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Lecture 12 PERSONALITY
Visiting Assistant PROFESSOR YEE-SAN TEOH
Department of PsychologyNational Taiwan University
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GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
Unless noted, the course materials are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Taiwan (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)
Differences in P are best characterized in terms of underlying, possibly innate, attributes (traits).
Traits predispose one toward patterns of thinking and behavior that are essentially consistent over time and across situations.
The Trait Approach
E.g. quick temper, or friendliness Traits serve as a basis for making predictions
about what a person is likely to do in the future.
Traits
Cattell eliminated redundant P terms from a larger number of terms– yielded 16 primary trait dimensions.
Overlap among the 16 trait dimensions was reduced to 5 major P dimensions.
5 major P dimensions are useful: describing people from childhood through old age, in many different cultural settings.
The Big Five Inventory (Cattell)
EXTRAVERSION
NEUROTICISM
AGREEABLENESS
CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE
The Big Five Inventory (Cattell)
Having an energetic approach to the social and physical world.
Often feel positive emotions and agree with statements like “I see myself as someone who is outgoing, sociable”
EXTRAVERSION
Prone to negative emotions or being emotionally unstable.
Agree with statements like “I see myself as someone who is depressed, blue”
Neuroticism
Having a trusting and easygoing approach to others.
Agree with statements like “I see myself as someone who is generally trusting”
Agreeableness
Having an organized, efficient, and disciplined approach to life.
Agree with statements like “I see myself as someone who does things ethically.”
Conscientiousness
Unconventional and intellectually curious. Interest in new ideas, foods, and activities. Agree with statements like “I see myself as
someone who is curious about many different things.”
Openness to Experience
We identify someone’s P by specifying where he or she falls along each trait dimension.
E.g. Low in agreeableness, high in neuroticism, etc.
Allows us to describe an infinite number of P profiles created by different mixtures of the 5 basic dimensions.
Big Five Dimensions
Informant data Information abt a person from parents,
coaches, teachers, and so on. Although potentially biased, the data generally
agree well with ratings of the Big Five. Informant data provide an important source of
info about a person.
The Big Five: Measurement & Meaning
Each major P dimension is made up of many more specific facets of that characteristic.
Each of which is, in turn, made of even more specific personality characteristics,
Which are themselves made up of specific behaviors.
Broader terms on top, more specific terms/behaviors on bottom.
Hierarchy of Traits
Openness to Experience
Feelings
Receptive to inner emotional
states
Value emotional experiences
AestheticsAppreciation for
art, music, poetry
Hierarchy of Traits - Openness
Studies that confirm the existence of the Big Five dimensions in a population, do not show us whether these are the most frequently used categories in that culture, or whether they are useful in predicting the same behaviors from one culture to the next.
Cultural Differences in Trait Taxonomies
When participants are allowed to generate P terms on their own, support for the cross-cultural generality of the Big Five has been mixed.
Cultural Differences in Trait Taxonomies
Studies have shown inconsistency in behaviors in different settings.
Personality Paradox (Mischel, 1968): People behave much less consistently than a trait conceptualization would predict.
Low correlations between measures of traits taken in different situations.
How Consistent Are People?
The Power of the Situation
Strong Situations
Ones in which the environment provides clear guidelines for our behavior.
Situation determines behavior.
E.g. courtroom, fancy restaurant, church.
Weak Situations
Ones in which the environment provides few guidelines for our behavior.
Personality determines behavior.
E.g. at home alone, in a park.
Self-Monitoring Scale Assesses degree to which people are sensitive
to their surroundings and likely to adjust their behaviors to fit in.
Consistency as a Feature of P
Self-Monitoring
High Self-Monitors
Care a great deal about how they appear to others.
Adjust behavior to fit the situation.
E.g. solemn at church, charming at party
Low Self-Monitors
Less interested in how they appear to others.
Behavior is much more consistent across situations.
E.g. quiet at church, party,
How consistently people in different cultures describe themselves.
How consistent individuals in different cultures want to be.
Consistency May Vary Due to Culture
Americans are relatively consistent in how they describe themselves, no matter whether they happen at the time to be sitting alone, next to an authority figure, or in a large group.
Japanese’ self-descriptions varied considerably across contexts – far more self-critical when sitting next to an authority figure than when they were by themselves.
Culture & Self-Descriptions
Use trait labels (“introvert”) to be descriptions of how a person tends to act in certain sorts of situations, rather than a description of what he or she is like at all times and in all places.
Personality traits have been shown to predict important life outcomes – career success, criminal activities, health, mortality.
Personality Traits as Predictors
P traits may grow out of an individual’s temperament.
Temperament: Characteristic pattern of emotion, attention, and behavior.
Evident from early age, determined considerably by genetic patterns (heritability ratio: .40-.60)
Genes & Personality
Eysenck: Introverts may react more strongly than extraverts to external stimuli.
Introverts often guard against stimulation from the outside.
Introverts have a lower tolerance for pain. When they are studying, introverts prefer less
noise & fewer opportunities to socialize.
Physiology & Personality
Introverts show a quicker response than extraverts, indicating more reactive brain stems.
Physiology & Personality
P style that tends to seek varied and novel experiences.
Look for thrills & adventure, highly susceptible to boredom.
More likely to engage in risky sports and activities.
Neurotransmitter systems are under-reactive. Seek thrills & take risks to jog sluggish NTM
systems into greater activity.
Sensation-Seeking
P style - fear of novelty. Evident in early life – as infants, tend to react
strongly when distressed. As young children, unwilling to approach novel
stimuli or people, anxious in new situations. Associated with introversion & neuroticism. Overreactive brain? Low threshold for activity
in the amygdala – higher levels of activation in novel situations.
Inhibited Temperament
The idea that people in different cultures have different Ps.
E.g. a German or an Italian personality. Is national character nothing more than
stereotyping?
Cultural Effects: National Character
Subgroup who are more willing to take risks and are more open to new experiences.
Engage in practices that shape the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of those around them.
Conditions of the environment also play a role.
Where do cultural differences in personality come from?
Families differ in SES, nutrition, health, religion, attitudes about child rearing, etc.
Family Effects
Environments vary for different children within the same family.
Within-family effects include different friends, teachers, accidents, and illnesses.
Birth order effects: later-borns may be more rebellious & more open to new experiences than first-borns.
Within-Family Effects
Average correlation btwn P traits of adopted children and their adoptive siblings are very low.
Same environment, little influence on P characteristics.
Family Environment & Personality
Identical twin studies show same correlation for P scores whether the twins are reared together or apart.
So the differences in the environment didn’t play a role in P development.
But when identical & fraternal twins were compared, identical twins were more similar in P – strong heritability.
Family Environment & Personality
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