Week 10 Flashcards

Question

Discuss Donald Fisk

Answer 1

*Cattell’s 16 factors were still correlated *Different factors might both reflect a single underlying “super-factor” *Ideally, the dimensions of personality should be independent of one another *Donald Fiske showed that the 16 factors could be further reduced by factor analysis to 5

Answer 2

Openness to Experience Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism

Answer 3

Extraversion sociable, energetic, enthusiastic, assertive shy, reserved, quiet, retiring Agreeableness warm, modest, kind, trusting, helpful cold, unfriendly, quarrelsome Conscientiousness efficient, organized, thorough, self-controlled careless, irresponsible, frivolous Neuroticism tense, irritable, moody, nervous, high-strung stable, calm, contented, unemotional Openness to Experience imaginative, original, sophisticated simple, shallow, conventional, narrow

Answer 4

low level parts of them e.g. Neuroticism has facets of anxiety, depression, hostility etc and Concientiousness has facets of order, deliberation, competence etc

Answer 5

Suggests that there are five fundamental ways in which people differ in personality Assessment of personality Investigation of personality correlates Explanation of the underpinnings of personality Provides a framework for mapping specific personality traits E.g., shyness is a combination of (low) Extraversion and (high) Neuroticism

Answer 6

can have combinations of low and high aspects of the big 5 to make other traits e.g. self esteem has low N and high E

Answer 7

FACTOR BEHAVIOURAL CORRELATES Extraversion Preference for stimulant drugs Quicker reaction time Positive emotionality Agreeableness Trustingness Cooperation in experimental games Altruistic behaviour Conscientiousness Longevity Work performance Low rates of substance use Neuroticism Low self-esteem Vulnerability to depression and anxiety Negative emotionality Openness to Experience Artistic interests Higher educational attainment Less prejudice

Answer 8

Morality and Divorce

Answer 9

*Big Five-like factors have been found in studies of many languages *Similar personality factors (except Openness & Conscientiousness) can be observed in other species ◦Piglet extraversion = frequency of snout-touching

Answer 10

The Big Five derives from the lexical approach But what if this approach is flawed? The “questionnaire approach” does not assume that all important personality variation is captured by single adjectives It uses personality test items to derive basic factors

Answer 11

1.Do you often long for excitement? 2.Do you often need understanding friends to cheer you up? 3.Are you usually carefree? 4.Do you find it very hard to take no for an answer? 5.Do you stop and think things over before doing anything? 6.Do your moods go up and down? 7.Do you generally do and say things quickly without stopping to think? 8.Do you ever feel ‘just miserable’ for no good reason?

Answer 12

*Major proponent of this method *Developed a two-factor model o Extraversion o Neuroticism *Later proposed a third factor o Psychoticism *Proposed biological foundations for these factors

Answer 13

“The human body contains blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. These are the things that make up its constitution and cause tis pains and health. Health is primarily that state in which these constituent substances are in the correct proportion to each other, both in strength and quantity, and are well mixed.”

Answer 14

Despite its success, trait psychology has been challenged in several ways: 1.Are individual differences consistent? 2.Is the structure of traits universal? 3.Traits or types? 4.Are traits sufficient for describing personality?

Answer 15

*Traits are ways in which behaviour is consistent across situations *But is behaviour consistent? ### * Mischel (1968) & ‘situationism’ ◦Behaviour expressing a trait in different situations often correlates weakly (< .3) ◦The situation is the main determinant of behaviour (i.e., social psychological factors) ◦Traits are weak predictors of behaviour ◦So personality tests must lack validity ### ***Hartshorne & May (1928),** **Studies in deceit** *Gave thousands of 10- to 13-year children multiple behavioural tests of dishonesty ◦Lying ◦Cheating ◦Stealing *Dishonesty was displayed inconsistently across the tests *Average correlation among tests = 0.26

Answer 16

*‘Weak’ correlations still matter (a .3 correlation reduces uncertainty by 30%) *Consistency is greater for behaviour patterns than for single behaviours, and we usually care more about them *Situational influences are just as weak as dispositional influences *We need an interactionist view that recognizes traits, situations & their combined effects

Answer 17

*We can consider a person as having a distribution of behaviours along a trait dimension, from low to high *People high on a trait just engage in trait-related behaviour more than others

Answer 18

Trait models like the Big 5 purport to be about (universal) human nature, but might they be artefacts of language or culture? “the simplistic ... basis of [the] Five Factor Model, as it is derived from colloquial usage of language, makes the model ... intrinsically bound to the culture and language that spawned it. Different cultures and different languages should give rise to other models that have little chance of being five in number nor of having any of the factors resemble those derived from the linguistic/social network of middle-class Americans” (Juni, 1996) *****One way to assess consistency of personality structure across cultures is to translate English language personality tests *Multiple tests across many translations of the NEO-PI-R test of the 5 factors suggest strong consistency *But some evidence of subtle differences: factors sometimes have minor differences of content ◦Extraversion & Agreeableness better described as Dominance & Love in Filipino, Korean & Japanese samples **Indigenous personality systems** *Another approach is to start from other cultures’ personality lexicon *****Among several European languages (i.e., English, French, German, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Italian, Czech) strong congruence for most Big Five factors, except Openness *Occasionally apparent culture-specific factors emerge ◦‘Chinese tradition’ factor (Harmony, Ren Qing [relationship orientation], Thrift, Face, low Adventurousness**)** 6900 person-descriptive terms extracted from a Filipino dictionary, reduced to 1297 by expert judges Factor analyses of ratings yield 7 dimensions 1.Concern for others vs. egotism (Makakapwa vs Makasarili) 2.Conscientious (Disiplinado) 3.Self-assured (Tiwala sa Sarili) 4.Temperamental (Sumpungin) 5.Intellect (Matalino) 6.Gregarious (Pagiging-Kalog) 7.Negative valence (Mga Katangiang Di-danais-nais)

Answer 19

*Traits vary by degrees: they are dimensions *Might some personality variation be best described by categories or types? *‘Type’ concept proposed by Carl Jung Extraversion↔Introversion Sensation↔Intuition Perception↔Judgement Thinking↔Feeling *Common in popular psychology (e.g., MBTI) Research on personality types *Statistical methods exist for comparing typological and dimensional models of psychological variables *There is no persuasive evidence for any personality types, including Jung’s *We can therefore assume that traits are dimensional

Answer 20

Traits are behavioural dispositions Other aspects of personality might not be reducible to such behavioural tendencies ◦Values ◦Interests ◦Character strengths

Answer 21

Values are “concepts or beliefs ... about desirable end states or behaviors ... that transcend specific situations ... [and] guide selection or evaluation of behavior and events”(Schwartz & Bilsky, 1987). That is, they are cognitive, linked to motives & desires, intrinsically desirable, and learned Schwartz developed a model of 10 value types, replicated in~60 countries

Answer 22

**Realistic** Hard-headed, practical, materialistic, conforming **Investigative** Analytical, rational, curious, critical **Artistic** Intuitive, independent, open, idealistic **Social** Friendly, kind, empathic, responsible **Enterprising** Energetic, optimistic, ambitious, confident **Conventional** Orderly, efficient, pragmatic, careful

Answer 23

‘Positive psychology’ aims to study and promote human character strengths Created in opposition to traditional focus on abnormality and conflict The VIA taxonomy aims to classify character strengths that ... ◦Are environmentally shaped ◦Contribute to fulfilment in life ◦Are valued in their own right ◦Do not diminish anyone in society when exercised

Answer 24

Wisdom : strengths involving acquisition and use of knowledge Courage : strengths involving use of will in the face of opposition Humanity : strengths that are interpersonal in nature Justice : strengths that are civic in nature Temperance : strengths that protect from excesses Transcendence : strengths that connect us to the larger universe

Answer 25

*There are many alternative units for describing personality beyond traits ◦Motives, needs, goals ◦Schemas, personal constructs, interests *We will discuss some of these in later lectures *Traits are not all there is to the description of personality, but they are a simple place to start ◦Traits and the ‘psychology of the stranger’

Week 10 Flashcards

(50 cards)