Psych 507 Exam 1

Describe the first level of individual differences (traits)

Broad dimensions of socially relevant variation Mostly descriptive In general, there is consistency across situations and time (however this may change from person to person and culture to culture) The Big 5

Describe the factor analysis technique for objective test constriction

Correlations group items based on underlying property • Generate a long list of objective items • Administer these items to a large number of people • Analyze with a factor analysis • Consider what the items that group together have in common and name the factor o Sea monster example • Some surface parts move together (covary) • Others move independently (not covarying) Using these you did an intuitive correlation The surface features were the data (observations) Underwater = "factor" • Scale should be developed with members of intended population. • Identifying the commonality and naming the factor can be tricky. • Factor identification depends critically on the items that you included (maybe you failed to include important aspects!).

what do narcissists behave this way?

Defend artificially inflated self-concept Failure to control impulses and delay gratification At core: wants to preserve positive feelings of being admired for being more special and always better than others (artificially inflated vs. realistic sense of self). Craves/expects relative status, power, dominance, glory. Alienates others b/c of impulsive acts aimed at feeling superior/better/powerful Bragging vs. doing; Exercise power over others/dominate them Frequently show off powerful relationships/connections/valuable things; haughty; uses others

Describe the construct validation approach (combination of objective test construction techniques)

Ex: "construct validation approach" • Theory & clear, full conceptual definition - items • Statistical analysis of many items & different measures • Examine patterns of correlations to support validity: o Convergence (reliability, concurrence) o Discrimination (distinctiveness of attribute) o Predication (as specified by theory, independent criteria • Technically: the stat. analysis is item analysis, not just factor analysis • Example Predict: behavior data, life outcomes

What is laboratory B data?

Experiments can manipulate situations • Make a situation happen and record behavior • Examine reactions to situations • Represent real-life contexts that are difficult to observe directly Physiological measures: biological "behavior" • Physiological measures: blood pressure, galvanic skin response, heart rate, and so on. • (often looking at WHEN personality differences are related to differences in behavior) • Important b/c these may not match self-report, subjective experience!

What is the fish and water effect?

Fish don't know they are wet You may not know how you are compared to others People do not notice their most obvious characteristics because they are always that way; it becomes invisible to them. They don't compare themselves to others. Possibly More likely w/ social isolation?

What makes for good information?

More information is generally better than less • Improves self-other agreement; maybe no consensus • Even limited info very valuable if it's situation-relevant Weak versus strong situations Stressful or emotionally arousing situations • good way to learn something extra about a person Thoughts and feelings versus daily activities • Thoughts and feelings > describe daily activities: Unstructured versus structures situations • Overall best situation: one that brings out the traits you want to judge • Unstructured situations result in more accurate judgments.

What makes a good trait?

This that are observable are easier to judge • Extraversion is easier to judge than neuroticism (extraversion has external, observable behaviors whereas a lot of neuroticism is mental, inside) more visible; • Sociosexuality: example; males quite judgeable • less easy: deceptiveness, moodiness ,fantasy, introspection; • self judges better unless highly evaluative.

What was the first view on trait-behavior linkage rejected? Why is the second one not very popular?

1) no causality 2) just a summary (e.g. agreeable people do agreeable things)

Learning

In behaviorism, a change in behavior as a result of experience. (page 7)

Biological approach

The view of personality that focuses on the way behavior and personality are influenced by neuroanatomy, biochemistry, genetics, and evolution. (page 5)

Funder's Second Law

There are no perfect indicators of personality; there are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous. (page 23)

Describe what clues are

o Clues: the observable aspects of personality o Clues are always ambiguous: You can't see personality directly. Need to develop research instruments to help process.

Describe neuroticism

o Contrasts emotional stability and even-temper with frequent negative emotionality, such as feeling anxious, nervous, sad and tense

Describe the experimental method of research designs

o Expt establishes the causal relationship between an independent variable (x) and a dependent variable (y) by randomly assigning participants to experimental groups characterized by differing levels of x, and measuring the average behavior y that results in each group o In personality psych, experiments often involve manipulating a situational variable (competition, cooperation) or state variable (e.g. caffeine, ambiguity) in order to determine when personality variables (a quasi-IV) are associated with differences.

what does it mean to say we interpret situations

o If you generally interpret neutral faces as slightly hostile you have the hostile attribution bias

What is the many-trait approach?

o who does that important behavior • examine correlations between one behavior and many traits

What is the advantage and disadvantage of personality psych's goal to account for the whole persona and real-life concerns?

• Advantage: inclusive, interesting, and important • Disadvantage: over-inclusiveness or unfocused research

What is the disadvantage to natural B data?

• Difficult • Desired contexts may seldom occur

Describe the link between agreeableness and life outcomes

• Individual/Personal Virtues: + Gratitude, + forgiveness, + humor, + religious beliefs/behavior, (+) cultural identification Health: + longevity, (-) heart disease, + mental health, recover faster from illness • Interpersonal + Peer acceptance & friendship (children) (- bullying rels.) +Dating satisfaction, + Sensitive parenting, positivity! • Social/Institutional + Social interests/careers, + volunteerism + community leadership - criminality, (-)extrinsic success

What are the advantages of factor analysis?

• Reduces the multiple possible reflections of personality into a smaller set of triats • Helps identify where some items and/or traits matter more than others (more "loadings") • Helps create & evaluate assessment devices

What is the difference between scientific and technical training?

• Scientific training: learning how to ask questions • Technical training: memorizing what is already known and apply it

What are the advantages and disadvantages of archival records as sources for L data?

Advantage: not prone to biases like S and I data Disadvantage: may be difficult to access and their use may violate privacy

How did factor analysis lead to the discovery of the big 5?

Allport & Odbert identified 1800 terms à 4500 traits Raymond Cattell: 35 à 16 essential traits (factors) • (allowed them to be correlated; + errors were made) • 16 essential traits (friendliness, intelligence, dominance, etc.); recently, people have said this is too many Hans Eysenck: 3 "essential", uncorrelated traits that are biologically based • Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism • Tellegen = Pos. emotion, Neg. emotion, Constraint • Psychoticism: blend of aggressiveness, creativity, and impulsiveness (bad name! not about psychosis) o Eysenck and Tellegen are highly similar Eventually, a 5 factor pattern appeared repeatedly! • Pre-Existing personality tests and prior trait concepts also tended to fit (be subsumed by) the Big Five groups

What is the arguments revolved around deception?

Arguments against deception • Informed consent for deception is not possible • It's unclear when the deception stops • Harms credibility of psychology • Makes participants suspicious of other studies Alternative: Investigate topics in the real world

What is the lexical hypothesis?

Began application of the Lexical hypothesis: • Universally important human traits will have many words and will appear in many languages. • (*indigenous concepts might exist, too) Lexical hypothesis definition: Important aspects of life will be labeled with words, and if something is truly important and universal, there will be many words for it in all languages.

How do you explain increased positive emotion and extraversion?

Behavioral Mechanisms (initial pref, + learning) • "Situation" Selection • Evocation (others' responses) Cognitive Mechanisms • Interpretation/Distortion • Self-Concept/Beliefs 3)"Biological" Mechanisms • Stronger response to potential rewards More likely to prefer and try to create and savor positive experiences Evokes positive responses/attention from others Positive Memory distortion occurs (recalls things as happier/more fun than at the time!)

What are some narcissism correlates?

Believe they are better then objective criteria suggest Aggress against those responsible for ego threat or social exclusion Experience unstable mood and self-esteem, especially in the face of failure feedback

What makes a good judge?

High in communion related values, expressive, open, and socially skilled Relatively agreeable, well-adjusted Describes others in favorable terms and generally judges other favorably Is attributionally complex Men: outgoing and confident interpersonal style Women: openness and interest in other people Communion: invested in developing and maintaining relationships Talks about pos topic, make eye contact, express warmth, seem to enjoy self not narcissistic, anxious, power oriented or hostile. Men: relatively unconcerned with what others think of them Women: Wide range of interests value independence but also interest in other people. F> M judging E and PE at zero acquaintance (sitting around a table together); women were generally accurate in terms of normative accuracy after an interaction.

What are some of the biologically based human universals?

Need to belong (innate desire for social connections, security; give/receive love, attachment) Adaptive social attention to others (face detection, difference detection, cheater detection, mate detector, aversion to signs of illness/disease; capacity for empathy, capacity to learn from others) In-group favoritism; out-group bias Self-preservation instinct; risk aversion, capacity for self-regulation

What makes a good target?

Psychologically healthy people Conscientious Agreeable Open CONSISTENT behavior, relative emotional stability (psychologically healthy people more judgable, willing/able to express true thoughts/feelings)relatively extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable

What is Natural B data?

Records based on normal, ongoing life activities: • Daily diary • Experience-sampling methods ("beeper") o Diary and experience-sampling are compromises to following a person around all day o the subject makes observations of herself and activities rather than having a psychologist or trained observer make them. o Observations not judgments • Ear: electronically activated recorder o Randomly records noises going on in a person's day Ambulatory assessment: using computer-assisted methods to assess behavior, thoughts, and feelings

What are the advantages of S data?

Relatively simple and easy "cheap" data Based on a very large amount of information (episodes, contexts) Access to private thoughts, feelings, and intentions • You are with yourself every second Definitional truth for questions of self perception/evaluation -The data are true by definition if one is assessing what people think about themselves (self-esteem, self-efficacy). Causal force has been documented • Causal force: we know that Self-perceptions can create their own reality or truth and influence the goals people set for themselves. • Efficacy expectations • Self-verification (social process)

Describe the 3rd level of individual differences (life story)

The life story is the last level of personality. It is often only known to the person or perhaps shared with a few intimate companions. It is rarely developed before adulthood (adolescents do show "rough drafts") and it is not always fully developed in adults. It is more likely to be fully developed in cultural and historical contexts where adults are expected/encouraged to sustain a sense of identity/personal unity. It can also be an important in roads for therapeutic change. Importantly, it is not like a video record or even a diary that was all written at the time things happened. It is an evolving, personalized construction based on reconstruction/ reinterpretation (past), perception (present), and imagination (future). That said, mature, functional life stories do follow the real life story. It is proposed to serve important psychological functions related to unity of self/identity and motivation for the future. Functions related to identity/self and motivation are often severely impaired in people with personality disorders.

Do we define our traits through semantic or episodic memory?

Uses semantic memory (not episodic) • Studies have shown that people who have amnesia can still describe their personality even though they cant describe examples that explain why they describe their personality a certain way

Describe the empirical technique for objective test constriction

What the MMPI is based on Basic assumption is that groups can be identified based on distinctive profiles of answers • Selecting items based on how people in pre-identified groups respond. Steps • Gather lots of items (content is irrelevant) • Administer to people already divided into groups • Compare the answers of the different groups • Cross-validation: does it work? (time, place, population) o Determine whether the test can predict behavior, diagnosis, or category membership in a new sample. Not based on theory; ignores item content. Items can seem absurd, lacks face validity The test may not work at another time, in another place, or with different people. Times change, standards change, occupational fields change

Describe expectancy effects in real life

Where do expectancies generally come from? • observations of performance or behavior, test results information from acquaintances • Expectancies are likely to be correct, so they magnify or maintain behavioral tendencies. Expectancies are likely to be correct Especially strong when held by more than one important person for a long period of time

Describe the rational technique for objective test constriction

- write items that seem directly, obviously, and rationally related to what is to be measured. The most common form of test construction, with high face validity. Assumes we can identify/have words for all of the relevant attributes! People identify/organize all relevant content Usually s data High face validity S data obstacles • Shared meaning of item • Can self assess • Will share self-assess • Your items are valid Examples: Rosenberg SE scale, Psychoneurotic inventory

Scatter plot

A diagram that shows the relationship between two variables by displaying points on a two - dimensional plot. Usually the two variables are denoted x and y, each point represents a pair of scores, and the x variable is plotted on the horizontal axis while the y variable is plotted on the vertical axis. (page 57)

Binomial Effect Size Display (BESD)

A method for displaying and understanding more clearly the magnitude of an effect reported as a correlation, by translating the value of r into a 2 3 2 table comparing predicted with obtained results. (page 96)

Correlation coefficient

A number between 21 and 11 that reflects the degree to which one variable, traditionally called y, is a linear function of another, traditionally called x. A negative correlation means that as x goes up, y goes down; a positive correlation means that as x goes up, so does y; a zero correlation means that x and y are unrelated. (page 94)

Effect size

A number that reflects the degree to which one variable affects, or is related to, another variable. (page 94)

Objective test

A personality test that consists of a list of questions to be answered by the subject as True or False, Yes or No, or along a numeric scale (e.g., 1 to 7). (page 77)

Trait

A relatively stable and long - lasting attribute of personality. (page 45)

Experimental method

A research technique that establishes the causal relationship between an independent variable (x) and dependent variable (y) by randomly assigning participants to experimental groups characterized by differing levels of x, and measuring the average behavior (y) that results in each group. (page 55)

Correlational method

A research technique that establishes the relationship (not necessarily causal) between two variables, traditionally denoted x and y, by measuring both variables in a sample of participants. (page 55)

California Q - Set

A set of 100 descriptive items (e.g., 'is critical, skeptical, not easily impressed') that comprehensively cover the personality domain. (page 191)

Factor analysis

A statistical technique for finding clusters of related traits, tests, or items. (page 83)

State

A temporary psychological event, such as an emotion, thought, or perception. (page 45)

Basic approach (to personality)

A theoretical view of personality that focuses on some phenomena and ignores others. The basic approaches are trait, biological, psychoanalytic, phenomenological, learning, and cognitive (the last two being closely related). (page 5)

Moderator variable

A variable that affects the relationship between two other variables. (page 163)

Construct

An idea about a psychological attribute that goes beyond what might be assessed through any particular method of assessment. (page 49)

Personality

An individual's characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms behind those patterns. (page 5)

B data

Behavioral data, or direct observations of another's behavior that are translated directly or nearly directly into numerical form. B data can be gathered in natural or contrived (experimental) settings. (page 38)

How does personality psychology overlap with clinical psychology?

Both of these branches are unlike other branches in including the goal of complete understanding of many different topics in the life/functioning of single, specific individuals Personality psychology studies normal patterns of personality whereas clinical psychology studies extreme and unusual patterns that cause problems

What is the definition of personality?

Characteristic patterns of behavior, thought, or emotional experience that exhibit relative consistency across time and situations. INCLUDES es, intentions, goals, strategies, and how people perceive and construct the world

Judgments

Data that derive, in the final analysis, from someone using his or her common sense and observations to rate personality or behavior. (page 29)

Research

Exploration of the unknown; finding out something that nobody knew before one discovered it. (page 23)

Funder's First Law

Great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and surprisingly often the opposite is true as well. (page 10)

What is human nature?

Human nature is commonly viewed as including a constellation of loosely organized modules, each designed by natural selection to solve a particular adaptive problem that one way or another, can be traced back to survival in a group and reproduction. We face challenges related to getting along (historically, getting kicked out or ostracized = death) and getting ahead (not always enough resources to go around

What is the difference between the nomothetic and idiographic approach to analyzing and individual?

Idiographic - the goal of complete understanding of many different topics in the life/functioning of single, specific individuals nomothetic - focused on general laws or rules applicable to all or at least most people or involving comparisons across groups

Reliability

In measurement, the tendency of an instrument to provide the same comparative information on repeated occasions. (page 45)

Spearman - Brown formula

In psychometrics, a mathematical formula that predicts the degree to which the reliability of a test can be improved by adding more items. (page 48)

Type II error

In research, the mistake of thinking that one variable does not have an effect on or relationship with another, when really it does. (page 93)

Type I error

In research, the mistake of thinking that one variable has an effect on, or relationship with, another variable, when really it does not. (page 93)

P - level

In statistical data analysis, the probability that the obtained correlation or difference between experimental conditions would be expected by chance. (page 92)

I data

Informants' data, or judgments made by knowledgeable informants about general attributes of an individual's personality. (page 29)

L data

Life data, or more - or - less easily verifiable, concrete, real - life outcomes, which are of possible psychological significance. (page 35)

What are the disadvantages of S data?

People might not tell you Maybe people can't tell you • Fish-and water-effect Active distortion of memory Repression Avoidance Lack of self-insight Immaturity or for other reasons you may not know who they are some people have a biased or distorted self-perception Too simple and too easy (overused) • Remember funders first law

What does it mean to say that personality is only relatively consistent?

Personality is what makes people unique. Personality is only RELATIVELY consistent. The person is not the same across all situations or even exactly the same every time a particular situation occurs. Personality also does change over time

S data

Self - judgments, or ratings that people provide of their own personality attributes or behavior. (page 24)

Funder's Third Law

Something beats nothing, two times out of three. (page 24)

Case method

Studying a particular phenomenon or individual in depth both to understand the particular case and in hopes of discovering general lessons or scientific laws. (page 54)

Aggregation

The combining together of different measurements, such as by averaging them. (page 48)

Behavioral prediction

The degree to which a judgment or measurement can predict the behavior of the person in question. (page 158)

Validity

The degree to which a measurement actually reflects what it is intended to measure. (page 49)

Generalizability

The degree to which a measurement can be found under diverse circumstances, such as time, context, participant population, and so on. In modern psychometrics, this term includes both reliability and validity. (page 50)

Content validity

The degree to which an assessment instrument, such as a questionnaire, includes content obviously relevant to what it is intended to predict. (page 89)

Face validity

The degree to which an assessment instrument, such as a questionnaire, on its face appears to measure what it is intended to measure. For example, a face - valid measure of sociability might ask about attendance at parties. (page 25)

Predictive validity

The degree to which one measure can be used to predict another. (page 158)

Interjudge agreement

The degree to which two or more people making judgments about the same person provide the same description of that person's personality. (page 158)

Judgability

The extent to which an individual's personality can be judged accurately by others. (page 167)

Lexical hypothesis

The idea that, if people find something is important, they will develop a word for it, and therefore the major personality traits will have synonymous terms in many different languages. (page 200)

Constructivism

The philosophical view that reality, as a concrete entity, does not exist and that only ideas ('constructions') of reality exist. (page 156)

Critical realism

The philosophical view that the absence of perfect, infallible criteria for determining the truth does not imply that all interpretations of reality are equally valid; instead, one can use empirical evidence to determine which views of reality are more or less likely to be valid. (page 157)

Interactionism

The principle that aspects of personality and of situations work together to determine behavior; neither has an effect by itself, nor is one more important than the other. (page 141)

Self - verification

The process by which people try to bring others to treat them in a manner that confirms their self - conceptions. (page 27)

Convergent validation

The process of assembling diverse pieces of information that converge on a common conclusion. (page 157)

Single - trait approach

The research strategy of focusing on one particular trait of interest and learning as much as possible about its behavioral correlates, developmental antecedents, and life consequences. (page 179)

Essential - trait approach

The research strategy that attempts to narrow the list of thousands of trait terms into a shorter list of the ones that really matter. (page 180)

Many - trait approach

The research strategy that focuses on a particular behavior and investigates its correlates with as many different personality traits as possible in order to explain the basis of the behavior and to illuminate the workings of personality. (page 179)

Typological approach

The research strategy that focuses on identifying types of individuals. Each type is characterized by a particular pattern of traits. (page 180)

Behavioral confirmation

The self - fulfilling prophecy tendency for a person to become the kind of person others expect him or her to be; also called the expectancy effect. (page 33)

Construct validation

The strategy of establishing the validity of a measure by comparing it with a wide range of other measures. (page 50)

Psychometrics

The technology of psychological measurement. (page 48)

Expectancy effect

The tendency for someone to become the kind of person others expect him or her to be; also known as a self - fulfilling prophecy and behavioral confirmation. (page 33)

Phenomenological approach

The theoretical view of personality that emphasizes experience, free will and the meaning of life. Closely related to humanistic psychology and existentialism. (page 6)

Trait approach

The theoretical view of personality that focuses on individual differences in personality and behavior, and the psychological processes behind them. (page 5)

Psychoanalytic approach

The theoretical view of personality, based on the writings of Sigmund Freud, that emphasizes the unconscious processes of the mind. (page 6)

Psychological triad

The three essential topics of psychology: how people think, how they feel, and how they behave. (page 4)

Measurement error

The variation of a number around its true mean due to uncontrolled, essentially random influences; also called error variance. (page 45)

What is an integrative life story?

a personalized construction of one's life based on reconstructed past, perceived present, and imagined future. It is (hopefully) motivating and helps sustain a sense of self-worth and optimism about the future. It's what your life means to you. and your sense of what was important in how you came to be where you are now. Potentially an important target for change in therapy interventions.

What is an "approach" to personality?

a theoretical view of personality that focuses on some phenomena and ignores others; ways to limit what part of personality is examined so the task of personality psychology is not overwhelming and impossible

What are dispositional traits?

aka the psychology of the stranger; a basic outline. The Big 5 are an important example

What is a construct? Why is it difficult to measure these well?

an idea about a psychological attribute that goes beyond what might be assessed through any particular method of measurement There is no *single thing* a person could do or show or measurement you could take to adequately capture the value of the construct (creativity, loneliness, I.Q., need for closure, self-regulatory style)

What are characteristic adaptations?

aspects of personality that are more contextualized to place and time and more dynamic. More like mechanisms. For example: specific motives, roles, values, developmental life concerns.

What are the 3 basic research design?

case method correlational method experimental method

What is narcissism?

excessive self-love, self-centeredness with an overriding motivation to maximize and protect self-esteem • High self-confidence, charisma, power and its rewards • Interpersonal adjustment is a big problem • Charming, make good first impressions but are revealed to be manipulative, overbearing, vain, etc. • Not all of narcissism is bad, especially not from the perspective of the narcissist: may be high on leadership and authority and have higher self-confidence, charisma, popularity, power, and life satisfaction • Thought to involve a system of intrapersonal and interpersonal strategies devoted to maximizing • and protecting self-esteem.

Describe the phenomenological approach to personality

focus on people's conscious experience of the world o Cross-cultural: how the experience of reality varies across cultures o Humanistic: how conscious awareness produces uniquely human attributes; understand meaning and basis of happiness o Includes uniquely human attributes: existential anxiety, creativity, free will, and happiness. Often least concerned with documenting biological mechanisms or correlates.

How can judge's accuracy be improved? (RAM)

functioning meaning systems (judge) Old emphasis: just utilization: accurately remember and correctly interpret the information (consider stereotypes, personal biases, etc.) Detection: judge notices the information (needs to be paying attention to others; not just self-focused. Search for several types info Available: behavior emitted in a manner and place that the judge can see it (strive for info from several contexts) Relevance: must be informative to the trait being judged (try to create/foster situations where others can self-express; pay attention when they happen in daily life) Finally: ask others. Consensus (agreement) does not always mean accuracy, but it is important info. Lack of consensus important, too!

Describe the learning and cognitive approach to personality

how behavior changes as a result of rewards, punishments, and other life experiences o Classic behaviors: focuses on overt behavior o Social learning: learning through observation and self-evaluation o Cognitive personality: focuses on cognitive processes including perception, memory, and thought. Often, these are generative mechanisms

Describe the trait approach to personality

how people differ psychologically o how best to describe, measure, conceptualize the most important ways in which people tend to differ (behavior, thought, feeling). Documenting interrelations of traits; demonstrating that traits are associated with important life outcomes and how traits might change over time and/or or be related to particular experiences.

What are the nomothetic approaches to personality?

human universals and individual differences

what does assessment mean?

measurement of relatively stable attributes of people In personality assessment, it is usually traits

What are the two types of interactionism?

mechanistic reciprocal

What is Funder's first law?

o "Great strengths are usually great weaknesses, and surprisingly often the opposite is true as well." (p. 10)

What are the implications of RAM?

o Accurate personality judgment is difficult o Moderators of accuracy can have effects at one or more of these for stages o Accuracy can be improved in four ways • Relevant behavior emitted and available to judge • Judge detects and utilizes (interprets) info correctly o Accurate personality judgment is difficult: All four stages of RAM must be successful. o Accuracy can be improved in four ways: by improving each stage of RAM.

What criteria can be used to assess accuracy?

o Answer from constructivism: none, because personality is a social construction • Constructivism: reality, as a concrete entity, does not exist; only ideas or "constructions" of reality o Answer from critical realism: all information that might be helpful • Critical realism: the absence of perfect, infallible criteria for truth does not imply that all interpretations of reality are equally correct • Similar to assessing the validity of a formal test

Describe behavioral residue

o Behavioral residue: concrete, physical clues in the environment based on repeated behaviors. • Desk/office spaces, Cars, bedrooms, Etc. o Repeated behaviors • Links With traits Recent past Goals, projects • Hard to fake o Gosling's Research • Info from Occupants S-data + Friend I-data • (averaged) • Observers + "coders" explore spaces Observers: judgments Coders: Room details • Look at patterns for each trait. Consensus of judges? Accuracy of judgements? • They also explored possible effects of stereotypes related to perceived sex/race in influencing consensus and accuracy

Describe the "Barnum Effect". Why does this happen?

o Beware of the "Barnum Effect" • First demonstrated by Forer (1940s) • Barnum statements: general, applicable to anyone • The Fallacy of Positive Instances is the natural tendency to remember what is applicable and forget what does not fit one's expectation o Why does it occur? • Authority of the test interpreter • Use of "Barnum statements" - general • Fallacy of positive instances • Self-serving bias Self-serving: like to hear positive things Also: more likely IF you feel like the interpreter is an authority!

Summarize the person-situation debate. Can traits predict behavior?

o Cant traits predict behavior? • Not extremely well in short term.single situations, but effect sizes are often similar to situation effects Suggested r's for I-B,S-B,B-B = .3-.4 The situation matters (real life? Engaging?) The person & type of behavior may matter (personal consistencies vary) Good studies shows both situation effects & consistency • Does self or other reported trait predict B (S-B, I-B) • Is Behavior consistent (B-B) • Targeted experiments show evidence of BOTH behavioral change and behavioral consistency. The same story holds in the developmental literature. o Well over the long term (aggregation) • Traits predict weekly trends and major life outcomes Model: repeated patterns of behavior - life outcomes • Goal: understand the process/mechanisms

What is agreeableness?

o Contrasts a prosocial and communal orientation toward others with antagonism And includes traits such as altruism, tendermindedness, trust, and modesty o John & Srivastava, 1999 o Playing by rules/norms of interpersonal communion/harmony... o Facets • Trust (not suspicious) • Straightforward (not deceitful/manipulative) • Altruism (not self-centered, competitive) • Friendly Compliance (not stubborn, inflexible) • Modesty (not prideful, arrogant) • Tender-Mindedness (not aloof or antagonistic)

What is convergent validation?

o Convergent validation definition: the process of assembling diverse pieces of information that converge on a common conclusion (we covered this aspect of information-gathering in the construct validation approach for test construction) o The duck test: if something has several characteristics of a duck, it is likely to be a duck; confidence increases with more convergent characteristics. • Interjudge agreement (consensus) the degree to which two or more judges of the same person provide the same descriptions of personality; the more judges who agree, the more likely the judgment is to be correct • Behavioral prediction and predictive validity the degree to which a judgment can predict behavior • Self-judge agreement

What is I data? (informant report)

o Definition: judgments by knowledgeable informants about general attributes of the individual's personality o Used frequently in daily life; appear as overall judgments • letters of recommendation, gossip; has real-life consequences....even if it is not accurate.

What is openness

o Describes to breadth, depth originality, and complexity of an individual's mental and experiential life o Previous names: culture and intellectance o Openness to experience culture • Most controversial of the Big 5 trait: low vs. high tend to see each other negatively!!! Concept is least likely to replicate cross-culturally

What are efficacy expectations?

o Efficacy expectations definition: what you think you are capable of; the kind of person you think you are (capable and competent or not?). Increasing efficacy in just one area (e.g., self-defense; learning to drive) can have important cascading effects that influence a general sense of self-efficacy and motivation.

How are everyday judgements of personality opportunity consequences?

o Employment, friendships o Examples: shyness, self-assuredness • Shyness, self-assuredness: Example in text of how shy people can be perceived as cold and aloof. Have students think about another trait, such as self-assuredness, and how this might be perceived by others (rude, conceited, etc.)

What does it mean to say we create situations by affecting them?

o Evocation (passive) and manipulation (active) o We intentionally and unintentionally create and recreate situations • Based on how other people perceive us and response to us • Based on our success at deliberately affecting situations o Funder says you "find yourself in" a situation more often than others might o Others judgments of you are a good example of evocation o Expectancies are likely (though not always) to be correct, so they magnify or maintain behavioral tendencies.

What is the ultimate goal of personality psych? what is the problem with this? What is the result of the problem?

o Explain the whole person in his or her daily environment • Mission impossible - it is impossible to account for everything at the same time o Most personality psychologists focus on one thing

Describe what tests fall under either extensive, moderate, or absent categories of evidence-based measures

o Extensive ( a few examples) • Measure of big 5L NEO-PI-R, BFI, PRF, etc • Measures of pathology: beck depression inventory o Moderate (a few examples) • PNI • Cattell's 16 PF • MMPI (for clinical use) • California Psychological Inventory (CPI) o Very low or absent • The MBTI "types" • Tests in magazines, etc.

what are examples of how we select to enter and leave situations?

o Extraverted people tend to play team sport o People high in openness generally choose careers that encourage high creativity o Link to life outcomes choices, acts add up over time o Personality stability small initial differences becomes entrenched o Affect Congruence is proposed as a mechanism for selection o (based on personality attributes we experience different emotional reactions and/or have different preferences/tolerance for emotion (affect) o Little differences in actions, choices have big effects when they are made repeatedly over time o Narrowed social experiences = little growth, magnifies small initial differences

Describe the relationship between openness and life outcomes

o Individual/Personal o +Existential concerns, +Forgiveness,+ drug use o (-) Identity "foreclosure" o Majority culture identification (minorities) o Social/Institutional o + Investigative, artistic careers & success o + Liberalism, (-) prejudice, right-wing authoritarianism o Interpersonal? (close relationships) o ? ??? o Low /High O conflict, see each other negatively o In the extreme: High O àinterest in UFOs, paranormal activity, etc.

What is L data (life outcomes)?

o L data definition: verifiable, concrete, real-life facts that may hold psychological significance o Obtained from archival records or self-report o From social media o The results or "residue" of personality (potentially...) • Sometimes people make mistakes - people are wrongly convicted, etc.

How does personality psychology concern how each person is?

o Like every other person • Human universals o Like some other people • Individual differences - human variation o Unlike any other person • Human uniqueness - not shared with any other o EX: snowflake

What is the consensus on objective tests?

o Many objective tests are much more evidence-based (reliable, valid, useful) and cost-effective o Objective tests are highly preferred for when the goal is diagnosis, prediction/career counseling, and/or legal decision making • May be helpful for some specific outcomes (attendance at treatment, suicide)

What is measurement error?

o Measurement Error: (aka error variance) - the cumulative effect of random, extraneous influences • the cumulative effect of extraneous influences on a test score • What's extraneous depends on what you are trying to measure.

Describe the second level of individual differences (characteristic adaptations)

o More contextualized & process oriented • How to do things, when, why • Mental models/beliefs, Coping strategies, Motives & values, Life stage and concerns/tasks o Usually change over time - not as consistent as traits o Characteristic adaptations influence traits and vice versa

What are feeling regulators?

o Objects help with emotion regulation • Personal Relationships Mementos Also identity claims (some types) • Impersonal Not about personal relationships, experiences Objects: posters, quotes

What is B data? (Behavioral)

o Observations of a person's behavior in daily life or in a laboratory or other "testing" situation o Information is carefully and systematically recorded from direct observation o Some personality tests are considered a type of B data b/c we are interested in recording and interpreting reaction to a stimulus (the test), not a self-judgment per se.

What does your room say about you?

o Personal spaces make an impression that multiple observers tend to share (consensus) o Accuracy of that impression is highest for openness, conscientiousness, extraversion o Transactions with physical environment appear to leave several types of valid clues about personality in offices and bedrooms o A mix of valid cue utilization and invalid cue utilization (bias) occurs in these judgments o Stereotypes can be activated; to the extent that they are inaccurate they will lead you astray. o Example: Belief that agreeable people will have pleasant, nice rooms; neurotic people will have gloomy rooms with stale air and no decorations o Results: • Offices: not as informative as bedrooms. • Very few valid cues re: agreeableness, neuroticism (emotional stability) • As before, highest accuracy (valid cues) and consensus (shared meaning) for O, C, E • Some accuracy for N, but lack of consensus.

What is the idiographic approach to personality?

o Personal uniqueness • the one thing that only personality psychologists (and maybe clinical psychologists) focus on when compared to psychologists in other fields Case studies are common to research this

What is the point of judging or measuring traits

o Personality traits predict behavior o Traits can be used to understand behavior

What is the consensus on projective assessment tests?

o Projective tests are based on a theory that we can/should evoke and measure implicit, possibly less censored aspects of personal motives (e.g. power, intimacy, achievement), concerns, etc. for better understanding & prediction o Validity requires careful scoring based on formal, established rules is lower than desired • Some argue that this is because the intended targets are more state-like • Even with formal rules, often > 1 interp exists: relatively lower inter-rater reliability • 2 different psychologists might have different interpretations of the same responses. • It is important to focus on overall themes/patterns that emerge over MANY cards rather than any 1 strange/startling comment, etc. • Projective tests and other measures of implicit processes are appropriate for research and theory development, including re: individual persons. • A disconnect exists between research data and practice/application

Describe the 4 parts of the realistic accuracy model (RAM)

o Relevance: must be informative to the trait being judged (some situations are better than others!) o Available: behavior emitted in a manner and place that the judge can see it (needs to be in the right context) o Detection: judge notices the information (needs to be paying attention!) o Utilization: accurately remember and correctly interpret the information

Describe how S data show self attributed motives and B data show implicit motives

o S data are self attributed motives • E.g. likert scales, checklists Conscious Stable (high test-retest reliability) Cognitively elaborated • Social incentives • Predict Behavior in highly socially controlled, structured contexts Shorter term behaviors • B data show implicit motives E.g. TAT, PSE • Unconscious • Somewhat unstable • Lower test-retest reliability Activity incentives Predict • Spontaneous, self-selected behavior • Long term

What is self monitoring?

o Self monitoring: the degree to which inner and outer selves and behaviors are the same or different across situations • Self-monitoring, which refers to the degree to which individuals purposefully adjust their public appearance and behavior in order to enhance their status and maximize self interests. • High self-monitors: discrepant selves and behaviors, look for cues in situation that signal how to act and adjust behavior. Tendency to be opportunistic and pursue self-interests • Low self-monitors: similar selves and behaviors, are more consistent across situations, more guided by inner personality • Book: It's not necessarily better to be high or low: Both poles have positive and negative implications and correlates. • Correlates with several behaviors: being a professional stage actor, performance in job interviews, willingness to lie to get a date (behaviors are more likely for high self-monitors) o High: guided by situational cues (less consistent) • Discrepant selves/behavior • Good actors! Good job interview impression o Low: guided by inner personality (more consistent) • Similar selves/behavior

What are identity claims?

o Self-directed • For self, not public • Often idiosyncratic • May be mass-produced Role models/ideals? Evidence of success? Past goodness? Strengthen, affirm self-concept o Primarily for public/others • Location; shared meaning! o Impression formation • Avoid ambiguity • Project an image • Deception possible • Attract • Mark boundaries/repel • Self-esteem • Self-express

What is self-verification?

o Self-verification: People work to convince others to treat them in a manner that confirms their self-conceptions!!! Process explains why people w/low view of self tend to choose and be more committed to/more comfortable with partners who treat them badly; it's the opposite for people who feel better about themselves. Note: it appears that people generally like to hear positive things and be treated well but that treatment create a lot of anxiety/self-doubt in those who are used to being treated poorly.

What are the different types of personality clues in surroundings?

o Several distinct mechanisms provide clues o (gosling, 2009; Gosling er al. 2002) o 3 specific mechanisms by which individuals impact their physical surroundings; different types of clues • behavioral residue internal external • Identity claims Self-directed Other-directed • Feeling Regulators

What is conscientiousness

o Socially prescribed impulse control that facilitates task- and goal-directed behavior such as thinking before acting, delaying gratification, following rules, planning, organizing, and prioritizing tasks • A self-regulated approach to life that helps bring a lot of rewards • And helps avoid a lot of negative outcomes

What does measures are considered "good" - aka supported by scientific evidence

o Statistical analysis is needed to show that measures are reliable and valid: • Are you measuring what you intend to measure? o Requires reliability first o Requires theoretically consistent patterns of covariance • Attributes that should be correlated (or uncorrelated) • Outcomes should be correlated o Measures must be appropriate for their intended us (target, informant issues? Applicable norms?) o Scientific evidence has 2 important parts: • Statistical methods were used to establish reliability & validity. • Peer reviewed study methods & statistics as well. • ALWAYS CONSIDER HOW THE TEST WILL BE USED.

What is S data (self judgements/self-reports)

o Usually questionnaires or surveys • Can have rating scales or open-ended questions o Most frequent data source o High face validity o S data definition: a person's evaluation of his or her own personality

What is the evidence for the universality of the big 5?

o When translated to other languages, four or five of the factors appear. o When starting with other languages: some overlap but not one-to-one correspondence o Scores vary by geographic region o Best overlap: Indoeuropean languages o Translated to other languages: including Japanese, German, and Hebrew o Starting with other languages: Chinese

What is the essential-trait approach

o Which traits are the most fundamental (basic) and/or important for describing people and accounting for what they do? o Can we agree on a taxonomy of traits? • A taxonomy.... defines the overarching domains or categories that organizes a large numbers of specific instances so we can understood them in a simplified way. • A taxonomy would let people organize their studies around sets or domains of related traits/characteristics rather than studying thousands of attributes in isolation.

What are the characteristics of openness?

o Willing/Wanting to experience/tolerate: o change, ambiguity, diversity,multiple perspectives. o = (-)Prejudice o = (+)Identity development o = (+) Ed Pursuit, satisfaction o = (+) coping processes o = Political attitudes o Case studies: O can be increased based on exposure to new ideas, experience.

What is an example of the 4th view of personality trait-behavior linkage?

o e.g. extraverted people are different from introverted people because they have a different neurophysiological basis (maybe they process rewards differently)

Why is the third definition the most common/supported one?

o generative mechanisms & behavioral summaries o there is something inside you that contributes to the behavior of a person o "internal mechanisms" filter, process, & output o there is probably more than 1 contributing mechanism or substrate leading to a certain trait o Developmental "equifinality" o This makes it hard to search for a specific neurobiological basis (there may not be one!). o Later, we'll cover evidence that variation in genes is related to variation in traits at the level of a population. o There is still very strong evidence that environmental variation is important for all traits.

Describe case method research designs

o intensive observation of single case o Case method definition: closely studying a particular event or person of interest in order to find out as much as possible. o Many topics in one life (or event); o can generate theories and/or or attempt to describe a prototype for a particular pathology or virtue but problem of limited generalizability., lack of control over influences. Old case studies (like Freud's) also lacked good, reliable objective observations.

Describe the correlational method of research designs

o measure 2+ variables in a sample of participants. One advantage over the experiment is that it includes real world levels of things (X, Y) since they are directly observed o Correlation from scatterplot is a metric free measure of strength, direction association. • quasi experiment, natural experiment • uncertain directionality - which variable influenced the other? A to B or B to A? • 3rd variable influences? Is their another variable that is explaining the relationship?

What are the 4 approaches used to connect traits with behavior?

o single trait o many-trait o essential-trait approach o typological approach • (1) What do people like that do? (can also use this strategy w/ "essential" traits!) • (2) Who does that? • (3) Which traits are "basic", most important? • (4) Qualitative (kind, type) vs. quantitative (amount, degree) • Often approaches are correlational: • Experimental manipulations may also be used where the personality trait is used as one of the IV's. (a Q-IV)

Describe the single-trait approach

o what do people with a certain personality trait do? • Associations between one trait and many behaviors • Usually based on a theory of the trait • Often, these traits are complex aggregates Specific behaviors Ability/capacity Specific motivation and values Linked with negative outcomes, but inconsistently

What are the different categories for consequences of everyday judgements of personality?

opportunities expectancies/self-fulfilling prophecies

What is pigeonholing?

putting people into specific categories

What are the techniques for objective test construction?

rational factoral analysis empirical combination

What is a mechanism?

something that implements or constrain information processing (variation in type or function = basis of trait)

What is construct validation?

the strategy of establishing the validity of a measure by comparing it to a wide range of other measures

What are the 3 levels of individual differences?

traits - level one characteristic adaptations - level 2 life stories - level 3

Describe the psychoanalytic approach to personality

unconscious mind, motives, and internal mental conflict o This tradition has also informed cognitive approaches examining differences in perception, motivation, and emotion. Some mechanisms represent "unconscious" knowledge

Describe the biological approach to personality

understand the mind in terms of the body -includes anatomy, physiology, genetics, evolution; example: depression as a function of abnormal levels of neurotransmitters

What is the neurotic cascade?

• "Hyperreativity" (to minor & major) • Differential exposure (evocation?) • Differential Appraisal (overly negative interp.) • Mood spillover/rumination (b/c ineffective coping) • Sting of familiar problems. (feel bad about pattern) Evocation (elicit negative response from others/stressors via: +Sensitivity, - emotion regulation, +self-preoccupation More likely to overattend to negative, threatening cues Less likely to attend to positive or acceptance related cues. This bias can be unlearned, with positive effects on mental health and effectiveness!

What are Funder's second and third laws?

• "there are no perfect indicators of personality; there are only clues, and clues are always ambiguous" (p.23) • "something beats nothing" (p.24)

Describe the link between behavioral mechanisms and high agreeableness

• + Strategies for conflict Take perspective (theory of mind) Negotiate Avoidance ("turn the other cheek") (--may not always work out over long haul) Humor Regulate emotion to maintain harmony • +Maintenance , Repair attempts Gratitude and warmth Forgiveness Maintain touch, positive connection

Describe McAdams & Pals 5 Principles

• 1) Evolutionary pressures on humans (survival, reproduction) promoted certain universal mechanisms (development of social groups and cultural practices) • 2-4) It is useful to recognize/conceptualize 3 different "levels" of individual variation 2) broad dispositional traits (esp. Big 5) 3) characteristic adaptations (more conceptualized) relevant to most daily behavior specific situations) 4) personal narratives/life stories • 5) culture/context likely has differential effects on these levels Culture and context don't affect all 3 levels equally.

What are the advantages and disadvantages to the basic approaches of personality psych

• Advantage: good at addressing certain topics • Disadvantage: poor at addressing other topics or ignores them

What are the advantages of extraversion?

• Advantages: higher status, rated as more popular and physically attractive, more positive emotions

What is extraversion ?

• An energetic approach to the social and material world that includes sociability, activity, assertiveness, and positive emotionality

What are the facet traits of neuroticism

• Anxiety (tense) • Angry-Hostility (irritable) • Depression (not content w/life or w/self) • Self-Consciousness (shy; self-focused) • Vulnerability (to stress, insecurity) • Impulsiveness (moody) "impulsiveness" can be used to mean slightly different things. According to Costa & McCrae, what is captured here is how well people can resist doing what they DO NOT want themselves to do.

What enhances reliability?

• Be careful - double check everything double-check measurements, check data entry, check accuracy of scoring • Use a scripted procedure or protocol adequate training of research assistants and monitoring to ensure procedures are followed • Try to engage participants; measure something they care about • Aggregation of multiple measurements especially important when measurements contain a lot of error Allow random influences to cancel each other out Especially important for predicting behavior • because single behaviors are influenced by many factors other than personality.

What is behavioral residue?

• Behavioral Residue - concrete, physical clues in the environment based on repeated behaviors o Repeated behaviors either in that space (internal) or outside of that space (external) o Links • With traits • Recent past • Goals, projects • Hard to fake

What theoretical developments can from the person-situation debate?

• Broad acceptance of "Interactionism" o Models describing how the interactions work. o Behavior = f (Personality X Situation) • Models for how personality develops/changes o Other people shape beliefs about how the world works o Changing life demands, roles "pull" for development. • Emphasis on important "characteristic adaptations" o Regulatory strategies o Identifying commonalities across concepts

Describe the California Q set

• Compares characteristics within an individual • 100 personality descriptions must be sorted • forced choice, symmetrical and normal distribution e.g. is unpredictable and changeable in behavior and attitudes is vulnerable to real or fancied threat, generally fearful is a talkative individual • California Q-Set: 100 personality descriptions in terms of phrases, more complex than single-word traits • Nobody can be all good or all bad • Lets you get at relative strength or distinctiveness/ importance of traits within one person o Q sort: word use • Certainty words: related to being perceived as intelligent, verbally fluent, turned to for advice, ambitious, generous o Q sort: depression • For girls (at age 18): related to being described as shy, oversocialized, self-punishing, and overcontrolled at age 7 • For boys: related to being described as unsocialized, aggressive, and undercontrolled

What are the inaccurate clues for personality?

• Conscientiousness o Colorful, inviting, large • Openness o Quantity of books, clutter • Extraverted (Office space only) o Cluttered, full, unconventional • Agreeableness (most biases!) o Organized, neat, clean, inviting, colorful • Neuroticism o Stale air, gloomy, no decorations • It's important to note when people have biases. • In the realistic accuracy model, these would cause people to interpret available information incorrectly. • e.g.: gloomy, undecorated rooms = neuroticism

What are the accurate clues for personality?

• Conscientiousness o Organized, Well lit, uncluttered, clean • Openness o Variety of books + music, Distinctive • Extraverted o Inviting, cheerful (candy, decorations) • Agreeableness o High traffic location in office spaces • Neuroticism o Inspirational Posters (described in Gosling's other work) • The most accurate judgments were for Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion. • Judges also had the highest consensus concerning clues that might be related to these 3 traits • Agreeableness and Neuroticism were much harder to judge accurately. • In general, bedrooms provided more clues than office spaces.

What evidence supports that personality exists?

• Consistency, stability, biological basis for some characteristics o Consistency: agreement across informatnts, methods; also consistent behavior in "similar" situation o "stability: similar characteristics over time o Biological basis: heritability, links with brain function • Especially the "The Big 5" (CANOE, OCEAN) • Successful Prediction o Not useful for single situations (need aggregation) o Predicts average tendencies over time. o Links with life relationships, health, work success, etc.

How does culture impact traits?

• Culture effects expression What as seen as extraversion in the US may be very different that common extraversion tendencies in Japan Similar trait labels + systems found across many cultures/langs, but diff expression (display rules; different social ecology).

How does culture impact characteristic adaptations?

• Culture matters a lot: differences in values, goals, preferred strategies, meaning-making Ex: parenting • Cultural meaning practices affects valuation of goals, beliefs, strategies for social life. • (One Example cultural individualism/collectivism) • More broadly, this level is influenced by the social ecology of everyday life: what environments a person is in, tools available, rules, roles. Many social structural variables related to how power/influence is experienced come in to play here: gender, race, ethnicity, social class to name a few. • Historical era also matters! Different generations have experienced different contexts.

Describe how culture impacts life stories

• Culture matters a lot: more research is needed. Important patterns noted. Particularly important in cultures that emphasize unity • According to McAdams, cultures provide a menu of stories for the life course and specify how stories should be lived and told. Stories compete and we must resist some and choose others. The life story concept hasn't been studied in all cultures. Some important areas of research: differences in themes when contrasting stories told by American liberals vs. conservatives;

What are the disadvantages of factor analysis?

• Did you enter enough & the right kinds of info? (GIGO) • Subjectivity in interpretation: final # factors, can they be correlated, how to name? • Doesn't tell us the causal/developmental structure of the traits/facets or about the structure of traits in an individual

What are the disadvantages of Laboratory B data?

• Difficult and expensive • Uncertain interpretation o behaviors may not mean what we think they do

what are the disadvantages of extraversion?

• Disadvantage: mate poaching, argumentative, need to be in control, poor time management • Conversation, Speaking up, draws attention to self, seeks excitement and fun • Dislikes and is perhaps more prone to boredom

What is the evolutionary importance of human universals?

• Evolutionarily, beings(humans, animals, etc.) need to be like others in their group for survival. Difference may mean death

What are the facet traits of extraversion?

• Facet Traits: Extraversion (NEO-PI) Costa & McCrae Warmth Gregarious Assertive Active Excitement-seeking Positive emotion • The order of the facets does NOT reflect their relative importance. • "Warmth" is really perceived warmth; tendency to initiate social interaction • Sensitive to rewards (esp. social) and positive emotions + seeks/desires these ! • May react less to sensory stimuli

What do human universals mean for personality psychologists

• For most modern personality & social psychologists the important universals concern how humans face the recurring challenges of human life in social groups

What are the advantages of projective tests

• Good for breaking the ice • Some skilled clinicians may be able to use them to get information not captured in other types of tests • May be helpful for some specific outcomes

What are some examples of theoretical attempts

• Henry Murray: 20 Basic Needs • (power, intimacy, aggression, order, etc.) • Harrison Gough: 20 "folk concepts" of personality • (dominance, empathy, responsibility, etc.) • J. & J. Block: Psychological processes of adaptation • ego-control: over or under-control of desires? Impulse control (over or under) • ego-resiliency: capacity to self-regulate control. Psychological adjustment; can adjust level of control to fir circumstances o Historically there were many different theoretical approaches based on different paradigms/approaches and with confusing differences in terminology. • Similar terms for different ideas! • Different terms for similar ideas! Why is this a problem? • Hard to communicate + integrate findings. • made scientific progress difficult and slow. • Need a taxonomy specifying relationships.

How can animal models help evaluate and further develop personality theories?

• Higher experimental control • Greater range of manipulations • Higher or easier access to physiological substrates • More opportunities for naturalistic observation • Shorter life span so it enables you to watch the entire lifetimes/developments

What are the facets of openness

• Ideas (curious, reflective, > 1 answer) • Fantasy (imaginative) • Aesthetics (artistic, appreciative) • Actions (wide interests, seek variety) • Feelings (receptive to, nuanced) • Values (unconventional, will re-examine) • High O: + reflection, imagination, • + ideas/perspectives, OK w/ambiguity!) • à Fits with classical models of growth development.

What are the implications of the big 5?

• Implications of the big five Can bring order, integration to many research findings! More complex than they seem at first... • Labels are oversimplified and have changed w/time! • "Big" traits subsume related lower-order facets • Not everyone agrees on lower-order facets and we don't know how they are causally related/linked

Describe the typological approach

• Important differences between people may be qualitative (of kind or type) not quantitative. • If so, it is not that useful to compare people quantitatively on the same trait dimensions. • The Challenge: • What divisions distinguish different types? • Demonstrate that they are qualitative. • Instead, sort patterns of traits into types • Three replicable types have been identified in longitudinal research, but typological classification fails to be more useful than using quantitative (trait) scores for predicting behavior. o Well adjusted • adaptable, flexibly, resourceful, interpersonally successful o Maladjusted overcontrolling (internalizing) • too uptight, denies self pleasure needlessly, difficult interpersonally o Maladjusted undercontrolling (externalizing) • too impulsive, prone to crime and unsafe sex • Why might it be useful to think about people in terms of types? o Summary of standing on several important traits related to adjustment. o Important focus on how different traits within one person interact with each other. o It doesn't add up to ability to predict outcomes. o Maybe it could be useful for understanding? o

Describe the mechanistic form of interaction

• In what specific situation do traits matter? Proposal: • engaging events related to goals, emotions • Weaker situations: few rules/scripts? Example: • Neuroticism explains differences in negative emotion following minor stressors but not major stressors • Extraversion explains differences in preference for feeling happy before effortful tasks but not before easy tasks

What are the benefits of the person-situation debate?

• Increased evidence for relative importance of traits; search for basis/mechanisms by which they affect behavior • More emphasis on "characteristic adaptations" o Beliefs, interpretations o Goals, regulatory strategies o Sense of identity • Models of person + situation effects, "interactionism" o Behavior is a function of personality and situation acting together • Now we have more theories and models describing how the interactions work • Similar issues are addressed in the developmental models

Describe the link between conscientiousness and life outcomes

• Individual/Personal +longevity, (-) risky behavior, + religious belief. +identity "achievement", + cultural identification • Interpersonal + Family & Dating satisfaction • Social/Institutional + Performance, success at school, work + Conservatism, (-) antisocial, criminal behavior • Predicts success in college and is correlated with years of schooling. • Examined in integrity tests • Predicts work success and decreased counterproductive work behavior. • Predicts spouse's job success, too! • Might explain sustained motivation in general • More likely to feel guilty, less popular, less creative! • Predicts life expectancy! • Link between C and job success across many types of jobs; the magnitude of relationship increases as job autonomy increases. • Predicts success in college better than Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and high school grade point average (GPA) • Might explain motivation in general: to learn about their employer and acquire skills and knowledge, to seek information before an interview; to acquire new skills; less likely to procrastinate • More likely to feel guilty: when they don't meet expectations • Predicts longer life expectancy: avoiding risky behaviors such as smoking and overeating and engaging in health-promoting behaviors such as exercise • Positively correlated with years of schooling but not with IQ

Describe the link between neuroticism and life outcomes

• Individual/Personal • (+) anxiety/depression, (- )coping, (-) well-being • (-) humor, (-)identity integration • Interpersonal • (-) Family satisfaction, (-) status for males, • (-) rel. satisfaction; (+) conflict, abuse, dissolution • Social/Institutional • (-) Satisfaction, (-) commitment, (- )financial success, • + antisocial behavior o The big five and beyond • Especially sensitive to social threats, but strong reactions to others stressors too. • Ineffective problem solving, coping • Emotion-focused rather than problem focused coping • Patterns of avoidance, becoming hostile create problems with others (more stress!)

What are the advantages to laboratory B data?

• Large range of contexts in the lab o : no need to wait for the situation of interest to happen if it is created in the lab • Appearance of objectivity o Subjective judgments must still be made o less distortion and exaggeration; high reliability and precision o Subjective judgments: b/c researcher decides which behaviors to observe and how to rate them

Describe Political orientation and childhood traits

• Liberal: resourceful, independent, self-reliant, and confident as children (more gratification, less cohesion) • Conservative: feeling guilt, anxious, and unable to handle stress well as children (more structure, less change) o Shared values and a difference in values: • Conservatives more likely to strongly value In-group loyalty Authority and respect Purity o Authoritarianism • Desire for strong/punitive external authorities who impose structure and punish deviance. Society should involve rigid hierarchy, simple structures Turn one's will to external authority Able to avoid making personal choices • Uncooperative and inflexible • Likely to obey command to harm others • Fewer positive emotions • Predicts overt and implicit prejudice • Authoritarianism definition: turn one's will over to an external authority to avoid having to make personal choices; • Tends to enjoy giving orders, which they expect to be followed without question • Authoritarianism is more directly linked to prejudice than is high need for closure • (or low openness)

What are the disadvantages of I data?

• Limited behavioral information Some Acquaintances (e.g. coworker) often see each other in only one context, and people might be different in different contexts. • Lack of access to private experience They aren't with you all of the time • Error more likely to remember behaviors that are extreme, unusual, or emotionally arousing without knowing the whole story • Bias: due to personal issues or prejudices

How does the Spearman-Brown formula aid in test construction

• Looks at how much reliability would increase by adding another question • a mathematical formula that predicts the degree to which the reliability of a test can be improved by adding more items • In the Jackson article the reports from multiple friends (informants) were aggregated. These aggregated ratings ended up being much more predictive than ratings from just 1 informant.

Describe the person-situation debate

• Low consistency observed in behavior across situations • The idea of consistent personality emerging from internal characteristics an illusion • Fundamental attribution error exists o tendency to over ascribe the "cause" of a behavior to person's disposition o While ignoring potential situational influences (example: assigned essays on controversial topics; readers still believed that the essay reflected the writer's real views).

What are the factors that undermine reliability?

• Low precision of measurement Make measurements as exact as possible; data should be correctly recorded, scored, and entered into a database. • The state of the participant State of participant: may not depend on the study (illness, emotion, distraction, fatigue, etc.) • The state of the experimenter may not treat all participants the same; participants may respond differently to aspects of the experimenter (gender, age, attractiveness). • The environment temperature of the room, the weather, noise in the building

Is high or low self-monitoring desirable

• Low: Less willing/able to manipulate situations • High: adjusts public appearance and behavior to enhance status and self-interests High Extraversion (social skills, can attend to cues) High Drive for power and personal status More likely to be ethically, socially pragmatic Links more with counter-productive work behavior An ethically-oriented environment matters • Self monitoring is investigated as a moderator of personality-performance relationships in work situations. • Day and Schleicher (2006, p. 702) have argued that "itis critically important for a high self-monitor to be in an ethically oriented environment in order for that individual to act ethically".

What are the problems with experiments?

• Manipulation may be impossible or unethical • Manipulation may require deception • Hard to know what was really manipulated Questions validity Uncertainty about what was really manipulated: Manipulation may affect a variable other than the one intended. Like a Third-variable problem: Manipulation may have affected an unintended variable, and this could affect both variables of interest. • Unrealistic levels of "causal valriable" Ex: using a condition of students exposed to 72 hours of sleep deprivation - not realistic form of sleep deprivation for the general population Can create unlikely or impossible levels of a variable: results in exaggerated group differences (if one person has all of the power and the other has none); correlational studies measure natural levels

Describe how extraversion links with mate poaching?

• Mate poaching: more likely to have others attempt to steal them away from their romantic partners (AND more likely to try to steal another person's partner) • Less sensitive to punishment during reward pursuit.

What are some forms of interactionism

• Mechanistic Interaction (older view) o In what specific situations do traits matter? • (ambiguous, unusual, unscripted events) • Reciprocal Interaction (dynamic, process oriented) o Much about "Situations" is subjective, not objective. o "Situations" are... • interpreted, selected, manipulated (active) and evoked (passive)

When do most people feel more authentic?

• Most people feel more authentic when their behavior is in the growth-oriented or positive direction of traits o Being higher in extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, but lower in neuroticism typically makes people feel more authentic (more growth-oriented behaviors) o Unlike popular belief, both introverted and extraverted people feel more authentic when acting extraverted • They felt as though their "true self" was when they were being extraverted even if they are typically introverted o Subjective Authenticity was consistently associated with acting highly extraverted, agreeable, conscientious, emotionally stable, and intellectual, regardless of the actor's actual levels of these traits.

Describe reciprocal interaction?

• Much about situations is subjective, not objective • Situations are perceived according to subjective possibilities for experience/ behavior plus the subjective value of those possibilities -we select to enter and leave situations -we interpret situations -we create situations by affecting them -

What is the disadvantage of L data?

• Multidetermination : L data can be influenced by much more than personality (genetic illnesses, parental attention, environmental toxins).

What are the 4 dimensions of nacissism?

• Narcissism (NPI) has 4 dimensions (factors): 3 are related to high self-esteem + low depression • superiority/arrogance • self-absorption/self-admiration • leadership/authority 1 is not related to self-esteem and predicts problems • exploitativeness/entitlement

Describe the need for closure example of construct validation

• Need for Closure is a good example of a construct. It helps explain a variety of psychological and social processes that are not adequately explained by other accounts. There appear to be important individual differences. • Examples from articles: A need for closure is related to how you feel the need to get an answer & once you have a working idea you freeze on the idea & you don't start seeking other information that may be inconsistent with your idea

what are the positive and negatives of personality psychologists emphasizing individual differences

• Negative: pigeonholing • Positive: leads to sensitivity and respect for individual differences

Are the basic approaches competitors or complements? What is the OBT?

• Not mutually exclusive • They address different questions • Each ignores many key concerns • One big theory (OBT) o Difficult to do everything well o personality psychologists have not figured out how to solve this dilemma; some would like to find One Big Theory, some believe their approach is the OBT, some would like to organize the existing theories into one framework, and some believe that the different approaches address different questions and should be left as is.

What are the advantages of L data?

• Objective and verifiable • Intrinsic importance often of real-world importance (longevity, academic or work success, health problems, debt troubles, criminal record, family status and conflict, etc...) • Psychological relevance

What are the advantages of I data?

• Often based on a large amount of information Judgments from multiple informants Many behaviors in many situations • Based on observation of real world behavior More likely to be relevant to important outcomes • Characteristics may be more commonly relevant to real world behavior, Not from contrived tests or constructed situations • Based on common sense re: what behaviors mean Context: present situation; past history Most people takes context of the specific situation & the person's overall history into account: • Definitional truth for some aspects Some aspects of personality are based on what others see you do or how they react to you. • Causal force Reputation affects opportunities and expectancies Expectancy effects; also called behavioral confirmation • Expectancy effects or behavioral confirmation: To some degree, people become what others expect them to be.

Describe the controversy in personality traits

• Personality Traits refer to relatively enduring or stable ways people differ from each other in terms of feeling, thought, behavior. They are comparative rather than absolute. • They are largely descriptions but at the same time are used as if they account for/explain consistencies that tend to occur across situations and over time. In this sense, they are thought to apply to some disposition that is inside of the peson. • Traits are relatively context free.

What is interactionism?

• Persons and situations matter and are not completely independent influences o We experience situations because of: • Selection effects • Perception/interpretation effects • Evocation and manipulation

what are the higher order factors of the big 5?

• Plasticity: E, O (explore, engage, get ahead!) possibly related to dopaminergic systems + seek rewards, approach novelty • Stability: C, A, low N (control impulses, get along!) possibly related to serotonergic systems + regulate impulses, behavior

What are projective tests?

• Projective tests definition: a test that presents a person with an ambiguous stimulus and asks him or her to describe what is seen. • The person may or may not be aware of the inner processes • Answers are presumed to reveal inner psychological needs, feelings, experiences, thought processes, or other hidden aspects of the mind Thematic apperception test (TAT or PSE) Rorschach test

What are the advantages to natural B data?

• Realistic o descriptions of what participants actually do in daily life o Sometimes, can use the method as a follow up to an intervention to see how daily life activities change.

Why is validity a slippery concept?

• Reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity You have to have reliability in order to have validity but you don't need to have validity to have reliability • Invokes the idea of "ultimate truth" It's difficult, or impossible, to know what constructs (intelligence, honesty) really are, so it's actually difficult to know if they are measured validly.

Describe the consequences of intellectual expectancy effects

• Rosenthal and Jacobson: climate, feedback, input, output Climate (warmer emotional attitude of teacher), feedback (more differentiated feedback that depends on whether the response is correct), input (teachers attempt to teach more and more difficult material), output (extra opportunities for students to show what they know) Self-fulfilling prophecy: Behavior is influenced by how others expect us to act (regardless of what we are really like).

Describe the interactionism examples relevant to agreeableness

• Selection, Evocation and Manipulation: • More meaningful, stable, warm social interactions • Fewer interpersonal stressors • More enduring and high quality relationships. • Forgiveness • Attempt to maintain, repair connections (touch, positivity) • More likely to "turn the other cheek" (might not work over long haul)

Describe the TAT (thematic apperception test)

• Show a person an ambiguous person - describe the event including characters' thoughts and feelings - what led up to this? How will it end?

Explain intraindividual variation

• Situations re not perceived similarly o If...then stability exists o Psychologically similar situations = similar behaviors o Book example: camp Wediko study (Mischel) • Regulatory processes*fluctuate? o *consequences for feeling like true self? o Mean people suck... • But maybe they don't all want to be mean, etc. • Self-regulation "machinery" is on, too taxed? • (e.g. Denson et al. 2012) o Experiences one's own inconsistency • inconsistency doesn't equal inauthentic, false self although people predict this • your "true self" may be your "best self" your regulated, value-consistent self your growth-oriented self Fleeson & Wilt, 2010 (+E, +C, +A, +O, -N)

describe the consequences of social expectancy effects

• Snyder, tanke, and berscheid: self-fulfilling prophecy re: attractiveness Attractive people were expected to be warm and friendly and people thought to be attractive responded in that way

How does personality psychology overlap with social psychology?

• Social Psychologists are interested in similar topics (explaining and predicting feeling, thought, behavior) but they have historically tended to focus on examining the power of the situation: how the "same" situation (exclusion, authority demands, anonymity) tends to make different people respond similarly (be aggressive, comply, etc.) They have tended to ignore questions of why different people respond differently in the same situation or why different people seek out different situations

Describe the social environment of an extravert

• Social environment of the extravert Perceived as • Energetic • Entertaining/funny • Spontaneous • Friendly • Socially competent • May explain o High self esteem o Status given by others • Examples of status: • More likely to be jury foreperson • Higher social status in longitudinal study of status in sorority, fraternity, dorm floors. • Extraversion has a unique contribution to happiness, but part of the relationship with happiness is explained via increased social competence.

Summarize all of the definitions of personality

• Something inside the person and enduring • Both a description (patterns/consistency) and an explanation(mechanisms) -There is variability across individuals • Functional: how you engage with your environments • Personality addresses challenges of adaptation -The environment includes external world (physical, social) and internal world (memories, feelings) world. -The environment has always present challenges to humans! getting along (cooperation) getting ahead (competition) generally, setting and reaching goals. coping finding meaning, sustaining sense of self.

Describe the construct validation approach

• Start with definition and a theory of the construct (attribute) • Gather as many measurements as possible (this attribute, related ones, predicted outcomes) • Look for patterns. What hangs together? • Definition may be revised over time

Describe the density distribution approach to behavior

• The density distribution approach to behavior records and quantifies the frequency with which one person shows different levels or degree of a trait behavior • In article - the typical person has a lot of variability o Central points for individuals are highly correlated across weeks r = .9 • A person's inconsistency/consistency is reliable (its also related to judgeability) o Most consistent people are typically higher in extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, but lower in neuroticism

Describe the IAT (implicit association test)

• Theory behind IAT: people who implicitly, or nonconsciously, know they have a certain trait will respond faster when the trait is paired with "me" • Can examine a split between conscious/nonconscious attitudes • S-data measures can sometimes predict consciously controlled behaviors better while implicit measures (like the IAT) may predict more spontaneous behaviors • A type of B data!

What are the big 5? What do they help us answer?

• They seem to do a good job of capturing some of the important questions we ask when we are forming impressions and noting how people differ from one another. • Conscientiousness Rule governed, orderly, dependable, have goals, etc. Can I trust and count on X's commitment to work with me? • Agreeableness How you interact with other people - friendly, compliant, warm, sensitive, etc. Is X likely to be friendly & cooperative? • Neuroticism Negative emotion - difficulty regulating anxiety stress, etc. Is X likely to be negative, moody, and unstable? • Openness Ability to be open to new ideas, people, etc. Can I teach X things, is X open to learning and experience? • Extraversion Positive emotion - how much enthusiasm, and positive emotion you have Is X socially dominant?

What are the criticisms of the big 5?

• Too broad for conceptual understanding o Some narrow traits can't be adequately reduced/captured by the Big 5. • There is more to personality! o Traits were left out of the factor analysis: honesty, humility o Other less trait-like psychological attributes • There is more to personality: Many other attributes, such as honesty/humility, traits related to virtues/vices are not encompassed within the Big Five. • Too broad for conceptual understanding: Trying to characterize other traits (narcissism) as combinations of Big Five traits often leaves out important concepts and the essence of the trait.

Why is mechanistic/process understanding about neuroticism still needed?

• Understanding the link is the beginning to trying to solve some of the potential problems posed by high levels of neuroticism. • It could really help to increase positive coping skills! • (That would also help reduce exposure to interpersonal stressors!)

What are the disadvantages of projective tests

• Validity evidence is scarce • Expensive and time consuming; other, less expensive tests work as well or better • Cannot be sure about what they mean, more than 1 way to interpret even w/ guides • The most valid tests seem to be the TAT and Rorschach (with one of two scoring methods). • A psychologist cannot be sure what projective tests mean: Answers may be interpreted differently.

Describe how conscientiousness relates to the workplace via self-regulation?

• Values & plays by rules (norms, standards, etc.) • + healthy behavior, - risky behavior (esp. drugs, car accidents, etc.) • Less absenteeism • Less procrastination • Longer hours (work, school) • (Lund, 2006) • Sustained effort. • Set goals and monitor progress • (Barrick & Mount, 1993) • Structures environment (organized, planful maximize productivity)

Describe the difference between states and traits

• they differ in expected level of stability (states are more temporary, evoked in response to some elicitor) • Differ in terms of what are considered extraneous influences or sources of measurement error;

What are the 4 different views on personality trait-behavior linkage?

• traits are just misperceptions • act-frequently • behavior "dispositions" • specific, shared, causal neurophysiological basis