Transcript EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (7th Edition in Modules) David Myers

Contemporary Research on
Personality
Module 35
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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
Honest
Dependable
Moody
Impulsive
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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?
How do psychologists find underlying
dimensions when we can only observe specific
behaviors?
temperament
behavior
behavior
behavior
temperament
behavior
behavior
behavior
behavior
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DevPsy.org
First Observation of Sea Monster(s)
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DevPsy.org
How many animals are under the water?
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DevPsy.org
How many animals are under the water?
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DevPsy.org
Second Observation of Sea Monster(s)
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DevPsy.org
How many animals are under the water?
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DevPsy.org
How many animals are under the water?
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DevPsy.org
Third Observation of Sea Monster(s)
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DevPsy.org
How many animals are under the water?
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DevPsy.org
How many animals are under the water?
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DevPsy.org
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.
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DevPsy.org
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)
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DevPsy.org
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.
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DevPsy.org
Factor Analysis
Cattell found that large groups of traits could be
reduced down to 16 core personality traits
based on statistical correlations.
Boisterous
Impatient
Irritable
Excitement
Basic
trait
Superficial
traits
Impulsive
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Raymond Cattell
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Factor Analysis
Hans 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
1. How stable are these traits?
Quite stable in adulthood.
However, they change over
development.
2. How heritable are they?
Fifty percent or so for each
trait.
3. How about other cultures?
These traits are common across
cultures.
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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
Personal
Factors
External
Environments
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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 Helplessness
When 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.
Courtesy of Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD Director,
Positive Psychology Center/ University of Pennsylvania
Martin Seligman
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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.
2.
Research focuses on the different selves we
possess. Some we dream and others we dread.
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 selfimage (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 Bias
The 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
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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 Myers
PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson 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.
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