January 26, 2016 Flashcards
(38 cards)
What are the three underlying assumptions of the dispositional approach that every theory under the dispositional approach has agreed upon.
1) dispositions are relatively stable and enduring qualities found within the individual
2) dispositions have at least a degree of consistency and generality
3) each individual is made up of a unique accumulation of different dispositions
What are two ways to conceptualize the approach?
1) emphasize dispositions as real and measurable
2) emphasize dispositions as motivational characteristics that vary in type and strength from individual to individual
Physical universe described in terms of 4 basic elements: air, earth, fire, water
Ancient Greece
Hippocrates used the elements created by the Ancient Greeks and compared them to corresponding bodily fluids called..?
Humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm
Galen used the humors of Hippocrates and having an excess amount of them as being related to personality
Sanguine: hopeful/optimistic:Blood
Melancholic: sad/depressed: Black Bile
Choleric: hot tempered/irritable: Yellow Bile
Phlegmatic: apathetic/calm: Phlegm
(ex. if you have an excess of blood = sanguine = more hopeful/optimistic)
What is the difference between a TYPE and a TRAIT
Type (distinct category): one or the other
ex. gender: male, female, or other. You can be one or the other, you cannot be both.
Trait (continuous dimension): Quantitative: varies how much any dimension of personality. Continuum, how many you have. (Most people are average)
What are the three main approaches to identifying traits?
1) Lexical Approach
2) Theoretical Approach
3) Empirical/Statistical Approach
Language determines important traits.
Actually using the dictionary to see how many words define/describe personality. more times mentioned = more importance.
Lexical Approach
Theory defines important traits.
Ex. Freud and the Id, Super Id, and the Ego
Theoretical Approach
Empirical/Statistical Approach
Data determines the important traits.
Factor analysis: mathematical tool looking for relationships among words - correlations, Relates every trait with every other trait = “correlation matrix”
- typically looking for 0.30 or higher
- Hypothetical factor loading: what to call all that has been correlated (ex. happiness of 0.62 and excitement of 0.54… what do you call the group? some may decide to label as joy, but completely subjective.
Who believed in the philosophy of heuristic “realism” and what is it?
Gordon Allport
Traits are real, and so we should try and figure out what they are, but there are differences in how traits influence us.
What are the three different disposition ways that traits influence us in Gordon Allport’s theory
Influenced by Murray’s Dictum
1) Cardinal Dispositions: the dominant traits that stand out the most
2) Central Dispositions: highly characteristic of a person, the main handful
3) Secondary Dispositions: marginal, only occur in certain circumstances
What is Murray’s Dictum?
In some ways, a person is like all other persons, and some ways like some other persons, and in some ways like no other persons.
What are the two approaches underneath Gordon Allport’s theory?
Nomothetic Approach
Idiographic Approach
Define Nomothetic Approach
“Nomo”: Law
Seeking general laws to apply to all people (variable centered)
Laws of generalization: not concerned with the individual person. (ex: studying test anxiety= don’t care about the entire person, just want to study the trait itself)
Define Idiographic Approach
“idio”: personal
Individual centered, everyone is unique. BUT 7 billion people in the world - how do you measure/study that? You can’t.
Raymond Catell Liked which approach?
The Lexical Approach
Cattell found that there were way too many traits out there, with almost 18,000 words in the 1930’s describing personality. So he invented the ______ which narrowed it down to __#__ traits.
Lexical Criterion of Importance
117 traits
What were the three types of data that Catell used to collect information?
What did he find and develop from those findings?
Q-Data: Questionnaires, interviews on different qualities
T-Data: Objective, testing in lab, didn’t know what trait we’re testing.
L-Data: Life records, (ex. report cards, work history, etc)
Found: kept coming up with 16 different personality dimensions
developed: 16-PFQ: have to be careful not using words with stigma attached (ex. aggression) sooo he made up his own words. Tried to be neutral and couldn’t so ended up using real words.
Raymond Cattel was the first person to use factor analysis. True or false
True
What were Hans Eysenck’s two main dimensions of personality?
That a person can either be extroverted or introverted
(also either emotionally stable or emotionally unstable)
While also using the 4 quadrants: phlegmatic, Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine
EPQ:
What is Hans Eysenck’s third super-trait after extroversion and introversion?
psychoticism: the disposition towards psychosis
Characterized by 11 dispositions (solitary, troublesome, cruel/inhumane, etc.)
fun facts:
-Typically higher in males, prisoners, heritable
-in university students: associated with poor seminar behaviour/academic performance
-related to high risk sexual behaviour
-negatively related to religious belief
Who believed in Folk Concepts, and what are they?
Harrison Gough
Folk Concepts: not the individual who has the personality, it’s the society. Social Norms
(ex. do onto others as you’d have done to you)
Who invented the interpersonal circle? What is it?
Jerry Wiggins
dominance in status and love
dominant-submissive/cold-warm
