DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCH Trait Perspective about Personality

How important is the ability to delay gratification?  Short TED Talk  Joachim DePosada “ Don’t Eat The Marshmallow yet”

Walter Mischel – Dept of Psych at CU  Mischel researched the ability to delay gratification and to exert self- control in the face of strong situational pressures and emotionally “hot” temptations.  His studies with preschoolers in the late 1960s, often referred to as "the marshmallow experiment", examined the processes and mental mechanisms that enable a young child to forego immediate gratification and to wait instead for a larger desired but delayed reward.  Continuing research with these original participants has examined how preschool delay of gratification ability links to development over the life course, and may predict a variety of important outcomes (e.g., SAT scores, social and cognitive competence, educational attainment, and drug use), and can have significant protective effects against a variety of potential vulnerabilities

Trait  A characteristic of behavior or a disposition to feel and act as assessed by self-reported inventories or peer reports.

Trait Theories of Personality  They believe that we can describe people’s personalities by specifying their main characteristics (traits).  Traits like honesty, laziness, ambition, outgoing are thought to be stable over the course of your lives.

Gordon Allport  Founder of the trait perspective  Allport believed that psychologically healthy humans are motivated by present, mostly conscious drives and that they not only seek to reduce tensions but to establish new ones.  people are capable of proactive behavior, which suggests that they can consciously behave in new and creative ways that foster their own change and growth.

Other Trait Theorists  Carl Jung – introversion (psychic energy flows inward) vs. extraversion (psychic energy flows outward)  Hans Eysenck  2 axes; researched biological causes of differences  Raymond Cattell (16 personality factors) – warmth, reasoning, emotional stability, etc.

Factor Analysis  A statistical procedure used to identify different components of your intelligence or personality (depending on the test). FA takes the answers you give on tests and compiles them into general traits.

The Big Five  Emotional Stability (calm/anxious, secure/insecure, self-satisfied/self-pitying). Extraversion (sociable/retiring, fun- loving/sober, affectionate/reserved). Openness (imaginative/practical, variety/routine, independent, conforming)

The Big Five (Continued)  Agreeableness (soft-hearted/ruthless, trusting/suspicious, helpful/uncooperative). Conscientiousness (organized/disorganized, careful/careless, disciplined/impulsive).

The Big Five According to Big Five trait theory: Your traits are stable over time. They can be attributed to your genetics They describe personalities equally well across different cultures They predict other attributes.

Assessing Our Traits  Personality Inventories: a questionnaire where people respond to items attempting to gauge different aspects of their personality Examples of personality inventories: Myers-Briggs (Kiersey Temperament Sorter), 16PF, MMPI, BFI, NEO- FFI)

MMPI Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory: the most widely used personality test. Originally used to identify emotional disorders. Now used for screening purposes.

MMPI put to the Test

The Person-Situation Controversy  Are traits really stable? Kind Of…. They change according to the situation.

Biological Theories of Personality  What % of the variation in a population is attributable to genes? - heritability  We are not sure BUT temperaments do seem to be stable from infants to old age.

Somatotype Theory  A biological Theory by William Sheldon.  Endomorphs (Fat) tend to be friendly and outgoing.  Mesomorphs (muscular) tend to be more aggressive.  Ectomorphs (thin) tend to be more shy and secretive.  Study has not been replicated.