Lecture 2: personality introduction Flashcards
what is personality according to:
- Deyoung & Gray
- Pervin
- Hogan
- Mcadams & pals
- regularities in behaviour and experience
- a persons typical mode of response
- our identity and reputation
- a) unique variation b) dispositional traits c) characteristic adaptations d) self-defining life narratives
what are the three levels of personality according to mcadams and pals?
- dispositional traits = patterns of behaviour, decontextualised (e.g. shy, impulsive)
- characteristic adaptations = individuals particular life circumstances, highly contextualised (goals, social roles)
- life narratives = the story we have constructed about who we are, highly individualised
define dispositional (personality) traits
- probabilistic descriptions of regularities in behaviour and experience (e.g. moody, sociable)
- arising in situations to very broad classes of stimuli and situations (e.g. threat, social encounter)
= relatively decontextualised
what were the earliest trait catalogues?
- the characters of theophrastus
-> flatterer, reckless man, chatty man, gossip, surly man, distrustful man, mean man
(Ancient Greek philosophy)
what were allport and Odbert’s (1936) trait catalogues like?
- lexical hypothesis
- important characteristics will be coded in language
- collected an exhaustive list of descriptors (18,000 terms)
- more of a list than a system
how are basic trait domains structured in the statistical method (factor analysis?)
- who was it developed by?
- reduces many correlated variable to much fewer composite variables or factors
- similar terms combined and reduced to one dimension
- spearman and thurstone to explore the structure of mental abilities
who reduced allport and odbert’s list and how
-> how many factors?
cattell through varied techniques including factor analysis
-> 16
give an example of three dimensions prior to cartell that would have correlated to form a single dimension
ample, large, bulky correlated: ample x large .70 bulky x ample .65 bulky x large .75
what was cattell’s method before reaching 16 factors (7 steps)
- 18,000 descriptors
- stored into 160 clusters of synonyms
- discarding near-identical descriptors
- final 171 descriptor list
- 100 participants rate 1-2 friends on the 171 descriptors
- factor analysis
- 16 personality factors
what were the three problems with cattell’s 16 traits?
- subjectivity
- poor replicability/reproducibility = using cattell’s 171 personality descriptors, many people failed to obtain his same 16 factors
- redundancy = correlations among 16 factors were very high = they aren’t distinct!
following many factor analysis repetitions, what consistencies of cattell’s 16 traits emerged? (3)
- most replicable factor structures suggested 3-6 traits
- very similar traits appear in this taxonomies
- 5 factor model = interface best with the various solutions
= empirically derived (initially had no names)
what are the big 5
OCEAN
- openness/intellect = curious
- consientiousness = hard working
- extraversion = enthusiastic
- agreeableness = warm
- neuroticism = volatile
what was eysneck’s alternative model of the big 5 (only 3)
- extraversion
- agreeableness and consientiousness = low psychoticism
- neuroticism
what was tellegen’s alternative model of the big five
- extraversion = positive emotion/agency
- agreeableness= positive emotion, affiliation
- consientiousness = constraint/self control
- negative emotionality
- absorption
What was hogan’s alternative model of the big five
- extraversion = sociability
- agreeableness = likability
- consientiousness = prudence
- neuroticism = adjustment
- openness = intelligence
what is the hierarchal structure of traits?
describe each (6)
nuances -> facets -> aspects -> domains -> meta-traits
- e.g. liking parties
- energy levels, positive emotions
- assertiveness, enthusiasm
- neuroticism, agreeableness
- stability plasticity
lower = very precise higher = very broad
what are the big five aspects scales?
trait domains + aspects
(type of questionnaire)
- O = openess, intellect
- C = orderliness, industriousness
- E = assertiveness, enthusiasm
- A = compassion, politeness
- N = withdrawal, volatility
What are the big five inventory V.2?
traits domains + facets
(type of questionnaire)
- O = intellectual capacity, aesthetic sensitivity
- C = organisation, productiveness, responsibility
- E = sociability, assertiveness, activity level
- A = compassion, trust, respectfulness
- N = anxiety, depression, emotional, volatility
can you score highly on neuroticism and extraversion on the big five?
yes, traits are independent
Are the big 5 self report measures scientific?
1. reliable?
2. valid?
+ what is the general model of reliability? & what does a reliable measure have less of?
- do they perform consistently, relatively free from error
- do trait questionnaires measure what they intend
observed score = true score + measurement error
-> less measurement error = a reliable measure
How do we estimate reliability (5)
- test-retest reliability = correlation between T1 and T2 & temporal stability
- rationale = a reliable measure is a repeatable measure -> you should be able to verify the score
- caveat = not applicable to all psychological phenomena
e. g. state vs traits - split-half reliability = correlation between score from one half of the scale and another half & internal consistency
- cronbach’s alpha = average of all possible split halves, internal consistency, mode widely reported measure of reliability, scales with a alpha
3 types of validity + how useful
- face validity = does the questionnaire appear valid “at face value” (not very useful)
- content validity = is the relevant content sampled among the items? (someone with expertise determines “expert judges”)
- criterion-related validity = does the measure show sensible correlations with other measures -> to show the measure related to relevant material in a sensible way
name 2 criterion-related validity & what they are
- concurrent validity:
convergent = does it correlate significantly with related measures
divergent = does it show weak or 0 correlations with unrelated measures - predictive validity:
does it predict expected outcomes or behaviours? (e.g. does a measure of extraversion predict high levels of socialisation)
Validity: important caveat (warning)
- > what validity couldn’t initially be assessed and why
- > what kind of validity is there a stronger emphasis on?
what about the new big five measures?
the big five were empirically derived
- > initially cannot assess content, convergent and discriminant validity
- > stronger emphasis on predictive validity
HOWEVER = new = all validity can be assessed
