Personality (1)

multi-trait approach

look at behavior, then see what personality traits contribute to that behavior

what 3 personality traits contribute to Right-Wing Populism?

1. tolerance for ambiguity
2. belief in a just world
3. foundations used in moral valuation

right-wing populism (RWP)

any political philosophy that favors tradition in the face of external forces for change and is critical of proposals for radical social change

three clusters of RWP

1. populism
2. nativism
3. authoriatarianism

populism

a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups

who are the elites in RWP?

liberal, cosmopolitan, and academic

who are the elitists for LWP?

economic giants such as large corporations

nativism

the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants

ex: xenophobia

nationalism

the policy of protecting the interests of the nation over those of other nations

Proud Boys

an opportunistic hate group whose message of white male chauvinism is infused with religious and nationalist symbols

authoritarianism components

* authoritarian submission
* conventionalism
* authoritarian aggression

authoritarian submission

a high degree of submission to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives

conventionalism

a high degree of adherence to the social conventions that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities

authoritarian aggression

a general aggressiveness, directed against various persons (out-groups or deviants), that is perceived to be sanctioned by established authorities

belief in a just world

* a just world is one in which actions and conditions have predictable, appropriate consequences
* ex: idioms (“what goes around comes around”, etc)
* functional

what happens when Just World Beliefs are violated?

motivated reasoning

* acceptance of Rape-Myths
* blaming victims of bullying
* blaming people in poverty

low tolerance for ambiguity characteristics

* discomfort over uncertainty
* like things to be “black and white”
* Seize and Freeze cognition
* need for categorization
* need for certainty
* inability to accept good and bad traits may exist in the same person
* preference for familiar over unfamiliar
* rejection of the unusual or different
* early selection and maintenance of one solution or viewpoint in an ambiguous situation (SEIZE)
* premature closure to new infor (FREEZE)

seize and freeze cognition

if they are in an uncomfortable situation, they seize the first rationale/explanation and then stop taking in new information (freeze)

high tolerance for ambiguity characteristics

* more creativity
* less resolve

\* what is the ultimate goal in psychology? \*

to predict behavior

personality

study of individual differences

* what makes you different from other people consistently
* characteristic pattern
* dynamic (impacts your environment) (doesn’t just sit there)
* psychological and physical ( not only a product of psychology but also biology)
* creates thoughts, feelings and behavior

\* what does personality refer to? \*

consistency

biological aspects of biopsychosocial

genetic and physiological

psychological aspects of biopsychosocial

emotion regulation and knowledge/experience

social aspects of biopsychosocial

cultural, familial, socioeconomic

operationalization

the act of taking something and turning it into a tangible, measurable thing

what is one of the most difficult parts of psychology?

to take tangible thing and turn it into something measured with numbers

what are questions to ask with an experiment regarding relationship between attractiveness and niceness?

* how do you operationalize (measure) attractiveness?
* how do you measure something abstract like “nice personality”?

what 3 questions does studying personality encomapss?

1. who does that?
2. what do people like that do?
3. what are the most important traits to describe people by?

what approach is “who does that”?

outcome based

what approach is “what do people like that do”?

trait based

what approach is “what are the most important traits to describe people by”?

essential trait approach

outcome based

take a behavior and ask what personality aspects contribute to that behavior

trait based

takes the feature of a personality and examines that trait and its relation to a host of different behaviors; start with trait then move onto behavior

essential trait approach

quest for conclusive lists of traits to predict the most behavior

* if we had to come up with a list of traits, with as few as possible, what would be the essential traits required to predict the most behavior?

requirements of the essential trait approach

* succinct (concise, briefly and clearly expressed)
* comprehensible predictable
* can’t be redundant
* traits need to be orthogonal to each other
* statistically independent, no correlation with each other

introspection

to look within yourself for info, the act of looking at your own experience

what is an example of introspection?

look into your personal experiences (things that happen before going to sleep and thought processes) to try to see why you have trouble falling asleep

problems with introspection

* fish-and-water effect
* human beings have active distortion of memory
* lack of self-insight

fish-and-water effect

* how can you spot patterns if patterns are always around you?
* the inability to differentiate things that are novel from things that are common
* can fish see water?

lack of self-insight

overexaggerate abilities, memories of accomplishments that are too much or too little based on what actually happened

example of lack of self-insight

Dunning-Kruger effect

Dunning-Kruger effect

how did bad singers on American Idol go on stage and sing in front of a huge crowd and think they could win?

* argues that some skills required to be good at something are required to assess how good you are at that thing

what is introspection a good starting point for and why?

developing theories because it is cheap, quick, and no wasted resources

self-report

questionnaires that people answer about themselves

what do the answers to the questionnaires for self-report do?

they are combined mathematically to create a scale

what is an example of self-report?

Machiavellianism

Machiavellianism

unemotional, able to detach oneself from morality

what was the study involving Machiavellianism?

questions were given about Machiavellianism and whether they agree/disagree, answers summed up, charted on a histogram, figure out average and compare scores to the average score

problems with self-report

* relies on introspection so has the same problems
* people lie to look better
* ex: men and women lie on # of sexual partners they’ve had

strengths of self-report

easy and cost effective

test and other measures of performance

IQ tests, math tests, SATs

naturalistic observation

act of observing someone in a way that doesn’t tip them off that they’re being observed

* may use one-way mirrors or cameras

strength of naturalistic observation

gets around self-report problems

problem with naturalistic observation

costly because it has to be coded

* have to have independent parties breakdown data and rate, observe, and count specific behaviors

experience sampling

the act of repeatedly querying participants about their experiences

* random assessments at periodic intervals
* generally, uses their own cell phone or some other electronic device they carry with them

strengths of experience sampling

assesses people in their actual lives, not in a lab

problems with experience sampling

* still self-report
* expensive and hard to manage
* high rate of dropout (because over long period of time)

physiological measures and physical measurements

act of measuring tangible things as opposed ot beliefs

examples of physiological measures and physical measurements

PET scan, EEG (electroencephalography), EDA (electrodermal activity), heart rate, BMI, height, predictors of physical attractiveness

predictors of physical attractiveness

* SHR in men (shoulder to hip ration)
* WHR in women (waist to hip ratio)
* facial symmetry

value

a numerical description of an attribute (ex: 6’2”)

variable

attribute described by multiple values (ex: height)

* also called a measure

experimental method

has at least 2 leveles of independent variable (s)

\* what does experimental method require? \*

random assignment

random assignment

participants randomly assigned to 1 different level of independent variable)

independent variable

manipulated

dependent variable

measured

what about naturally occuring relationships?

* can only observe relationships
* measured with correlation

correlation

measure of relationship between variables

* measure of how much score on one variable predicts score on the other

strength

degree of accuracy that values of one variable can be predicted with values of the other, not how steep line is but how close points cluseter around it

what is the strength measured by?

correlation coefficient (r) (ranges from -1 to 1)

what does a perfect correlation mean?

2 variables are actually measuring the same thing

positive correlation

as one variable increases, score on different variable also increases

* ex:
* low watching violent porn = acceptance of rape myths
* high violent porn = high acceptance

negative (inverse) correlation

as one variable increases, score on other variable decreases

* ex:
* high IQ = less children
* low IQ = more children

causality

the why of correlations

\* what is the relationship between correlation and causation? \*

correlation DOES NOT imply causation

moral foundations

* harm avoidance
* fairness
* in-group loyalty
* authority
* purity

harm avoidance

harming others is immoral

fairness

cheating others is immoral

in-group loyalty

betraying your group is immoral

authority

disobeying or disrespecting authority is immoral

purity

degrading yourself or others is immoral

\* what is important to right-wing populists? \*

they equally utilize all 5 moral foundations

what do left-wing populists rely more heavily on?

2 moral foundations (harm avoidance, fairness)

lexical approach

approach to studying personality that uses common language about personality as insight into essential traits

correlation matrix

a table showing correlation coefficient between sets of variables

the big 5 personality traits

1. openness (to experience)
2. conscientiousness
3. extraverion/intraversion
4. agreeableness
5. neuroticism

openness

* has been called intellect, culture, or openness to experience
* how willing you are to explore/try new things
* being interested in trying new activities
* playing with new ideas, beliefs, and value systems
* best way to explain it is being open minded to new things
* related to tolerance for ambiguity

which of the big 5 are the hardest for people to comprehened and why?

openness to experience because facets almost don’t seem to quite go together

* imagination, artistic interests, emotionality, adventurous, intellect, liberalism

what are people who are high in openness more likely to do?

* to use drugs
* to play a musical instrument
* to be politically liberal
* tend to enjoy nature more
* to be more active in environmental causes

what are people who are high in openness are seen as?

more intellectual, more creative, more intelligent

what are college students high in openness more likely to so?

* believe in UFOs, astrology, ghosts
* exhibit higher substance abuse and a tendency to feel more “inspired”
* there is some evidence that taking mushrooms can increase openness to experience up to 3 months later

extraversion/introversion

* highest amounts associated with more frequent interaction with others
* includes desire for dominance
* whether or not you get energyh form interacting with others or from being alone

agreeableness

* nurturance, emotional supportiveness, need to maintain relationships
* inhibition of negative emotion for sake of other people

conscientiousness

* both motivation to achieve AND discipline to do so
* persistence, organization, planning

neuroticism/emotional stability

* tendency to experience negative emotions (doubt, worry)

what is one positive of neuroticism?

can be motivating

what are the sources of personality?

* introspection
* self-report
* tests and other measures of performance
* naturalistic observation
* experience sampling
* physiological measures and physical measurements

personality

characteristic patterns of behavior, thought, and emotional experience that exhibits relative consistency across time and situations