PSYC 100 Winter W22

Personality

Continuous Distributions

Characteristics can go from low to high, with all different intermediate values possible. One does not simply have the trait or not have it, but can possess varying amounts of it

Criteria that Characterize Personality Traits

Consistency, Stability, Individual Differences

Lexical Hypothesis

Idea that the most important differences between people will be encoded in the language that we use to describe people. Therefore, if we want to know which personality traits are most important, we can look to the language that people use to describe themselves and others

Factor Analysis

A statistical technique for grouping similar things together according to how highly they are associated

OCEAN - Five Factor Model

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

Openness

Higher curiosity, creativity, emotional breadth, open-mindedness, more likely to experience interest + awe

Conscientiousness

Reflects a person’s tendency to be careful, organized, hardworking, and to follow rules

Extraversion

Reflects a person’s tendency to be sociable, outgoing, active and assertive

Agreeableness

Reflects tendency to be compassionate, cooperative, warm and caring to others

Neuroticism

Reflects tendency to be interpersonally sensitive and to experience negative emotions like anxiety, fear, sadness and anger

Facets

Broad personality traits can be be broken down into narrower aspects of the trait

HEXACO Model

Alternative to the Five Factor Model

Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness

Person-Situation Debate

About the relative power of personality traits as compared to situational influences on behaviour. Situationist critique suggested that people overestimate the extent to which personality traits are consistent across situations

Heterotypic Stability

Consistency in the underlying psychological attribute across development regardless of any changes in how the attribute is expressed at different ages

Homotypic Stability

Consistency of the exact same thoughts, feelings, and behaviours across development

Stress Reaction

The tendency to become easily distressed by the normal challenges of life

Absolute Stability

Consistency in the level or amount of a personality attribute over time

Group Level

A focus on summary stats that apply to aggregates of individuals when studying personality development

Individual Level

A focus on individual level stats that reflect whether individuals show stability or change when studying personality development

Differential Stability

Rank-order in groups; consistency in the rank-ordering of personality across two or more measurement occasions

Cross-Sectional Study

A research design that uses a group of individuals with different ages + birth cohorts assessed at a single point in time

Longitudinal Study

A study that follows the same group of individuals over time

Birth Cohort

Individuals born in a particular year or span of time

Age Effects

Differences in personality between groups of different ages that are related to maturation and development instead of birth cohort differences

Cohort Effects

Differences in personality that are related to historical and social factors unique to individuals born in a particular year

Maturity Principle of Adult Personality Development

The generalization that personality attributes associated with the successful fulfillment of adult roles increase with age and experience

Cumulative Continuity Principle of Personality Development

 The generalization that personality attributes show increasing stability with age and experience

Person-Environment Transactions

Interplay between individuals and their contextual circumstances that ends up shaping both personalty and the environment

Active Person-Environment Transactions

The interplay between individuals and their contextual circumstances that occurs whenever individuals play a key role in seeking out, selecting, or otherwise manipulating aspects of their environment

Reactive Person-Environment Transactions

Interplay between individuals and their contextual circumstances that occurs whenever attributes of the individual shape how a person perceives and responds to their environment

Evocative Person-Environment Transactions

Interplay between individuals and their contextual circumstances that occurs whenever attributes of the individual draw out particular responses from others in their environment

Mechanisms likely to produce personality stability

Attraction, Selection, Manipulation, Attrition

Mechanisms likely to produce personality change

Transformation

Attraction

 A connection between personality attributes and aspects of the environment that occurs because individuals with particular traits are drawn to certain environments

Selection

Occurs whenever individuals with particular attributes choose particular kinds of environments

Attrition

Occurs when individuals with particular traits drop out from certain environments

Manipulation

Occurs whenever individuals with particular traits actively shape their environments

Corresponsive Principle of Personality Development

Idea that personality traits often become matched with environmental conditions such that an individual's social context acts to accentuate and reinforce their personality attributes

Hostile Attribution Bias

Tendency of some individuals to interpret ambiguous social cues and interactions as examples of aggressiveness, disrespect or antagonism

Transformation

Term for personality changes associated with experience and life events

Humanistically-Oriented Models

Argue that people have clear, well-defined goals and are actively striving to achieve them

Psychodynamically-Oriented Theories

Propose that people lack insight into their feelings and motives, such that behaviours is influenced by processes that operate outside of their awareness

Objective Tests

Represent the most familiar and widely used approach to assess personality

Examples of Objective Tests

Self-Report Measures, Informant Ratings

High-Stakes Testing

Settings in which test scores are used to make important decisions about individuals - using test scores to determine admission into a university, or who should be hired for a job; tests are also used in forensic settings to help determine whether a person is competent to stand trial or fits the legal definition of sanity

Self-Enhancement Bias

Tendency for people to see and/or present themselves in an overly favourable way (informants can also show enhancement biases, letter of recommendation effect to describe someone better if they like them

Forms of Self-Enhancement Bias/Tendency

Defensiveness, Impression Management

Defensiveness

When individuals actually believe they are better than they actually are

Impression Management

When people intentionally distort their response to try to convince others that they are better than they really are

Reference Group Effect

Tendency of people to base their self-concept on comparisons with others (informants also prone to these types of effects)

Sibling Contrast Effect

Tendency of parents to use their perceptions of all of their children as a frame of reference for rating the characteristics of each of them

Letter of Recommendation Effect

General tendency for informants in personality studies to rate others in an unrealistically positive manner

Honeymoon Effect

Tendency for newly married couples to rate their spouses in an unrealistically positive manner

Examples of Projective Tests

Rorschach Inkblot Test, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Projectie Hypothesis

Theory that when people are confronted with ambiguous stimuli, their responses will be influenced by their unconscious thoughts, needs, wishes and impulses

Implicit Motives

Goals that are important to a person, but that he/she cannot consciously express. Because the individual cannot verbalize these goals directly, they cannot be easily assessed via self-report. Can however be measured using protective devices such as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Criterion Validity

Refers to the ability of a given test to predict real world outcomes