Social Interaction

Question 1

levels of analysis

Answer 1

• Human nature
• Individual and group differences (including cultural and gender differences)
• Individual uniqueness

Question 2

Case study: Malala (Big 5, FFP, SA, ST)

Answer 2

• Big 5:
• • Extraversion: high (comfortable talking in front of people)
• • Agreeableness/Hon-Hum: high (forgiving, people enjoy being around her)
• • Conscientiousness: high (cared a lot about school)
• • Neuroticism: low (emotionally stable throughout shooting/hospitalization)
• • Openness: high
• Fully-functioning person: yes
• Self-actualization: on her way
• Self-transcendence: yes

Question 3

mechanisms of social interaction

Answer 3

• selection
• evocation
• manipulation

Question 4

selection

Answer 4

• selecting the environments in which you find yourself, as a function of personality
• • Eg. Assortative mating (people tend to marry people who they perceive as more similar to themselves)
• • More extraverted people are more likely to use social networking sites, while those higher in openness and neuroticism use media more frequently
• • Ex. Malala has chosen to put herself in extraverted situations – ie. Public speaking

Question 5

evocation

Answer 5

• naturally evoking certain responses from others
• • Eg, hostile attributional bias: in the face of uncertain behaviour from others, aggressive people expect others to be hostile (infer intent) -> trent them aggressively and evoke hostility
• • People high in neuroticism associated with receiving more angry responses to posts; narcissists receive more likes and comments
• • Ex. Malala’s emotional stability elicits similar reactions from others

Question 6

manipulation

Answer 6

• trying to change your environment as function of personality
• • Eg. High agreeableness associated with pleasure induction, low agreeableness associated with using the silent treatment
• • Extraverts post about social activities, use emoticons; conscientious ask for help; open post about intellectual topics; narcissists self-promote
• • Ex. Malala trying to inspire change

Question 7

Machiavellianism/Machiavellian personality

Answer 7

• a manipulative strategy of social interaction; personality style that uses other people as tools for personal gain; deceptive, exploitative, self-serving
• Part of dark tetrad (Machiavellianism, psychopathy, narcissism, sadism)
• • Dark tetrad very likely to engage in online trolling behaviour
• Abbreviated as Mach (High-Mach or Low-Mach)

Question 8

2 key dimensions for describing/evaluating personality traits cross-culturally

Answer 8

• Warmth/trustworthiness: approach/avoidance -> do they have intent to harm; determined before dom/comp, “can I trust this person?”
• Competence/dominance: strength/weakness -> do they have ability to harm?, “can I respect this person?”