PSY 301 1st Edition Lecture 13 Outline of Last Lecture I Attachment II Ainsworth III Attachment Patterns IV Consequences of Attachment V Parenting Types Outline of Current Lecture I Effect of Peers II Personality III Traits IV Personality Tests V Structured Test VI Unstructured Test Current Lecture Effects of peers 1 Real friendships seem to begin at 2 2 At 6 7 friendships seem to focus on gain 3 Gradually changes to an emphasis on mutual liking closeness and loyalty 4 By 9 kids see friendship in terms of caring for each other helping each other and sharing feelings 5 Having friend helps kids both immediately and in the long run Associated with social success in later life and a sense of self worth Children who are rejected and lonely and are at greater risk for antisocial behavior and adjustment difficulties later in life Personality Enduring patterns of thought feeling and behavior Two Goals o Describe the structure of personality o Study individual differences in personality Trait Theory personality is defined by a set of basic traits Trait A relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way Traits exist on a continuum o People fall at different points Traits should allow predictions about behavior in novel situations Traits should allow many behaviors to be summarized by the trait Traits great personal consistency over time o Behaviors that seem different may reflect the same underlying trait People tend to overestimate person constancy in others and in themselves Interaction between traits and situations determine behavior People behave consistently within but not between types of situations A division between high and low self monitors o High alter their behavior to appeal to people in specific situations o Low self monitors care less about how they appear to others and behave consistently across situations Personality Tests Tests to identify individual personality traits Two major types of tests o Structured objective personality Tests o Unstructured projective tests Structured objective personality tests Assess personality along several scales each of which measures a personality trait Hundreds of true false questions each of which assess a particular trait Score on each scale indicates the degree to which that trait characterizes the person The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests It was originally developed to identify emotional disorders MMPI consist of 10 scales which are evaluated together 1 hypochondria 2 depression 3 conversion hysteria 4 psychopathic deviance 5 masculine feminine 6 paranoia 7 neurosis 8 schizophrenia 9 hypomania 10 introversion Problem people may misrepresent themselves Handled by using validity scales 1 lying scale 2 bizarre scale Have low predictive validity 30 Unstructured projective personality tests A problem with structured personality tests someone who is lying to himself Unstructured tasks are designed to get past the person s own defenses The person is given an unstructured task The structure the person gives that task indicates unconscious issues Example test Thematic Apperception Test TAT o People express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes Example test Rorschach Inkblot Test o Uses a set of 10 inkblots to identify people s inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots Critics argue that projective tests lack both reliability consistency of results and validity predicting what it is supposed to 1 Trained raters come up with different interpretations reliability of the test for the same patient 2 Projective tests may misdiagnose a normal individual as pathological validity Traits can be classified by using adjectives language which may be organized in a hierarchical pattern Factor analysis sorts trait items into small dimensions Researchers have argued how many core factors exist Big Five 5 major personality traits each of which is expressed in a hierarchy of lower level traits 1 extraversion 2 agreeableness 3 conscientiousness 4 emotional stability neuroticism 5 openness to experience Describes personality in a wide range of cultures 1 Different cultures use different trait labels but they seem to describe the same qualities 2 But when people in other cultures are allowed to generate and organize personality traits the arrangement is not always the same as the Big 5 Problem descriptive but not explanatory Tells us what personality looks like but not why The personality system arises from a biological system Extraversion Extraverts have chronically under aroused nervous systems May have under reactive NT systems especially those relying on norepinephrine and dopamine Sensation seeking is characteristic of extraverts Introversion Introverts have chronically over aroused nervous systems Associated with inhibited temperament characterized by a fear of novelty Associated with an over reactive brain and attempts to compensate for it
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