Personality (Chapter 13)

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Personality (Chapter 13)

• Second Lecture Outline
• Traits
• MMPI
• Social-Cognitive approaches

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How would you describe your personality to
someone?

• Please write down two traits you are high and low
  on

How would your roommate (or friends) personality
to someone?
Please write down two more traits
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Trait theory

• Nomothetic methods Everyone has a set of common
  traits they can be judged on
• Trait A consistent attribute that characterizes
  what a person is like
• Surface vs. Source traits 16 PF
• Empirical approach of factor analysis Grouping
  similar behaviors or surface traits to determine
  source traits

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I am worthless
I am sad
I feel guilty
I have trouble sleeping
My energy is gone
Depression
Sex doesnt matter
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Objective Tests of Personality

• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (MMPI-2)
• 550 T/F items
• 3 validity scales (L, K, F)
• 10 clinical scales
• You add up items within a scale, and then compare
  them to a normative sample of repsonses
• Compare score Are you significantly high or
  low, or somewhere in the middle average range

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Validity Scales

• Lie scale Are they paying attention
• Examples
• I breathe every day.
• I have never brushed my teeth.
• Sometimes I have seen a truck
• There is blood flowing out of my ears

• Social desirability Do they want to be seen
  favourably
• Examples
• I read the newspaper editorials every day
• I always give to charities
• I like everyone I know
• I never lie

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Normal curve of personality trait scores
T-scores
20 30 40 50 60 70 80
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MMPI Personality profiles
Hysteria Depression Hypochondriasis Psychopathy An
drogeny Paranoia Psychasthenia Schizophrenia Mania

80 70 60 50 40 30 20
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A small number of constructs

• Eysenck Three constructs dominate
• Extroversion Social, gregarious
• Neuroticism Moody, irritable
• Psychoticism Uncaring, detached
• Big Five
• Neuroticism
• Extroversion vs. Introversion
• Openness Imaginative, curious
• Agreeableness Good-natured, friendly
• Conscientiousness Hard-working, reliable
• There are many self-report questionnaires

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Other traits

• Sensation-seeking Thrill seeking, sexually
  adventuresome, exotic foods, drug/alcohol use,
  addictive personality
• Climb a mountain, eat jalapenos, drink vodka,
  play poker, and have an orgy
• Self-esteem Personal worth is a component of
  personality
• Cognitive style Can you see multiple
  perspectives? This helps with coping

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Heritability

• Temperament has continuity with adult personality
• Reactivity/ emotional regulation seems somewhat
  stable
• Heritability is only .40, however, and
  environment has a large influence on personality
  development (traumas, success)
• Family surprisingly not very important

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Social-Cognitive Approaches

• Skinner Personality shaped by reinforcement
  history
• Rotter Meaning is given to environmental events
• Social learning is important to personality
• Internal vs. external locus of control
• Bandura Personality X environment
• school motivation, parent reinforcement, go to
  college, achieve in work world

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Schemas

• Self-schemas Cognitive frameworks or knowledge
  about self serve as personality framework What
  are you?
• Elaborate self-schemas is related to
  introspectiveness and private self-consciousness
• Overly elaborate self-schemas could reflect
  narcissism or ruminative self-absorbed anxiety

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Personal Constructs Kelly

• Personanality can be viewed in bipolar constructs
• On what dimensions do you judge people?
• Happy vs. Sad
• Socially entertaining vs. wet blanket
• Trustworthy vs. Liar
• People create their own dimensions to view the
  world Idiographic methods

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Cultural Influences
Collectivist
Individualistic
Group harmony is more important than individual
Self, individual rights are most important