2a. narrow personality traits

What does OCEAN refer to in personality theory?

The Big 5 traits — Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

What are personality facets?

Narrower traits under each Big 5 factor; 6 facets per trait that are related but distinct.

What are Digman’s Alpha and Beta factors?

Alpha = socialisation/stability; Beta = personal growth/openness to experience.

What is the General Personality Factor (Big One)?

A single overarching trait capturing socially desirable qualities from all Big 5 traits.

What is the bandwidth-fidelity dilemma in personality research?

A trade-off: broad traits predict more behaviours less accurately, narrow traits predict fewer behaviours more accurately.

What did Paunonen & Ashton (2001) find about narrow vs broad traits?

Need for Achievement (narrow) predicted grades better than Conscientiousness (broad). Need for Understanding predicted grades, but Openness did not. SHOWS facets can be better predictors.

What does the bandwidth-fidelity dilemma suggest for trait selection?

•  Trade-off between breadth (bandwidth) and accuracy (fidelity) in prediction.

  • Broad traits (e.g., Conscientiousness): predict many behaviours, less precisely.

  • Narrow traits (e.g., Need for Achievement): predict fewer behaviours, more precisely.

What traits are associated with Authoritarianism (Adorno et al., 1950)?

Preference for routines, strong views on punishment, acceptance of authority, reluctance to introspect.

Is authoritarianism a personality trait or attitude?

Research suggests a trait basis, as seen in Bouchard et al. (2003) twin studies showing heritability of conservatism.

What did Amodio et al. (2007) find about conservatism and brain function?

Conservatives showed reduced neural response in No-Go trials, suggesting less cognitive flexibility.

What is the continuity hypothesis in schizotypy?

• there is no discontinuity between normality and illness; psychosis personality traits in non-clinical populations exist

• schizotypy = correlated items based on clinical descriptions of schizo i.e. correlated clinical traits of schizo used to develop schizotypy that are non-clinical

What are some symptoms of schizo?

Delusions (e.g. paranoia, grandeur), Hallucinations, Disorganised speech and behaviour AND Negative symptoms such as blunted affect, avolition and poverty of speech.

How does O-LIFE measure schizotypy?

• Unusual experiences = perceptual distortions, hallucinations + magical thinking

• Cog disorganisation = cog difficulties, sense of purposelessness, anxiety etC

• Introvertive Anhedonia = lack of enjoyment from social sources and dislike of intimacy 

• Impulsive nonconformity = related to impulsive and disinhibited behaviour

How does the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire measure schizotypy?

• items developed to capture the 9 features of schizotypal personality disorder

• Ideas of reference, excessive social anxiety, odd beliefs/magical thinking, unusual perceptual experiences, odd/eccentric behaviours, no close friends, constricted affect and suspiciousness

What is cognitive inhibition and how is it tested in schizotypy research?

Ability to ignore distractions; tested via negative priming tasks like the Stroop test.

What did Steel et al. (1996) find in their Stroop task study?

High schizotypy individuals had weaker negative priming effects — showing reduced cognitive inhibition

What are the three traits in the Dark Triad and what is it?

• Machiavellianism, = A manipulative trait focused on deceit, power, and control.

• Narcissism = A personality trait involving feelings of superiority, dominance, and entitlement.

• Psychopathy = trait marked by impulsivity, thrill-seeking, superficial charm, and low empathy.

• 3 overlapping, distinct personality traits relating to social malevolence, coldness, aggressiveness, self promotion and duplicity

What did Christie & Geis (1970) do/

• Mach-IV (scales to describe the personality)

• Conducted a series of studies to validate the scale. e.g. confederates encouraged them to cheat on a task, amount of eye contact with experimenter measured following accusation of cheating

What are examples of Mach-IV scale items?

• "Tell people what they want to hear" (Tactics)

• "It’s hard to get ahead without cutting corners" (Views)

• “Better to be honest than important” (-ve Morality).

What are some behaviours associated with Dark Triad traits?

Cruelty to animals, short-term mating, night-time chronotype.

How do Dark Triad traits relate to Big 5 + HEXCO?

• Big 5 = sig -ve correlation with agreeableness for all 3

• HEXCO = sig -ve correlation with honesty/humility