Week 1 Flashcards
(37 cards)
Personality Definition
A personality is a network of subpersonalities each with it’s own motivation, history, and quirks of behavior.
OR
The combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive characters. I.E. “What makes you, you?”
What is “disgust”?
An emotional response of revulsion to something considered offensive, distasteful, or unpleasant.
Is there a correlation between disgust and anxiety disorders?
Yes - I.E. you can find a correlation between anxiety and blood contamination.
What are some indications that Hitler had a high disgust response?
Hitler was known to bathe four times a day. He also had a high need for orderliness.
He often was disgusted by people different than him.
What personality traits can be associated with Hitler?
Disgust and Narcissism
These personality traits have been hypothesized to be developed due to childhood trauma from his father and coddling from his mother.
What is “narcissism”?
A high interest in the “self” and low feelings for other people.
Define “apartheid”
Apartheid was a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race. This policy was in South Africa and ended in 1994.
Who was the first democratic leader of South Africa?
Nelson Mandela - he attributed his ability to use non-violence policies and stay calm, partly to the chance to speak and share feelings with other men, while in prison.
Define “continuous distributions”
Characteristics of a trait can go from low to high, with all different intermediate values possible.
One person does not simply have a trait or not have it - they can possess varying amounts of the trait.
What are “facets”?
Facets are narrower aspects of a broad personality trait.
I.E. Extraversion has facets such as sociability, dominance, risk-taking, and so forth.
Define “factor analysis”
A statistical technique for grouping similar things together according to how highly they are associated.
What is it called when “two characteristics or traits are separate from one another”?
Independent (or Orthogonal)- A person can be high on one and low on the other, or vice-versa.
Are Big 5 traits “independent/orthogonal” or “dependent”?
Big 5 traits are generally orthogonal because a person can score high for one trait and low for another trait.
Neuroticism
A personality trait that reflects the tendency to be interpersonally sensitive and the tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, sadness, and anger.
What are the five “Big 5” traits?
Openness (to experience) Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
Openness to Experience
A personality trait that reflects a person’s tendency to seek out and to appreciate new things, including thoughts, feelings, values, and experiences.
What are “personality traits”?
Personality traits are enduring dispositions in behavior that show differences across individuals, and which tend to characterize the person across varying types of situations.
What do personality traits require to be considered a personality trait?
Consistency, stability, and individual differences.
Define “consistency” in terms of personality traits
Behaviors associated with personality traits must be consistent across situations.
I.E. Someone considered “talkative” tend to be talkative at work and home.
Define “stability” in terms of personality traits
Individuals with a traits are also somewhat stable over time in behaviors related to the traits.
I.E. If someone is active at age 30, they will likely be active at age 40.
Define “individual differences” in terms of personality traits
Personality traits are used to distinguish how people differ from one another. Thus, using speech is not a personality trait and neither is walking on two feet - virtually all individuals do these activities. However, people do differ on how frequently they talk and how active they are, thus personality traits such as “talkativeness” and “activity level” do exist.
What is the “lexical hypothesis”?
The Lexical Hypothesis is that important aspects of life will be labeled and represented with words, and if something is truly important and universal, there will be many words for it in all languages.
Using statistics, researchers found the Big 5 personality traits by finding the 5 words that are most representative of human traits.
Five-Factor Model (AKA the Big Five)
The Five-Factor Model is a widely accepted model of personality traits.
Advocates of the model believe that much of the variability in people’s thought, feelings, and behaviors can be summarized with five broad traits.
What is the HEXACO model?
The HEXACO model is an alternative to the Five-Factor Model with the addition of a 6th factor.
