Personality Flashcards
(24 cards)
What are individual differences?
Enduring traits by which individuals vary. These traits are considered stable over a person’s life and across different situations.
What is the nature vs. nurture debate?
This is a debate about whether psychological traits are primarily caused by heredity (nature) or environment (nurture). Psychological traits have complex causes involving both.
What does nature refer to in the context of psychological traits?
Nature refers to genes, biological influence, and heredity, creating a boundary of possibilities.
What does nurture refer to in the context of psychological traits?
Nurture refers to environment, cultural influences, personal choices, and work experience, influencing the level of the trait within those boundaries.
Do all studied traits have a genetic component?
Yes, all studied traits have a genetic component.
How are personality differences defined?
Enduring characteristics describing an individual’s behavior, including how a person thinks, behaves, experiences emotion, and interacts with others.
How does personality stability manifest across age ranges?
Personality shows enduring stability across different age ranges, including childhood to young adult (8-25), young adult to middle adult (26-40), and middle adult to elderly (41-65+).
What are the Big Five Personality Traits?
A widely studied model of five core behavioral and social personality traits.
What is Extraversion?
Tendency to be outgoing, sociable, energetic, and assertive. Introversion is the orientation towards one’s private world.
What is Agreeableness?
Tendency to be good-natured, cooperative, trusting, and conflict avoidant.
What is Conscientiousness?
Tendency to be organized, responsible, and hardworking. Shows the largest correlation with job performance aspects.
What is Emotional Stability?
Tendency to have resistance to psychological distress; the opposite of Neuroticism.
What is Neuroticism?
Tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings.
What is Openness to New Experiences?
Tendency to be open to new aesthetic, cultural, or intellectual experiences.
Why does personality matter?
One reason for interest in personality is to examine if these stable traits predict job performance.
What is a proactive personality?
Tendency to enact positive situational changes; individuals high in this trait identify and seize opportunities for change.
What is self-concept?
The view individuals have of themselves as physical, social, spiritual, or moral beings. Can be positive or negative.
What components are included in self-concept?
Components include self-esteem, self-efficacy, and locus of control.
What is self-esteem?
Belief about one’s own worth based on an overall self-evaluation.
How does self-esteem change over a lifespan?
Tends to increase from adolescence to middle adulthood and decrease from middle age to old age.
What is self-efficacy?
Belief about the likelihood of completing a specific task; confidence in controlling one’s motivation, behavior, and environment.
What does locus of control refer to?
A person’s perceptions of how much control they have over their lives.
What is an external locus of control?
Individuals perceive life outcomes as being due to factors beyond their control.
What is an internal locus of control?
Individuals perceive life outcomes as resulting from one’s own agency; more common in leadership.
