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College
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College Psychology
Academic year:

2021
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genanta0v

WHS AP Psychology Unit 10: Personality Essential Task 10-5:Describe the trait theory of personality with specific attention to the Big Five traits of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Psychosexual Stages Triarchic Theory Projective Objective We are here Personality Tests Freud’s Theory Unit 10 Psychodynamic Personality NeoFreudians Humanistic Theories Trait Theory (Big 5) Social Cognitive Theory Jung Horney Bandura Adler Rogers Maslow Schools – The psychoanalytic perspective – emphasizes the importance of unconscious processes and the influence of early childhood experiences Personality Theories – The humanistic perspective – emphasizing the self and the fulfillment of a person’s unique potential – The trait perspective – emphasizes the description and measurement of specific personality differences among individuals – The social cognitive perspective – emphasizing learning and conscious cognitive processes, The Trait Perspective: Not Why but What An individual’s unique makeup of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving (traits) constitutes his or her personality. Examples of Traits Honest Dependable Moody Impulsive Allport • “Are you that little boy.” Freud • Goal was to define personality in terms of identifiable behavior patterns • Description and classification • Allport & Odbert (1936), identified 18,000 words representing traits. • Cut this down to 200 – still too much Trait Perspective • Trait is a characteristic pattern (identifiable) of behavior or a disposition to feel & act, as assessed by self-report inventories & peer reports. • Emphasis on describing & classify noteworthy traits Gordon Allport Allport’s Traits • Cardinal Trait – Defining characteristic, in a small number of us, that dominates and shapes all of our behavior • Central Trait – general characteristic; between 5 and 10 of these shape much of our behavior • Secondary Trait – a characteristic apparent in only certain situations Exploring Traits Factor analysis is a statistical approach used to describe and relate personality traits. Cattell used this approach to develop a Factor 16PF inventory(Personality factors questionnaire). Raymond Cattell (1905-1998) Factor Analysis Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core personality traits based on statistical correlations. Superficial traits Boisterous Impatient Irritable Excitement Impulsive Basic trait Trait Perspective • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) • Attempts to sort people according to Carl Jung’s personality types. • 8 possible traits, with two opposing traits • Dominant 4 traits can create one of16 distinctive personality types • Based on a 126 questionnaire Myers & Briggs • Introversion (I) vs Extraversion (E) – (I) getting my energy from within oneself; described as “reserved” and “reflective” – (E) getting my energy from active involvement in social interactions; described as “outgoing” and “sociable” Personality Dimensions Hans and Sybil Eysenck used factor analysis and suggested that personality could be reduced down to three polar dimensions, 1. extraversion-introversion; 2. Neuroticism (emotional stability-instability), and 3. psychoticism ( hostile or friendly you are with others) Eysenck Factor Analysis Eysenck Factor Analysis Eysenck Factor Analysis Eysenck Factor Analysis Eysenck Factor Analysis Assessing Traits Personality inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors assessing several traits at once. MMPI The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders. Assesses normal Personality Tendencies vs. Traits True-false self report questionnaire that describe wide range of normal and abnormal behaviors MMPI Test Profile The Big Five Factors Today’s trait researchers believe that Eysencks’ personality dimensions are too narrow and Cattell’s 16PF too large. So, a middle range (five factors) of traits does a better job of assessment. Openness/Culture Conscientiousness Extroversion/Introversion Agreeableness Neuroticism/ Emotional Stability Questions about the Big Five 1. How stable are these Quite stable in adulthood. traits? However, they change over development. 2. How heritable are they? Fifty percent or so for each trait. 3. How about other cultures? These traits are common across cultures. 4. Can they predict other personal attributes? Yes. Conscientious people are morning type and extraverted are evening type. Evaluating the Trait Perspective The Person-Situation Controversy Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out that traits may be enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is different. Therefore, traits are not good predictors of behavior. The Person-Situation Controversy Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation may be different, but average behavior remains the same. Therefore, traits matter. Trait Perspective • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) • Attempts to sort people according to Carl Jung’s personality types. • 8 possible traits, with two opposing traits • Dominant 4 traits can create one of16 distinctive personality types • Based on a 126 questionnaire Myers & Briggs • Introversion (I) vs Extraversion (E) – (I) getting my energy from within oneself; described as “reserved” and “reflective” – (E) getting my energy from active involvement in social interactions; described as “outgoing” and “sociable” Myers & Briggs • Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N) – (S) Paying attention to physical reality, what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I'm concerned with what is actual, present, current, and real. – (N) Paying the most attention to impressions or the meaning and patterns of the Myers & Briggs • Thinking (T) Feeling (F) – (T) make a decision, I like to find the basic truth, logic or principle to be applied, regardless of the specific situation involved. – (F) make the best decisions by weighing what people care about and the pointsof-view of persons involved in a situation Myers & Briggs • Judging (J) & Perceiving (P) – (J) prefer a planned or orderly way of life, like to have things settled and organized, feel more comfortable when decisions are made, and like to bring life under control as much as possible. – (P) prefer a flexible and spontaneous way of life, and I like to understand and adapt to the world rather than organize it. “An animal resting or passing by leaves crushed grass, footprints, and perhaps droppings, but a human occupying a room for one night prints his character, his biography, his recent history, and sometimes his future plans and hopes. I further believe that personality seeps into walls and is slowly released. . . . As I sat in this unmade room, Lonesome Harry began to take shape and dimension. I could feel that recently departed guest in the bits and pieces of himself he had left behind.” —John Steinbeck, Travels With Charlie Personal living space (PLS) • a concept intended to designate a class of residential environments that holds increasing importance within contemporary urban life (S. D. Gosling, Craik, Martin,&Pryor, in press). • Much more than a bedroom but less than a fullfledged house, a PLS is typically a room nestling within a larger residential setting while affording primary territory for a designated individual. Mechanisms linking individuals to the environments • Identity claims – Are symbolic statements made by occupants to reinforce their self-views. – Cultural symbol (poster of MLK) – Personally symbolic (pebble from their favorite beach) Observer can still see that they are sentimental. – These can be for themselves or to let others know what they are like or would like to be like • Behavioral residue – the physical traces of activities conducted in the environment (scattered charcoal from drawing) or traces of behavior conducted outside the environment (a snowboard propped up against the wall). Momentary Impressions • In a meta-analysis of nine of these so-called “zeroacquaintance” studies, the consensus correlations among observers averaged .12 (ranging from .03 to .27) across the Five- Factor Model (FFM) personality dimensions • Observer consensus is not equally strong for all traits judged by far, the strongest consensus was obtained for Extraversion, with Conscientiousness a distant second, and the least consensus found for Agreeableness. Hypothesis • Physical spaces hold more cues to an occupant’s level of organization (e.g., from alphabetized books and compact discs), tidiness (e.g., a neat vs. messy space), values (e.g., a poster supporting the legalization of marijuana), and recreational pursuits (e.g., tickets to the opera). • The availability of such cues should promote relatively strong consensus for observers’ judgments of Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience. Process • Observers should notice the Residue or Evidence • Then observers should infer the behaviors that created the physical evidence • Finally observers should infer the traits that underlie the behaviors Accuracy Criteria • To derive a criterion measure against which the accuracy of the observer reports could be gauged, we obtained selfratings from occupants and peer ratings from the occupants’ close acquaintances. We obtained accuracy estimates by correlating the observers’ ratings with the combined self- and peer ratings. • Averaged across the five dimensions examined in this study, the self ratings correlated .40 with the peer ratings; this value is comparable to that reported in previous research (e.g., Funder, 1980; John & Robins, 1993; McCrae et al., 1998). Cues to look for 1. Cluttered vs. uncluttered 2. Organized vs. disorganized 3. Neat vs. messy 4. Well lit vs. dark overall 5. Full vs. empty 6. Modern vs. old-fashioned 7. Organized vs. disorganized books/CDs 8. Varied vs. homogenous books/magazines 9. Distinctive vs. Ordinary 10. Inviting vs. Repelling (office) 11. Decorated vs. Undecorated (office) 12. Organized vs. disorganized Magazines 13. Varied vs. homogenous CDs 14. Decorated vs. Undecorated 15. Colorful vs. drab 16. Clothing everywhere vs. none visible 17. Cheerful vs. gloomy 18. Inviting vs. repelling Consensus Correlations What the cues are correlated with • Conscientiousness 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Cluttered vs. uncluttered -.32 Organized vs. disorganized .29 Neat vs. messy .27 Well lit vs. dark overall .26 Full vs. empty-.26 Modern vs. old-fashioned .24 Organized vs. disorganized books/CDs .24/.27 What the cues are correlated with • Openness 8. Varied vs. homogenous books/magazines .44/.51 9. Distinctive vs. Ordinary .35 • Extraversion 10. Inviting vs. Repelling (office) .29 11. Decorated vs. Undecorated (office) .27 • Agreeableness 12. Organized vs. disorganized Magazines -.38 13. Varied vs. homogenous CDs -.26 Those that also match up 14. Decorated vs. Undecorated (Extra .41/.06) 15. Colorful vs. drab (Agree .37/.05 16. Clothing everywhere vs. none visible (Cons. -.57/-.11) 17. Cheerful vs. gloomy (Agree .66/-.05) 18. Inviting vs. repelling (Agree .52/.00) Conclusions • Thus, it seems that personal environments contain richer sources of information from which to form impressions than are contained in zero-acquaintance contexts. This is especially true for openness to experience and conscientiousness. • Information accumulated in personal environments is often the result of repeated behaviors. For example, to have an organized office it is not sufficient to organize the office just once; instead, the occupant must continually engage in organizing behaviors— returning the phone directory to the bookshelf after use, throwing away used paper cups, and placing documents in neat stacks. Multiple acts are more likely to have an impact on the environment than are single acts. Because environmental cues tend to reflect repeated acts, they may offer more reliable evidence than the few acts that observers witness in many zero-acquaintance contexts.