Personality PSY 340 Ch. 4-7

According to RAM, in order to improve accuracy of judgement, what 4 things must happen?

1. person being judged must do something relevant - that is info. about the trait to be judged 2. this info. must be available to a judge 3. the judge must detect this info. 4. the judge must utilize this info. correctly

How does the typological approach differ from the many-trait or essential-trait approach?

1. qualitative differences not just quantitative 2. trait approach says people can be compared to on a scale 3. typological asks if it is useful to think about people in terms of personality

Who are better judges of personality - males or females?

1. some studies found women more accurate than men 2. another said no gender differences, but that most accurate male judgements tended to be from the extraverted group of men

What are 4 potential moderators of accurate assessment?

1. the good judge 2. the good target 3. the good trait 4. the good information

what does RAM stand for?

-realistic accuracy model -implies that accurate personality judgment is difficult, helps to explain the four moderators of accuracy, ad suggests some ways in which one might be able to judge others more accurately

California Q-set technique

1. 100 descriptive phrases like "is critical, skeptical, not easily impressed" or "is genuinely dependable and responsible person" 2. "sort" them into 9 piles from "highly uncharacteristic" to "highly characteristic" - forced distribution 3. I data, s data, may be used in therapy to help set goals between self and "ideal" self

Haidt's research of liberals vs conservatives

1. both endorsed values such as "harm/kind" and "fairness/reciprocity" 2. conservatives more strongly favored "group loyalty" "authority/respect" and "purity"

List the 4 ways Rosenthal & Jacobson suggested teachers treated the "high expectancy" children differently:

1. climate - projected warmer emotional attitude 2. feedback - more differentiated 3. input - attempted to teach more material and more difficult 4. output - gave them extra opportunities

Describe steps to personality change

1. do you want to change? in what ways? 2. psychotherapy can produce long-term behavior change 3. general interventions - focusing on general life skills may impact personality 4. targeted interventions - "self-affirmations" "think of others" and "self-control" mindfulness. social learning techniques. systematic desensitization

Description of a study illustration of social expectancy effects

1. if a guy thought he was talking to an "attractive" girl on the phone, the convo. was more engaging. Even when they removed the guys comments and had someone rate the girls comments.

What are 2 methods for establishing convergent validity evidence of personality assessment?

1. interjudge agreement 2. behavioral prediction

How did the personality psychologists respond to the 3 arguments in the situationist argument?

1. it is unfair literature review - short and not reflective of research 2. we can do better - measuring behavior in real world 3. a correlation of .40 is not small - it represents the true upper limit and it is a small upper limit

How predictive are childhood traits of adult behaviors/outcomes? Provide 2 examples.

1. more adaptable as a child - more cheerful and intellectually curious as adult 2. more impulsive as a child - talk more and are more loud as adults

3 main points of the "situationist" argument

1. there is an upper limit of predicting what a person will do - low upper limit 2. situations are more important than personality traits in determining behavior - more variance 3. personality assessment is a waste of time - every day intuitions are flawed

Authoritarianism - 2 political stances associated with it

1. uncooperative, inflexible, likely to obey authority figures (including to cause harm), fewer positive emotions - want strong candidates 2. more military or oppose equal rights to transgender

4 personality traits/behaviors people can accurately judge by examining pictures of faces:

1.extraversion 2. agreeableness 3. emotional stability 4. conscientiousness

How many facets were identified by COsra & McCrae (1995) within each of the big 5?

6 for each facet

Funder & Ozer study: content and findings

Converted 3 examples of power of situations to shape behavior and converted them to effect-size correlation 1: forced compliance 2: bystander intervention 3: obedience

What did Mischel (1968) suggest regarding the importance of personality factors in predicting behavior?

Behavior is too inconsistent from one situation to the next to allow individual differences to be characterized accurately in terms of broad personality traits

Findings from Funder & Colvin (1991)

Compared to the first session of the study two strangers meeting were entering a strange lab for the first time and didn't know what to expect. The second time they were more relaxed and had a better time

"The duck" example describes the concept of?

Convergent validity -looks, swims, walks, and sounds like a duck, it must be a duck

What is the Intellectual expectancy effects study method and results?

Method: tested kids, told half of the teachers that some were "late bloomers" - likely to show sharp increase in their IQs this year - randomly picked Result: end of the year average showed about 15 pt. increase

Trait

Most common way people think of and describe personality - the ways in which people psychologically differ from one another (simple - complicated descriptors)

Example of a person's perceptions of another's personality may limit the opportunities:

Reputation affects opportunities in many ways - shyness, being isolated due to the fear of social involvement - others do not always perceive them as shy

What is the "main-focus" of the person-situation debate?

Situationism - behavior is largely driven by the situation and that personality is relatively unimportant

T or F: people show a strong tendency to maintain their distinctive patterns of behavior throughout lifetime.

True

Is there a relationship between music preference and personality?

Yes, a common topic is always music. 1. people who enjoy reflective, complex music (new age) - inventive, imaginative, tolerant, liberal 2. aggressive, intense music (heavy metal) - curious, risk-taking, physically active 3. upbeat, conventional music (pop) - cheerful, outgoing, helpful, not interested in abstract ideas

Extraversion behaviors:

argumentative, needs to be in control

evocative person-environment

aspect of an individual's personality leads to behavior that changes the situations he or she experiences

social investment principle

changing social roles at different changes in life, such as becoming a spouse, parent, boss, and can cause personality to change

What is meant by "transparent self"?

concealing as little as possible from those around you

When may a stranger be a better predictor of your behavior than an acquaintance may be?

dependent on the situation, if an acquaintance has observed you in a similar situation, they may be a better predictor than someone who knows you well, but has not observed you in that situation example: grad students being able to predict undergrad course than parents of professor

reactive person-environment

different people respond differently to the same situation

Low self-monitors

distrustful, perfectionist, touch and irritable, anxious, introspective, independent, feeling cheated and victimized by life

typological approach

does it all boil down to that there are groups of people who resemble one another? combinations of traits in qualitatively different types of people - the one trait you have different from someone else is the one thing that makes you different

neuroticism behaviors:

engages in criminal behavior, more likely to report family problems

Relationship between birth order and personality

first borns: lots of attention, favor "establishment" ambitious, rule followers later borns: more independent, open-minded and even rebellious other factors may be family size, income, parental genetics

High self-monitors

fit themselves to the situation they are in - social poise, presence, talkative, initiates humor verbally fluent

Temperament

fundamental behavioral and emotional tendencies stem from that early root, and persists throughout life - gene's inherited from parents

example of physical and environmental factors that contribute to continuity:

grateful dead example - hippy concert, professor was judged by a waitress at a restaurant where did not serve them before they paid her because of the grateful dead concert portraying them as such

figure 7.1 - extraversion from age 10-60

higher in women, decreased over time

figure 7.1 - agreeableness from age 10-60

higher in women, much like conscientiousness, decrease in teenage years but increases throughout life

Conscientiousness behaviors:

highly achievement oriented & does well on tests

What is self-monitoring?

how people monitor their self-presentation, behavior and non-verbals - accommodate social situations

Agreeableness (individual, interpersonal, institutional)

i. Ind. Outcomes: religious involvement, forgiveness, humor, heart health longevity, psychological health ii. Interpersonal outcomes: peer acceptance, dating satisfaction iii. Institutional outcomes: social interests, job attainment, avoidance of criminal behavior

Openness (Individual, interpersonal, institutional)

i. Individual outcomes: forgiveness, inspiration, substance abuse ii. Interpersonal outcomes: N/A iii. Institutional outcomes: artistic interests, political liberalism

Extraversion (individual, interpersonal, institutional)

i. Individual outcomes: happiness, gratitude, longevity, psychological health ii. Interpersonal outcomes: peer acceptance, success in dating and relationships, attractiveness, status iii. Institutional outcomes: occupational satisfaction, community involvement, leadership

Conscientiousness (individual, interpersonal, institutional)

i. Individual outcomes: religious beliefs, good health habits, longevity, avoidance of drug use ii. Interpersonal outcomes: family satisfaction, dating satisfaction iii. Institutional outcomes: job performance, occupational success, political conservatism, avoidance of criminal behavior

Neuroticism (individual, interpersonal, institutional)

i. Individual outcomes: unhappiness, poor coping ii. Interpersonal outcomes: poor family relations iii. Institutional outcomes: occupational dissatisfaction, criminal behavior

Describe a relationship that has been discovered between word use and personality?

if the person uses words that make them seem competent they seem more competent and would be the one we go to for advice - uses certainty words - described from friends as being intelligent, verbally fluent, ambitious, and generous

Make a case that a correlation of .4 is not small

if there is a .4 relationship between taking the study course and taking the exam, we would probably want to take the study course

what is cumulative continuity principle?

individual differences in personality become more consistent as one gets older - not only that personality traits are relatively stable across the life span, but also consistency increases with the passing years

Who is likely to do better in a job interview...

low self-monitors - more consistent across situations

How was the "big 5" developed? what is lexical hypothesis?

means: from 18,000 personality descriptive english words Fisk took 22 personalities down to the big 5

"Dispositional intelligence"

means: knowledge about how personality is relevant to behavior - people high in dispositional intelligence are better judges of personality

Do agreeable people agree on everything?

no, they are cooperative and want everyone to get along, but don't agree to everything

Define moderator variable

one that affects the relationships between two others

Active person-environment

people seek out compatible environments and avoid incompatible environments

identity principle

people seek to develop a stable sense of who they are an then strive to act consistently with this self-view

corresponsive principle

person-environment transactions can cause personality traits to remain consistent or magnify over time

plasticity principle

personality can change at any time (but such change may not be easy)

Define interactionism

persons and situations are constantly interacting to produce behavior together

Define constructivism

philosophical belief that there is no objective reality - only what each person creates (socially constructs)

agreeableness behaviors:

rate people more positively, sense of humor

The big 6 - how does it differ from the big 5?

referred to as hexaco = honest-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness

How does absenteeism relate to job performance?

regularly staying away from work or school without good reason - people who are conscientious don't have this trait

Trait Approach

relies on correlational studies and focuses on individual differences

Figure 7.1 - openness from age 10-60

starts average, drops around age 20, and goes back up to the average - men are higher

Figure 7.1 - conscientiousness from age 10-60

starts high, drops mid teenage years and continues to increase as age increases - women are higher in this

social clock?

systematic changes in the damands that are made on a person over the years were studied by the developmental psychologist Ravenna Helson - places strong pressures on all people to accomplish certain things by certain ages feminine: emphasis on family by early to mid -20s masculine: career success by age 28

role-counting principle:

taking on roles or images such as being a "jock" or a "brain" can lead to be consistent over time

Provide an example of a trait that is "easier" to judge

talkativeness - more visible traits are easier to see

Define critical realism

the absence of perfect criteria, does not mean that "anything goes" - some things are still more accurate than others

Heterotypic continuity

the process that effects of these fundamental tendencies in temperament change with age

narrative identity (3 steps)

the story about who one is... you add chapters as long as you live, and this whole, self-authored "book" 1. actor - develop the social skills, traits, and roles 2. agent - develop and integrate goals and values. plan for the future - choosing a partner, career 3. author - write down your own story (narrative identity) - content may vary among cultures

What is agency?

themes of meeting challenges, can be related to positive outcomes

Difference between absolute and relative consistency:

there is no doubt that people change their behavior from one situation to the next, the concept of the personality trait involves differences, it is individual differences in behavior that are maintained across situations, not how much a behavior is performed

Narcissism related to entitlement, leadership/authority?

they are all traits of narcissism and when you are high in one you are typically high in another

How do narcissists handle failure?

they don't handle failure, they swear, argue, feel threatened

liberals are described as "under-controlled", this means?

they seek and enjoy the good life, which is perhaps why so many of them drive Volvos and sip excellent Chardonnays - can talk themselves out of a good answer by considering too many possibilities - impulsive

what is the maturity principle?

traits needed to "adult" and increase as people mature - the traits needed to effectively perform adult roles that increases with age

How does conscientiousness relate to job performance?

want and have occupational success and may impact a spouse

Openness behaviors:

wants experience, adventure

person-environment transactions

we tend to respond to, seek out, and even create environments that are compatible with, and may magnify personality traits (active, reactive and evocative)

Single-trait

what do people like to do? focuses on one trait at a time and predict how trait will cause them to act

essential-trait

which traits are most important/are some more important than others? big 5

many trait

who does that/why do people do that? start with behavior, and look at traits related to that behavior

figure 7.1 - neuroticism from 10-60

women are higher throughout life men are lower

Can an individual score high on openness without a formal education?

yes, however, openness is typically viewed with intelligence