Revision, Personality lecture 1

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What is an implicit personality theory?
Intuitively based theories of human behaviour that we construct to help us understand ourselves and others
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What is an issue with implicit theories?
They are based on casual and non-random observations of individuals.
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What bias do implicit theories suffer from?
Confirmation bias
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What affect does implicit personality theories have on reality?
It distorts reality
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What is an example of an implicit personality theory in action?
The pairing of two characteristics, the halo effect
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How is the pairing of two characteristics an example of implicit personality theories in action?
Because when two characteristics are associated people tend to assume they occur together when it might not be true, For example, leaders are dominant, friendly people are kind.
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How is the halo effect an example of implicit theories in action?
It is a tendency to allow an overall impression of a person or one particular outstanding trait to influence the total rating of that person.
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Who came up with the Halo effect?
Thorndike (1920)
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Who came up with this definition of the Halo effect? "It is a tendency to allow an overall impression of a person or one particular outstanding trait to influence the total rating of that person."
Reber (1995)
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Who did a study on the Halo effect?
Nisbett and Wilson (1997)
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How many people were in Nisbett and Wilson's (1997) study on the halo effect and who were they?
118 students
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What were the participants shown in Nisbett and Wilson's (1997) study on the halo effect?
A video of a warm, engaging, likeable teacher or a cold, aloof, unsympathetic teacher
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What was the difference between the people shown in Nisbett & Wilson's (1977) study on the halo effect?
There was none, it was the same man in both videos
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What did the participants rate in the Nisbett + Wilson (1977) study on the halo effect?
The person in the videos appearance, mannerism and accent
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What were the results of the Nisbett + Wilson (1977) study in regards to physical appearance?
The warm teacher was rated has having a more appealing physical appearance than the cold teacher and the cold teacher had a more irritating physical appearance.
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What were the results of Nisbett + Wilson (1977) study in regard to mannerisms?
The warm teacher was rated as having slightly more appealing mannerisms than the cold teacher. The cold teacher was rated as having a slightly more irritating mannerisms.
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What were the results of Nisbett + Wilson (1977) study in regard to accent?
The warm teacher was rated as having a slightly more irritating than appealing accent, however it was more appealing than the cold teachers accent. The cold teacher had a more irritating accent than the warm teacher.
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In Nisbett and Wilson's (1977) study on the halo effect what were the results?
The warm teacher was rated has having a more appealing physical appearance, accident and mannerisms.
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What are lay people?
People who are influenced by physical appearance, they are evaluative and judgemental and are more informal and less scientific.
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How do psychologists look/define at personality?
They focus on individual, psychological differences, what makes you "you". They emphasise characteristics that can usefully and reliably distinguish between individuals.
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What is Allport's (1961) definition of personality?
It is "A dynamic organisation, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create the person's characteristic patterns of behaviour, thoughts and feelings"
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What are the aims of studying personality?
Motivational basis of behaviour, basic nature of human beings, provide descriptions or categorisations of how individuals behave, measuring personality, developmental theories, heritability vs environment, understanding mental illness and abnormal be
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If the aim of studying personality is: motivational basis of behaviour, what is an example research question?
Why do we do the things we do?
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If the aim of studying personality is: Basic nature of human beings , what is an example research question?
Are we inherently good or bad?
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If the aim of studying personality is: Provide descriptions or categorisations of how individuals behave, what is an example research question?
What does curiosity look lie?
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If the aim of studying personality is: measuring personality, what is an example research question?
How can we measure those aspects that distinguish you from me?
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If the aim of studying personality is: developmental theories, what is an example research question?
How did you become who you are today?
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If the aim of studying personality is: heritability vs enviornment, what is an example research question?
Can we become smarter or are we constrained by our genes?
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If the aim of studying personality is: Understanding mental illness and abnormal behaviour what is an example research question?
How can we help people suffering with depression?
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What does the Latin word "persona" mean?
Mask
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Who popularised the term personality?
Allport in a 1937 puplication
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Where did the term personality come from?
The latin word "persona"
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What was personality previously referred to?
A persons "characteristics" or "temperament"
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What do psychometricians refer to when talking about personality?
A persons "individual differences"
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What are the two approaches to studying personality?
Idiographic and Nomothetic
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What is the strategy of the idiographic approach to studying personality?
Emphasises the uniqueness of individuals
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What is the strategy of the Nomothetic approach to studying personality?
Focuses on similarities between groups of individuals. Individuals are unique only in the way their traits combine.
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What is the goal of the Nomothetic approach to studying personality?
To identify the basic structure of personality and the minimum number of traits required to describe personality universally.
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What is the goal of the idiographic approach to studying personality?
To develop an in-depth understanding of the individual
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What is the Research Methodology of the idiographic approach to studying personality?
Qualitative methodologies to produce case studies mainly. Some generalisation across series of case studies is possible
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What is the Research Methodology of the Nomothetic approach to studying personality?
Quantitative methods to: explore the structure of personality, produce measures of personality, explore the relationships between variables across groups
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How is Data collection done in the Nomothetic approach to studying personality?
Self-report personality questionnaires
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ow is Data collection done in the Idiographic approach to studying personality?
Interviews, diaries, narratives, treatment, session data
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What are the advantages of the Nomothetic approach to studying personality?
Discovery of general principles that have a predictive function
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What are the advantages of the Idiographic approach to studying personality?
Depth of understanding the individual
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What are the disadvantages of the Nomothetic approach to studying personality?
Can lead to a fairly superficial understanding of any one person. Training is needed to analyse personality profiles accurately
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What are the disadvantages of the Idiographic approach to studying personality?
Can be difficult to make generalisations from the data
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What is the population norm?
The mean score that particular groups of individuals score an a specific test
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How is the Idiographic approach related to the Nomothetic approach?
In order to describe someone's characteristics in comparison to what is normal we need to measure that trait in specific populations in order to get the norm (Nomothetic approach)
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What are the three assertions in personality research?
Personality is 1) enduring, 2) relatively stable 3), some traits are seen as more important than others.
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What is the acronym for the Big Five personality traits?
OCEAN
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What does OCEAN stand for?
Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticisim
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What are the Big 5 personality traits?
Neuroticism. Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience, Agreeableness
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What are the two hypothesises relating to personality being enduring and relatively stable?
The Hard plaster hypothesis and the soft plaster hyptohesis
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What is the hard plaster hypothesis?
A biological personality hypothesis. Says personality traits stop changing by 30
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Who did a study into personality being enduring and relatively stable?
Srivastava et al., (2003)
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What was Srivastava et al's (2003) study?
Looking into if personality is enduring and relatively stable. Compared rates of change in the big 5 between different age groups in a large sample of 132,515 participants.
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What were the results of Srivastava et al's (2003) study?
There was no support for hard plaster hypothesis, but some support for the soft plaster hypothesis.
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What support for the soft plaster hypothesis did Srivastava et al's (2003) study find in relation to differences between age groups?
Conscientiousness increased, Agreeableness increased, Neuroticisim declined for women, openness showed a small decline, extraversion declined for women
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What support for the soft plaster hypothesis did Srivastava et al's (2003) study find in regards to conscientiousness when looking at differences between age groups?
That it increased, most strongly during the 20s. Showing personality is varied
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What support for the soft plaster hypothesis did Srivastava et al's (2003) study find in regards to agreeableness when looking at differences between age groups?
It increased the most during the 30s. Showing personality is varied
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What support for the soft plaster hypothesis did Srivastava et al's (2003) study find in regards to Neuroticism when looking at differences between age groups?
That it declined with age for women but not for men, shows that some parts of personality is varied for some genders (slight support for soft plaster)
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What support for the soft plaster hypothesis did Srivastava et al's (2003) study find in regards to Openness when looking at differences between age groups?
That it showed small declines with age, showing personality varies
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What support for the soft plaster hypothesis did Srivastava et al's (2003) study find in regards to extraversion when looking at differences between age groups?
That it declined with age for women but not for men, shows that some parts of personality is varied for some genders (slight support for soft plaster)
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What is a seen aspect of personality?
Behaviours and affect
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What is an unseen aspect of personality?
Thoughts, memories and dreams
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What things are at an unconscious level?
Violent motives, immoral urges, selfish needs, irrational wishes, fears, unacceptable sexual desires, shameful experiences
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What things are at a preconscious level?
Memories, stored knowledge
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What things are at a conscious level?
Thoughts, perceptions
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What did Freud say about our personality?
We have conscious, preconscious and unconscious
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What is the public persona/person?
Behaviour people can observe
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What is the private persona/person?
Who you are inside
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If people behave differently in different situations does this mean personality is irrelevant?
No
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Who came up with the situationist perspective on the person-situation ?
Walter Mischel (1968)
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What is the situationist perspective (Walter Mischel (1968) on the person-situation controversy?
That behaviour is the product of our environment (externally determined)
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What is the personality theorists perspective on the person-situation controversy ?
That behaviour is the product of our traits (internally determined)
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What is the solution to the person-situation controversy?
The interactionism approach, both personality and situations govern behaviour)
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What is an application of personality tests?
They are used to determine eligibility for careers.
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What should personality tests do?
Be reliable and valid (fit for purpose), consistently measure what they are designed to do.
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What are the two approaches to personality theorising?
Clinical and individual differences
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How was the clinical approach of personality theorising developed?
It was developed from studies of the mentally ill
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How was the individual differences approach of personality theorising developed?
It was developed by initially focusing on documenting differences, which then led to the statistical analyses on individual differences
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What approach to personality theorising did Franz Mesmer have?
Clinical
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Who came up with Animal magnetism?
Franz Mesmer
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What is animal magnetism?
The idea that an invisible natural force can be used to heal mental illness
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What did Mesmer say about animal magnetism?
People had a magnetic flow in their body and when it was blocked it caused issues, so applying magnets helped
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How does Mesmer's animal magnetism link to personality theorising?
It explains how people have abnormal personalities (mental illnesses)
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What is psychoanalysis?
Mental disorders are treated by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements through techniques such as dream interpretation
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What was Freud's clinical approach to studying personality?
Psychoanalysis
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What is the individual difference approach to personality theorising?
Personality is related to the different size and shapes of different parts of someone's brain, which then in-turn affects the shape and size of their head
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According to the individual difference approach to personality theorising, what does a good nose show?
That the person has an inferiority complex and suitable individuality
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According to the individual difference approach to personality theorising, what does a pointed nose show?
That the person has a good personality and is a good imitator
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According to the individual difference approach to personality theorising, what does a feminine nose show?
That the person has a strong character and great will power
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According to the individual difference approach to personality theorising, what does a manly nose show?
That the person has a strong character and is good at observing
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What is the lexical hypothesis?
That the personality characteristics that are the most important in people's lives will become part of their language
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What are the 8 things used in a critical evaluation?
Description, explanation, empirical validity, testable concepts, comprehensiveness, parsimony, heuristic value and applied value.
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the description criteria what should a personality theory do?
Bring order to the complexity of observed behaviours by simplifying, identifying and clarifying the important issues that need to be addressed.
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the explanation criteria what should a personality theory do?
By helping us to understand the how and why of individual differences in observed behaviours
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the empirical validity criteria what should a personality theory do?
Generate predictions so that it can be tested
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the testable concepts criteria what should a personality theory do?
Contain constructs that can be operationalised (i.e., defined precisely enough to be measured)
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the comprehensiveness criteria what should a personality theory do?
Be broad enough in scope to account for a wide variety of human behaviour
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the parsimony criteria what should a personality theory do?
Contain only concepts that are relevant to the phenomena being studied
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the heuristic value criteria what should a personality theory do?
Stimulate interest and research, although not because it is of such poor quality that researchers are keen to refute it
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When being critically evaluated in order to fulfil the applied value criteria what should a personality theory do?
Demonstrate pratical use in the "real world", either through knowledge gains, development of new methodologies or beneficial changes for society.
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What are 2 other evaluation points we must consider when critically evaluating personality theories?
1) We must consider assertions within a theory, as well as the theory in it's entirety 2) What is the theory's philosophical view of human nature?
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What are 2 other evaluation points we must consider when critically evaluating personality theories?
1) Does the theory state that behaviour is internally or externally determined? 2) How well does the theory deal with the past, present and future behaviour?
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What is 1 other evaluation points we must consider when critically evaluating personality theories?
1) Can the theory cope with inconsistencies in behaviour within individuals?
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What is an issue with implicit theories?

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They are based on casual and non-random observations of individuals.

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What bias do implicit theories suffer from?

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What affect does implicit personality theories have on reality?

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What is an example of an implicit personality theory in action?

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