Chapter 13 Flashcards

This leads to individual differences in behavior

explains consistency in behavior over times

Explains consistency in behavior across situations

This means that the personality present in the situations is uniform

this means that personality stands out

Description over explanation

Personality as structure

• People seem to differ along the same dimensions

When something is important to us, it is reflected in our language

• Example: Different ways to describe things based on location

Websters dictionary

Synonym frequency

Cross-cultural universality

Factor Analysis

Factor=cluster of closely related variables

• Allows researchers to identify basic unities in personality

O: openness to experience

C: conscientiousness

E: Extraversion

A: Agreeable

N: Neuroticism

Extraversion scores predict

• Number of sex partners, more casual sex
• use of alcohol and other drugs

Openness scores predict

• Number of tattoos
• Enjoying new foods
• Books read per year

Neuroticism Score Predicts

• More fatigue
• More grief after loss
• Wrose health

Conscientiousness scores predict

• Punctuality
• More positive and committed social relationship
• Higher grades

Agreeableness scores predict

• Warmer relationship
• Corporation

after age 30, traits have very high-rank order stability

rank order stability shifts on average, and is stableish

Manifestation of traits changes over time

Neuroticism decreases

Extraversion decreases

Openness to experience decreases

Agreeableness increases

Conscientiousness increases

Early theory (Eysenck): baseline arousal

• Extraverts have a low level of arousal, so they then need to simulate themselves

Newer theory: rRST (revised reinforcement sensitivity model)

• Individual differences in brain activation and corresponding behaviors
• 3 "psychobiological" systems govern motivation-related

Regulates appetite

Goal to move toward something desired

Go system

Regulates aversive motives

sensitive to signs of punishment

slow down system

High sensitivity in BAS is associated with elements of extraversion and optimism

High sensitivity in BIS associated with elements of Neuroticism

Promotes behavior that keeps you from getting injured

stress response

Linked with fear-proneness

Behavioral genetics evidence

• identical vs. fraternal twins
• Identical wings proved much more similar than fraternal twins

Heritability

Biologically based tendencies to act a certain way

3 level:

1. Activity level: The overall amount of energy and action a person exhibits
2. Emotionality level: Describes the intensity of emotional reactions
3. Sociality: refers to the general tendency to affiliate with others

Nature/Nurture debate

Genes and environment affect not only behavior but also each other

Consistency in a person's mood and emotions

Approaches to studying personality that emphasize how people seek to fulfill their potential through greater self-understanding

To understanding personality and human relationship

Emphasizes peoples subjective understanding of their lives

That is, parents should accept and prize their children no matter how the children behave

Where things start out badly but transform for the better

Where things start out well, but then some person or event causes them to turn bad

Where an event or episode yields a deep insight into life

People's personal beliefs about how much control they have over their lives

They bring their own reward

Results from forces beyond their controls

Personal theories of how the world works

Persons characterized

The theory that the expression of personality can be explained by the interaction of environment, personal factors, and behavior itself

The tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking about difficult questions or problems

The theory that behavior is determined more by situations than by personality traits

Person/Situation debate:

• situation forces do indeed influence behavior
• Self-Monitoring: Involves being sensitive to cues of situational appropriateness

The theory that behavior is determined jointly by situation and underlying dispositions

Refers to stability

Stable over the personality, at different ages

focusing only on rank-ordering stability can hide changes in personality that many people experience at some stages of life

Increases self-control and emotional stability with age

Less neurotic, less extracted

Person-centered approaches to assessing personality that focus in individual lives and have various characteristic are integrated into the unique person

Approaches to assessing personality to focus on the variation in common characteristics from person to person

The personality test that examines tendencies and responses to certain stimuli

The tendency is particularity for traits that are highly valued in society

Blind spot

A knowledge structure that contains memories, beliefs, and generalizations about the self and that helps people efficiently perceive, organize, interpret, and uses information related to themselves

Larger idea

Encompassing all the information and beliefs we hold about who we are

Self-concepts that is available during immediate experience

values and beliefs expressed, beliefs on self

Self-esteem is a mechanism for mattering the likelihood of social exclusion

An internal mandatory of social acceptance or rejection

people with higher self-esteem are especially likely to exhibit these effect

Most people describe themselves as above average

Overly favorable and unrealistic beliefs

The tendency for people to evaluate their own actions, abilities, and beliefs by contrasting them with other people

Comparison to others

Feels good provide little information

Feels bad but it can provide information to improve

The tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure an external factors

Value independent success

Independent

Values harm any coherence with the group

Interdepends