PSYC 160 - Personality and Affective Science

Exam 1

What is personality?

• Attributes that describe an individual

• Uniqueness

• Consistency

• What an individual brings to a situation

• Individual differences/personality often studied within “Affective Science

• Predicts behavior

What is affect?

• Integral part of personality

• Phenomena that involve feeling, including:

  • Emotional States (e.g., sad)

  • Moods (e.g., gloomy)

  • Emotional Traits (e.g., pessimistic)

Walter Mischel

• 1968 book Personality and Assessment

• found that traditional personality traits could not reliably predict how a person would act across different situations. He showed that behavior changes depending on context, sparking a major scientific discussion known as the person-situation debate

• The Marshmallow Test and Self-Control

• “Forget about personality”

Personality - Situation Debate

• Personality traits are categories that do not predict behavior across situations

• Correlation between behavior in one situation and in another = .30 - .40

• Situation drives behavior

• People act the same across situations because the situations are similar

Interaction

• When the combined effect of two or more independent variables on a dependent variable is different from the sum of their separate effects.

• The effect of one IV on the DV is dependent on the second IV

Example of a Person-Situation Interaction

• Situation: Party

• Personality: Level of extraversion/introversion

  • The effect of the situation on behavior (the behavior at the party) depends on the person’s personality:

• Extroverts get excited while Introverts get anxious

Stanford Prison Experiment

• (Situationist Study)

• Show how certain personalities chose to participate in the Stanford Prison Experiment which may hav led to what have happebed

Psychoanalytic

• Unconscious mind is responsible for important differences in behavior styles

• Genetic vs. Environmental: Personality is shaped by unconscious conflicts and early childhood experiences, placing it between genetic and environmental influences.

• Unaware vs. Conscious: Behavior is largely influenced by unconscious conflicts and motives that we are unaware of.

• Determinism vs. Free Will: Behavior is largely determined by unconscious motives, conflicts, and early childhood experiences.

Trait

• An individual lies along a continuum of various personality characteristics

• Genetic vs. Environmental: Personality is influenced by inherited traits as well as environmental experiences, but this approach leans more toward genetics.

• Unaware vs. Conscious: People can recognize their personality traits and how these traits influence their behavior.

• Determinism vs. Free Will: Behavior is influenced by relatively stable personality traits that shape how people act.

Biological

• Inherited predispositions and physiological processes contribute to differences in personality

• Genetic vs. Environmental: Personality is mainly influenced by genetics, brain structures, hormones, and other biological processes.

• Unaware vs. Conscious: Behavior is influenced by biological processes, such as genes and hormones, that we may not consciously recognize.

• Determinism vs. Free Will: Behavior is influenced by genetic, neurological, and physiological processes, although people may still make choices.

Humanistic

• Personal responsibility and feelings of self-acceptance cause differences in personality

• Genetic vs. Environmental: Personality is shaped by personal experiences, growth, and the environment, with an emphasis on individual potential.

• Unaware vs. Conscious: People are conscious of their experiences and can make choices based on their personal values and goals.

• Determinism vs. Free Will: People have free will and can consciously choose their actions and work toward personal growth.

Behavioral/social learning

• Consistent behavior patterns are the result of learning

• Genetic vs. Environmental: Personality is mainly shaped by environmental experiences, conditioning, observation, and learning from others.

• Unaware vs. Conscious: Behavior is influenced by conditioning, reinforcement, and learned experiences that can affect us without our awareness.

• Determinism vs. Free Will: Behavior is largely determined by conditioning, reinforcement, observation, and environmental experiences.

Cognitive

• How people process information shapes their personalities

• Genetic vs. Environmental: Personality is influenced by how people interpret, think about, and respond to their experiences and environment.

• Unaware vs. Conscious: People can be aware of their thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations and how these influence their behavior.

• Determinism vs. Free Will: Behavior is influenced by thoughts, beliefs, and interpretations that shape how people respond to situations.

Construct validity

• Quality of the measures and manipulations; good operationalizations?

• Operationalization?

• Reliability? (Is a measurement consistent?)

• Validity? (Does an instrument reflect what it is supposed to measure?)

Internal validity

• No alternative causal explanations for the outcome

Statistical validity

• Statistical conclusions are appropriate and reasonable.

External validity

• To whom, what, or where can we generalize?

Reliability

• Is a measurement consistent?

Eysenck and Cattell

• Personality predicts behavioral trends, not behavior in specific situations

• .40 is not small

• Effects of situation on behavior also range between .30 - .40

• So.. personality DOES predict behavior

• Personality and situation affect behavior to a similar degree

• Furthermore personality and situation interact

Validity

Are we measuring what we think we are?

Test-rest Reliability

• Every retest is consistent

Internal Consistency Reliability

• Measures how well different items on a test, scale, or survey measure the exact same underlying concept or construct

Interrater Reliability

• The degree of agreement and consistency among independent observers or raters assessing the same phenomenon

Face validity

• Look at the face value

• Example: “does it look like its assessing anxiety”

Convergent/ congruent validity

• Measure corresponds with a similar test

• Example: their new anxiety measure performs to similar to another already established anxiety measure

Discriminant validity

• Measure discriminate against another unrelated measure

• Example: their new anxiety measure doesn’t relate to a math measure

Predictive validity

• The measure can predict behavior

• Example: someone with high anxiety score will show symptoms of anxiety in a new situation.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• The best measures of personality are reliable and valid.

• The MBTI is not a good indicator of personality despite its popularity

Freud’s Topographic Model

divides the human psyche into three distinct levels of consciousness: the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious

Conscious

• Represents everything you are actively aware of at any given moment (such as current thoughts, immediate feelings, and sensory perceptions).

• It acts as the tiny tip of the iceberg visible above the water.

Preconscious (Subconscious):

• Contains information, memories, and knowledge that are not currently in your active awareness, but can be easily retrieved with a little attention or a trigger (such as your phone number or what you ate for breakfast).

• It sits just below the water's surface

Unconscious

• A vast, submerged reservoir of primitive urges, traumatic memories, hidden desires, and repressed impulses that you cannot easily access.

• Even though it is completely hidden from daily awareness, Freud argued that it heavily drives your behavior, dreams, slips of the tongue, and psychological symptoms.

• It forms the massive base of the iceberg underwater.

Id (The Primal Force)

• Origin: Present from birth.

• Function: Operates entirely in the unconscious on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate satisfaction of basic biological and instinctual needs (like hunger, thirst, aggression, and sexual drive) without regard for rules or consequences

The Ego (The Rational Mediator)

• Origin: Develops during infancy and toddlerhood as a part of the id modified by the external world.

• Function: Operates across conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels using the reality principle. It balances the impulsive demands of the id, the moral constraints of the superego, and the physical limits of reality, often using defense mechanisms to manage anxiety.

The Superego (The Moral Compass)

• Origin: Develops around ages 3 to 5 through the internalization of parental and cultural standards.

• Function: Acts as the inner critic or conscience, striving for moral perfection and punishing rule-breaking with feelings of guilt or shame, while rewarding ideal behavior with pride

How to tap the unconscious?

• Observe Naturalistically

  • Cultural symbols

  • Freudian slips

• Examine responses to open-ended stimuli

  • Free association to words

  • Projective tests (TAT)

• Use physiological measures with self-report measures

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

• A projective psychological assessment that uses ambiguous black-and-white pictures to uncover a person's underlying motives, emotional conflicts, and personality trait

• Henry Murray

• David McClelland

Affective-Autonomic Response Discrepancy (AARD)

• Continuous recordings of skin conductance levels (SCL)

• Rate negative affect during interview

• AARD = Standardized reports of negative affect - Subtract standardized change in SCL

• They found that more psychiatric symptoms the more repressive coping

• Less repressive coping leads to more respiratory illness

• Less repressive coping is associated with peers saying they are not doing well

• Some repressive coping, especially in the first weeks and months, is better for grief.

Sociocognitive Theory of Hypnosis

• Approach to hypnosis based on people’s beliefs, attitudes, and expectations

Dissociation Theory of Hypnosis

• Hypnosis causes a split in consciousness, dividing the mind into two or more simultaneous streams of mental activity that operate semi-independently

What did Olsen, Fazio, & Hermann (2006) find about implicit and explicit self-esteem?

• Study 1 found little correlation between implicit self-esteem (IAT) and explicit self-esteem (self-report measures).

• In Study 2, participants instructed to answer honestly showed a stronger association between implicit and explicit self-esteem, suggesting that people's self-reports may be influenced by how they present themselves.

Strengths of Unconscious Measures

• Rich

• Provide additional information

• Not susceptible to self-report biases

Limitations of Unconscious Measures

• Poor reliability and validity

• Time and labor intensive

• Unclear whether really tapping into unconscious

• Difficult to interpret

Non-shared Environmental Factors

• Peers, Differential parenting, Teachers, Coaches, Injury and Illness, Siblings/Birth order

Shared Environmental Factors

• SES, Neighborhood, Family rituals, Marital quality, Parenting styles

Sulloway

• First borns are more responsible, conventional, and achievement oriented, whereas later borns are more rebellious.

• First borns are more conscientious, neurotic, dominant and less open, agreeable, and social than later borns.

Saraglou

• But there are different types of laterborns!

• First born highest in achievement than others.

• Lastborn highest in Agreeableness compared to others.

• > Middle borns most rebellious

Alfred Adler’s

• Proposes that a child’s position among siblings shapes their psychological development, family role, and personality

How Does Birth Order Impact Personality?

• Its not so much prenatal or gestational factors as the results show in social order and birth order.

• Environments altered by sibling(s)?

  • Confluence model (Zajonc, 1987): Firstborns are exposed to more adult language an attention; Laterborns exposed to less mature speech and behavior > less maturity with each additional sibling

• Firstborns as "tutors", enhancing IQ

Attachment Theory

• A psychological framework developed by John Bowlby and expanded by Mary Ainsworth.

• It states that early emotional bonds between infants and primary caregivers shape how people trust, communicate, and navigate intimacy throughout their lives

Secure Attachment

• Child uses mother as secure base; misses

  mother during separations; actively greets

  parent with positive expressions when

  reunited; seeks contact when upset.

  Once comforted, returns to play and

  exploration

• Mother is highly sensitive of child’s needs

Insecure (avoidant)

• Child explores; little display of emotion or secure

  base behavior; shows little distress during

  separation; looks at toys and avoids

  parent during reunion; stiffens if picked

  up; seeks distance from parent and is

  more interested in toys

• Mother is insensitive to child’s needs, less likely to provide physical contact; rejecting of infant

Insecure (anxious)

• Child is distressed when enters room; does not explore; distressed during separation; when reunited, seeks comfort, but is also angry; interested in parent more than toys

• Mother is inconsistent caregiving; unresponsive to infant distress and other signals

Can You Teach Mothers Of Irritable Children To Be More Sensitive To Their Children?

100 mother-infant pairs were randomly assigned to a control or intervention group. Mothers in the intervention group received 3 sessions teaching them to recognize, interpret, and respond appropriately to their infants’ signals.

Results: Compared with the control group, intervention dyads showed:

• 18, 24, and 42 months: More secure attachment and more responsive mothers.

• 24 and 42 months: Children were more cooperative.

• 42 months: Children sought more peer contact.

Conclusion: Teaching mothers to respond sensitively to their infants can promote secure attachment and positive social development.

Coping strategies

• Conscious efforts to reduce anxiety in the face of a perceived threat

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious processes

Active coping skills

• People take an active role to deal with the problem

Emotion-focused strategies

• Designed to reduce the emotional distress that accompanies the problem

Problem-focused strategies

• Intended to take care of the problem and thereby overcoming the anxiety

Avoidance strategies

• People deal with their emotions by pushing the anxiety-provoking situation out of awareness

Coping Flexibility

• Ability to effectively adjust the use of different coping strategies according to a given situation (Bonnano et al., 2011)

Gordon Allport

• He states that every person has a unique set of enduring characteristics, rather than fitting into rigid or universal types.

• He organized these personal features into a three-tiered hierarchy of traits and introduced key ideas about self-identity and adult motivation: Cardinal, Central, and Secondary

Raymond Cattell

• Human personality is made of 16 basic source traits. He used a statistical method called factor analysis to condense thousands of descriptive words into these 16 core factors, which are measured using the 16PF Questionnaire.

Cardinal traits:

• Rare, dominant traits that define a person's entire life and reputation (such as extreme altruism in Mother Teresa or greed in Scrooge)

Central traits

• Core, foundational building blocks of personality present in everyone (such as honesty, kindness, and friendliness)

Secondary traits:

• Preferences or reactions that appear only in specific situations or contexts (such as getting nervous before public speaking)

Surface Traits

• Visible, everyday behavioral patterns that cluster together but do not represent deep causes

Source Traits

• The 16 fundamental, stable underlying structures that build and drive surface traits.

Factor Analysis

• Summarizes interrelations among a set of variables (e.g., items on a questionnaire)

• Identifies groups, clusters, or “factors” of related items

Neuroticism

• Assesses adjustment vs. emotional instability. Identifies individuals prone to psychological distress, unrealistic ideas, excessive cravings or urges, and maladaptive coping responses.

• High: Worrying, nervous, emotional, insecure, inadequate, hypochondriacal

• Low: Calm, relaxed, unemotional, hardy, secure, self-satisfied

Extraversion

• Assesses quantity and intensity of interpersonal interaction; activity level; need for stimulation; and capacity for joy

• High: Sociable, active, talkative, person-oriented, optimistic, fun-loving, affectionate

• Low: Reserved, sober, unexuberant, aloof, task-oriented, retiring, quiet

Openess

• Assesses proactive seeking and appreciation of experience for its own sake; toleration for and exploration of the unfamiliar.

• High: Curious, broad interests, creative, original, imaginative, untraditional

• Low: Conventional, downto-earth, narrow interests, unartistic, unanalytical

Agreeableness

• Assesses the quality of one's interpersonal orientation along a continuum from compassion to antagonism in thoughts, feelings, and

• High: Soft-hearted, good-natured, trusting, helpful, forgiving, gullible, straightforward

• Low: Cynical, rude, suspicious, uncooperative, vengeful, ruthless, irritable manipulative

Conscientiousness

• Assesses the individual's degree of organization, persistence, and motivation in goal-directed behavior. Contrasts dependable, fastidious people with those who are lackadaisical and sloppy.

• High: Organized, reliable, hard-working, self-disciplined, punctual, scrupulous, neat, ambitious, persevering

• Low: Aimless, unreliable, lazy, careless, lax, negligent, weakwilled, hedonistic

Do Perceptions of CEOs Predict Company Profit? (Rule & Ambady, 2008)

• College students rated CEO photos on warmth, power, and leadership. Power and overall leadership ratings were positively correlated with company profits (r = .30–.36), even after controlling for age and attractiveness.

• Conclusion: Facial appearance may communicate traits associated with financial success, but correlation does not prove causation or mean that people can predict future company profits from a photo.

Rosenthal Effect

• is the phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in performance

Intellectual Expectancy Effects

• Gave schoolchildren a battery of tests

• Randomly selected ½ the students and told teachers that these students scored as “Bloomers” – likely to show a sharp increase in IQ in near future

• When IQs tested and compared at the end of the year, bloomers actually showed an increase in IQ

• Because teachers had that expectation, they treated the bloomers more maturely and attentively leading to an increase

Social Expectancy Effects

• Recorded telephone conversation between male and female (male was given either a picture of an attractive or unattractive female)

• Erased male’s end of the conversation and left only the female’s end of the conversation

• Played edited tape to new set of participants

• If male was shown attractive photograph (vs. not as attractive) female described by participants as:

  • Warmer

  • More humorous

  • More poised

• The way we form impressions about others has consequences for the way people behave and how they are perceived

What Specific Cues Do People Use To Judge Bedrooms

• Conscientiousness: Clean, neat, and organized (.56)

• Openness Distinctiveness, Decorated, quantity and variety of magazines, books, and CDs

• Agreeableness: Cheerful, colorful, clean, and comfortable

• Neuroticism : Well lit and fresh

• Extraversion: Decorated

Does the NEO-FFI measure relate to personality in every day life?

• Participants: 46 students tracked their behavior 5 times a day for 13 days.

• Daily reports: They rated how well traits like “talkative” described how they felt and acted during the previous hour.

• Global report: At the end, they completed the NEO personality inventory to measure their overall personality traits.

• Main finding: One person can show a whole range of behaviors related to a trait over two weeks. For example, someone can be very talkative at one moment and quiet at another. Personality traits are relatively stable overall, but the behaviors expressing those traits can vary significantly across situations and time.

Etic

• Import questionnaires from culture of origin

• Translation-Back Translation

  • Limited to words that are easily translated

• Reliability and Validity

• Confirmatory Factor Analysis

• Comparison of Factors

Emic

• Use indigenous terms and sources

• Descriptions of persons based on indigenous sources (e.g., literature, openended responses)

• Exploratory factor analysis

• Comparison of factors

Cultural Differences of the Big Five

• For Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI), N, A, E, C found for both measures, but not O

• For Dutch, German, and English, German and English had O,C,E,A,N, but for Dutch O was different

Interpersonal Relatedness

• Trying to accept others’ requests

• Trying to avoid becoming indebted to others

• Trying to avoid offending other people

• Valuing traditional practices and obedience to elders

• Disliking uncertainty

Big Five: Strengths

• Based on language rather than arbitrary theory

• High reliability and validity

• Relatively easy to administer

• Replicable across cultures, except for Openness

Big Five: Limitations

• Aspects of personality may not be represented in language

• Claims about universality are premature

Charles Darwin

• Theory of evolution by natural selection.

• He explained that living things slowly change over generations to better fit their environment, publishing his idea

• This hints to traits being biological, heritable and passed from parents to offspring

Alfred Wallace

• Independently conceived the theory of evolution by natural selection

• Animal and plant traits evolved strictly through natural selection driven by environmental adaptation, guided by what he called the "principle of utility"—meaning no trait could develop or persist unless it offered a direct survival or reproductive advantage.

Freud

• Austrian neurologist known as the "Father of Psychoanalysis".

• Human behavior and personality are deeply shaped by unconscious motives, childhood experiences, and hidden conflicts.

• A clinical approach that uses techniques like free association and dream analysis to bring unconscious thoughts into conscious awareness to treat psychological distress.

Cronbach's a (Internal consistency)

• A statistical coefficient that measures the internal consistency reliability of a scale or questionnaire

• Anything above a .70 is acceptable to good

Are Cats More Neurotic Than Dogs (according to their owners)

• Yes they are neurotic and it is statistically significant

• Cat Owners are also more neurotic than Dog Owners