General Personality

Question 1

What is personality?

Answer 1

• Characteristic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• Implies pattern that is relatively consistent over time and across time and across different situations

Question 2

The Trait Approach and the Big Five

Answer 2

• The trait approach to personality focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions, such as sociability, cheerfulness, and aggressiveness
• The Big Five
  
  • Basis for describing all personalities using 5 traits
  • OCEAN
    
    • O - Openness: Openness to experience, trying new things, and steering from the traditional
    • C - Conscientiousness: Focuses on organization, self-discipline, and goal-directed behaviors
    • E - Extroversion: The tendency to be socialble and assertive
    • A - Agreeableness: Emphasizes compassion and cooperation with others
    • N - Neuroticism: Focuses on emotional stability and the tendency toward emotions like anxiety and depression

Question 3

Personality is rooted in genetics

Answer 3

40-60% genetic

Question 4

Adoption Studies: Traits and Environment

Between family effect (shared environment)

Answer 4

• Very little relation between adoped children and their adoptive parents/siblings
• Twins raised apart still had very similar personalities
• suggest environment has little influences

Question 5

Adoption Studies: Traits and Environment

Within Family effects (non-shared environment)

Answer 5

• Environments children experience outside the home can differ (peers, teachers, etc)
• Socioeconomic status
• Birth order

Question 6

How stable is personality?

Stability and change over time

Answer 6

• Weak vs. strong situation determines how much personality shows in a situation
• conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to increase with age, other 3 decrease
• Rank order stability: arrangement of the order stays the same over some time interval