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SPR L10 Individual Differences Flashcards

1
Q

Personality and Individual Differences

Learning Outcomes

A

Aim: To consider reasons why people differ from one another.

Learning Outcomes:

  • List different contributors to ‘individual differences’ encountered across the lecture programme.
  • Describe what is meant by ‘a trait’
  • Explain Eysenck’s biological theories of extraversion and neuroticism
  • Explain ‘the person-situation’ debate
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2
Q

What are Individual Differences?

A

Individual differences psychology examines how people are similar and how they differ in their thinking, feeling and behaviour.

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3
Q

Give examples of some sources of Individual Differences?

A
  • Culture – Macro and Micro
  • Education
  • Gender
  • Genetic inheritance
  • Intelligence
  • Personality
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4
Q

What is Personality?

A

Personality comprises Traits and States

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5
Q

What is Personality?

Personality comprises Traits and States

  1. What are ‘traits’?
  2. What are ‘states’?
A
  1. habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion. Relatively stable over time, differ among individuals, and influence behaviour. (LONG TERM)
  2. transitory emotional state or condition of the human organism that is characterized by subjective, consciously perceived feelings and felt by all at some time e.g. anxiety, fatigue, sadness
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6
Q

What is Personality?

Personality comprises Traits and States

Why measure personality?

A

Predictive of job performance, status and satisfaction, relationship satisfaction, divorce, delinquency, and self-esteem among other things.

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7
Q

What is Personality?

The Big Five/OCEAN Trait Model

Name the five traits involved

Give examples of either end of each trait’s scale.

A
  • Openess to experience
  • Conscientiousness
  • Extraversion
  • Agreeableness
  • Neuroticism

(see pictures for scales)

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8
Q

Trait Theory

Hans Jürgen Eysenck (1916 –1997)

There are two personality continua, these are…?

A
  1. Extraversion - Introversion
  2. Neuroticism - Stability
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9
Q

Trait: Extraversion (Positive Affectivity)

  1. What does this personality trait predispose individuals to?
  2. What do these individuals report?
  3. What do introverts report?
A
  1. experience positive emotional states and feel good about themselves and the world around them.
  2. experiencing more positive emotions
  3. tend to be closer to neutral.
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10
Q

Trait: Extraversion (Positive Affectivity)

  1. What is extroversion?
  2. What is introversion?
A
  1. higher levels of self-esteem and sociability, seek out stimulation in their surroundings…but also higher levels of delinquency
  2. Introversion – quiet and shy, comfortable with own company…associated with positive traits such as intelligence and giftedness
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11
Q

Trait: Neuroticism (Negative Affectivity)

  1. What is this trait?
  2. What does this trait predispose individuals to?
  3. People who score low on this dimension (or continuum) report what?
A
  1. Personality trait that reflects people’s tendency to experience negative emotional states, feel distressed, and generally view themselves and the world around them negatively.
  2. anxiety, phobias and depression
  3. more happiness and satisfaction with their lives
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12
Q

The third trait - Psychoticism

  1. How did this third factor emerge?
  2. Describe the scale involved
    1. What are high scorers more likely to develop?
    2. What is this trait associated with?
  3. Give questions used to measure this trait
A
  1. When data was collected from people with schizophrenia
  2. Insensitive-sensitive scale
    1. psychosis
    2. antisocial personality and creativity
  3. Do you prefer to go your own way rather than act by the rules?

Do you give money to charities?

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13
Q

Give examples of how traits can be measured using questions

see picture

A

see picture

A LIE scale incorporated - deliberate questions to see if individuals are trying to portray themselves in a socially desirable way.

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14
Q

Trait Theory: Biological Basis?

  1. What does neuroticism appear to be related to? Give examples.
  2. What did Eysenck propose that extraversion was caused by?
A
  1. physiological differences in the brain - Greater activity in the limbic system, a more reactive sympathetic nervous system => therefore more sensitive to environmental stimulation
  2. variability in cortical arousal - Extraverts are chronically under aroused (drives them to seek out extra stimulation), Introverts are chronically over aroused Extraverts should seek out stimulation whereas Introverts should avoid it (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985 1967)
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15
Q

Locus of Control

  1. What is this?
  2. What is an ‘external locus of control’?
  3. What is an ‘internal locus of control’?
A
  1. A person’s belief about what causes the good or bad results in their life.
  2. Describes people who believe that fate, luck, or outside forces are responsible for what happens to them.
  3. Describes people who believe that ability, effort, or their own actions determine what happens to them
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16
Q

Locus of Control

Some example situations:

  • When struggling for a good mark in finals?
  • When arguing with a friend or relative?
  • When faced with a terminal illness?
  • When faced with a death of a loved one?
  1. In terms of locus of control, what wil lead to extreme stress?
  2. What is learned helplessness?
  3. What is likely to be best in these situations?
A
  1. High personal responsibility/low environmental control
  2. a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.
  3. Flexible Locus of Control is likely to be best: Have the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you cannot accept, and the wisdom to know the difference!
17
Q

Trait Theory/Tests

What are the Strengths of this theory?

A
  • Strong face validity
  • Can be group or even self-administered
  • Recent measures have high reliability and some predictive validity
  • Consistency actually not all that low
    • trait consistency over time is good (0.6 to 0.9)
    • greater consistency across situations (0.5) when traits, not behaviors, are judged (e.g., aggression vs. hitting)
18
Q

Trait Theory/Tests

What are the Weaknesses of this theory?

A
  • Descriptive only (provides no information about origin)
  • Vulnerable to faking
  • Limited by person’s knowledge of self
  • Undervalues influence of situations on behavior
    • behavioral inconsistencies found across different situations (sometimes r<.30)
    • inconsistency includes “traits” such as honesty, aggression, dependency, rigidity
    • personalities seem stable because people tend to frequent same settings repeatedly
19
Q

What is the opposite position to trait theory?

Outline this

Situationism: A History
Power and Obedience => give an example

A

Situationalism

People are more influenced by external, situational factors than by internal traits or motivations.

Milgram Experiment (1961) - 60% of individuals were delivering ‘life threatening’ shocks under protestation in a memory test.

Note: this example is highly controversial with regards to human experimentation!

http://tinyurl.com/3lw3mjy 2:20

20
Q

Compromise between Trait Theory and Situationalism

  1. Which predominates and are best predictors of behaviour in every day situations?
  2. When do situational variables predominate?
  3. What is the reality?
A
  1. Personality traits
  2. in ‘strong’ situations – we are more likely to behave similarly in ‘strong’ situations
  3. but the interaction between internal ‘personality’ and external ‘situational’ variables is likely to be a lot more complex than this when it comes to determining our behaviour
21
Q

Reciprocal Determinism

Albert Bandura (1925-)

  1. According to this, what is a person’s behavior influenced by?
  2. What does this mean?
  3. Give a worked example
A
  1. A person’s behavior is both influenced by, and influences, a person’s personal factors and the environment.
  2. So it is not just that you are influenced by your environment, but that you also influence the environment around you - each impacts the other.
  3. See picture
22
Q

Reading

Chapter: Personality and Health

A
  1. What are traits?
  2. Describe the Big Five Model of Personality and how its components are related to health
  3. What is a ‘Type A’ personality?
  4. How can understanding someone’s personality help us to understand their health beliefs, health behaviour and health outcomes?

Peoples (10 decks)

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