Personality part 5 Flashcards
(38 cards)
Personality Revealed Through Perception?
Perception isn’t just about what we see; it’s about how we interpret the world, and this process is shaped by personality. Different people can see the same thing differently depending on their individual experiences.
perceptual biases
✳️ Key Points & Highlights:
“To perceive is to interpret a stimulus from the individual experience” – this means perception is subjective.
“The way of perceiving is different in each person.” – no two people perceive reality the same way.
“Our behaviour will largely depend on how we perceive an event and the image we have of ourselves in relation to the world around us.”
Field Dependency vs. Field Independence
📘 Definition:
These are styles of perception – they describe how much a person relies on the surrounding context when interpreting information.
⚖️ Field Dependent
Find it difficult to separate details from the context.
More drawn to social sciences and education.
Prefer collaboration, asking others for opinions.
Learn best in structured, single-channel formats.
Can see connections between elements well.
⚖️ Field Independent
Tend to separate details from context.
More interested in natural sciences, math, and engineering.
Prefer autonomy and emotional detachment.
Learn well in multimedia environments.
Better at finding patterns and being creative.
Personality Revealed Through Interpretation (Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory)
📘 Main Idea:
People are like scientists — we create mental models to understand and predict life events. These models are called personal constructs.
✳️ Key Highlights:
“People seek explanations for the events in their lives just the way scientists seek explanations for phenomena in the laboratory.”
“Most of the time, we are unaware of this implicit predictive process: become aware when predictions fail.”
“Scientists employ constructs to interpret observations.”
🔁 Personal Constructs:
These are the mental templates we use to interpret events.
All constructs are bipolar (cold vs. warm, boring vs. interesting).
Meaning comes from contrast.
“No meaning without the inherent contrast.”
Constructs are unique to each individual, even if they use the same label.
Kelly on Anxiety:
“Anxiety is the result of our personal constructs failing to make sense of our circumstances.”
When events feel unpredictable or out of control, people feel anxious.
Locus of Control (Julian B. Rotter)
📘 Definition:
Locus of Control (LoC) refers to where people believe control over events lies.
Internal LoC: “I determine my future” – you believe you are in control.
External LoC: “Things happen to me” – you believe things happen by luck or fate.
📝 Example:
“When you get a good grade… is it luck or your effort?” — this reflects your LoC.
Expectancy-Value Theory (Julian B. Rotter)
People are motivated by the expectation that their actions will be rewarded.
If someone believes they can control outcomes, they are more likely to act.
Generalized espectancies:
Learning also depended on the degree to which the person
expected reinforcement—that obtaining a reward was under his
or her control
Learned Helplessness (Seligman)
📘 Definition:
A psychological condition where a person believes they have no control, even when they do.
Originates from past failures to change situations.
They stop trying because they expect failure.
🧠 Attributional Style (Learned Helplessness)
How you explain failure affects whether you feel hopeless or motivated.
The 3 Dimensions of Explanation:
Dimension: Internal vs. External
Meaning: Is the cause within me (internal) or outside (external)?
_________________________
Dimension: Stable vs. Unstable
Meaning: Is the cause permanent (stable) or temporary (unstable)?
_________________________
Dimension: Global vs. Specific
Meaning: Does it affect everything (global) or just this (specific)?
_________________________
🔴 Helplessness Example:
“I failed because I’m stupid.”
Internal (me),
Stable (can’t change),
Global (affects all areas)
→ You feel hopeless. Why try if it’s always like this?
🟢 Empowering Example:
“I failed because I didn’t sleep well.”
Internal (me),
Unstable (one-time),
Specific (just this test)
→ You feel in control. Next time: sleep better, do better.
Personality Revealed Through Goals (Cognitive Social Learning Theory)
💡 Bandura’s Self-Efficacy (Simple):
“The belief that one can execute a specific course of action to achieve a goal.”
Self-efficacy = “I believe I can do it.”
🔼 High Self-Efficacy:
You try harder
You keep going (even when it’s tough)
🧠 It’s shaped by:
Past success/failure
Watching others succeed (modeling)
Summary:
If you believe you can succeed, you’re more likely to act, persist, and achieve.
Carol Dweck – Mastery Orientation in (Cognitive Social Learning Theory)
🧠 Carol Dweck – Mastery Orientation
Growth mindset = “I can improve if I try.”
🔁 Mastery-Oriented People:
Believe intelligence can grow with effort
Keep going after failure
🚫 Fixed Mindset:
Think intelligence is unchangeable
Avoid challenges
✅ Key Idea:
Encouraging a growth mindset builds persistence and resilience.
Walter Mischel – CAPS (Cognitive-Affective Personality System) (by Walter Mischel)
📘 Core Idea:
Personality ≠ not a fixed set of traits.
Instead, it’s a system of thoughts, feelings, goals, and memories that get activated by different situations.
✅ What does this mean?
Your behavior depends on the situation.
Different parts of your personality “light up” depending on the context.
🧩 Think of it like this:
Your personality is a toolbox, and depending on the situation, you grab a different tool.
Example:
“If I’m ignored → I withdraw”
“If I’m encouraged → I speak up”
These are “if… then…” patterns – how we consistently react in certain situations.
🧬 Why?
These reactions come from:
Your beliefs and goals
Your past learning and culture
Your emotions and how you interpret events (called construals)
Bottom Line of CAPS (Cognitive-Affective Personality System) (by Walter Mischel)
You’re not the same in every situation.
Your personality shows up differently depending on the context — not because you’re fake, but because personality is dynamic and situationally activated.
🔹 Emotions – Definition
Emotions = 3 components:
Subjective feelings → What you feel (happy, angry, sad).
Bodily changes → Your body reacts (heart rate, muscle tension).
Action tendencies → You’re pushed to act (fight, flee, hug).
🧠 Why psychologists care: Emotional reactions differ between people → emotions help explain personality differences.
🔹 Emotional States vs Emotional Traits
States = short-term (e.g., anger from being cut off in traffic)
Transitory
* Have a specific cause
* That cause typically originates
outside of the person (something
happens in the environment).
A man is angry because he was unfairly
treated.
A woman is sad because her bicycle was stolen
Traits = long-term patterns (e.g., always grumpy)
Pattern of emotional reactions that a
person consistently experiences across a
variety of life situations.
Mary is cheerful and enthusiastic.
John is frequently angry and often loses his temper
Think:
State = “I’m sad today.”
Trait = “I’m a sad person.”
🔹 How to Study Emotions?
Two main research approaches:
Categorical → Focuses on a few basic emotions (e.g., joy, anger, fear)
(Emotions are best thought of as a
small number of primary and
distinct emotions.
* Different criteria that researchers use
for defining an emotion as primary)
_____________________________________
Dimensional → Measures emotions along two axes:
Pleasantness (happy ↔ unhappy)
Arousal (excited ↔ calm)
(Empirical research.
* Researchers gather data by having subjects rate themselves on a wide variety of emotions, then apply statistical techniques
(factor analysis) to identify the basic
dimensions underlying the ratings.
- Two primary dimensions: pleasantness
and arousal.)
🔹 Emotional Life of emotions = (Content + Style)
Content of emotional life → What you feel:
Pleasant (e.g. cheerful, relaxed)
Unpleasant (e.g. sad, anxious)
Style of emotional life → How you feel:
High activation (e.g. excited, anxious)
Low activation (e.g. calm, sluggish)
📊 Dimensional Model:
High arousal + pleasant = excited, joyful
Low arousal + unpleasant = sluggish, sad
________________-
Your emotional life is shaped by what types of emotions you often feel (content) and how intensely or variably you feel them (style).
🧭 Example:
Someone who is cheerful feels pleasant emotions → Content
Someone who has mood swings experiences emotions with high variability → Style
🔹 Happiness (Pleasant Emotions)
Key Concept: Happiness has two components that are highly correlated:
Cognitive component → Life-satisfaction
Judging your life as meaningful and having purpose.
Measured by tools like the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS).
Affective component → Hedonic balance
The ratio of positive to negative emotions you feel over time.
Example: Feeling more joy and peace than stress or sadness.
Measured by things like the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
🧠 These two together form a full picture of how “happy” someone is.
Happiness and Success: What Comes First?
There’s a causal relationship between success and happiness — in both directions.
🔁 Bidirectional influence:
Success → Happiness: E.g., A good marriage or job can increase happiness.
Happiness → Success: Happy people are more helpful, optimistic, and resilient — leading to more success.
🌟 Important caveat:
“It depends on the specific behaviour or situation we consider.”
✔️ Summary:
Happiness and success fuel each other.
Being happy often leads to better life outcomes like fulfilling jobs or stronger relationships.
🔹 What affects happiness? (Demographics:)
👥 Demographics:
Gender: no difference
Age: life stage matters
Ethnicity: no clear link
Nationality: linked to social conditions, not just income
📉 Easterlin Paradox: Over time, more money doesn’t always = more happiness.
But without basic needs, happiness is unlikely.
_________________________
National wealth is
confounded with many other
variables that influence wellbeing,
such as health care
services, civil rights, women’s
rights, care for the elderly,
and education
Income and Happiness: The Easterlin Paradox
🔹 Easterlin Paradox (Key Term):
“At any point in time, happiness varies with income across nations, but over time within a country, happiness does not trend upward with increases in income.”
🧠 What this means:
Richer countries tend to be happier than poorer ones.
But in one country (like the U.S.), as income increases over time, happiness levels stay flat.
🔸 Conclusion (highlighted):
“Below a very low-income level, a person is very unlikely to be happy.”
💡 Why?
Because people need to meet basic needs — food, safety, shelter (Maslow’s hierarchy).
Once those are covered, more money doesn’t always mean more happiness.
