1 Contemporary Research on Personality Module 35

2 Contemporary Research on Personality The Trait Perspective (overview)  Exploring Traits  Assessing Traits  The Big Five Factors  Evaluating the Trait Perspective

3 How do you eat your Oreo? Can the way you eat an Oreo cookie tell you something about your personality?

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5 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

6 The Personality Inventory Personality Inventory : a questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors used to assess selected personality traits

7 Exploring Traits Allport & Odbert (1936), identified almost 18,000 words representing traits.

8 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 ( )

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10 From Behavior to Temperament? temperament behavior temperament How do psychologists find underlying dimensions when we can only observe specific behaviors? DevPsy.org

11 Factor Analysis Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core personality traits based on statistical correlations. Impulsive Excitement Impatient Irritable Boisterous Basic trait Superficial traits

12 Raymond Cattell

13 Exploring Traits 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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15 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.

16 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

17 MMPI Test Profile

18 The Big Five Factors Conscientiousness Agreeableness Neuroticism Openness Extraversion Comprehensive Personality measurement.

19 Endpoints

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21 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?

22 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.

23 The Person-Situation Controversy Are we more strongly influenced by external influences (situations) or enduring inner influences (traits)….do you drop the F-bomb with granny?

24 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.

25 Contemporary Research on Personality The Social-Cognitive Perspective Overview  Reciprocal Influences  Personal Control  Assessing Behavior in Situations  Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective

26 Social-Cognitive Perspective An approach in which personality is seen as the patterns of thinking and behavior that a person learns.

27 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

28 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

29 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

30 Learned Helplessness When unable/unwilling to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness. This is related to an external locus of control Low self efficacy

31 Learned Helplessness: Implications Learned helplessness is related to depression Nursing home studies Totalitarian governments

32 Optimism vs. Pessimism An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style is your way of explaining positive or negative events.

33 Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Martin Seligman Courtesy of Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD Director, Positive Psychology Center/ University of Pennsylvania

34 Sleigman on positive psychology _on_the_state_of_psychology.html 23:45http:// _on_the_state_of_psychology.html

35 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.

36 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.

37 Contemporary Research on Personality Exploring the Self Overview  The Benefits of Self-Esteem  Culture and Self-Esteem  Self-Serving Bias

38 The spotlight effect We overestimate our concern that others evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders (spotlight effect).

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41 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.

42 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.

43 Self-Serving Bias The tendency to attribute our successes to internal characteristics while blaming our failures on external causes. Why did you lose the game? Bad refs…

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46 Self Serving Bias

47 More Self Serving Bias

48 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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50 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.

51 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.subjective validation Ie. Believing a horoscope describes you when its very generic.

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53 First Observation of Sea Monster(s) DevPsy.org

54 DevPsy.org How many animals are under the water?

55 How many animals are under the water? DevPsy.org

56 Second Observation of Sea Monster(s) DevPsy.org

57 DevPsy.org How many animals are under the water?

58 How many animals are under the water? DevPsy.org

59 Third Observation of Sea Monster(s) DevPsy.org

60 DevPsy.org How many animals are under the water?

61 How many animals are under the water? DevPsy.org

62 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

63 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

64 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