1. Contemporary Perspectives on Personality
Module 39
Contemporary Perspectives on Personality

2. Contemporary Perspectives on Personality Trait Theories
39-1: HOW DO PSYCHOLOGISTS USE TRAIT THEORIES TO DESCRIBE PERSONALITY?
Trait theorists see personality as a stable and enduring pattern of behavior
They describe differences rather than trying to explain them
Describe personality in terms of fundamental traits, characteristic patterns of behavior or ways of feeling and acting, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports.

3. Trait Theories Exploring Traits
Classifying people as one or another distinct personality type fails to capture their full individuality since we are each a unique combination of multiple traits; better to place personality on several trait dimensions.
Factor Analysis
Use factor analysis to identify clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together.
Statistical procedure used to identify clusters of test items to tap basic components of a trait, such as extraversion.
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire developed by Hans Eysenck and Sybil Eysenck to reduce many of our normal individual variations:
Analyzed results revealed extraversion and emotionality as basic personality dimensions.
The Eysencks believed, and research confirms, that these basic factors are genetically influenced.

4. Trait Theories Exploring Traits
Two Personality Dimensions
Mapmakers can tell us a lot by using two axes (north–south and east–west). Two
primary personality factors (extraversion–introversion and stability–instability) are similarly useful as axes for describing personality variation. Varying combinations define other, more specific traits (from Eysenck & Eysenck, 1963).

5. Trait Theories Exploring Traits
Biology and Personality
Genetic predispositions influence many traits.
Brain-activity scans of extraverts indicate they seek stimulation because normal brain arousal is relatively low.
Dopamine and dopamine-related neural activity tend to be higher in extraverts.
Twin and adoption studies show genetic influence on temperament and behavioral styles.
Quiet people may be influenced by a reactive autonomic nervous system, making them respond to stress with greater anxiety and inhibition.

6. Trait Theories Exploring Traits The Stigma of Introversion
39-2: WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT INTROVERSION? DOES EXTRAVERSION LEAD TO GREATER SUCCESS THN INTROVERSION?
Introversion is often misunderstood as shyness, but introverted people often simply seek low levels of stimulation from their environment.
Many studies have surprisingly shown no correlation between extraversion and sales
Many introverts prosper
Introversion in not a sign of weakness

7. Trait Theories Assessing Traits
39-3: WHAT ARE PERSONALITY INVENTORIES, AND WHAT ARE THEIR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES AS TRAIT-ASSESSMENT TOOLS?
Personality inventory: Questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits.
Test items on some but not all personality inventories are empirically derived, and tests objectively scored.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes. Translated into 100+ languages.
Objectivity does not guarantee validity. People can fake their answers to create a good impression, and the ease of computerized testing may lead to misuse of the tests.

8. Trait Theories The Big Five Factors
39-4: WHICH TRAITS SEEM TO PROVIDE THE MOST USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT PERSONALITY VARIATION?
The Big Five personality factors (Costa and McCrae, 2011) currently offer the most widely accepted picture of the basic dimensions of personality
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion
Memory tip for the five dimensions: CANOE

9. Trait Theories The Big Five Factors
Big Five research questions:
How stable are these traits?
How heritable are they?
Do traits reflect differing brain structure?
Have these traits changed over time?
How well do these traits apply to various cultures?
Do the Big Five traits predict our actual behaviors?
How stable are these traits?
Quite stable, especially after age 40.
How heritable are they?
Many genes, each having small effects, combine to influence traits.
Do traits reflect differing brain structure?
Size of different brain regions correlates with several Big Five traits.
Have these traits changed over time?
Extraversion and conscientiousness have increased.
How well do these traits apply to various cultures?
“Features of personality traits are common to all human groups” (McRae et al, 2005).
Do the Big Five traits predict our actual behaviors?
Yes, though situations also matter.

10. THE “BIG FIVE” PERSONALITY FACTORS
Researchers use self-report inventories and peer reports to assess and score the Big Five personality factors.

11. Trait Theories Evaluating Trait Theories
39-5: DOES RESEARCH SUPPORT THE CONSISTENCY OF PERSONALITY TRAITS OVER TIME AND ACROSS SITUATIONS?
Are our personality traits stable and enduring?
The Person-Situation Controversy
Behavior is influenced by the interaction of our inner disposition with our environment.
In general, personality traits are stable, socially significant.
Personality traits are predictors of mortality, divorce, and occupational attainment.
Consistency of specific behaviors from one situation to another is weak; average behaviors are predictable
At any moment the immediate situation powerfully influences a person’s behavior.
Our enduring traits are evident, however, across many situations and in such things as our music preferences, our online spaces, and our written communications.
A person’s personality traits persist over time and are predictable over many different situations.
But traits cannot predict behavior in any one particular situation.

12. Social-Cognitive Theories
39-6: HOW DO SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORISTS VIEW PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT, AND HOW DO THEY EXPLORE BEHAVIOR?
The social-cognitive perspective on personality was proposed by Albert Bandura (1986, 2006, 2008)
Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context
Emphasizes interaction of our traits with our situations
Applies principles of learning, cognition, and social behavior to personality

13. Social-Cognitive Theories Reciprocal Influences
Bandura views the person-environment interaction as reciprocal determinism:
The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment.
Interaction of individuals and environments:
Different people choose different environments.
Personalities shape how people interpret and react to events.
Personalities help create situations to which people react.

14. Social-Cognitive Theories Reciprocal Influences
Reciprocal Determinism

15. Social-Cognitive Theories Reciprocal Influences
The Biopsychosocial Approach to the
Study of Personality
As with other psychological phenomena, personality is fruitfully studied at multiple levels.

16. Social-Cognitive Theories Assessing Behavior in Situations
To predict behavior, social-cognitive theorists often observe behavior in realistic situations:
Build on concepts of learning and cognition.
Assessment center strategies adopted by many educational, military, and corporate organizations to assess potential candidates. Modern research suggests assessment center exercises are more likely to reveal visible dimensions, such as communication ability, than others, such as inner achievement drive.
Social-cognitive psychologists contend that the best way to predict behavior in a given situation is to observe that behavior in similar situations.
Best means of predicting future behavior is the person’s past behavior patterns in similar situations.

17. Social-Cognitive Theories Evaluating Social-Cognitive Theories
39-7: WHAT CRITICISMS HAVE SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORISTS FACED?
Social-cognitive theories of personality have been criticized for focusing so much on the situation that they fail to appreciate the person’s inner traits.
Criticized for underemphasizing the importance of unconscious motives, emotions, and biologically influenced traits.
Personality traits have been shown to predict behavior at work, love, and play.
Consider the different ways two men, described in the text, react to news of winning a $90 million lottery jackpot.

18. Exploring the Self
39-8: WHY HAS PSYCHOLOGY GENERATED SO MUCH RESEARCH ON THE SELF? HOW IMPORTANT IS SELF-ESTEEM TO OUR WELL-BEING?
Exploration of the self in psychology has a long history:
William James (1890)
Gordon Allport (1943)
Humanistic psychology (1960s)
Self: In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Self one of psychology’s most vigorously studied topics.
Spotlight effect: Overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us).
Consideration of possible selves motivates toward positive development; too intense focusing may lead to spotlight effect.

19. Exploring the Self The Benefits of Self-Esteem
Self-esteem: One’s feelings of high or low self-worth.
Self-efficacy: One’s sense of competence and effectiveness.
High self-esteem correlates with less pressure to conform, with persistence at difficult tasks, and with happiness.
But the direction of the correlation is not clear; high self-esteem could simply be a side effect of meeting challenges and surmounting difficulties .
Giving praise in the absence of good performance may actually be harmful.
Temporarily deflating study participants’ self-image tends to have negative effects in how those individuals treat others.
Psychologists caution against unrealistically promoting children’s feelings of self-worth. It’s better to reward their achievements, which leads to feelings of competence.

20. Exploring the Self Self-Serving Bias
39-9: WHAT EVIDENCE REVEALS SELF-SERVING BIAS, AND HOW DO DEFENSIVE AND SECURE SELF-ESTEEM DIFFER?
Self-serving bias: A readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Suggests people accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for successes than for failure
Often creates a better-than-average effect
When self-esteem is threatened, people may react aggressively
Narcissism: Excessive self-love and self-absorption
Researchers distinguish between fragile defensive self-esteem and stronger secure self-esteem, which is less dependent upon external evaluation
Authentic pride, rooted in actual achievement, supports self-confidence and leadership

21. Exploring the Self Culture and the Self
39-10: HOW DO INDIVIDUALIST AND COLLECTIVIST CULTURES DIFFER IN THEIR VALUES AND GOALS?
Individualism: Giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.
Collectivism: Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly.
Although people within cultures vary, different cultures emphasize either individualism or collectivism. Individualism is valued in most areas of North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. People in many Asian, African, and Latin American countries place a higher value on collectivism.

22. Exploring the Self Culture and the Self
Value Contrasts Between Individualism and Collectivism