Chapter 4-7

Interactionism

People change in the situations that they are in Example: Stanford Prison Experiment (acting meaner than they would)

2nd Situationist argument: Situationism continued..

Determining how situations affect behavior: total variance minus "variance explained" by personality -Not legitimate -Could be due to other personality traits -Says nothing about important aspects of the situation

Moderators of accuracy: The good judge

For males: extraverted, well-adjusted, unconcerned with what others think of them For females: open, wide range of interests, value independence High in communion; socially skilled, agreeable, adjusted; attributionally complex; judge others favorably

The many trait-approach

-Examine correlations between one behavior and many traits -California Q-set 100 personality descriptions Sort into a forced choice, symmetrical, and normal distribution Compare characteristics within an individual

Other visible signs of personality

-Extraversion: fashionable dress, stylish haircut, speaking in a loud voice -Openness and conscientiousness from neatness of bedrooms -Musical preferences -Handshakes

Personality's view of human nature

-People can develop consistent identities and styles that allow them to be themselves across situations

Resolution of the person situation debate

"People maintain their personalities even as they adapt their behavior to particular situations" (p. 140) - People can flexibly adapt to situations and have a consistent personal style -Conclusion: people are psychologically different, and these differences matter

Person AND situations

- "Personality traits are better for describing how people act in general" (p. 135) -

Projective tests: inkblot test

- A test that presents a person with an ambigious stimnulus and asks him or her to describe what is seen - Answers are thought to reveal inner psychological states or motivations of which the person may be unaware -Rorschach inkblot test, Draw-A-Person test, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

What does it mean to be "accurate" about judging someone's personality?

- Affirming with others -More information about them - Check with the person themselves

Types of tests (3)

- Omnibus: Over-all test( wide range of traits) -Single-trait: Focusing on one-thing Projective: Fruedian side- unconscious side(shown an image) (Most test provide self-report data, some provide behavioral data)

The HEXACO solution

- Only English and Czech have 5 solid factors, other languages have 6. -Honest, humility, emotionality, extra-version, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness

Situationism's view of human nature

- People are free to do whatever they want - Everybody is equal, and differences are a function of the situation (vs. some people, based on their traits, are likely to have bad outcomes)

Personality Development Across the Life-span

- Personality development: Change in personality overtime, including from infancy and childhood to adulthood. - Stable but will change - Stability increases with age (most occurs in young adulthood) - Life circumstances may be more important than age( more experiences having expressing traits)

Why so many items in an objective test?

- The principle of aggregation( averaging them all together) - Use Spearman-brown formula to calculate reliability if items were added

The nature of personality assessment: Not restricted to psychologists

- more than just measuring traits -Not restricted to just psychologists (who did I pick as a roomie, activites I do)

The First Situationist Argument: Predictability

-Ability of trait judgments to predict behavior using past behavior to predict future behavior - If you know someones score on a trait, you should be able to forecast what they will do in the future.

Why not the big 5? Criticisms

-Assumptions of model used to derive are bad - Why not use other languages, evaluative terms, why only adjectives? - Start somewhere else - Does it only help us understand normal people?

2nd Situationist argument: Situationism

-Behavior is determined by situations not personality -Determining how personality affects behavior: correlate personality AND behavior

The empirical method: implications of ignoring item content/low face

-Can include items that seem contrary or absurd -Responses are difficult to fake -Tests are only as good as the criteria by which they are developed and/or cross-validated -Can cause problems with public relations or the law

Responses to potential problems of personality tests

-Criticisms are overstated -Traits are not invented or constructed; they are discovered and their nature and correlates are established empirically -It is naïve to view personality testing for hiring purposes as undignified or unethical

Evidence that supports the Big 5

-Cross-cultural data - Consistency of self data -Genetics (40% is due to this- how parents are)

The factor analytic method: Identify which items group together by using the statistical technique of factor analysis

-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 ex) comparing different rollercoastsers Merry go round & the whip are similar- gentle, circle, flat, for older people.

A combination of methods

-Generate items with rational method -analyze responses with factor analysis - correlate factors with independent criteria

Good information. What kind do we want?

-Good information: quantity Although we can make reliable judgments with very little information, we make better judgments with more -Good information: quality Weak vs. strong situations Stressful or emotionally arousing situations Best situation: one that brings out the trait you want to judge Unstructured vs. structured situations

Purposes of Personality Testing: Potential Problems (3)

-Interest tests--> Fields may not evolve, Increases difficulty of women and minorities joining nontraditional fields Integrity tests --> honest people have to decide whether to lie to get a high score; dishonest people don't have this dilemma Personality tests--> Tests are unfair mechanisms for controlling people, Traits do not matter until and unless they are tested and are social constructions, Being described by a set of scores is undignified and humiliating

Purposes of personality testing

-It's important to know how the test will be used -Helping people (schools, career counselors, clinicians) -Assessment for selection or retention (employers, Central Intelligence Agency, military)

Four conditions of validity

-Items mean the same thing to the test taker and creator - Capability for accurate self-assessment -Willingness to make an accurate report - Items must be valid indication of the construct

Factor analytic approach

-Looks at lots of traits and how its essential -ex) Eysenck: extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism Tellegen: positive emotionality, negative emotionality, constraint Cattell: 16 essential traits

The Accuracy of Personality Judgment: Snap Judgments

-Mostly automatic -Some validity based on the face: -Extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness to experience based on sitting together without talking. -Dominant vs. submissive and sexuality from looking at a person's face Low vs. high agreeableness, extraversion, and conscientiousness for composite faces of extreme score

Factor Analytic Approach: The Big Five

-Openness to Experience -Conscientiousness- organized, hardworking -Extraversion- outgoing -Agreeableness- good nature, trusting -Neuroticism-emotional instability

The Person- Situation Debate: The Situationist Argument

-Situations are more important than personality traits in determining behavior. -Thus, the professional practice of personality assessment is a waste of time, and everyday intuitions about people are fundamentally flawed.

Most important to know: degree to which the judgment or test is right or wrong

-Test: validity -Judgment: accuracy

Single trait approach: Self-monitoring

-The degree to which inner and outer selves and behaviors are the same or different across situations -It's not necessarily better to be high or low Actors scored high and mental patients scored low Correlates with several behaviors: performance in job interviews and willingness to lie to get a date

The Third Situationist Argument: Person Perceptions are Erroneous(wrong)

-The effects of personality on behavior are large enough to be looked at accurately - The importance of traits is reflected in our language

Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis

-Trait descriptors evolved to describe common social behavior -These are cross-cultural descriptors

The Response to the First Situationist Argument: Predictability critique

-Unfair, selective, literature review by Mischel (We can do better) -Get out of the laboratory (look at real world situations) - Try to focus on behavioral trends, use aggregation (implies traits are only one influence of behavior)

Personality Test are used by..

-Used by psychologists (experimental and clinical)- And corporations and the military

Idiographic Approach

-What is important is important to me, what we share with others -Common traits: Nomothetic: possessed by many people, not varying extent. (allows personality standardized testing)

Rational Method

-Write items that seem directly, obviously, and rationally related to what is to be measured -Based on a theory or sometimes less systematic -Provides Self-Report data

Objective Tests:

-a personality test that consists of a list of questions to be answered by the subject as true or false or on a numeric scale -Validity and the subjectivity of test items Items are still not absolutely objective; they can be interpreted in different ways

Two points to keep in mind about the TRAIT APPROACH: Also the strength and weaknesses

1) This approach is based on empirical research (mostly coorelational) 2) This approach focuses on individual differences - Strength: Asses and attempts how people differ -Weakness: neglects aspects of personality common to all people

Advantages & Disadvantages of Projective tests ex) inkblot

Advantages: Good for ice breaking with client - Some skilled clinicians may be able to use them to get information not captured in other tests Disadvantages: Expensive and time consuming - A psychologist cannot be sure what they mean -Other less expensive tests work better

Extraversion

Advantages: higher status, rated as more popular and physically attractive, more positive emotions Disadvantage: mate poaching Life outcomes: happy, grateful, long life, healthy, successful relationships, etc.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness: conformity, compliance, likeability, warmth Tendency to be cooperative and easy to get along with Smoke less Women tend to be higher than men Among children, related to less vulnerability of being bullied Life outcomes: psychologically well-adjusted, healthy heart, dating satisfaction

Authoritarianism:

Authoritarianism: turn one's will over to an external authority to avoid having to make personal choices; enjoy giving orders, which they expect to be followed without question -ideas based on atrocities of Hitler and the Nazis - how could people do these things or allow these things to happen?

What is most important for determining what people do: The person or situation?

Behavior is to inconsistent from one situation to the next to allow individual differences to be characterized.

Authoritarianism behaviors

Behaviors: extremely deferential and respectful to people with higher power but rude and disrespectful to people with lower power; do not respond well to challenges about their seemingly inconsistent behavior and values -Some recent findings: uncooperative and inflexible, fewer positive emotions, support "strong" political candidates

Personal dispositions: 3

Cardinal: central to who you are (1 word and people think of you) -Central: top 5- words used to describe you or people who know you -Secondary: preferences- not applicable in many situations (ex. ice cream- all chocolate)

-Basic assumption of empirical method:

Certain kinds of people have distinctive ways of answering certain questions

Chapter 4: Personality Traits and Behavior

Chapter 4: Personality Traits and Behavior

Chapter 5: personality testing and its consequences

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chapter 7: Using Personality Traits to Understand Behavior

Chapter 7: Using Personality Traits to Understand Behavior

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness: Responsibility, consistency, moral reasoning Used to select employees (predictive validity for supervisor ratings of job performance = .41) Predicts absenteeism, employee theft, and job performance Less biased than "aptitude" tests Predicts success in college: better than Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and high school grade point average (GPA) Might explain motivation in general Predicts longer life expectancy Positively correlated with years of schooling

Consequences of everyday judgement of personality

Employment, friendships -->Examples: shyness, self-assuredness Expectancy effects--> Intellectual expectancy effects Social expectancy effects--> self-fulfilling prophesy

The measurement of individual differences

Every man in certain respects are : a) Like all other men (some things are universal) b) Like some other men (some things differ) c) Like no other man (unique) Traits are the building blocks of personality Example: Everyone sleeps, poops, eats, celebrates holidays,

Eysenck's Pen Theory

Extraversion: Low sensitivity to arousal Introversion: high sensitvity to arousal Nueroticism: Instability: greater sensitivity to SNS Stability of emotion: reduced sensitivity in SNS Psychotism: Recklessness, disregard for rules (tied to male hormones

The empirical method:

Identify items based on how people in pre-identified groups respond(groups you find interesting)

Trait stability

Increases with age and and is related to psychological adjustment

Neuroticism: emotional instability

Ineffective problem solving, strong negative reactions to stress Negatively correlated with happiness, well-being, and physical health General tendency toward psychopathology Life outcomes: problems in family relationships, dissatisfied with jobs, criminal behavior

Personality Traits Shouldn't Be Measured, But Inferred:

Inference vs. measurement Inferring Traits from Language: The Dictionary Study Inferring Traits from Behavior Inferring Traits from Documents: Letters from Jenny Inferring Traits from Personality Measurement: The Study of Values

Interaction

Interaction: view that persons and situations are constantly interacting with each other to produce behavior

Do traits even exist? Social Psychologist View:

Is everybody basically the same and changes in situations?

The single trait approach

Isolate that trait and understand everything there is to that trait

Openness to experience (Intellect)

Most controversial trait Approach to intellectual matters or basic intelligence Value of cultural matters (literature, art) Creativity and perceptiveness Less replicable across samples and cultures Viewed by others as creative, open-minded, and clever Life outcomes: drug use, artistic interests

Personality and Life

Personality predicts important life outcomes (health, well being, relationship quality, career success) - Overtime, how a person acts will add up

Difficulties with trait assesment

Personality traits are not the only factors that control behavior: Situations are also important

Factor anayltic model: What do these items have in common? 1. In most ways my life is close to my ideal. 2. The conditions of my life are excellent. 3. I am satisfied with my life. 4. So far I have gotten the important things I want in my life. 5. If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.

Satisfaction with life scale

Steps of empirical method:

Steps: 1) gather lots of items 2)administer items to people already divided into groups 3)compare the answers of the different groups 4) cross-validation(predict behavior) -Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB)

Behavioral prediction/predictive validity

The degree to which a judgment can predict behavior

Interjudge agreement

The degree to which two or more judges of the same person provide the same descriptions of personality

Moderators of Accuracy: The good target

The good target: stable and well-organized, psychologically well adjusted, extraverted, agreeable -Related to psychological health and happiness and to low social isolation, hostility, and depression

Moderators of Accuracy: The good trait

The good trait: easy to observe, highly visible -Evidence against the idea that peer judgments are socially constructed and agreement is based on communication Possible evolutionary basis (sociosexuality)

Convergent validation

The process of assembling multiple pieces of information that converge on a common conclusion The duck test( looks like a duck, quacks like a duck..it's a duck)

Whats the point of measuring traits:

Traits predict behavior Traits can be used to understand behavior Why do you think this is important? - If we don't act the way someone expects it can show if something is wrong (illness, death, etc.)

Use: Limitations: of Factor analysis method

Uses: -Reduce list of traits to an essential few -Refine personality tests Limitations: -The quality of information from the factor analysis is limited by the quality of items -Difficulty deciding how items are conceptually related -Factors don't always make sense

Essential trait approach:

Which traits are the most important? Which traits really matter? -Reducing the many to a few -Theoretical approaches -Murray: 20 needs -Block: ego-control and ego-resiliency

Personality

characteristic patterns of behavior, thought, or emotional experience that exhibit relative consistency across time and situations

Delay of gratification

denying oneself immediate pleasure for long-term gain Sex differences Ego control: self-control or inhibition Ego resiliency: psychological adjustment ex) marshmallows

Implicit Association Test (IAT)

people who implicitly, or not consciously, know they have a certain trait will respond faster when the trait is paired with "me" -Measures how quickly participants respond to instructions to discriminate between terms that apply to "me" or to "others", and between terms that are relevant or not, to the trait being measured.

Moderators of accuracy

variables that change the correlation between a judgment and its criterion