The State/Trait Approach to Personality

1. Psychology 001Introduction to PsychologyChristopher Gade, PhDOffice: 621 HeafeyOffice hours: F 3-6 and by apt. Email: gadecj@gmail.com Class WF 7:00-8:30 Heafey 650

2. The State/Trait Approach to Personality • When defining personality, current psychologists often turn to traits. When they do this, they attempt to maintain a clear cut distinction between traits and states when describing people and behaviors. • Traits – a consistent, long-lasting tendency in behavior • Much more consistent over time • Less influenced by social cues (supposedly) • e.g. kindness, shyness, hostility, laziness • States – a temporary activation of a particular behavior • The result of social cues • Short-lived and slightly more influential while they are experienced • e.g. fear, excitation, sorrow, surprise

3. How many traits do we have? • The best answer for that question is… It depends • When defining a large group of individuals, the amount of personality traits that can be used to describe these people can range anywhere from 2 – ??? traits • When looking to predict a specific behavior, only one or two defining traits might be necessary to describe an individual

4. The Big 5 Model of Personality • When looking to determine the number of traits needed to define a person’s overall personality, past psychologists attempt to do this based on the premise of parsimony • Parsimony (AKA Occam’s Razor): Results should be explained through the most consistent and simplest conclusion that can be drawn in the context of the situation. • To do this, psychologists began looking for ways to describe personality in the most parsimonious fashion possible • How did they do it?

5. The Big 5 Model of Personality (cont.) • The dictionary… • Looked in dictionaries to find every word in the English language that related to personality • 18,000 words were found • Comparing words for synonyms and antonyms… • Similar to each other (e.g. nice and friendly) • Opposite of each other (e.g. nice and mean) • This search reduced the list down to 35 traits • Conducting “factor analyses” to see which remaining words/traits emerged… • Found the ones that overlapped with each other in response frequency • This reduction left us with a total of 5 personality traits… the big 5

6. What are the big 5? • (O)penness to experience – a tendency to enjoy new intellectual experiences and new ideas • (C)onscientiousness – a tendency to show self-discipline, to be dutiful, and to strive for achievement and competence • (E)xtraversion – a tendency to seek stimulation and to enjoy the company of others • (A)greeableness – a tendency to be compassionate toward others • (N)euroticism – a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions relatively easily

7. What are some shortcomings of “the big 5”? • Not always a good predictor of other cultures • Remember, this grouping was based on the English language • Modest supportive evidence has shown that the big five has some value in other cultures • Might have too few variables • Religiosity, to name one variable, might also be an important aspect of personality not covered in the big 5 • Might have too many variables • Some variables are modestly positively correlated (E with O), others arenegatively correlated (both E and O with N) • Might not be a good predictor of specific behaviors • Some behaviorsmight not be predicted by big 5 measures, others might just be better predicted by different, more specific personality traits

8. Where Do “The Big 5” and Other Personality Characteristics Come From? • We’ve looked at Freud, Jung, and some other theorists who presented less… scientific… ideas about personality. • What research based theories have we formed about where personality comes from?

9. Other Determinants of Personality • Genes!!! • Twin studies have shown us that genes have a large impact on our personality • However, specific genes have not been linked to specific personality characteristics (at least they haven’t been linked yet)

10. George Alexander Kelly • Like Freud, Rogers, Jung, etc, examined the whole person (through clinical experiences) • After clinical interactions, and observations of teacher biases in reports of student “laziness”, began to believe that “constructs” were the basis of personality • Constructs – personality structures, perceptions of behaviors and events, and other concepts of the environment that come from experience and are used to interpret/interact with the world • Note: he admitted that some things were less ambiguous (a tree is a tree) than others (attributions of human behaviors) • Argued that we are all scientists at heart, testing our environment in an attempt to try to understand, interpret, and predict the world around us

11. Applying Kelly’s Constructs • Constructs are usedmore when they are convenient to the situation • Range of convenience • Example, you’d consider your construct of extravert/introvert when you’re at a party, but you probably wouldn’t consider your construct of republican/democrat when you’re at the grocery store looking for a check out clerk • Core constructs – constructs that are often accessed and are difficult to change • Peripheral constructs – constructs that can easily be altered, and are not often accessed

12. Another Assessment: They’re all wrong! • Psychoanalysis and positive psychologists were too abstract and overemphasized unconscious • Continued development • Less unconscious reactions • Trait theorists are limited in their scope of applicability • What you do differently in situation A1 is as important as what you do across similar situations (A1, A2, A3, etc.) • Behaviorists don’t address the internal learning and thoughts that shape personality • Interpretation and planning • Kelly was close, but forgot to look at the impact of social factors on the individual • Roles, socially derived constructs

13. Social Cognition: Adding to Kelly • Individuals are still active engagers in their environment, trying to predict outcomes • However, in social-cognition we’re also modeling behavior based on our interpretations of the social environment • “Social learning” and “social cognition” • In essence, we’re interacting with our environment to obtain things that we learn to want, through techniques that we learn to use

14. Introducing the Theorists • Albert Bandura • Early work was in clinical side, focused on how learning was important • We learn from the environment to develop our personality (modeling) • Bobo doll experiments • And our interpretation of the situation by the individual

15. Introducing the Theorists • Walter Mischel • Student of George Kelly (cognitive approach) • Stressed the dynamics of the situation in personality • Expectations of results from behaviors • Interpretations of the situation • Bandura and Mischel focused on empirical research to guide their theories and explanations for behavior • Both played critical roles in the development of our focus in personality over the past few decades • Embraced other fields of psychology to address questions about personality

16. The Basic Components of Personality in the Social-Cognitive Approach • Competencies – the skill sets available to deal with social situations • Example: Introverts react shyly because of their set of skills that they possess to deal with social interactions • Context specificity – the notion that competencies are only appropriate for or applied in specific situations • Note how learning can change our competencies, and thus change our “personality”

17. More on Competencies • Responses can be learned through personal experience or vicarious experiences • Bandura’s monkey phobia experiment • Competencies can also be related to skills of inactivity and carry over • Mischel’s delay of gratification findings

18. Ways to Determine Personality • Observations • Delay of gratification video • Behavioral reports • Questionnaires/Interviews • Big Five Inventory • Peer/family ratings • Surveys • Therapy Sessions • Projective measures • Rorschach Inkblots • Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

19. Rorschach Inkblot Test