Individual Differences: Exam 2
Personality disorder
"An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment"
Identity Levels: Personal
"Aspects of self-definition at the level of the individual person" - Goals, values, and beliefs - Religious and spiritual beliefs - Standards for behavior and decision-making - Self-esteem and self-evaluation - Desired, feared, and expected future selves - Overall "life story" Ex: I am adventurous I am industrious I am a Chrisitan
Identity Levels: Collective/Social
"Identification with the groups and social categories to which they belong" - Includes the meaning, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes that result from identification w/ the group - Example groups: ethnicity/race, nationality, religion*, and gender Ex: I am an adopted Korean I am an Asian American I am a Christian I am a researcher
Identity Levels: Relational
"One's roles vis-à-vis other people" - Example roles: Child, spouse, parent, co-worker, supervisor, customer - Includes both the role and how the individual makes meaning from the role Ex: I am an adopted Korean American I am industrious I am a Christian
ERI as a "Protective Factor": Pascoe & Smart Richman (2009)
"Overall, these results suggest that increasing levels of identification with one's group may be as likely to serve as a buffer than as an intensifier of the relationship between perceived discrimination and health. The direction of this relationship seems to be dependent on other variables, such as the level of discrimination stress experienced, and identification type and complexity, although often identification did not have an effect on the relationship." - Pascoe & Smart Richman (2009)
Cultural Psychology
"Universalism without the uniformity" - Culture is seen as inside the individual - Cultural psychology studies the socially inherited ''goals, values and pictures of the world'' that have a causal relationship to the lives of individuals
Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992; Roberts et al. 1999)
- "Ethnic identity is an aspect of a person's social identity..." - I am happy that I am a member of the group I belong to
Ethnic Identity Scale (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2004)
- "For some, ethnicity may be a useful categorization when dealing with the experiences of daily living" - I feel negatively about my ethnicity (reverse scored)
Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (Sellers et al., 1997)
- "Racial identity is one of the most heavily researched aspects of African Americans' psychological lives" - I am happy that I am Black
Typology
- A: Odd, eccentric - Schizoid, schizotypal, paranoid - B: Dramatic, emotional, erratic - Antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic - C: Anxious, fearful - Avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive
Population identifying as LGBT
- Age 18-29: ~7.2% - Age 30-44: ~4% - Age 45-59: ~3.5% - Age 60+: ~2.1%
Dimensionality (PID-5)
- Antagonism - Disinhibition - Negative Affect - Detachment - Psychoticism
Moderator Variable
- Changes the nature of a relation Moderator I I Independent Variable---V---->Dependent Variable Student Identity I I IQ---V----->Graduation Rate
Religion Recap
- Different operationalizations of religiosity show different relations with personality traits - Religiosity has a genetic component - Religiosity tends to stay consistent over time - High stays high (with slight changes) - Low stays low - Religiosity is related to a number of important life outcomes: Number of offspring, longevity, life satisfaction
Elements of Personality Functioning (Criterion A)
- Disturbances in self and interpersonal functioning constitute the core of personality psychopathology - Interpersonal functioning involves empathy and intimacy - A continuum: Five levels of impairment - 0: Little or no impairment - 1: Some impairment - 2: Moderate impairment - 3: Severe impairment - 4: Extreme impairment - Impairment predicts the presence of a PD - A moderate level (2) of impairment in personality functioning is required for the diagnosis of a personality disorder - Severity of impairment predicts whether an individual has more than one personality disorder or one of the more typically severe personality disorders
Elements of Personality Functioning (Criterion A): Interpersonal
- Empathy: Comprehension and appreciation of others' experiences and motivations; tolerance of differing perspectives; understanding the effects of one's own behavior on others. - Intimacy: Depth and duration of connection with others; desire and capacity for closeness; mutuality of regard reflected in interpersonal behavior.
Elements of Personality Functioning (Criterion A): Self
- Identity: Experience of oneself as unique, with clear boundaries between self and others; stability of selfesteem and accuracy of self-appraisal; capacity for, and ability to regulate, a range of emotional experience. - Self-direction: Pursuit of coherent and meaningful shortterm and life goals; utilization of constructive and prosocial internal standards of behavior; ability to selfreflect productively.
Mediator Variable
- Is the pathway through which a relation occurs Mediator ^ \ / \ / V Independent Variable-------->Dependent Variable Student Identity ^ \ / \ / V IQ-------->Graduation Rate
Politics Recap
- Many ways to conceptualize political attitudes, often focus on political party affiliation or designation as liberal/conservative - Affiliation is uniquely related to traits at both the domain level (Big 5) and the aspect level - Political affiliation shows similar heritability to religiosity
Issues with Typology
- Not informed by modern personality psychology - Poor reliability and validity - Comorbidity among diagnoses - Patient Heterogeneity - Vague diagnoses are often used
Pathological Personality Traits (Criterion B)
- Pathological personality traits are organized into five broad domains: Negative Affectivity Detachment Antagonism Disinhibition Psychoticism - The domains break down into 25 facets - The B criteria for the specific personality disorders comprise subsets of the 25 trait facets
Sexuality-Identity Development: Stability and Change across time
- Savin-Williams et al. (2012) - n=12,287 - Wave 1: 7-12th grade in 1995 - Wave 2: 1996 - Wave 3: 2001-2002 - Wave 4: 2007-2008 - Majority of participants identified as 100% hetero-sexual in both waves - Over 90% of men (both waves) - Between 75 and 85% among women - "Mostly heterosexual" - 2-3% of men - 10-16% of women - High amounts of stability over time - "100% heterosexual" and "100% homosexual" had similarly high stability - Women tended to have lower stability than men - Individuals that did change tended to change to an adjacent group (i.e., "100% heterosexual" to "mostly heterosexual")
Sexual Commitment: Gender Differences
- Women > Men - More than 60% women are above average - Less than 40% of men are above average - Males report higher levels of extramarital sexual activity and consider a variety in sexual partners more appealing
Authoritarianism (Sometimes RWA)
-A belief in absolute obedience or submission to one's own authority, as well as the administration of that belief through the oppression of one's subordinates. -Express beliefs in coercive social control, in obedience and respect for exisOng authoriOes, and in conforming to tradiOonal moral and religious norms and values. RWA: 1) submission to legitimate authorities 2) aggression towards sanctioned targeted minority groups 3) adherence to values and beliefs perceived as endorsed by followed leadership
Positive Intergroup Relations/Intergroup Helping
Any number of pro-social behaviors between members of different groups. -Altruism: Acts that promote the welfare of others, even at the cost of our own. -Empathy: Positive acts toward disadvantaged group that are a result of empathy (the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other person's frame of reference). Examples: Helping after a natural disaster; Helping disadvantaged groups (e.g., homeless) Not all "Positive" help stems from morally good or altruistic motives... -Ethnocentrism: Help from an advantaged group to a disadvantaged group with positive intentions, however potentially functioning through hidden biases. -Dependency Help: Behaviors that, although may have a positive goal in mind, can often further hinder the disadvantaged by removing self-sufficiency from the equation and, in turn, making the disadvantaged further dependent of help in the future.
Colorblind Ideology
A racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. "Great" at face value...but peoples' unique experiences are ignored as a result.
Sexual Orientation
An individual's patterns of sexual, romantic, and affectional arousal and desire for other persons based on those persons' gender and sex characteristics - Sexual Behavior vs. Sexual Orientation - People can engage in homosexual behavior (ex: experimentation in adolescence, homosexual behavior in prison), but not have a homosexual orientation (Allen, 1980)
Pathological Personality Traits (Criterion B): Antagonism
Antagonism Behaviors that put the individual at odds with other people, including exaggerated sense of self-importance and concomitant expectations of special treatment, as well as a callous antipathy towards others, encompassing both unawareness of others' needs and feelings Facets: Manipulativeness, deceitfulness, grandiosity, attention seeking, callousness, hostility
Culture
Belief systems and value orientations - Influences customs, norms, practices, and social institutions - "Embodiment of a worldview" - Learned and transmitted beliefs, values, and practices - Informed by the historical, economic, ecological, and political forces on a group - Fluid and dynamic - All individuals have a cultural heritage and exist within a cultural context - Dictates how we view race and ethnicity
Sex (Variable) and Relationships: Schmitt & Buss (2000):
Characterized traits related to sexual behavior using the lexical method
Collectivistic Cultures
Cultural practices, institutions, and customs that encourage individuals to place relatively more emphasis on collective goals Individualism/collectivism describe culture-level constructs
ERI as a "Protective Factor"
Does ERI moderate the discrimination-adjustment relation? - Buffer: - ERI-Pride, Korean Americans; Lee (2005) - ERI-General, Filipino Americans; Mossakowski (2003) - ERI-Affirmation, Mexican Americans; Romero & Roberts (2003) - ERI-Centrality, African Americans; Sellers et al. (2003) - Exacerbate: - ERI-Public Regard, African Americans; Sellers et al. (2006) - ERI-General, Southeast Asian refugees; Noh et al. (1999) - ERI-Engagement, Adopted Korean Americans; Lee et al. (2014) - ERI-Pride, Adopted Korean Americans; Lee et al. (2014) - Positively related to academic outcomes, mental health, and other important life factors
Marcia: Identity Status Model
Exploration High+Commitment High=Achievement Exploration High+Commitment Low=Moratorium Exploration Low+Commitment High=Foreclosure Exploration Low+Commitment Low=Diffusion RECAP Identity Status Model (Marcia) - Diffusion: Low exploration, low commitment - Foreclosure: Low exploration, high commitment - Moratorium: High exploration, low commitment - Achievement: High exploration, high commitment
Gender
Gender: Defined by three components... - Gender assignment: Boy/man, Girl/woman - Usually determined by a doctor at birth by your genitalia - Gender identity: An internal, deeply felt sense of self as a woman, man, or transgender individual (see Identity I lecture) - Gender expression: The ways a person communicates gender within a culture (e.g., clothing, appearance, interests, etc.) - May be feminine, masculine, or androgynous Transgender: Individuals whose gender identity and expression are generally not aligned w/ gender norms socially prescribed to their biological sex - Not inherently liked to sexual orientation
General Criteria of Personality Disorder
General Criteria A. Enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates from cultural expectations. Manifested in two (or more) areas (cognition, affectivity, interpersonal functioning, impulse control) B. The pattern is inflexible and pervasive across a broad range of personal and social situations C. The pattern leads to clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning D. The pattern is stable and of long duration, and its onset can be traced back at least to adolescence or early adulthood E. The pattern is not better explained by another mental disorder F. The pattern is not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance or another medical condition
ERI Development Recap
Generally increases over time - Cultural socialization - Personality traits Acts as a protective factor - Cultural socialization is positively related to ERI - Personality metatraits may also be related - Individuals with high plasticity may be more likely to explore their identities - Individuals with high stability may be more likely to commit to their identities
Social Dominance Theory
Group conflict is minimized through the societal acceptance of legitimizing myths - Hierarchy-legitimizing myth: Ideologies that promote or maintain group inequality - Hierarchy-attenuating myth: Ideologies that promote greater social equality
Identity Development: Marcia
Identity Status Model - Built on Erikson's stages of psychosocial development - Identity achievement breaks down into two components: identity exploration and identity commitment - Commitment: The degree of personal investment the individual exhibits in a course of action or belief - Exploration (aka crisis): A period of engagement in choosing among meaningful alternatives
Individualistic Cultures
Include a variety of practices and customs that encourage individuals to prioritize their own personal goals ahead of those of the collective, and consider how they are distinct from others
Intersex
Individuals with biological sex characteristics of both males and females See also: - Klinefelter syndrome (XXY) - Androgen insensitivity syndromes - Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)
Sexual Orientation Identity
Individuals' conscious acknowledgment and internalization of sexual orientation - E.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, asexual...
Racism
Institutionalized unfair treatment by the group in power against oppressed groups; discrimination + power - Segregation - Voter ID law
Common Ingroup Identity Model (CIIM)
Intergroup relations can be improved by transforming competing group identities into a single group identity - Minority vs. White à Everyone is a Gopher - The benefits of ingroup membership are extended to the outgroup
Sexuality-Identity Development: Recap
No definitive explanation for these individual differences à Most individuals don't experience a sense of choice - Psychoanalytic and psychosocial explanations don't hold up to science
Egalitarianism (SDO-E)
Opposition to group-based equality; "support for exclusivity"; "modern" racism SDO functions different for high status and low status groups
Authoritarianism (RWA)
Personality dimension has been shown to be related to negative aatudes toward: - African Americans, Asians, Latinos, other racial minorities - Women - LGBTQ populations - Immigrants - Religious minorites
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO): Correlates
Positively Related to: - Conservatism - Support for military Opposition to affirmative action - Capitalism Negatively Related to: - Big Five: O/I, A - Support for government social programs Positively related to prejudice against: - Ethnic/racial minorities - Religious minorities - Sexual minorities - Women - Poor people
Traits (CB5T)
Probabilistic descriptions of relatively stable patterns of emotion, motivation, cognition, and behavior, in response to classes of stimuli that have been present in human cultures over evolutionary time. - Reaction to stimuli present in cultures present across culture
Personality Traits
Probabilistic descriptions of relatively stable patterns of emotion, motivation, cognition, and behavior, in response to classes of stimuli that have been present in human cultures over evolutionary time
Identity Development: Erikson
Psychosocial Stage Theory - Tasks and crises of development - Central task of adolescence - Not limited to adolescence! - Goal: resolve identity confusion à achieved identity Measurement: Erikson's Psychosocial Stage Inventory (Rosenthal et al., 1981) Identity Subscale: - I've got a clear idea of what I want to be - The important things in life are clear to me - I've got it together - I know what kind of person I am - I like myself and am proud of what I stand for RECAP Psychosocial Stage Theory (Erikson) - Identity development is a central task of adolescence - Goal: resolve identity confusion à achieved identity
Dual Identity
Recategorization to a higher-order identity does not dissolve the other group identities - The dissolution of the lower-order group identities would be especially undesirable when they are based on visible group membership (race/ethnicity, gender, etc.) - A demand for such "colorblind" ideologies typically results in poor intergroup relations - Instead, dual identities may promote multicultural identities where both a higher order identity and more immediate group identities (race/ethnicity, gender) are acknowledged
Characteristic Adaptations
Relatively stable goals, interpretations, and strategies, specified in relation to an individual's particular life circumstances - Reaction to the contextualized circumstances of a specific time/place/culture
Religion
Religiosity: Tendency towards partaking in religion - Extrinsic Religiosity: Partaking in religion for reasons other than belief - Intrinsic Religiosity: Partaking in religion for the sake of the specific religious beliefs Religious Fundamentalism: Strict obedience and unquestioning devotion toward the rules and teachings of one's religion Spirituality: Sense of unity or togetherness with God and the universe and an intense feeling of religious fervor or inspiration
Religiosity and BG
Shared environmental influences (at least in childhood) Religiosity is heritable (Genetic effects) Heritability of religiosity increases with age Development High stability (r=.55-.92) Evidence of change Limitations WEIRD science
Social Identity Theory
Social identities --> Group boundaries ---->Ingroup and outgroup ------>Ingroup favoritism/Outgroup derogation Motivations to protect the reputation of one's ingroup can often lead to negative actions toward an outgroup.
Sexual Commitment
The inclination to be strongly committed or attached to one sex partner, as opposed to the inclination to prefer multiple partners or to be weakly devoted to any one partner See also: Sociosexual orientation (Simpson & Gangestad, 1991) - Evolutionary orientation - Restricted: Comfortable in a sexual relationship only if they feel a strong loving bond with partner - Unrestricted: Willing to engage in sexual relations even in the absence of any emotional bond with the partner (-) <------------------------------------------------> (+) Promiscuous, Unfaithful, Loose Devoted, Faithful - Big Five Correlates - Agreeableness: +.50 - Conscientiousness: +.50 - Heritability: ~.50
Self-Construal
The manner in which the individual frames their conception of the self; Markus and Kitayama (1991) break this into two categories, independent and interdependent Independent: A conception of the self as an autonomous, independent person Interdependent: A context and situation-specific conception of the self as fundamentally connected to a social unit Independent/interdependent describe individual-differences constructs Self-Construal <------------------------------------------------> Independent Interdependent
Cultural Socialization
The messages about ethnicity and race that are transmitted from one individual to another - Positively related to ERI
Intergroup Relations
The psychological study of interactions between groups and members of groups Groups can be... - Small: Classes, sports teams - Large: Neighborhoods, universities - Very Large: Gender, ethnicity/race, religion - Focus on both negative (e.g., prejudice, conflict) and positive (e.g., cross-group solidarity)
Cross-Cultural Psychology
The search for universals - Culture is operationalized as an IV - Culture is implicitly viewed as being outside of and apart from the individual - Culture and human activity are seen as separable - Goal: ''to generate more nearly universal psychology, one that has pan-human validity'' and to attain ''a universally applicable psychological theory.'' - E.g., Do the Big 5 explain variation in traits in China? Cross-national studies ≠ Cross-cultural studies
Intergroup Bias
Unfair cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to groups and their members - Stereotype: Generalized beliefs; cognitive - Prejudice: Biased attitudes; affective - Discrimination: Unfair treatment; behavioral
ERI (Ethnic-Racial Identity)
Why "ethnic-racial?" - Nominal conventions - Black à Racial - Mexican à Ethnic - MIBI à Racial - MEIM à Ethnic - Measures not tied to race or ethnicity - Individuals may not differentiate The beliefs and attitudes that individuals have about their ethnic-racial group memberships, and the processes by which these beliefs and attitudes develop over time - Multidimensional - E.g., Exploration & Commitment - Content + Process
Individual Differences in Intergroup Relations: F-Scale (1954)
• Scale developed in the 1950s to measure the rigidity component of Authoritarianism (RWA). • The longer parOcipants take to change from dog to cat, the more rigid and the higher they are on the F-scale.
Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure; Roberts et al. (1999)
1. I have spent time trying to find out more about my ethnic group, such as its history, traditions, and customs (E) 2. I am active in organizations or social groups that include mostly members of my own ethnic group (E) 3. I have a clear sense of my ethnic background and what it means for me (C) 4. I think a lot about how my life will be affected by my ethnic group membership (E) 5. I am happy that I am a member of the group I belong to (C) 6. I have a strong sense of belonging to my own ethnic group (C) 7. I understand pretty well what my ethnic group membership means to me (C) 8. To learn more about my ethnic background, I have often talked to other people about my ethnic group (E) 9. I have a lot of pride in my ethnic group and its accomplishments (C) 10. I participate in cultural practices of my own group, such as special food, music, or customs (E) 11. I feel a strong attachment towards my own ethnic group (C) 12. I feel good about my cultural or ethnic background (C
Identity
1. Identity is how an individual answers: "Who are you?" 2. Only answers that have meaning for the individual are considered "identity
Sex
A biological status based on... - Sex chromosomes (XX, XY) - Hormones (estrogen, testosterone) - Gonads (ovaries, testes) - External genitalia (vulva, penis) - Secondary sex-characteristics (breasts, body hair, hip-to-waist ratio)
Sexuality-Identity Development: Cass Model of Identity Development (Cass, 1979; 1984)
Stage Model Pre-stage 1: - Do not question heterosexual identity - Rarely wonder, "Am I gay/lesbian?" - You do not believe that homosexuality has anything to do with you personally 1. Identity Confusion - Questioning, internal conflict - May have attitudes that being gay/lesbian is incorrect and undesirable, correct but undesirable, or correct and acceptable 2. Identity Comparison - Decrease in confusion, initial commitment - May feel isolated, alienated; "in the closet" 3. Identity Tolerance - Greater acceptance of gay/lesbian identity - Partial relief because now you can potentially fulfill your emotional and relational needs 4. Identity Acceptance - Greater contact with others in LGBT community - Choosing to "pass" or selectively disclose 5. Identity Pride Accepting of identity; immersion in culture - "Them vs. Us" ---Devalue heterosexual institution (e.g., gender role structure, marriage) ---Disclosures are more common 6. Identity Synthesis - Open to share identity with anyone - Dichotomy of "them vs. us" is let go - Being gay/lesbian is not the only important part of your identity - Foreclosure can happen at any stage - Distinction between private (personal) and public (social) identity - Gender will moderate the experience of identity development, but the model is equally valid
Dominance (SDO-D)
Support for group-based dominance hierarchies; "active subjugation"; oldfashioned racism
Sexual Arousal
Tendency to feel sexually aroused (physiologically), sexually attractive, sexually motivated, and generally interested in sex - Heritability of orgasm frequency: ~.35 - Big Five Correlates - Extraversion: +.45 - Women = Men (-) <------------------------------------------------> (+) Celibate, abstinent, prudish Seductive, sensual
Ethnicity
The acceptance of the group mores and practices of one's culture of origin and the concomitant sense of belonging Individuals may feel attached to multiple races and ethnicities, often prompted by context
Dual-Process Theory of Prejudice
The association between both RWA and SDO, and General Prejudice is quite different when considering their Big Five Personality Profile. Differences in personality drive different facets of prejudice.
Race
The category to which others assign individuals on the basis of physical characteristics and the generalizations and stereotypes made as a result - Socially constructed NOT biologically determined
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)
The extent to which one desires that one's ingroup dominate and be superior to out-groups -- Relatively stable (5-year stability = .74) - Reflects a preference toward equal vs. hierarchical relations - "The central individual-difference variable that predicts a person's acceptance or rejection of numerous ideologies and policies relevant to group relations" SDO (-) <------------------------------------------------> (+) Hierarchy-attenuating Hierarchy-enhancing (Pratto et al., 1994)
