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Contemporary Research on Personality

Module 35

QR code for SG 33 34 35

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Contemporary Research on Personality

The Trait Perspective (overview) Exploring Traits

Assessing Traits

The Big Five Factors

Evaluating the Trait Perspective

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How do you eat your Oreo?

Can the way you eat an Oreo cookie tell you something about

your personality?

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Contemporary Research-- The Trait Perspective

Trait a characteristic pattern of behavior a disposition to feel and act, as assessed

by self-report inventories and peer reports

Examples of Traits

HonestDependable

MoodyImpulsive

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The Personality Inventory

Personality Inventory : a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors used to assess selected personality traits

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Exploring Traits

Allport & Odbert (1936), identified almost 18,000 words representing traits.

Inferring Traits from Language: The Dictionary Study

Webster’s New International Dictionary 17,953 traits (4.5% of the dictionary)

(Cloninger ppt)

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Exploring Traits

Factor analysis is a statistical

approach used to describe and relate personality traits.

Cattell used this approach to develop a 16 Personality Factor

(16PF) inventory. Raymond Cattell(1905-1998)

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From Behavior to Temperament?

temperament

behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior

temperament

How do psychologists find underlying dimensions when we can only observe specific behaviors?

DevPsy.org

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First Observation of Sea Monster(s)

DevPsy.org

13DevPsy.org

How many animals are under the water?

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How many animals are under the water?

DevPsy.org

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Second Observation of Sea Monster(s)

DevPsy.org

16DevPsy.org

How many animals are under the water?

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How many animals are under the water?

DevPsy.org

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Third Observation of Sea Monster(s)

DevPsy.org

19DevPsy.org

How many animals are under the water?

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How many animals are under the water?

DevPsy.org

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Number of Sea Monsters

How could you tell the number of sea monster when you could only see parts of them?

You saw visible parts move together and others move independently; you did an intuitive correlation.

DevPsy.org

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Number of Sea Monsters

By looking at the correlations between all the parts we can see (observable behaviors), we can infer something about their underlying nature (theoretical constructs)

DevPsy.org

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Number of Sea Monsters

Factor Analysis is a statistical method that looks at how lots of different observations correlate and determines how many theoretical constructs could most simply explain what you see.

DevPsy.org

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Factor Analysis

Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core personality traits

based on statistical correlations.

Impulsive

Excitement

Imp

atie

nt

Irritable

Bo

isterou

s

BasictraitSuperficial

traits

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Raymond Cattell

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Factor AnalysisHans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that

personality could be reduced down to two polar dimensions, extraversion-introversion

and emotional stability-instability.

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Biology and Personality

Personality dimensions are influenced by genes.

1. Brain-imaging procedures show that extraverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low.

2. Genes also influence our temperament and behavioral style. Differences in children’s shyness and inhibition may be attributed to autonomic nervous system reactivity.

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The Trait Perspective

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) the most widely researched and clinically

used of all personality tests originally developed to identify emotional

disorders (still considered its most appropriate use)

now used for many other screening purposes

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MMPI Test Profile

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The Big Five Factors

Conscientiousness

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

Openness

Extraversion

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Endpoints

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Questions about the Big Five

These traits are common across cultures.3. How about other

cultures?

Fifty percent or so for each trait.2. How heritable are they?

Quite stable in adulthood. However, they change over development.

1. How stable are these traits?

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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.

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The Person-Situation Controversy

Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation may be different, but average behavior

remains the same. Therefore, traits matter.

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Consistency of Expressive Style

Expressive styles in speaking and gestures demonstrate trait consistency.

Observers are able to judge people’s behavior and feelings in as little as 30 seconds and in

one particular case as little as 2 seconds.

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Contemporary Research on Personality

The Social-Cognitive Perspective Overview Reciprocal Influences

Personal Control

Assessing Behavior in Situations

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective

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Social-Cognitive Perspective

• An approach in which personality is seen as the patterns of thinking and behavior that a person learns.

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Social-Cognitive Perspective

In his social-cognitive theory Albert Bandura

(1999; 2006) sees personality as shaped by

the ways in which thoughts, behavior, and the environment interact

and influence one another.

Albert Bandura

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Individuals & Environments

Bandura's notion of reciprocal determinism suggests that personal factors (such as cognitions, or

thoughts), behavior, and the environment are constantly affecting one another.

Behavior

External Environments

Personal Factors

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Personal Control

External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces

beyond our personal control determine our fate.

Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate.

Self efficacy: learned expectations about probability of success

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Learned HelplessnessWhen unable/unwilling to avoid repeated

adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness.

Low self efficacy

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Learned Helplessness: Implications

Learned helplessness is related to depression

Nursing home studies Totalitarian governments

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Optimism vs. Pessimism

An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style is your way of explaining positive or

negative events.

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Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology

Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals

and communities to thrive.

Martin Seligman

Courtesy of M

artin E.P. Seligm

an, PhD D

irector, Positive Psychology C

enter/ University of Pennsylvania

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Sleigman on positive psychology

• http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html 23:45

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Assessing Behavior in Situations

Social-cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and simulated situations because they find that it is the best way to predict the

behavior of others in similar situations.

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Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective

Critics say that social-cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention to the individual, his unconscious mind,

his emotions, and his genetics.

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Contemporary Research on Personality

Exploring the Self Overview The Benefits of Self-Esteem

Culture and Self-Esteem

Self-Serving Bias

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Exploring the Self

The self organizes thinking, feelings, and actions and is a

critical part of our personality.

1. Research focuses on the different selves we possess. Some we dream and others we dread.

2. We overestimate our concern that others evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders (spotlight effect).

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Benefits of Self-Esteem

Maslow and Rogers argued that a successful

life results from a healthy self-image (self-

esteem).

When self-esteem is deflated, we view

ourselves and others critically.

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Culture & Self-Esteem

People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things they achieve and comparing

themselves to people with similar positions.

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Self-Serving BiasThe tendency to attribute our successes to internal characteristics while blaming our

failures on external causes.

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Self Serving Bias

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More Self Serving Bias

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The “Above Average Effect”

• HS Seniors– When asked to judge their ability to get along

with others, 60 percent rated themselves in the top 10 percent

– 25 percent considered themselves in the top 1 percent

• Teachers– 94 percent of college professors say they do

above-average work

Jailed criminals think they are kinder, more trustworthy and

honest than the average member of the public!

• The poorer you perform the MORE likely you are to overestimate you ability!

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Optimism Bias/Positivity Illusion

• People consistently overestimate the likelihood of good things happening to them.

• What do you think are your chances of earning a higher salary than average?

• Its impossible for everyone to earn more than average, yet almost everyone believes that they are the exception

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EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY(7th Edition in Modules)

David MyersPowerPoint Slides

Aneeq AhmadHenderson State

University

Worth Publishers, © 2008

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Barnum Effect

• The Barnum effect is the name given to a type of subjective validation in which a person finds personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people.

• Ie. Believing a horoscope describes you when its very generic.