ID Diff 2- Hardiness Personality

Question 1

What is the hardy personality?

Answer 1

People w hardy personalities are able to cope w stressors; reducing neg impact on lives.
View stressful experiences as challenges/opp to grow- pos approach to stress.

Question 2

Kobasa and Maddi:

Answer 2

People best able to cope w stress are those w hardy personalities
Consist of 3 main elements:
1. Commitment- will remain focused and involved w others despite difficult times
2. Challenge- view stressors as a challenge/opp to grow- accept stress is part of life
3. Control- have a strong sense of personal control over lives

Question 3

Hardiness and it’s effect on stress:

Answer 3

hardiness=buffering effect on illness (helps protect individual)
This leads to resilliance against stress; when faced w stressor these individuals will cope better due to coping strategies (soc support and self care)
Reduces their physiological response to stress= reduced likelihood of SRI

Question 4

Research: Kobasa

Answer 4

Used a version of SRRS + personality questionare
Compared 2 groups of male business executives
Both groups; experienced high lvls of stress but one group had become ill, other did not.
Personality tests confirmed those who did not become ill had more hardy personalities than those who had.

Question 5

1 Strength: Research support Kobasa

Answer 5

Explain study
Suggests link between hardy personalities and reduced likelihood of SRI
H/o- androcentric sample

Question 6

1 Strength: Maddi = all 3 elements necessary

Answer 6

All 3 necessary to buffer against stress
Supported by Sandvik: used navy cadets, hardiness scores obtained + blood samples analysed during and after a stressful training exercise.
Found that those w unbalanced score across all 3 had more damaging immune responses than those who were balanced hardy personalities.
Suggests- hardy personalities require high scores across all 3 to buffer against stress.

Question 7

1 Weakness: Issues w measuring hardiness

Answer 7

Measured using self-reports:
1. Closed questions- quan data- no neutral
forced choice- reducing int val
2. Interpretation- ambiguity- reducing int val
3. Demand characteristics- ppts guess aim. alter resp - int val

Question 8

1 Weakness: All research is correlational

Answer 8

All research is correlational- cause and effect
Reductionist- ignores bio exp, empirical evidence