Personality test 2
Romantic partners GENERALLY are similar in terms of all of the following EXCEPT FOR
Personality
• What does it mean if two traits are part of the same Big 5 Factor?
They may have their own facets within the factor but they each represent the broad definition of that factor (anxiety and depression both make up neuroticism)
• What traditionally has the main question addressed in behavioral genetics?
To what extent are differences between people in personality and other characteristics a function of genetic factors?
• Be familiar with the concept of mean-level change (i.e., personality development)
-Over time, some traits will have a mean level increase or decrease as the personality develops
• Be familiar with Raymond Cattell
"Factor analysis the key to developing an objective, empirically-derived taxonomy of personality" -Cattell's goal was to identify and measure the basic units of personality -Believed that the true factors of personality should be found across different types of data, such as self-reports and laboratory tests -Used synonym clusters to group traits (extraversion = outgoing, talkative, etc)
• California Q-set
(Many trait) -list of 100 personality traits -Sort into a *forced* choice (a certain number of items must go into each category), symmetrical, and normal distribution -Compare characteristics within an individual -must sort phrases into highly characteristic of me or not characteristic of me
• Be familiar with Jack Block's ideas about the most important personality traits/dimensions
(essential trait/theoretical - reducing the many to a few) -2 essential characteristics of personality -ego resilience (psychological adjustment) -ego control (impulse control/self control) -people are either over-controlled (don't act impulsively) or undercontrolled (act on impulses immediately) -"under-controlled gets you into trouble, but resilience gets you out"
• Be familiar with Hogan's socioanalytic theory of personality
(essential trait/theoretical) -How do we "succeed" in the world? ---Getting along with other people ---Gaining status and power
• Be familiar with the characteristics of narcissism
(single trait) -Describe as excessive self-love -Charming, make good first impression -Manipulative, overbearing, vain, and so on -Many negative behaviors and attributes -Not all of narcissism is bad (willingness to take risks that are associated with making friends) -don't handle criticism well
• Be familiar with the characteristics of self-monitoring
(single trait) -High self monitors survey every situation looking for cues as to act appropriately and adjust their behavior (less judge-able, more adaptable, flexible, two faced) *actors* -Low self monitors are more consistent regardless of the situation (insensitive, inflexible, stubborn) *mental patients*
• Be familiar with the processes of personality stability and change we discussed: Cumulative continuity, Maturity, Plasticity, Role continuity, Identity development, Social investment, and the Corresponsive principle.
*Cumulative continuity*: personality traits increase in rank-order consistency as people get older *Maturity principle*: people become better equipped to deal with the demands of life as they acquire experience and skills *plasticity principle*: personality can change at any time (but such change may not be easy) *Role continuity*: taking on roles or images such as being a jock or a brain can lead personality to be consistent over time *Identity development*: people seek to develop a stable sense of who they are, and then strive to act consistently with this self-view *Social investment*: changing social roles at different stages of life, such as becoming a spouse, parent, or boss, can cause personality to change *Corresponsive*: person-environment transactions can cause personality traits to remain consistent or even magnify over time
• The Single-Trait Approach, Multiple-Trait Approach, Essential-Trait Approach, and Typological-Approach. What is each? How does each one "work"?
*Single trait*: examines link between one trait and many behaviors by asking: what do people with a specific personality trait do? *Many trait*: Examine correlations between one behavior and many traits by asking: who does that behavior? - Determine which traits correlate with the specific behavior and seek a pattern to the correlation *Essential trait*: addresses which traits are the most important. (big five); factor analytic and theoretical approach *Typological trait*: Based on doubt about whether it is valid to compare people quantitatively on the same trait dimensions
• Be familiar with the major approaches to uncovering the essential traits - the Theoretical Approach, the Lexical Approach, and the Factor Analytic Approach
*Theoretical* (Block and Socioanalytic) - Starts with a theory, which then determines which variables are important Lexical: Important individual differences in personality have become encoded within the natural language (think of all the words you can for lazy) Factor analytic: statistical technique that identifies groups of things that seem to have something in common and creates a group for them
Causes of personality development
-Physical development/changes in strength -Increased intelligence/linguistic abilities -Hormone changes -Changes in social roles/responsibilities
• What are the indicators of a trait's importance according to the Lexical Approach?
-*Synonym frequency* (how many words exist for that trait) & *cross-cultural universalism*: the more languages that have a word for a trait term, the more important it is
• What is the explanation for altruism toward family according to the inclusive fitness idea?
-A tendency to aid and protect family members to ensure the survival of one's own genes into succeeding generations.
• How does evolution by natural selection occur? Think about this in terms of something like humans having two arms or having a need for social interaction. Why are those traits/characteristics present?
-All humans today come from an unbroken line of ancestors who accomplished two tasks: They survived to reproductive age, and they reproduced -We carry adaptive mechanisms that led to our ancestors' success -Human behavioral patterns developed because they were helpful or necessary for survival -The key to natural selection: *Differential reproductive success because of heritable variants*; everyone has ancestors, but not everyone leaves descendants
• How did the researchers decide on the Big 5 (or Five Factor Model)?
-Began with the lexical hypothesis -Conducted factor analysis of trait terms in the english language -Used some of cattell's traits -can be seen as an integration rather than opponent of other systems -the traits are orthogonal (unrelated)
• Be familiar with the concept of rank-order consistency
-Childhood personality can predict adult behavior -Personality disorders are stable -tend to maintain the ways in which they are different from other people of the same age as they grow (a girl more extraverted than people in her grade will always be more extraverted than people in her own age group as she becomes more extraverted over time)
• Be familiar with the patterns of development (i.e., mean-level change) for each of the Big 5 factors
-Conscientiousness greatly increases for men and women -Openness dips in adolescence then remains somewhat stable/slightly decreases -Neuroticism dips drastically for women and stays somewhat stable for men -Extraversion remains fairly stable -Agreeableness increases for men & women
Biological underpinnings to PEN
-E, N and P are the super traits -Extraverts: low cortical arousal (understimulated) -Introverts have high cortical arousal (overstimulated) -Difference between I and E lies in their *arousability*) -Neurotic people: *over reactive autonomic nervous system* -High N, High E --> possibly antisocial -High N, Low E --> anxiety
Be familiar with the criticisms and problems associated with the Big 5.
-Empirically derived (antheoretical) - what does it MEAN to be extraverted -some traits are not captured (honesty/humility) -might be too broad to be useful (some traits are a combination of factors (stability), factors combine dissimilar facets -Openness is too controversial
• What is the heritability of personality traits according to twin studies? What about according to adoption studies?
-Heritability coefficients from twin studies ≈ .40 -Heritability coefficients from non-twin studies ≈ .20 -Suggests that the effects of genes are interactive and multiplicative -Correlations between adopted and non-adopted siblings ≈ 0!!!
16 PF created by Cattel
-Interpersonal warmth -Intelligence -Emotional stability -Dominance -Impulsivity -Conformity -Boldness -Sensitivity -Suspiciousness -Imagination -Shrewdness -Insecurity -Radicalism -Self-sufficiency -Self-discipline -Tension
• Be familiar with the concept of a gene x situation (or gene x environment) interaction
-Just because you have a certain gene, doesn't mean it will be expressed if the situation is not suitable -IQ may not reach it's full potential if the child does not have all the proper resources
• What are some drawbacks/disadvantages of the typological approach?
-Make people "either/or". . . when we are neither -Less reliable/stable than trait scores -Do not predict beyond quantitative trait scores
Mating behvior
-Men place higher value on physical attractiveness and prefer younger mates -Women place higher value on economic security and prefer older mates -Both want the highest likelihood of healthy offspring who will survive and reproduce -Men are higher on sociosexuality
• Be familiar with the objections to evolutionary theorizing
-Methodology: Backward speculation is difficult to test empirically -Reproductive instinct: not everyone wants a bunch of children Response: People do not have to consciously try to do what is evolutionarily adaptive -Conservatism: assumes everything is the result of past environments -Human flexibility: seems to suggest built in behavioral patterns that cannot be overcome by rational thoughts even tho humans are flexible Biological determinism or social structure?: Aspects of social structure Theoretical importance Practical importance
Twin studies
-Monozygotic (identical) twins share (almost) 100% of their DNA (i.e., genes) -Other siblings (including Dizygogtic - or fraternal twins) share 50% of their DNA, on average
• Be familiar with the major ways to try to change one's personality. You do not need to know which specific experiences are associated with which changes.
-Psychotherapy, general intervention programs, targeted intervention programs aimed at specific traits (such as increasing self control), and life experiences
• What are some advantages of the typological approach?
-Reflect how we think about people -Summary of standing on several traits -Make it easier to think about how traits within a person interact with each other
Allport and Odbert
-Searched the dictionary & recorded words that distinguish the behavior of one human from another -thousands of stable traits -Cattell used factor analysis to minimize this number
• Be familiar the most recent thinking on how one can try to change personality (the model we discussed)
-Steps to personality change model -basically what i just said above 1. person must find traits desirable and feasible 2. self regulated behavior changes 3. behavior changes become habitual 4. trait has changed
• Be familiar with the Lexical Hypothesis
-The important aspects of human life will be labeled, and that if something is truly important and universal, many words for it will exist in all languages.
• Be familiar with the aspects of the narrative identity.
-Three aspects: *actor* (developing new traits/skills), *agent* (goals and values), *author* (telling of the life story) -How a person views his or her life, and how its trajectory fits into goals and dreams -Themes differ -Related to personality: conscientiousness and agency
Molecular genetics
-Uses the methods of molecular biology -DRD4 affects dopamine receptors -5-HTT gene affects serotonin ---Alleles and cultural differences -Limitations: not applicable to everyone -Depression and anxiety
• Be familiar with the idea that situations can determine how heritable a trait is. Know in which types of home environments heritability would be higher or lower.
-When a child receives adequate nutrition, height and weight are genetically controlled (tall parents = tall children) -Places where food is scarce, height will fall to the environment --Environments can affect heritabilities -Poor environments, environmental heritability will be higher -Richer environments = genetic heritability
• Be familiar with the concept of intentional personality change?
-acting in a way that is opposite of one's personality trait can be exhausting -the first steps to change is to believe that change is possible -must change relevant behaviors one by one -behaviors may eventually become habitual -instead of changing personality to adjust behavior, we must adjust behavior to change personality
• Be familiar with the evidence regarding people's desire to change their personality. Do people want to change it? What aspects?
-almost everybody would like to change at least one of their big five traits -people most wanted to change neuroticism -want to be more socially desirable -believe that having a different personality might make life better
• What does the evidence say about the effects of birth order on personality (defer to my conclusions on the slides/what I said in-class versus the book)
-debatable -small effect sizes -there are findings in line with steretoypes, but the effect sizes are very weak
• What does the Evolutionary Approach (traditionally) focus on with respect to the inheritance of personality? What about the behavioral genetics approach? At what level of personality does each try to explain personality?
-evolutionary: Attempts to explain how patterns of behavior that characterize all humans originated in the survival value of these characteristics -behavioral: Addresses how personality traits that differ among individuals are passed from parent to child and shared by biological relative
• Be familiar with the concept of epigenetics
-experiences in early life can determine how or whether a gene is expressed during development -genes can change environments and environments can change genes
• What have twin studies and adoption studies traditionally suggested about the importance of the shared environment (i.e., growing up in the same household)?
-extraversion not affected by shared environment -doesnt matter: extreme conclusion, research with self-reports and behavior genetic studies does matter: developmental psychology and behavior observation
• What is the function of self-esteem according to sociometer theory?
-feelings of self esteem evolved to monitor the degree to which a person is accepted by others -humans are social species so it is bad to be shunned by the community -a lack of self esteem back in the day could mean a failure to survive and reproduce
• What is the conclusion regarding the importance of genes for psychological traits/outcomes? Do genes generally play a role?
-genes can effect personality and outcomes -certain genes can lead people to have certain personality traits which can lead people to have certain outcomes -unknown genes role -
• What behavioral genetic research finding seems to support the conclusion that the effect of growing up in the same home environment is rather minimal?
-heritability studies -genes matter most -insight to the effects of the environment on personality development --> shared family environment doesn't matter much
• Be familiar with the ways that there is an interplay between genes and the environment.
-nature vs. nurture -genes cannot force you to do anything -genotype provides the design and affected things indirectly -we have genetical potentials and genetic minimums that depend on the environment -epigenetics
Cumulative continuity principle
-our environments become more stable as we age -psychological maturity
Depression in evolutionary theory
-pain and sadness signal that something has gone wrong and must be fixed -signals that your chances of survival or reproduction may be at risk -helped us understand what we value most
Person-environment transactions
-people tend to seek out environments that are compatible and magnify their traits -*active*: person seeks out compatible environment and avoids incompatible ones: an aggressive person will be drawn to other aggressive people and situations -*reactive*: different people respond differently to the same situation. an introvert is miserable at a party & extrovert enjoys it -*evocative*: people who change and choose their environments; a conscientious person will tell group its time to get to work
Early experiences
-stress -adults who were rejected by a parent have difficulties forming relationships in the future -experiencing too little stress can also cause you to be unresilient
• Be familiar with the idea of the social clock and the consequences of "staying on time" and of not "staying on time" (see book here too)
-systematic changes in the demands that are made on a person over the years -places strong pressures on people to accomplish certain things by certain ages -people who stay on time receives social approval and feel in sync with society -someone who falls behind may get less social approval and may feel out of step
• Be familiar with the concept of temperament and the aspects of it
-temperament is usually referred to as the personality that one begins with -fundamental behaviors and emotional tendencies can stem from a very early root and persist over time -heterotypic continuity - effects of fundamental tendencies change over time (a child might go from hiding behind her mom at parties to avoiding strangers in public) -three basic aspects are *positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and effortful control*
• What does a heritability coefficient tell us (for example, what does an h2 of .40 mean)?
-the degree to which variance of the trait in the populations can be attributed to variance in genes -.4 means that the average heritability of many traits is about 40 percent of phenotypic variance is accounted for by genetic variance -"an estimate of how much of a characteristic is due to genetic factors. Example: height or weight. This is important to the field of behavioural genetics because we can find out how much of a characteristic is due to genes."
• What is the idea of Eugenics?
-the idea that humanity could and should be improved through selective breeding
• What is the evidence for rank-order stability/consistency in personality?
-the same people were measured 10 years apart and had a correlation between .6 and .9 -children rated as impulsive in childhood were often labeled as impulsive in adulthood
• Be familiar with the themes that often emerge in people's life stories
-themes are consistent with culture and personality -organize the life story around episodes of challenging oneself and accomplishing goals (agency) redemption: includes an event the seemed terrible at the time, but in the end turned out for the best
• What are the main approaches used to quantify heritability?
-twin studies -adoption studies -molecular genetics
• Be familiar with the cohort effect
-when you gather personality ratings from people who were born in different years and grew up in different social and perhaps physical environments might make a difference -may contribute to age differences in cross-sectional studies
• Be familiar with the evidence regarding what types of goals people tend to have at different ages and why younger people sometimes (e.g., when suffering from chronic illnesses) can have goals like those of older individuals
-young people focus on preparation for the future (completing education, finding a spouse) -old people focus on emotionally meaningful things and ties with family -doesnt have to tie with age but simply a narrower perspective about time -young people with life threatening illness switch goals from exploration to emotional well being
• Be familiar with the three explanations for the existence of individual differences in personality according to the evolutionary approach (see book for these also)
1. behavioral patterns evolve as reaction to particular environmental experiences 2. people may have evolved several possible behavior strategies but usually use the one that makes the most sense given their other characteristics 3. some biologically influences behaviors may be frequency dependent; they adjust according to how common they are in the population at large
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
16 different personality type combos E/I Sensing/Intuition Thinking/Feeling Judging/Perceiving -Other kinds of typology: well adjusted, maladjusted overcontrolling, maladjusted undercontrolling
Which trait is most strongly predictive of being involved in religious activities?
Agreeableness
• What does the evidence indicate regarding the distribution of traits in the population?
Bell shaped -- a lot of people are somewhere in the middle
Adoption studies
Birth parents and adopted-away children-->Genetic influence Adoptive parents and adopted children-->Environmental influence Genetic siblings adopted away-->Genetic influence "Environmental" siblings-->Environmental influence
Which trait is most strongly predictive of being healthy and living longer?
Conscientiousness
Which two are most strongly predictive of performing well at work and getting good grades?
Conscientiousness and intelligence
• In what way/How does personality remain stable over the life span? In what way/how does it change?
Differences in personality are generally consistent over time, however they are still changing -you may become more conscientious over time, but you will still be more or less conscientious in comparison to how your friends were -our personality develop and the become more stable over time
• Be familiar with Eysenck's Three Factor Theory (PEN Theory)
Extraversion, neuroticism, and psychioticism (a blend of agreeableness and conscientiousness; tend to be cold, uncaring, solitary) -Hierarchical Structure (specific behaviors --> habits --> traits --> super factors) -Biological underpinnings to all 3 traits
• Is cloning feasible? Why or why not?
No, Personality is the result of a complex interaction between one's genes and environment.
Know the Big Five Personality Factors (i.e., Five Factor Model). What are they each and what do they each entail/include?
Openness - creative, liberal, imaginative (least replicable across cultures and most controversial) Conscientiousness - competent, achievement striving, disciplined Extraversion - outgoing, excitement seeking Agreeableness - friendly, likeable, cooperative Neuroticism - emotional instability -there are facets to each group (more specific traits)
People higher on this trait are more likely to believe in UFOs, astrology, and ghosts
Openness to experience
Which trait is most strongly related to political liberalism?
Openness to experience
• Be familiar with the possible causes of rank-order stability/consistency.
Temperament affected by genes, physical and environmental factors, birth order, early experiences, person-environment transactions, cumulative continuity principle
Geen
Tested Eysenck -Asked subjects to choose preferred lvl of background music while working on a learning task -Introverts needed the volume to be lower -Subjects performed best at optimal arousal level
• What is the difference between the trait approach versus the typological approach in terms of how traits are thought of/conceptualized.
Traits are continuos (range from high to low) and everyone has all the traits, you just vary in strength Typology says there are different types and you either have one or you have the other (categorical)
• What is the difference between a genotype and phenotype?
genotype is the genetic make up and phenotype is what traits are physically expressed
• At what age does personality stop developing?
personality continues to change, even into old age
