Personality Psychology Midterm 2

Lecture 7: Personality Stability, Development, and Change

• What is rank-order consistency, and how high are personality correlations over 10 years?

People maintain the ways in which they are different from other people in the same sample or group, personalities generally remain constant over time

• What is mean-level change, and how is it measured (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal)?

Changes in the mean levels of a personality trait over time 

cross sectional - surveys people at different ages at the same time

longitudinal - same people are repeatedly measured over the years from childhood to adulthood

• What is the difference between mean-level change and rank-order stability?

Mean level change is how people change over time while rank order stability is how people stay the same over time

• What is the cumulative continuity principle?

Individual differences in personality become more consistent as one gets older

• What is the maturity principle?

The traits needed to perform adult roles effectively increase with age

• What is heterotypic continuity? Can you give an example?

Fundamental personality tendencies are expressed differently with age

• What are the three main dimensions of temperament, and how do they map onto adult traits?

1. Negative emotionality 2. Positive emotionality 3. Effortful control.                                             They develop over time to become more complex personality traits

• What are person-environment transactions? Define and differentiate active, reactive, and evocative types.

1. Active person-environment transaction: person seeks out compatible environments and avoids incompatible ones

2. Evocative person-environment transaction: aspect of individuals personality leads to behavior that changes the situations one experiences 

3. Reactive person-environment transaction: different people respond differently to the same situation

• What is the identity development principle?

People construct a sense of ‘who am I’ as they grow up and this self view becomes an important foundation of behavioral stability as they try to be consistent with that sense of self, closely tied to narrative identity 

• What is the role continuity principle?

Individuals tend to maintain consistency in their roles throughout their life

• What is the social clock, and how does being 'on time' vs. 'off time' relate to psychological well-being?

Pressure to accomplish certain things by certain ages, being on time often means social approval while falling behind relates with less social approval

• According to Ravenna Helson’s research, what happens to women who don’t follow either the masculine or feminine social clock?

Women who don't follow either clock often become depressed and lonely

• What are some reasons people want to change their personality?

People want to be more socially desirable 

• What is the most commonly cited trait people want to change?

Neuroticism

• What are the three main barriers to personality change?

People tend to like their personalities the way they are

people tend to blame negative experiences on external forces rather than recognizing the role of their own personality 

people generally like their lives to be consistent and predictable

• How can personality change through psychotherapy or behaviors (e.g., exercise)?

Treat patient with unconditional positive regard

cognitive behavioral therapy teaches patient to apply adaptive emotional responses and behaviors to their lives

exercising creates a more stable personality and decreases decline in conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and agreeableness

• Why might personality change be seen as maladaptive or disruptive?

It can backfire, especially on an unwilling patient

Lecture 8: Evolution & Genetics

• What are common critiques of evolutionary theory?

The methods are hard to test

conservative bias

undermines human flexibility 

underestimates role of social structures

• What is behavioral genetics?

Addresses how personality traits that differ among individuals are passed from parent to child and shared by biological relatives

examines how genes influence broad patterns of behavior 

• What are two reasons why behavioral genetics has a complicated history?

History of eugenics and cloning

• How many genes do humans have? What percentage of the genome is shared?

~30,000 genes with 99% shared among all humans

• What is heritability? How is the heritability coefficient calculated?

The amount of variability in personality due to genetic differences

(r identical twins - r fraternal twins) x 2

• For example, if the correlation between identical (MZ) twins for a personality trait is .60 and the correlation for fraternal (DZ) twins is .30, what is the heritability coefficient? 

A. .15

B. .30

C. .60

D. .90

• Correct answer: C .60 Heritability = (r_MZ − r_DZ) × 2 → (.60 − .30) × 2 = .60

• What are the typical heritability estimates for personality traits in twin vs. non-twin studies (i.e., which are larger)?

Twin ~.40         Non-twin ~.20

• How is heritability not interpreted (i.e., not predictive of individuals)?

Heritability can’t tell you nature vs nurture or how genes affect personality

• What do twin studies tell us about the role of genes in traits like conscientiousness and neuroticism?

Conscientiousness seems 50/50 genetic to environment while neuroticism is 12/88 

some traits are more heritable than others

• What are genome-wide association studies (GWAS)?

Look for associations between hundreds of thousands of genes and personality traits in large studies

• What is epigenetics?

Experience affects biology and genetic expression

Lecture 9: Positive Psychology & Happiness

• What are the three broad theories assumed to represent the population and what do they say about the direction between happiness and life domains? 

Bottom up (Situational) Top down (Dispositional) Bi Directional

Population is split evenly between the three, some people get happiness from their situations, some from their disposition, and some from both

• What is the difference between hedonic and eudaimonic well-being?

Hedonic Well being - the ‘pleasant life’ seek out pleasurable activities that increase positive emotions and decrease negative emotions

Eudaimonic Well being - the ‘meaningful life’ finding meaning, purpose, and personal growth leads to flourishing 

• What is setpoint theory (also known as the hedonic treadmill)?

Good things and bad things happen to increase or decrease our level of happiness but we generally return to the same baseline level of happiness

• What does cross-cultural research reveal about definitions of happiness around the world?

Happier countries have more resources, greater life expectancies, and social support. For some countries, happiness is about interdependence and less emotional arousal

• What are five science-backed strategies that increase happiness?

1. Reflect on, and express, gratitude

2. Meditation

3. Physical exercise

4. Social Connections

5. Having purpose, mission, and goals

• What is “flow”? How does ability vs. challenge relate to flow?

Being ‘in the zone’ ability and challenge must match each other to experience flow

• What is mindfulness? What are its psychological benefits?

Being alert and aware of every thought, sensation, and experience

it reduces stress and rumination, enhances creativity and improves memory

• What is the relationship between money and happiness?

Money can buy happiness to a point, effect plateaus around $75-90k 

• What personality traits are associated with greater happiness?

Tend to be more Extraverted, Agreeable and Conscientious 

• How can spending style (e.g., donating or buying experiences) influence well-being?

It matters how you spend your money, experiences aligned with your personality, donating, spending on others is better

Lecture 10: Emotions & Relationships 

• What traits are associated with successful relationships (e.g., extraversion, agreeableness)?

Extraversion, Agreeableness and high positive emotionality and good self control predicts higher quality relationships

• What traits are associated with poor relationships (e.g., neuroticism, rejection sensitivity)?

Dispositional contempt, neuroticism, and social anxiety are associated with poor relationships

• What is rejection sensitivity, and who may experience it more intensely?

Heightened anxiety around perceived rejection, ADHD and autistic folks experience it more 

• What are common 'dealbreaker' traits in romantic relationships?

Untrustworthiness and anger issues are deal breakers

• What are the three adult attachment styles (anxious, avoidant, secure)?

Secure - healthy relationship with primary caregiver

Ambivalent (anxious) - limited parental availability, craves close relationships but struggles to trust, need for reassurance, feelings of anxiety and jealousy are common

Avoidant - 

• Can attachment styles change? What did Fraley et al. (2020) find?

Attachment styles can change over time due to life events, overall trend towards security

• What is ghosting? What traits are associated with higher likelihood of ghosting? 

Unilaterally cutting off contact with a partner and ignoring their attempts to reach out 

people higher in machiavellianism and psychopathy are more likely to ghost

• What is sociosexuality? How does it differ across genders?

Willingness to engage in casual sexual encounters

men score higher than women

• Are there differences in outcomes for children of sexual minority vs. heterosexual parents?

No

• What does research say about compatibility vs. traits in predicting attraction?

We can predict who will have more successful dates, but not who will be attracted to who

Lecture 11: Motives & Goals

• What is the difference between traits and characteristic adaptations?

Traits - who people are behaviorally

characteristic adaptations - what people want to become, how they view the world/themselves, how these processes change with development

• What is the difference between short-term and long-term goals?

Short term - specific goals that one typically aims to accomplish soon

long term - general goals that one strives to achieve over a longer period of time

• Why is it important to link short- and long-term goals?

Keeping your eye on long term goals helps organize short term goals

• What are idiographic goals? Be able to define “current concerns” and “personal strivings.”

Goals that are unique to the individual who pursues them

1. Current concerns - ongoing motivation that persists in the mind until the goal is either attained or abandoned

2. personal striving - long term goals that can organize broad areas of a person's life

• What are nomothetic goals? What are McClelland’s three motives?

Relatively small number of essential motivations that almost everyone pursues

McClelland says 1. Need for achievement 2. Need for affiliation 3. Need for power 

• What are judgment vs. development goals?

Judgement - seeking to validate an attribute in oneself

Development - desire to actually improve oneself

• What is the difference between entity and incremental mindsets?

Entity - believes that personal qualities such as intelligence are fixed and unchangeable

Incremental - believe that intelligence and ability change with time and experience

• How do entity and incremental theorists respond differently to failure?

Entity theorists are unlikely to try something they’ve been bad at in the past, but often do better on new tasks

Incremental theorists often work harder to become good at something once they fail but attribute their failures to themselves, making them worse at new tasks 

• What is optimism vs. defensive pessimism? How do each impact motivation?

Optimism - assume the best will happen

Defensive pessimism - assume the worst will happen

Both motivate goal-seeking behavior

• What is the best way to define a goal vs. a strategy?

Goal is the end point, strategy is what you will use to get to that endpoint

Lecture 12: Mental and Physical Health

• What is the DSM, and what is one of its functions?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, makes psychological diagnosis more objective and provides a common vocabulary 

• What is the difference between ego-syntonic and ego-dystonic disorders?

Ego-syntonic - doesn’t know that anything is wrong

Ego-dystonic - knows something is wrong and wants to cure it

• What is the hallmark symptom of borderline personality disorder?

Identity disturbance

• What are the general features of personality disorders?

Unusually extreme personality attributes, tend to cause problems, affect social relationships, stable over time, might seem normal or valued to the patient

• What psychotropic drug has been used to treat obsessive-compulsive personality disorder?

SSRIs