PSYCH 220 TEST 1

the set of psychological traits and mechanisms within the individual that is organized and relatively enduring and that influences his/her interactions with, and adaptations to, the environment

• - thinking
• - feeling
• - behavior

traits and mechanisms of the personality that are typical of our species and possessed by everyone

- how we are "like others"

individual differences refer to ways in which each person is like some other people

group differences refer to ways in which people of one group differ from people of another group

- how we are like "some others"

refers to the fact that every individual has personal and unique qualities not shared by any other person in the world

- how we are like "no others"

specialty area of science and scholarship, where psychologists have focused on

• - dispositional
• - biological
• - intrapsychic
• - cognitive-experiential
• - social and culture
• - adjustment

deals with ways in which individuals differ from one another and, therefore, cuts across all other domains

- focuses on number and nature of fundamental dispositions

core assumption approaches to personality is that humans are collections of biological systems

these systems provide the building blocks for behavior, thought, and emotion

deals with the mental mechanisms of personality, many of which operate outside conscious awareness

focuses on cognition and subjective experience, such as conscious thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and desires about oneself and others

assumption that personality affects, and is affected by, cultural and social contexts

- looking at the human lvl of analysis, all human beings have a common set of concerns to their social contexts

- by nature we are social beings; isolation can lead to other things

personality plays a key role in how we cope, adapt, and adjust to events in our daily lives

- personality linked with important health outcomes and problems in coping adjustment

information provided by a person through an interview or survey

- individuals have access to a wealth of information about themselves that is inaccessible to anyone else

• - people may not respond honestly
• - people may lack accurate self-knowledge

information provided by someone else about another person

provides access to info not accessible through other sources; multiple ovservers ca nbe used to assess a person

observers witness and record events that occur in the normal course of participants lives

occurs in artificial settings or situations

information provided by standardized tests or testing situations to see if different people behave differently in identical situations

- designed to elicit behaviors that are "scored" and serve as indicators of personality

• - participants often try and guess what trait is being measured and then alter their behavior to create certain impressions
• - difficult to know if participants define testing situation as intended by experiment
• - researcher might influence how participants behave

includes information about a person's level of arousal, reactivity to stimuli as potential indicators of personality

information that can be gleaned from events, activities, and outcomes in a person's life that are available for public scrutiny (ex. marriage, speeding tickets)

can serve as important source of "real life" information about personality

face-to-face encounter; goal is to gather detailed information concerning a person's problems, feelings, lifestyle, relationships, and other relevent personal history

uses both clinical observations and standard questions to quickly assess gross cognitive functioning

the use of recognizing "red flags"

category of testing in which the person is presented with ambiguous stimuli and asked to describe what he/she sees

how they respond reflects how the patient reacts to ambiguity in their lives

ex. Rorschach inkblot test

pictoral projective test with 30 black-and-white pictures of individuals in vague situation in which the individual is asked to make up a dramatic story about

- people identify with one of the characters and project their own circumstances, needs, emotions, and sense of reality/fantasy into the story

pictures of trees, houses, and such are asked to be drawn by the patient, conclusions drawn from how the picture was drawn

465 true or false questions that try to catch the patient if he/she is lying

often used in courtroom cases (ex. custody cases)

individuals carry their desires, needs, and wants from one situation to the next

these desires and needs explain the behavior of individuals who posses them

traits only describe the attributes of a person; no assumption about internality or causality

all important differences have become encoated in natural language

• - more synonyms a trait has - more important in that language
• - looks at which core traits appear in other languages; if in that language, then it is a core describer of personality
• - can be used to identify which personality traits are similar

provides a means for determining which personality traits share some property of belong within the same group

useful in reducing the large array of diverse traits into a smaller, more useful set of underlying factors

index of how much of a variation in an item is "explained" by a factor

• personality is organized hierarchically; the broadest level of the hierarchy, an individual's personality, can be described in terms of 3 "types":- extraversion- neuroticism- psychoticism

high scorers tend to like parties, have many friends, require people around to talk to, display carefree and easy manner, and have a high activity level

high scorers are worriers, anxious, depressed, have trouble sleeping, experience an array of psychosomatic symptoms, and over-react to negative emotions

high scorers are solitary, lack empathy, often cruel and inhumane, insensitive to the pain and suffering of others, aggressive, penchant for strange and unusual, impulsive, antisocial

scores 16 personality "factors" on two ends of a spectrum

• - openness
• - conscientiousness
• - extraversion
• - agreeableness
• - neuroticism

curious, original, intellectual, creative, open to new ideas

organized, systematic, punctual, achievement oriented, dependable

outgoing, talkative, sociable, enjoys being in social situations

affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting, king, warm

emotional stability; anxious, irritable, tempermental, moody

identifying individual differences based on traits

• 1. There are meaningful, individual differences among people's personality traits
• 2. Personality traits remain relatively stable and consistent over time
• 3. Personality traits remain relatively stable and consistent across situations

people differ in amounts of traits; differences can be accurately measured

every personality is the product of a combination of a few basic, primary traits

degree of the trait affects the life of the individual

although consistent over time, how a trait is manifested in behavior may change over time

attitudes and personality traits are not the same; attitudes easily influenced and changed by persuasion

if situations control how people behave, then the existence or relevance of traits is questionable

Mischel - focus on situation factors and abandon explaining behavior with traits

situation in which most people react in a similar way that demands the individual to act in a particular maner

ex. work, grief following the loss of a loved one

situation that is more ambiguous; less demands, allowing for a broader range of behavior

personality has the strongest influence here

ex. party, perception of Rorschach inkblots