Personality Theory Final Exam Flashcards
Perso
What five factors did Norman (1963) find necessary?
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism
What is the fundemental lexical hypothesis?
Proposes any significant individual difference, such as a central personality trait, will be encoded into the natural-language lexicon. This means that there will be a term to describe it in any or all of the languages of the world.
Explain how you can identify extraversion by looking at the brain?
Extraversion correlated with brain volume in a region of the frontal cortex that contributes to the processing of information about environmental rewards
Explain how you can identify neuroticism by looking at the brain?
Neuroticism correlated with great volume in brain regions known to be associated with the processing of environmental threats.
Explain how you can identify agreeableness by looking at the brain?
Agreeableness correlated with brain volume in regions of the brain that contribute to people’s ability to understand others’ mental states.
Explain how you can identify conscientiousness by looking at the brain?
Conscientiousness correlated with volume in a region of the frontal cortex known to be active when people plan events and follow rules.
Explain how you can identify openness by looking at the brain?
Openness to experience was not significantly related to any of the examined brain regions.
Is it safe to conclude that researchers have identified the neural origins of the big five traits?
No, for at least three reasons:
- The study yielded a number of null results and unexpected results.
- Cause-effect relationships were impossible to determine with these data.
- The brains’ various regions are enormously interconnected; focusing on volume in one region of the brain may yield an incomplete portrait.
What did Gosling and John (1998, 1999) research reveal about different animal species regarding the big five ?
2 species, ranging from octopuses, guppies, and rats to gorillas and chimpanzees, they found evidence that three of the human five-factor dimensions showed generality across species—E, N, and A
However, a separate C factor was found only in chimps (King & Figueredo, 1997), our closest relatives.
What is the NEO- Personality Inventory-Revised ?
- Measures five factors and six narrower “facets” – more specific components that make up each of the broad Big Five factors
- Each facet measured by 8 items
- All scales have good reliability and validity across different data sources, including ratings by peers or spouses.
- NEO-PI-R agrees with other Big Five instruments.
What is a strength of the NEO-PI-R?
Forms are available for both self report and questionnaire
What is the relationship between language and personality score?
There was a strong relation between the language used and personality scores.
- Individuals high on E used words such as party and weekend.
- Those low on E used words such as internet, computer, and reading.
- Individuals high on A used words such as amazing, awesome, and excited.
- Those low on A used words such as hate and jealous.
What is longitudinal stability?
Whether people high on a trait at one point in time are also high on that trait at another point in time
What is cross-situational consistency?
whether people high on that trait in some situations are high on that trait in other situations
What was Cattells approach to personality evaluation?
By analyzing not only traits, but states, roles, and processes, provided a systematic personality theory.
What was Eysencks approach to personality research ?
By relating traits to biological mechanisms, thisprovided a way to relate traits to our nervous system, though efforts to relate trait to biology were not entirely successful.
What are contemporary trait theorist approach to personality research?
less systematic; Five-factor theory does not specify the dynamic processes through which traits influence experience and behaviour.
What do trait theorist except when researching?
-Individual differences on self-report traits will predict behaviour.
-Genetically identical individuals will score similarly on trait measures.
-Trait scores will be stable over time.
What did Richard Davidson explore in reference to positive and negative emotion?
the left versus right hemispheres are differentially involved in positive versus negative emotion.
Individual differences in prefrontal asymmetry were found to be associated with baseline mood.
- Left hemispheric dominance with positive affect
- Right hemispheric dominance with negative affect
What is serotonin involved in?
Regulation of mood
What system does dopamine appear in?
Central functioning of the reward system
What are suggested links between biology and personality?
Amyglada, hemispheric lateralization, dopamine, serotonin, cortisol, testosterone
What is determinism?
- Belief that an event is caused by some prior event, with the cause being something that can be understood according to basic laws of science
- Stands in opposition to the belief in “free will”
What are basic assumptions of behavioural approach?
- Behaviour must be explained in terms of the causal influence of the environment on the person.
- An understanding of people should be built entirely upon controlled laboratory research. That research could involve either people or other animals.
What implications do the concept of determinism have on the concept of personality?
- People have thoughts and feelings, but they are “behaviours” that also are caused by the environment.
- If we could explain all behaviour in terms of general laws of learning, it would completely eliminate the need for a distinct field of study called “personality psychology”.
- We are subject to physical laws that can be understood through scientific analysis.
What is maladaptive abnormal behaviour cause by? How could you treat this behaviour?
Maladaptive, “abnormal” behaviour is caused by maladaptive environments to which the person has been exposed.
The task of therapy is not to analyze underlying conflicts or to reorganize the individual’s personality.
The goal is to provide new learning experiences for the client.
If behaviour is caused by environment what should you do when conducting a research study? Why could this be unethical?
If behaviour is determined by the environment, then:
- Manipulate environmental variables to learn how they influence behaviour in carefully-controlled laboratory experiments.
- Study things that are observable
It may be impractical and/or unethical to manipulate environmental variables that affect everyday behaviours.
What is the strategy of studying simple systems?
- Simple system contains important features that are the same as the features of human system.
- There is enough similarity in the makeup of animals and people that the animal study will provide valuable information.
What are the basic points of emphasis of learning approaches to personality ?
- Empirical research is the cornerstone of theory and practice
- Personality theory and applied practice should be based on principles of learning
- Behaviour is responsive to reinforcement variables in the environment and is more situation specific than suggested by other personality theories
- the medical symptom-disease view of psychopathology is rejected and emphasis instead is placed on basic principles of learning and behaviour change
Who founded behaviourism? Define it.
John B Watson
All behaviour is a product of reward and punishment systems
Who founded the theory of classical conditioning ?
Ivan Pavlov
a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired: a response which is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone
Who founded operant conditioning? Define it.
B.F Skinner
A method of learning that involves punishment and rewards
What does a ABC assessment assess?
Antecedent conditions of the behaviour
Behaviour itself
Consequences of the behaviour
What is a ABA research design?
- Measure behaviour at one point in time (the “A” time period)
- Introduce a reinforcer and measure behaviour again at a second time point (the “B” period)
- Take away the reinforcer to see if the behaviour returns to its original level (one returns to the “A” state of affairs)
Explain what a sign approach is in behavioural assesment
In a sign approach, a given test response is seen as an indicator of (i.e. a “sign” of) some inner characteristic possessed by the individual (e.g., “I like parties!”)
Explain a sample approach in behavioural assessment
Behaviourists adopt a sample approach; response is a sample of behaviour emitted upon presentation of a stimulus (i.e., no conclusions of personality drawn from “I like parties!”).
What are strengths of learning approaches?
- committed to systematic research and theory development
- recognizes the role of situational and enviormental variables in influencing behaviour
- takes a pragmatic approach to treatment, which can lead to important new developments