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Personality

Chapter 13

Write down some characteristics of your friends in one column.

Write down some characteristics of your (fr)enemies next to those.

There are literally thousands of these “characteristic” adjectives like the ones that you’ve listed.

The vast number of terms=importance of labeling/describing

Observing behavior Label/describe traits

What is a trait?

An individual’s unique constellation of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving

(traits) constitutes his or her personality.

• Habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion.

• Stable and enduring over time.

• Qualities and characteristics that shape a person's unique character and identity.

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Exploring Traits

Each personality is uniquely made up of multiple traits.

The study of trait psychology really began with Gordon Allport.

Allport’s main concern was how to describe personality traits rather than how to explain

them.

Allport & Odbert (1936), identified almost 18,000 words representing traits.

Through factor analysis, a statistical approach used to describe and relate personality traits,Hans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that personality could be reduced down to

two polar dimensions, extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability.

Can personality traits be essentially reduced to two dimensions?What do you think?

Current researchers say no. The Big 5 is a more accurate and comprehensive representation of trait dimensions.

The Big 5 Personality Factors:

Consciousness

Organized

Careful

Disciplined

Disorganized

Careless

Impulsive

Controlling

Unreliable

Agreeableness

Softhearted

Trusting

Helpful

Ruthless

Suspicious

Uncooperative

Compassionate

Unkind

Neuroticism(Emotional stability vs. instability)

Calm

Secure

Satisfied

Anxious

Insecure

Nervous

Able to handle stress

Tense

Openness

Imaginative Preference for Variety

Independent

Practical

Preference for Routine

Conforming

Inventive

Consistent

Extraversion(Introversion to Extraversion)

Sociable

Fun-loving

Enjoy time alone Reserved

Outgoing

Feel drained aftersocial activities

Assertiveness

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Questions about the Big Five

These traits are common across cultures.3. How about other

cultures?

Fifty percent or so for each trait.2. How heritable are

they?

Quite stable in adulthood. However, they change over development.

1. How stable are these traits?

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Evaluating the Trait Perspective

The Person-Situation Controversy:How consistent are personality traits over time

and across situations?What do you think? Is an extravert always talkative and socially outgoing?

What about in a courtroom?

Traits themselves are enduring across time but are not good predictors of behavior. As Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out, traits may be enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is different.

Traits are not good predictors of behavior!

However, trait theorists argue

that behaviors from a

situation may be different,

but average behavior

remains the same. Traits are also socially significant, and influence our health, thinking, and performance (Gosling et al., 2000). Also, expressive styles in speaking and gestures demonstrate trait consistency.

Therefore, traits matter.

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Biology and Personality

Personality dimensions are influenced by genes.

1. Brain-imaging procedures show that extraverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low.

2. Genes also influence our temperament and behavioral style. Differences in children’s shyness and inhibition may be attributed to autonomic nervous system reactivity.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

This perspective was developed by Albert Bandura and emphasizes the interaction of our traits with oursituations. So personalityis the result of an interaction between a personand their social context.

Albert Bandura

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Social-how we learn our behaviors (modeling, conditioning)

Cognitive-what we think about situations which affects our behavior

There are two major components to this perspective:

Reciprocal Determinism-the person-environment interaction. The is an interactive process in which personality influences and is influenced by the environment.

Personal Control-whether we learn to see ourselves as controlling or controlled by our environment.

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Reciprocal Determinism

How we view and treat people influences how they treat us.

Our personalities shape situations.

Anxious people react to situations differently than relaxed people.

Our personalities shape how we react to events.

The school you attend and the music you listen to are partly based on your dispositions.

Different people choose different environments.

These are specific ways in which individuals and environments interact

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Reciprocal DeterminismExamples

Our personalities shape situations.

Our personalities shape how we react to events.

Different people choose different environments.

Our personality may actually affect our environment.If you are low on agreeableness and assume everyone is an adversary, you might be hostile toward them which then leads them to be hostile toward you.

Some people choose to attend sporting events,go to the opera, attend book readings, go to themovie theater, listen to techno, metal, or rock.

Some people are more anxious and perceive the world as threatening. Some individuals are less agreeable and so perceive the world as antagonistic.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

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Behavior

Behavior emerges from an interplay of external and internal influences.

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Personal Control

External locus of control refers to the perception that outside forces beyond your

control determine your future (luck, fate, or chance).

Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own future (the responsibility for success is

internal).

Personal Control-whether we control the environment or the environment controls

us.

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Why does locus of control matter?

Social-Cognitive Perspective

External Locus-survivors of catastrophic events may be able to process and move beyond the event

Internal Locus-timely completion of degree, reduced riskof obesity at age 30, better credit scores, better able to delay gratification

What can we learn from marshmallows?

http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html

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Learned Helplessness

When unable to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns

helplessness.

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Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective

Cons: It pays a lot of attention to the situation and less attention to the

individual, his unconscious mind, his emotions, and his genetics.

Pros: It sensitizes researchers to the effects of situations on and by individuals, it builds on learning and cognition research, and it

puts the person in the context of their environment.

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Assessing Behavior in Situations

Social-cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and simulated situations

because they find that the best way to predict behavior in a given situation is to observe that person’s behavior in similar

situations.

This is also time consuming and costly. Often traits

will be assessed with written instruments, or personalityinventories.

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Assessing TraitsPersonality inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors

assessing several traits at once.One example of a personality is the MMPI.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) isthe most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests.

It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders.

It is an objective test but does that mean it’s valid?

No. What if an individual is trying to look good for a job opening? Or, what if they are trying to “fake bad” to get some kind of

compensation for emotional damages?

And why should I care about a personality inventory?

Want a job? Often places of business will ask employees to take a personality inventory for job placement. One example isthe Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which was once the most common personality inventory given in the business sector.

Some basics:

Feeling Depressed or Anxious?The MMPI can be used to help the determine the presenceof depression, anxiety, or other psychopathology.

But what if your life depended on it?

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist

Clearance for some forms of surgery (bariatric, spinal, sexual reassignment surgery) will require

a psychological evaluation which includes the MMPI to determine your mental stability.

So why should you care? Because it could potentially impact the rest of your life.

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Exploring the SelfThink of the “self” as organizing your thinking, feelings, and actions. It is a

critical part of our personality.

1. Research focuses on the different selves we possess. Some we dream and others we dread which can serve to motivate us.

2. Research studies how we overestimate our concern that others evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders. This is called the spotlight effect, or the world revolves around me affect.

What is Self-Esteem?

Most basically it is the feeling of self-worth.

Much to do about self esteem:

Is it really the “armor” that protects kids fromthe hardships in life?

Can you have too much self-esteem?

A related concept is self-serving bias. The self-serving bias is defined as

our readiness to perceive ourselves favorably.(Think of it as a mechanism used to protect and enhance self-esteem.)

• People accept more responsibility for good deeds than bad, and more credit for successes than failures.

• Most people see themselves as better than average. (And their pets are too!)

• We are quick to believe flattering descriptions of ourselves and reject unflattering descriptions.

• We see ourselves as making better than average contributions to our groups.

• A tendency to blame others (including your significant other) in arguments.

Now back to that question of high self esteem: Can you have too much?

Yes, yes you can have too much self-esteem.

• Those with high self-esteem can become potentially dangerous if their esteem is threatened or criticized, especially those with unrealistically high self-esteem.

• Today’s generation, Generation Me (Twenge, 2006) expresses more narcissism than past generations.

• Consider that what appears to be a put-down, “Nobody likes me,” may be a covert attempt at reassurance, “That’s silly, everybody likes you.”

A quick review of a few things we’ve covered...

And...

Can you tell anything aboutmy personality?

Or...

And...

Generally, yes. People who listen to jazz,

classical, blues, and folk music tend to be open to experience

and verbally intelligent.

If I tell you I listen to...

If I tell you I listen to...

And... Or...

People who listen to pop, religious,

or country music tend to be outgoing, cheerful, and

conscientious.

And...

That I have a Facebook account and update my status every hour. OMG!!!!!

And I LOVE to tweet like every 10 minutesabout like everything hilarious that happens to me.

And I have a really super amazing cool blog :D and I write all about my long day at school :-( and my boring job o(>< )o ｏ ( ><)o and the amazing party ^_^ I’m going to later...

Visitors to personal websites quickly pick up on one’s extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience.

And what if I tell you....

Are you telling me that I can predict someone’s personality and how they

will behave based on a CD or their iTunes library?

No. Remember the social-cognitive perspective that tells us that personality, and in turn behavior, is the result of an

interaction between a personand their social context.

Also, when we talk about correlations and personality traits, we’re talking

about general trends in the population and not specific individuals.

(Think about the discussion on intelligence.)