UC Berkeley Psych 150 Midterm #1 UPDATED ACTUAL
Questions and CORRECT Answers
What is personality? Characteristics of a person:
describe and explain consistent patterns of behaving, feeling, and thinking
What is the Big 5 Theory? OCEAN
O Openness, Originality, Open-Mindness
C Conscientiousness, Control, Constraint
E Extraversion, Energy, Enthusiasm
A Agreeableness, Altruism, Affection
N Neuroticism, Negative Affectivity, Nervousness
Why the Big 5? The biggest and broadest categories of personality
- hierarchical structure where the traits present themselves in other traits
Facets of O fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions (adventure), enjoying abstract ideas, liberal
values
Facets of C self-discipline, dutifulness, competence, order, deliberation, achievement striving
facets of E warmth/friendliness, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking,
positive emotions
facets of A trust, sincerity, altruism, compliance/cooperation, modesty, sympathy
facets of N anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness,
vulnerability
hard plaster hypothesis notion that after age 30, personality is stable and there is no room for changes
soft plaster hypothesis personality is changing until about 30 years old and after this age, personality can
still change, but not as rapidly as before
How stable is O over time? - personality change did not stop occurring
- both men and women go down, but it goes down faster in men than in women
How stable is C over time? - Both men and women increase at similar rates
- women are higher in C than men
, How stable is E over time? - women are higher in E
- Men are getting more extraverted, women are getting slightly less extraverted
How stable is A over time? - women are higher in A
- Both men and women are increasing in A over time
How stable is N over time? - women have higher N
- biggest gender difference
- men stay stable, women have a steep decline
Cross cultural effects on stability of personality - job role transitions affected the differences in age effects for the Big 5
- the younger the job transition, there were major differences in O, then C, N, E,
and A
What is false about aging? D: younger people experience more life satisfaction
A: older people have more difficulty remembering things
B: older people are better at regulating their emotions
C: younger people are more interested in traveling to
unknown places
D: younger people experience more life satisfaction
socioemotional selectivity theory (sst) the theory that people change their values as they get older that orient more
toward emotional goals and deeper more intimate bonds
- shift in cognition where positive memories are remembered more deeply and
memories shift toward positive experiences
- increase in positive emotions and complex emotions, decrease in negative
emotions
effect of the time horizon when people think they have less time to live, they prioritize sentimentality and
emotional bonds. when time constraints are alleviated, there is less of an impact
of age on emotional vs adventure driven goals
positivity effect - in the amygdala, there is less activation for negative stimuli in older people
- as people age, positive emotions are increasingly more common than negative
emotions
What Big 5 traits predict delinquency? Low A and Low C are the largest differences between delinquent and non-
delinquents
What Big 5 traits predict criminal behavior? predicted by Low A, Low C, High E, High N
- traits contribute to the "psychopathic personality"
What Big 5 traits predict academic achievement? - High C and High O
Questions and CORRECT Answers
What is personality? Characteristics of a person:
describe and explain consistent patterns of behaving, feeling, and thinking
What is the Big 5 Theory? OCEAN
O Openness, Originality, Open-Mindness
C Conscientiousness, Control, Constraint
E Extraversion, Energy, Enthusiasm
A Agreeableness, Altruism, Affection
N Neuroticism, Negative Affectivity, Nervousness
Why the Big 5? The biggest and broadest categories of personality
- hierarchical structure where the traits present themselves in other traits
Facets of O fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions (adventure), enjoying abstract ideas, liberal
values
Facets of C self-discipline, dutifulness, competence, order, deliberation, achievement striving
facets of E warmth/friendliness, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking,
positive emotions
facets of A trust, sincerity, altruism, compliance/cooperation, modesty, sympathy
facets of N anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness,
vulnerability
hard plaster hypothesis notion that after age 30, personality is stable and there is no room for changes
soft plaster hypothesis personality is changing until about 30 years old and after this age, personality can
still change, but not as rapidly as before
How stable is O over time? - personality change did not stop occurring
- both men and women go down, but it goes down faster in men than in women
How stable is C over time? - Both men and women increase at similar rates
- women are higher in C than men
, How stable is E over time? - women are higher in E
- Men are getting more extraverted, women are getting slightly less extraverted
How stable is A over time? - women are higher in A
- Both men and women are increasing in A over time
How stable is N over time? - women have higher N
- biggest gender difference
- men stay stable, women have a steep decline
Cross cultural effects on stability of personality - job role transitions affected the differences in age effects for the Big 5
- the younger the job transition, there were major differences in O, then C, N, E,
and A
What is false about aging? D: younger people experience more life satisfaction
A: older people have more difficulty remembering things
B: older people are better at regulating their emotions
C: younger people are more interested in traveling to
unknown places
D: younger people experience more life satisfaction
socioemotional selectivity theory (sst) the theory that people change their values as they get older that orient more
toward emotional goals and deeper more intimate bonds
- shift in cognition where positive memories are remembered more deeply and
memories shift toward positive experiences
- increase in positive emotions and complex emotions, decrease in negative
emotions
effect of the time horizon when people think they have less time to live, they prioritize sentimentality and
emotional bonds. when time constraints are alleviated, there is less of an impact
of age on emotional vs adventure driven goals
positivity effect - in the amygdala, there is less activation for negative stimuli in older people
- as people age, positive emotions are increasingly more common than negative
emotions
What Big 5 traits predict delinquency? Low A and Low C are the largest differences between delinquent and non-
delinquents
What Big 5 traits predict criminal behavior? predicted by Low A, Low C, High E, High N
- traits contribute to the "psychopathic personality"
What Big 5 traits predict academic achievement? - High C and High O
