Lecture 4 - Dimensions of personality

Question 1

What individual differences does personality include?

Answer 1

those that:

1. Are psychological in nature
2. not about intellect
3. stable over time
4. broad categories
5. Dynamics behind these characteristics

Question 2

What is Funder (1997)’s definition of personality?

Answer 2

An individuals characteristic pattern of thought, emotion, and behaviour together with the psychological mechanisms, hidden or not, behind those patterns

• Patterns of thoughts, emotion and behaviour, and what causes them

Question 3

Outline temperement as a related concept

Answer 3

• present at birth
• emotional nature
• part biological, part social
• links to personality later in life - e.g. stressful baby = stressful adult

Question 4

Outline character as a related concept

Answer 4

personal attributes relavent to moral conduct, self-mastery, will power, integrity

• contains a persons morals - what they believe is right/ wrong
• can have poor character - e.g. shouting in a lecture - is wrong due to socialisation

Question 5

Define personality traits

Answer 5

• primary unit of personality
• characteristic form of thinking, behaving, feeling
• enduring
• often hierachical, so have general traits that break down into subtraits

Question 6

What did Cattell do?

Answer 6

tried to identify the latent structure of personality

• so we can predict how certain people would behave in a given situation
• came up with 16pf, each one was on a continuum - asks them what they would do in this situation etc

Question 7

Outline his 5 factors

Answer 7

1. Extraversion
2. Independence
3. Tough-Mindedness
4. Self-control
5. Anxiety

X - too simple?

Question 8

What are the advantages of the 16PF?

Answer 8

√ - the 16PF personality test is now widely used
√ - breadth and depth - lots of personality factors/ types
√ - predicitve validity - associated with job promotion

Question 9

What are the disadvantages of the 16PF?

Answer 9

X - difficulty in replicating the factors
X - so many versions, which one to use?!
X - correlations between the 16 suggests further underlying constructs

Question 10

Outline Eysencks theory

Answer 10

• Believed in biological approach
• Factor analysis
• Proposed a hierachical approach:
  supertraits - habitual responses -> specific responses
• Argued extraversion was a key trait, then added neuroticism and then psychoticism
• Had an axis of extraversion- introversion as well as stable- neuroticism (unstable)

Question 11

What does the Eysenck personality questionnaire (EPQ) measure?

Answer 11

• Extraversion
• Psychoticism - intense, hostile, cruel, agressive etc
• neuroticism

Question 12

What did Dobbs et al (2011) do to support Eysencks theory?

Answer 12

Argued introverts would perform worse when music is playing - as they are easily distracted by env stimuli. Wheras extroverts are used to functioning in busy social environment
- introverts did do worse

Question 13

What did Barrett et al (1998) find about the cultural validity of eysencks theory

Answer 13

Found factorial validity of the EPQ in 34 countries

√ - ca be used on everyone in every country!

Question 14

What is the Junior EPQ?

Answer 14

Just an EPQ for children - but seen to also have cultural validity

Question 15

What are disadvantages of Eysencks PEN theory?

Answer 15

X - Billstedt et al (2014) - found over time, mean of population stayed the same, but individuals varied a lots and was not stable
X - only looked at bio/ genetics, ignored environment
X - is 3 factors enough?

Question 16

What did Costa & McCrae do?

Answer 16

The big 5

• used factor analysis again, studied personality questionnaires and found these 5 were the underlying responses
• this theory is data driven, not theoretically driven
• also argued there are sub traits to each one

Question 17

What did Fiske (1949) do?

Answer 17

• Came up with a different big 5:
  1. Self-expression
  2. Social adaptability
  3. conformity
  4. emotional control
  5. inquiring intellect

Question 18

What are Costa & McCrae’s big 5?

Answer 18

Ocean

1. Openness (conventional-divergent)
2. Conscientiousness (organised-careless)
3. Extraversion (sociable-reserved)
4. Agreeableness (helpful-uncooperative)
5. Neuroticism (volatile-well-adjusted)

Question 19

What is Costa & McCrae’s measurement of the big 5?

Answer 19

The NEO-PI-R

Question 20

What are the advantages/ research support for the big 5?

Answer 20

• shown to be stable over time
• show to be cross culturally applicable
• shown to be inherited
• results are consistent with the 16PF and the PEN

Question 21

What are the problems/ issues with the Big 5?

Answer 21

X - disagreement over labels - openness, intellect, culture - same thing?
X - is 5 enough? - HEXACO
X - CLoningers Psychobiological theory of personality - challenges this theory, argues genetics and biology are causes
X - what about ‘g’? is that not right?

Question 22

Who came up with the HEXACO model?

Answer 22

Ashton et al (2000)

Question 23

Outline the Honesty-Humility factor

Answer 23

• sincere, just, honest, humane, truthful, loyal, faithful

- whether people can reach their personality goals - e.g. to work in a certain way

Question 24

What was the HEXACO model partly based on?

Answer 24

Evolution of personality traits to reach goals
- there are advanteges for humans in being:
• peaceful
• co-operative/ trustful
• sociable, active
• curious, knowledgeable, analytical
• hardworking, reliable

Question 25

Define reciprocal altruism

Answer 25

- Do something for someone and DONT want anything in immediate return. But support if needed at a future date - Honesty-humilities do this!

Question 26

Define kin altruism

Answer 26

- where you want immediate return

Question 27

What were the findings of LaBouff et al (2012) - humble students

Answer 27

Humble students more likely too help a student in need, more than less humble students - because humble students doesnt want reward/ recognition

Question 28

Outline the dark triad traits of the HEXACO model

Answer 28

*  Psychopathy - lack of empathy, anti-social, want to be on their own not because they are shy, but because they dont care * Machiavelianism * narcissm HEXACO explains these factors but 5FM doesnt - H factor is concerned with what people want to get out of a situation

Question 29

What are the limitations/ concerns of the HEXACO model?

Answer 29

X - factor analysis is subjective X - too many factors? X - are they independent factors? Surely H and A are similar? X - Ignores other aspects of personality, like religion, spirituality, sexuality, humour

Question 30

What did Digman (1997) do?

Answer 30

Split HEXACO into 2 Alpha: - Emotional stability - Agreeableness - Conscientiousness Beta: - Extraversion - Openness

Question 31

What did Saucier & Goldber (2003) and Musek (2007) do to HEXACO model?

Answer 31

General factor of personality is split into 2 1. Stability - conforms to societies rules • emotional stability • Agreeableness • conscientiousness 2. Plasticity - reasons you dont conform • Extraversion • Openness to experience

Question 32

What did Van der Linden et al (2010) do?

Answer 32

Meta-analysis and found evidence to support general factor of personality (which is split up into stability and plasticity).

Question 33

What are criticisms of trait approach?

Answer 33

X - not much theoretical explanation X - limited to verbals? how we describe personality X - social desirability bias X - Poor test-retest validity - Myers-Briggs results can change month by month X - ignores situational factors in predicting behaviour

Question 34

What are some cultural issues with this?

Answer 34

X - personality may be different in different situations X - personality traits may have different meanings in different cultures - extraverted could be annoying in china X - collectivist vs individualistic X - lexical differences - could be a barrier

Question 35

What did Terracciano et al (2005) do about national character?

Answer 35

- Asked to what extent members of their nation would reflect the personality traits

Question 36

Define national character

Answer 36

How you view yourself as part of a nation - influences personality/ behaviour - you are likely to behave in a way that you belive suits/ matches/ supports your culture - can test people around the world to see how cultures vary

Question 37

What were the findings of McCrae & Tarracciano (2006)

Answer 37

Looked at the 5FM - they filled in the NCS as well as the NEO-PI-R survery - people within culture were very similar - but lots of variation between cultures, very different

Question 38

Outline the characteristics of Type A personality types

Answer 38

*  competitive achievement motivation * time urgency * Hostility - react badly to disappointment, frustration, inconviencies

Question 39

What did Friedman & Rosenman (1976) find about heart attack patients?

Answer 39

Type A's are more susceptible for heart attacks - competitive - agressive - ambitious and driven - active and energetic in actions and speaking

Question 40

What is typical of a Type D personality?

Answer 40

distressed personality type - negative views of the self - focus on anger suppression and depression - depression and low mood linked to coronary heart disease (CHD) - Negative affect ,social inhibition -