Funder Chapter 4 on personality psychology s Trait Approach Main assumption key individuals differ in their characteristics patterns of thought feelings and behavior These are called personality traits Thoughts evil deceptive wants to steal the pack Thoughts analytical anxiety driven eye for evil Feelings selfish wanting Feelings skeptical Behaviors manipulative lying to pack kills without cause Behaviors loyal lies to father to protect sarcasm Personality Traits Main controversy involved in the personality situation debate which is more likely to predict what a person will do or how they will behave Personality traits or situation s How do I BEHAVE Mischel 1968 This researcher has brought out a very notable evidence for the situationist side of the debate People are inconsistent People are inconsistent in their behavior from one context situation to the next Relationships with individuals in certain situations could influence a person s behavior expectations in a situations Ex Mischel s desk at the office vs Mischel s bedroom Yo Mischel are you highly conscientious or nah Person situation debate Situationist viewpoint 1 the ability of traits to predict behavior is extremely limited Hello my name madam Traitsy Tracey Ooh the crystal ball says you are a calm person Limited point of view here the crystal ball of traits might need some Windex 2 that situations are therefore more important than personality traits for determining what people do and they think of it like this the way you behave and act in school at work at home is more important than the characteristics you would describe yourself as like loyal open agreeable conscious 3 The situationist believe that personality assessments the measurement of traits on a quantitate level is a waste of time but also many of people s intuitions judgements about each other are basically wrong Dis what happens when a situationist psy Professor Grades a student who favors the trait approach tests Scott stinks at judging someone s character Thought Theo was a nice guy didn t see Theo trying to get him out of the way till the last episode Hindsight is always the best I guess The large number of personality trait terms supports the importance of traits as a useful way to predict behavior and understand personality Ex wacky example Zodiac signs Just go with it imagine Through these observed behaviors by personality trait researchers we can predict underlying traits A wide ranging survey of the research literature shows that personality traits affect important life outcomes including health longevity and interpersonal and career success EX think of a friend doesn t have to be your best friend describe a personality trait of your judgement and then go through listing what outcomes would be associated with such a trait term Charlotte is a friend of mine EXTREMELY extroverted and bubbly Going to live in a nice neighborhood with a puppy and no criminal record never seriously ill is going to outlive us all has the sweetest boyfriend going to become a CEO of a business corporation Elizabeth is another friend of mine she is quite neurotic Has a criminal record has mental disorders probably going to do something reckless and end up dying soon has had a lot of boyfriend and girlfriends but nothing lasting is not working toward a degree or job beyond gas station cashier Objective test A personality test the consists of a list of questions to be answered by the subject as true or false yes or no or along a numeric scale Dude I m just an OBJECT that sits in your room IAT would be a type of objective test YES OR NO TEDDY ARE YOU RELATED TO TEDDY GRAHAMS Click Click Projective Test presents person with an ambiguous stimulus and asks them to describe what they see B data interruptions of statements Answers are thought to reveal inner psychological states motivations needs feelings experiences or thought processes clinical psychologists use RORSCHACH INKBLOT METHOD 1921 Peaceful person Adventurous Analytical THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST TAT 1935 Are you good at story telling Because that is basically what TAT projective test are about Arthur where are you going we re only halfway through season 1 When you said Netflix and chill I thought you meant something else I m outta here