Personality Psychology Lecture Notes

BIOLOGICAL APPROACHES

Biological Approaches Overview

  • Perspective that differences in our personalities can be explained by inherited predispositions and physiological processes.

Heritable Traits

Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart

  • Found that identical twins, whether raised together or apart, have very similar personalities.

  • Suggests the heritability of some personality traits.

  • Traits with more than a 0.50 heritability ratio include:

    • Leadership

    • Obedience to authority

    • Sense of well-being

    • Alienation

    • Resistance to stress

    • Fearfulness

  • Video on twin studies & heritability

Temperament

  • Temperament appears very early in life, suggesting a biological basis.

  • Thomas and Chess (1977) identified that babies can be categorized into one of three temperaments:

    1. Easy

    2. Difficult

    3. Slow to warm up

  • Environmental factors and maturation can affect the expression of personality.

Two Dimensions of Temperament

  1. Reactivity – how we respond to new or challenging environmental stimuli.

  2. Self-regulation – ability to control responses.

TRAIT THEORISTS

Overview of Trait Theorists

  • Believe that people have certain traits (characteristics or ways of behaving).

  • Example traits include:

    • Optimistic or pessimistic

    • Sociable or shy

Gordon Allport

  • Found 4,500 words in the English language to describe people and organized them into three categories:

    1. Cardinal traits – dominate entire personality (rare).

    2. Central traits – make up our personality.

    3. Secondary traits – less obvious or consistent, present under certain circumstances (e.g., preferences, attitudes).

Raymond Cattell

  • Narrowed Allport’s list to about 171 traits.

  • Identified 16 dimensions of personality – instead of a trait being present or absent, people are scored on a continuum.

Cattell's 16 Personality Factors

  1. Warmth

  2. Intellect

  3. Introversion

  4. Tension

  5. Emotional stability

  6. Aggressiveness

  7. Anxiety

  8. Liveliness

  9. Dutifulness

  10. Independence

  11. Social assertiveness

  12. Sensitivity

  13. Open-mindedness

  14. Paranoia

  15. Abstractness

  16. Perfectionism

  • Relevant online resource: https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/16PF.php

Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors Exercise

  • Take a few minutes to answer a measure of Cattell’s 16 personality factors.

  • Feel free to discuss your results with other classmates.

  • Relevant online resource: https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/16PF.php

HANS & SYBIL EYSENCK

Key Dimensions

  1. Extroversion/Introversion

    • High in extroversion – sociable, outgoing.

    • High in introversion – high need to be alone, engage in solitary behaviors.

  2. Neuroticism/Stability

    • High in neuroticism – anxious, overactive sympathetic nervous system.

    • High in stability – more emotionally stable.

  • Hans and Sybil Eysenck focused on temperament and believed that our personality traits are influenced by our genetic inheritance.

HEXACO MODEL

The HEXACO Traits

Trait

Example Aspects of Trait

(H) Honesty-humility

Sincerity, modesty, faithfulness

(E) Emotionality

Sentimentality, anxiety, sensitivity

(X) Extraversion

Sociability, talkativeness, boldness

(A) Agreeableness

Patience, tolerance, gentleness

(C) Conscientiousness

Organization, thoroughness, precision

(O) Openness

Creativity, inquisitiveness, innovativeness

FIVE FACTOR MODEL

Overview

  • In the Five Factor Model, each person has five traits, known as the Big Five personality traits.

  • Each trait is scored on a continuum from high to low.

  • The first letter of each trait spells the mnemonic OCEAN:

  1. Openness to experience

  2. Conscientiousness

  3. Extroversion

  4. Agreeableness

  5. Emotional Stability (Neuroticism)

  • Relevant online resource: https://www.personalityassessor.com/bigfive/

Big Five Personality Test Exercise

  • Take a few minutes to answer a measure of the Big Five personality traits.

  • Feel free to discuss your results with other classmates.

  • Relevant online resource: https://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

CULTURAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF PERSONALITY

Influence of Culture

  • Culture is one of the most important environmental factors that influence personality.

  • Culture defined as the beliefs, customs, art, and traditions of a particular society.

  • Are personality traits the same across cultures or are there variations?

    • There are both universal and culture-specific aspects that account for variations in personalities.

Cultural Variations in Personality

Examples

  • Asian cultures – more collectivist, tend to be less extroverted.

  • Central and South American cultures – tend to score higher on openness to experience.

  • European cultures – tend to score higher on neuroticism (i.e., score low on emotional stability).

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

  • Researchers found 3 distinct regional personality clusters in the United States:

    1. People tend to be friendly and conventional in the Upper Midwest and Deep South;

    2. Relaxed, emotionally stable, and creative in the West;

    3. Stressed, irritable, and depressed in the Northeast.

  • One explanation for this is selective migration - people choose to move to places that are compatible with their personalities and needs.

INDIVIDUALIST VS COLLECTIVIST CULTURES

Individualist Cultures

  • Value independence, competition, and personal achievement.

  • Commonly found in Western nations such as the US, England, and Australia.

  • People generally display more personally-oriented personality traits.

Collectivist Cultures

  • Value social harmony, respectfulness, and group needs over individual needs.

  • Found in Asia, Africa, and South America.

  • People generally display more socially-oriented personality traits.

MEASURING PERSONALITY

Personality Measurement Methods

Direct Observation

  • Involves watching a person's behavior in a natural or controlled setting.

  • Allows for the collection of data on actual behavior rather than self-reported behavior, providing more objective insights.

Advantages

  • Provides real-time data on behavior.

  • Can capture behavior in specific contexts.

  • Less prone to bias compared to self-report methods.

Disadvantages

  • Time-consuming and labor-intensive.

  • Observer presence might alter behavior (Hawthorne effect).

  • Requires skilled observers to ensure accuracy.

Self-Report

  • Involves individuals reporting on their own behaviors, thoughts, and feelings through questionnaires, surveys, or interviews.

  • Widely used due to ease of administration and ability to gather a large amount of data quickly.

Advantages

  • Cost-effective and easy to administer.

  • Captures subjective experiences and feelings.

  • Allows for the collection of data from a large number of participants.

Disadvantages

  • Prone to biases, such as social desirability and recall bias.

  • Responses may not accurately reflect actual behavior.

  • Reliant on the participant's self-awareness and honesty.

SELF-REPORT INVENTORIES

  • Personality testing is often used in various contexts:

    • To screen applicants for employment and job training.

    • In criminal cases and custody battles.

    • To assess psychological disorders.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

  • One of the most widely used personality inventories, originally developed to assist in diagnosing psychological disorders.

  • Newest version (MMPI-2-RF) has 338 questions.

  • Scored on 10 scales:

    • Hypochondriasis

    • Depression

    • Hysteria

    • Psychopathic deviance

    • Masculinity vs femininity

    • Paranoia

    • Psychasthenia (obsessive/compulsive qualities)

    • Schizophrenia

    • Hypomania

    • Social introversion

LIKERT SCALES

  • Likert-type scale questions are commonly used in personality inventories, allowing respondents to express their feelings or attitudes across a range.

Example MMPI Questions

  1. I like gardening magazines.

  2. I am unhappy with my sex life.

  3. I feel like no one understands me.

  4. I think I would enjoy the work of a teacher.

  5. I am not easily awakened by noise.
    (Responses are typically true/false)

PROJECTIVE TESTS

  • Projective testing relies on projection (defense mechanism) to assess unconscious processes.

  • Ambiguous cards are shown to individuals who are asked to tell a story, interpret an image, or complete a sentence.

  • Individuals will project feelings, impulses, and desires onto the cards.

Examples of Projective Tests

  • Rorschach Inkblot Test – individuals interpret a series of symmetrical inkblot cards, revealing unconscious feelings and struggles.

  • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) – individuals tell a story about 8-12 ambiguous cards, giving insight into their social world, revealing hopes, fears, interests, and goals.

  • Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB) – individuals are asked to complete 40 incomplete sentences as quickly as possible to reveal desires, fears, and struggles.

Young Sheldon Example

(Details for a relevant example of application are anticipated here)

Do Personality Tests Work?

Poll: Test Your Understanding!

  • Which of the following is NOT a projective test?

    • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

    • Rorshach Inkblot Test

    • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

    • Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB)

Summary Questions

  1. What is the difference between a personality, trait, and state?

  2. What are the Big 5 personality traits?

  3. What are some of the theories of personality? Who were some of the key theorists and their contributions to understanding personality?

  4. Explain defense mechanism.

  5. Is personality biological, environmental, or both?

  6. How is personality measured?

  7. What are the advantages/disadvantages of self-report measures?

  8. Consider the implications of the Minnesota study of twins reared apart.

  9. Consider the implications of the marshmallow study.

Review from Last Class

Episode 21

Rorschach & Freudians