ways to score them
Objective tests
rational method, factor analysis, empirical method
Rational method
develop items that see, direct and rationally related to what the test developer wishes to measure. happiness scale = are you happy? how often do you go to theme parks? do you like your job?
Things to consider with validity (objective tests)
interpretation must mean the same thing to participants that it does to researchers, must be able to make an accurate self assessment, must be willing to report accurately, items must be valid indicators of what is being measured
Grit
passion, focus, perseverance, and resilience even when faced with setbacks
Factor Analytic Method
begin with a large list of items, administer to a large group of participants, see which items have a pattern emerge, after identifying patterns figure out what they have in common, name the categories (factors), this was how the Big 5 was made
Empirical method
allow reality to speak for data, gather samples who are already naturally divided into groups (happy ministers v not happy ministers), gather items, administer test, compare answers between groups, compare similar answers to apply to real life (MMPI is an example)
Ethical issues with objective tests
helpful in figuring out occupations, however these tests rely on the assumption that people in that occupation should only be one type of person, what if a new perspective is needed?
Trait approach
correlational designs (observing relationships between variables), focus on individual differences (not universal experiences), can still group people by individual experience, traits are building blocks for personality, people are inconsistent, traits may not be enough because situations can change behavior
Correlation coefficient
showing strength of relationship between two variables between -1 and +1, 0 is no relationship
The Situation Argument
situations matter more! three factors
Situation argument 1
Upper limit to predicting future behavior, upper limit is low, not able to predict future, people are inconsistent situation to situation, Walter Mischel, S/B data, I/B data, B/B data nothing matches! correlations are .3-.4
Situation argument 2
situations matter more than personality traits in predicting behavior, if correlation between personality and future behavior is .4, personality only explains "16% of variance"
Situation argument 3
assessing personality is a waste of time, fundamental attribution error is believing personality matters/exists at all
The Personologist Response
they are good at predicting who is most likely to be ___, especially with aggregated data, real life predictive data, and .4 is actually not small, many psych studies are the same or less
The Personologist Response contd
there is a difference between absolute consistency and relative consistency. when talking to someone you don't know first time scores were awkward, second time was every average was lower. when the data was phrased in correlation to the individual, people were very consistent to themselves in both situations
Marshmallow test
Mischel himself found that self control in childhood can be predictive of competency, higher SAT scores, health in early adulthood. he argued that this was not personality but rather the building of strengths
Why we still study personality
predictions that can be made are still important! businesses and schools need to know who could be successful in these environments
High scores on agreeableness
more likely to be hired, better heart health, less criminal behavior
Personality Situation debate conclusion
where you stand on debate reflects your own values, the two sides do not need to be mutually exclusive, persons and situations do interact!