Textbook Notes for Personality Psychology, Chapters 1-5 PDF

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Textbook notes for Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings ...

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Personality Psychology: Foundations and Findings Chapter 1 Who Am I? The Building Blocks of Personality The Building Blocks of Personality 1. Traits - A person’s typical way of thinking, feeling and acting in various situations at different times - Traits are consistent across life 2. Genetics 3. Neuroscience - Some research suggests that extroversion, neuroticism, and impulsivity are related to physiological and neurological differences present at birth 4. Self and Identity - Sense of who we are (self-concept) and our opinion about that (self-esteem) 5. Intrapsychic Foundations of Personality - Early experiences leave an unconscious imprint on our personalities 6. Regulation and Motivation: Self-Determination Theory - People differ in the extent to which they feel self-determined and regulate their own motivation 7. Cognitive Foundations - People differ in how they process information -

The whole of personality is greater than the sum of its’ parts

Observational Studies and Personality Questionnaires - Ways to study personality: o Present an ambiguous stimulus and ask them to tell a story o Ask about past behaviour or the behaviour of their parents or siblings o Compare heart rate, hormone levels, or brain activity o Compare men and women Correlational and Experimental Designs - Use there to find out why something is the way it is - Use twin and adoption studies - Correlation coefficient; doesn’t tell us significance, just strength of relationship - To test causation, scientists need to conduct a true experiment - When this isn’t possible, use correlational studies o Measure personality and corresponding behaviour - Correlational studies, when designed properly, can be nearly as useful as a true experiment in identifying causation

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Research Ethics In one study, twins were unknowingly separated into adoptive families at about 6-9 months of age, after spending time in foster care together o These twins reported growing up with a permanent sense of loss or the fantasy that they had a twin A court order has sealed the documents describing the study and its results until 2066 In another study, African American share-croppers were purposely given syphilis and prevented from getting treatment Research with humans must now adhere to three principles: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice o Respect for persons means allowing them to choose for themselves if they want to participate after being given informed consent o Beneficence states that first and foremost, researchers should do not harm o Justice states that all research participants must be treated equally and fairly. Also states that if publicly funded research leads to treatment, it must be available to all, not just who can afford it The Common Rule states that institutions conducting research must establish and maintain an institutional review board, which must establish that your research is ethical in order for you to conduct it

Chapter 2 Personality Traits: A Good Theory Personality Traits - Some psychologists see traits as hypothetical concepts; they exist even though we can’t see them - Others see traits as causal properties; present even when it isn’t being expressed Approaches to Study Personality - The idiographic approach studies single personalities - The nomothetic approach studies universal traits - Hans Eysenck said we can study both within one person o Personality pyramid  At the top are more universal traits  At the very bottom are specific behaviours including responses  If the same reaction occurs many times, we say the response has become a habit  If certain habits occur over time and across situations, then we say it is a trait  If certain traits occur together, we say it is a personality type The Idiographic Approach - See lecture notes The Nomothetic Approach - Three different ways to identify the most applicable words to describe personality: 1. The Theoretical Approach - Starts with a theory or common wisdom about human personality 2. The Lexical Approach - Explores a particular language and identifies the number of synonyms that describe personality - If that trait is important, it will have many synonyms 3. The Measurement Approach - Tries to measure personality - Factor analysis is used to see if some traits cluster together in some way Factor Analysis - A statistical technique that mathematically identifies a meaningful underlying structure among a set of variables - The eigenvalue of a factor is the amount of variance it explains - Factor loadings, calculated from the eigenvalue, is an estimate of how strongly each question fits into a given factor

The Nomothetic Approach - It has been theorized that for personality traits to be universal they must be rooted in biology or solve evolutionary problems, i.e. The Big Five Three Superfactors: Eysenck - PEN model of personality: Psychoticism, Extraversion, and Neuroticism - All biologically rooted in personality - People high in Psychoticism tend to be selfish and antisocial  Low agreeableness and low conscientious - Extraverts tend to be outgoing and experience many positive feelings - People high in Neuroticism tend to be easily upset and vulnerable to negative emotions - Argued with the five factor model  Thought Agreeableness and Conscientiousness were at the level of habits  Thought Openness was more cognitive The Five-Factor Model - People high in Neuroticism show poorer coping skills, poorer health, and are likely to experience burnout and job changes - Extraverts are likely to hold leadership positions in groups, have many friends and a greater number of sexual partners and are more likely to be selected as foreperson of a jury - People high in Openness tend to go further with their education, to succeed in creative jobs, and to create distinctive work and home environments - People LOW in Agreeableness are often at risk for cardiovascular disease, juvenile delinquency and interpersonal problems - People high in Conscientiousness have higher grade point averages and on-the-job performance - Eysenck's Psychoticism factor is a combo of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness The Big Five and The Five-Factor Model - One difference is what the Big Five calls Emotional Stability the FFM calls Neuroticism - Another is that the Big Five factor Culture is a narrower view of the FFM Openness - The Big Five describes personality without trying to explain where the attributes come from, but the FFM says they are biological - The Big Five is grounded in adjectives, and has been replicated across many languages, while the FFM uses the NEO-PI-R and may be harder to translate - Big Five refers to lexically derived factors, FFM refers to questionnaire factors, and the five factors is when the model doesn't matter - Debate over the use of five or 16 factors (found by Cattell) A One-Factor Solution - The general personality factor or GPF is used to explain all of human personality much like the general factor of intelligence underlies all mental abilities  It lies at the top of a hierarchy of personality traits

- The GPF includes all the positive aspects of the five factors: Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Intellect - Also includes Alpha (emotional stability to get along with others) and Beta (the flexibility to deal with changes, challenges, and demands) - two-factor model - People high in GPF are sociable, able to handle stress, relaxed, open to experience, etc.  These aspects have been evolutionarily hard-wired as they are necessary for survival Six- and Seven-Factor Solutions - An alternative to the five-factor taxonomy is the HEXACO (or six-factor) model - The six factors are Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience - Honesty-Humility emerged out of research in other cultures and languages - Some suggest the sixth factor is just a variation of Agreeableness - The Seven-Factor solution encompasses the five factors as well as Negative and Positive Valence (these are useful for understanding pathology) The Four Temperaments and The Five Factors - Emotional/nonemotional and changeable/nonchangeable were first identified as part of the four temperaments by the ancients, which are very similar to the two-factor model of alpha and beta (i.e. socialization and actualization)

Chapter 3 Personality Traits: Practical Matters Is Intelligence a Personality Trait? - Generally, cognitive abilities are not considered personality traits - Some studies found intelligence to be part of Openness, other found it be part of Conscientiousness - When people rate themselves on intelligence, they generally think of other adjectives besides IQ - There is evidence in that there are differences in how people perceive and process info about the world, known as emotional intelligence - There is a long controversy over intelligence as an ability in the form of IQ; best suited debate for other psychology classes Is Religiosity a Personality Trait? - More appropriately considered a secondary trait - Consistent correlations with Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and sometimes Openness and Extraversion - Spiritual transcendence is suggested to be a factor separate from the five factors due to findings on the Spiritual Transcendence Scale

- Scores predicted scores on measures of life outcomes beyond the five factors and in some cases, the effect of spirituality was stronger than the effect of personality - Spirituality is indeed an important part of personality Is Sexuality a Personality Trait? - Words that described aspects of sexuality or were more applicable to one gender or the other were purposely excluded from early lexical studies - Factor analysis found the Sexy Seven: Sexual Attractiveness, Relationship Exclusivity, Gender Orientation, Sexual Restraint, Erotophilic Disposition, Emotional Investment and Sexual Orientation - These factors overlap almost 80% with the five factors, suggesting they are not really separate factors - Sexuality is therefore another way in which we express our big five traits Indigenous Personality Traits - See lecture notes The Five Factors in Other Cultures - Five main findings: 1. Questionnaire measures of the five-factor model reliably replicate across many cultures and languages 2. Adjectival measures of the Big Five reveal variations of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness but not Openness in many different cultures 3. Openness varies across cultures - Defined differently in ways unique to a culture 4. In some cultures more than five factors are needed to fully describe personality 5. We need more research on indigenous personality to truly see which aspects of personality are universal and which are unique to a culture Personality Traits in China - When factor analyzed using the lexical approach on traditional Chinese values, found four factors different from the big five: Dependability, Chinese Tradition, Social Potency, and Individualism - When factor-analyzing present day response, found the big five to be the same plus an extra factor of Interpersonal Relatedness  Emphasizes relationships, avoidance of conflict, compliance with norms and support of traditions - This is a uniquely Chinese factor Triangulation and Types of Data - Triangulation is the process of using multiple methods with one program of research - Each method compensates for the weaknesses of the others

- There is self report data or S data; there is test data or T data; there is observation data or O data; there is also life data or L data Music Preferences and Personality Traits - People high in Openness tend to engage with music in a more intellectual way - People high in Neuroticism tend to engage with music in a more emotional way - Pop musicians were found to be slightly higher in Neuroticism and Psychoticism than the average adult - Rock musicians tend to be high in Neuroticism and Openness, but low in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness Web Pages and Personality Traits - Bloggers tend to be higher in Neuroticism and Openness - When judging personal web pages, Openness was the easiest and most accurate trait to judge - Ratings of Extraversion and Agreeableness were closer to the web page owner's ideal selves than their true selves based on their web pages How Consistent are People Over Time? - Once our personalities change to respond to environmental conditions, we tend to stay at these new levels of personality - Personality change is therefore subtle at any one time, but cumulative over the course of life How Much Do People Change in General? - Older adults show lower levels of Neuroticism, Openness, and Extroversion, but higher levels of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness - A certain amount of change in personality is due to maturation - Working increases aspects of Conscientiousness and Extroversion  May also help people become more emotionally stable  Higher status at work is associated with an increase in masculinity in women - Both men and women in fulfilling relationships in younger years become less neurotic and more conscientious and agreeable over time - We change as a result of being exposed to situations of our own choosing, which in turn reinforces the very personality that made us choose that situation - "Life altering experiences" are a bit exaggerated; people respond to devastating events with more of their true selves How and Why Do Individuals Develop in Their Own Ways? - Nonnormative experiences make for nonnormative development - We do not just react to life experiences but we internalize them and can become changed by them over time; i.e. those who decreased in negative emotions had fewer negative experiences and those who increased in positive emotions had more positive experiences - In one study, men who became more neurotic did not live as long as those who became less so

Where Does Adult Personality Come From? - By age 3, children have developed individual differences that manifest as personality differences by age 18 and last to at least age 26 The Grant Study of Harvard Graduates - Found that as you get older your defense mechanisms mature, making coping easier - Conscientious young men grew into successful and better functioning older men - Neurotic men were more susceptible to depression, smoking, drug use and alcohol - Extraversion drove career and monetary success; Neuroticism was related to adjustment and inability to quit smoking; and Openness was related to adult creativity

Chapter 4 Personality Assessment Test Reliability - Temporal consistency reliability is taking the test a second time to see if the scores are similar Test Validity - Face validity is useful when cooperation is a must; also useful when developing a new measure of a concept - Construct validity is more important than face validity though - Criterion validity tests how good a test is, by comparing it to an external standard, i.e. the Need for Cognition Scale - A test ought to give feedback to specific person or group of people; the fact that people readily believe feedback that can be applied to everyone is the Barnum effect Self-Report Tests - The Machiavellianism Scale measures the extent to which a person believes that other people are easily manipulated

Response Sets - To work around extreme responding, the Q-test limits the number of times each response can be used, i.e. only a scale of 1-9, can only have 9 answers for each number on the scale - To minimize social desirability can structure testing situation to reduce pressure - Some researchers suggest social desirability is a type of impression management and needs to be treated as personality difference

Chapter 5 Self and Identity - Stereotype threat can be counteracted by writing about things that are important such as creativity, family relationships, career, or having a sense of humour as these things reinforce a person's values and individuality - Individualism in a culture develops through complexity; without clear culturally defined norms, people must choose how to act on their own  Similarly, as the range of jobs increase, people must choose where to specialize  Also, complexity increases from rural to urban settings - Individualism increases when a country's geography forces separation among individuals - Possible selves help us make sense of our current experiences, as they give us context to evaluate and interpret events - Possible selves can change what we think is attractive in a future mate (i.e. the homemaker/provider study)

- In a study on gays and lesbians, the more salient a straight possible self, the less open they were and the less satisfaction they had with their gay self; the more salient a gay/lesbian possible self, the more open they were and the more satisfied they were with their gay self - One study demonstrated that it is better to have a balanced positive and negative possible selves in order to succeed; strictly a negative or positive self does not give you anything to compare to in order to strive to reach your goals - People with high self-esteem tend to agree with positive items, but people with low self-esteem tend to neither agree nor disagree with both positive and negative items on a scale; they are more neutral in their answers - People with low self-esteem are worse at coping with failure, are more vulnerable to everyday negative events and are more moody, as well as not as healthy as those with high self-esteem - Self-esteem stability is how stable or variable one's sense of self worth is over time - Low self-esteem may not be so bad if one is variable, as compared to stable, in this view - However, those with unstable high self-esteem will have a harder time coping than those with stable high self-esteem; the first tend to be more defensive and have less satisfying relationships - Self-concept clarity is how well people know themselves  Refers to consistency of our self-concepts rather than consistency in how we feel about those self concepts (self-esteem stability)  People more clear in self concepts give more extreme answers  People with high self-esteem were found to give more extreme answers than those with low self-esteem - Facts on self-esteem:  There does not seem to be a problem of low self-esteem; the average person sees themselves as better than the average, but at different degrees depending on the person. This heterogeneity of self-esteem, where there are different kinds of high self-esteem, makes it difficult to test the effects of self-esteem  There is no correlation between self-esteem and how other people view you on ratings of likeable, popular, physically attractive or intelligent; only correlates with how YOU see yourself. People with high and low self-esteem are equally likeable and attractive.  There is a correlation between self-esteem and success but self-esteem is the result, not the cause, of success  Self-esteem intervention programs DO NOT enhance academic achievement; in one study, those whose self-esteem was boosted actually performed worse on the final. These students likely did not want to taint their self-esteem and so did not study; making it so when they failed, they had an excuse other than they just did poorly and actually studied  Low self-esteem in relationships does not necessarily lead to a break-up; just causes more distrust  No correlation between poor self-esteem and bullying  No correlation between drug use and self-esteem  People with low self-esteem are not more likely to have an unwanted pregnancy; these events can cause low self-esteem

- Self-presentation is acting, dressing, or speaking in a certain way to convey a specific image of ourselves to others - The regulation of these self-presentations is called impression management - Authentic self-presentation is presenting yourself as you truly are; a strategic one is presenting yourself as you wish others to see you - We tend to use self-presentational strategies more so with strangers than friends; people who are apt to tell lies use them more often; third, extroverts may be more apt to use them than introverts; lastly, high self-monitors and the politically astute are more effective...