1 contemporary research on personality module 35
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Contemporary Research on Personality
Module 35
QR code for SG 33 34 35
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Contemporary Research on Personality
The Trait Perspective (overview) Exploring Traits
Assessing Traits
The Big Five Factors
Evaluating the Trait Perspective
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How do you eat your Oreo?
Can the way you eat an Oreo cookie tell you something about
your personality?
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Contemporary Research-- The Trait Perspective
Trait a characteristic pattern of behavior a disposition to feel and act, as assessed
by self-report inventories and peer reports
Examples of Traits
HonestDependable
MoodyImpulsive
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The Personality Inventory
Personality Inventory : a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors used to assess selected personality traits
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Exploring Traits
Allport & Odbert (1936), identified almost 18,000 words representing traits.
Inferring Traits from Language: The Dictionary Study
Webster’s New International Dictionary 17,953 traits (4.5% of the dictionary)
(Cloninger ppt)
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Exploring Traits
Factor analysis is a statistical
approach used to describe and relate personality traits.
Cattell used this approach to develop a 16 Personality Factor
(16PF) inventory. Raymond Cattell(1905-1998)
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From Behavior to Temperament?
temperament
behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior
temperament
How do psychologists find underlying dimensions when we can only observe specific behaviors?
DevPsy.org
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First Observation of Sea Monster(s)
DevPsy.org
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How many animals are under the water?
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How many animals are under the water?
DevPsy.org
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Second Observation of Sea Monster(s)
DevPsy.org
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How many animals are under the water?
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How many animals are under the water?
DevPsy.org
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Third Observation of Sea Monster(s)
DevPsy.org
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How many animals are under the water?
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How many animals are under the water?
DevPsy.org
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Number of Sea Monsters
How could you tell the number of sea monster when you could only see parts of them?
You saw visible parts move together and others move independently; you did an intuitive correlation.
DevPsy.org
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Number of Sea Monsters
By looking at the correlations between all the parts we can see (observable behaviors), we can infer something about their underlying nature (theoretical constructs)
DevPsy.org
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Number of Sea Monsters
Factor Analysis is a statistical method that looks at how lots of different observations correlate and determines how many theoretical constructs could most simply explain what you see.
DevPsy.org
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Factor Analysis
Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core personality traits
based on statistical correlations.
Impulsive
Excitement
Imp
atie
nt
Irritable
Bo
isterou
s
BasictraitSuperficial
traits
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Raymond Cattell
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Factor AnalysisHans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that
personality could be reduced down to two polar dimensions, extraversion-introversion
and emotional stability-instability.
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Biology and Personality
Personality dimensions are influenced by genes.
1. Brain-imaging procedures show that extraverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low.
2. Genes also influence our temperament and behavioral style. Differences in children’s shyness and inhibition may be attributed to autonomic nervous system reactivity.
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The Trait Perspective
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) the most widely researched and clinically
used of all personality tests originally developed to identify emotional
disorders (still considered its most appropriate use)
now used for many other screening purposes
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MMPI Test Profile
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The Big Five Factors
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion
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Endpoints
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Questions about the Big Five
These traits are common across cultures.3. How about other
cultures?
Fifty percent or so for each trait.2. How heritable are they?
Quite stable in adulthood. However, they change over development.
1. How stable are these traits?
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Evaluating the Trait Perspective
The Person-Situation Controversy
Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out that traits may be enduring, but the
resulting behavior in various situations is different.
Therefore, traits are not good predictors of behavior.
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The Person-Situation Controversy
Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation may be different, but average behavior
remains the same. Therefore, traits matter.
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Consistency of Expressive Style
Expressive styles in speaking and gestures demonstrate trait consistency.
Observers are able to judge people’s behavior and feelings in as little as 30 seconds and in
one particular case as little as 2 seconds.
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Contemporary Research on Personality
The Social-Cognitive Perspective Overview Reciprocal Influences
Personal Control
Assessing Behavior in Situations
Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective
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Social-Cognitive Perspective
• An approach in which personality is seen as the patterns of thinking and behavior that a person learns.
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Social-Cognitive Perspective
In his social-cognitive theory Albert Bandura
(1999; 2006) sees personality as shaped by
the ways in which thoughts, behavior, and the environment interact
and influence one another.
Albert Bandura
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Individuals & Environments
Bandura's notion of reciprocal determinism suggests that personal factors (such as cognitions, or
thoughts), behavior, and the environment are constantly affecting one another.
Behavior
External Environments
Personal Factors
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Personal Control
External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces
beyond our personal control determine our fate.
Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate.
Self efficacy: learned expectations about probability of success
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Learned HelplessnessWhen unable/unwilling to avoid repeated
adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness.
Low self efficacy
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Learned Helplessness: Implications
Learned helplessness is related to depression
Nursing home studies Totalitarian governments
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Optimism vs. Pessimism
An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style is your way of explaining positive or
negative events.
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Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology
Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals
and communities to thrive.
Martin Seligman
Courtesy of M
artin E.P. Seligm
an, PhD D
irector, Positive Psychology C
enter/ University of Pennsylvania
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Sleigman on positive psychology
• http://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_on_the_state_of_psychology.html 23:45
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Assessing Behavior in Situations
Social-cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and simulated situations because they find that it is the best way to predict the
behavior of others in similar situations.
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Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective
Critics say that social-cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention to the individual, his unconscious mind,
his emotions, and his genetics.
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Contemporary Research on Personality
Exploring the Self Overview The Benefits of Self-Esteem
Culture and Self-Esteem
Self-Serving Bias
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Exploring the Self
The self organizes thinking, feelings, and actions and is a
critical part of our personality.
1. Research focuses on the different selves we possess. Some we dream and others we dread.
2. We overestimate our concern that others evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders (spotlight effect).
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Benefits of Self-Esteem
Maslow and Rogers argued that a successful
life results from a healthy self-image (self-
esteem).
When self-esteem is deflated, we view
ourselves and others critically.
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Culture & Self-Esteem
People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things they achieve and comparing
themselves to people with similar positions.
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Self-Serving BiasThe tendency to attribute our successes to internal characteristics while blaming our
failures on external causes.
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Self Serving Bias
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More Self Serving Bias
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The “Above Average Effect”
• HS Seniors– When asked to judge their ability to get along
with others, 60 percent rated themselves in the top 10 percent
– 25 percent considered themselves in the top 1 percent
• Teachers– 94 percent of college professors say they do
above-average work
Jailed criminals think they are kinder, more trustworthy and
honest than the average member of the public!
• The poorer you perform the MORE likely you are to overestimate you ability!
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Optimism Bias/Positivity Illusion
• People consistently overestimate the likelihood of good things happening to them.
• What do you think are your chances of earning a higher salary than average?
• Its impossible for everyone to earn more than average, yet almost everyone believes that they are the exception
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EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY(7th Edition in Modules)
David MyersPowerPoint Slides
Aneeq AhmadHenderson State
University
Worth Publishers, © 2008
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Barnum Effect
• The Barnum effect is the name given to a type of subjective validation in which a person finds personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people.
• Ie. Believing a horoscope describes you when its very generic.