1 introduction
what personality psychs study:
- universal approach → human nature
o neoclassical economic model
o behaviorism
▪ tabula rasa: ppl are born with a blank slate
o evolutionary psychology
- nomothetic approach → individual/group variation
o how ppl are like other ppl
- idiographic approach → individual uniqueness
o how ppl are not like other ppl
personality: differences among individuals in a typical tendency to behave/think/feel in some
conceptually related ways, across a variety of relevant situations and across a fairly long
period of time
- general, enduring, non-intellectual psychological individual difference
ABC in psych:
- affect: emotional/subjective experience of an individual
o shapes behavior and cognition
o influences how someone responds to stimuli, makes decisions, and interacts with their
environment
- behavior: observable (re)actions or responses of an individual
o influenced by cognition and affect, as well as by external factors
- cognition: mental processes involved in acquiring/processing/storing/using info
o interpretation/understanding of info, which in turn influences affect and behavior
individual differences
- physical (= height, attractiveness)
- psychological
o intellectual (= knowledge, mental skills/abilities)
o non-intellectual
▪ fleeting (= emotions, feelings)
▪ enduring
• specific (= habits, attitudes)
• general (= interests, values) → personality
does personality exist?
Hartshorne & May (1928): children observed in different situations in which (lack of) ‘moral
character’ could be displayed:
- keeping money vs giving it to charity
- stealing money from a puzzle-box
- cheating on various contests
1
, Mischel (1968): very weak relations (r ≤ .20) between an individual’s behavior in one situation and an
individual’s behavior in another situation
Mischel & Peake (1982): cross-situational consistency of conscientiousness
- class attendance; completion of class readings; thoroughness class notes; punctuality
assignment; neatness assignment; neatness room; neatness personal appearance
- low average correlation (r ≈ .13) of 19 behaviors.
- conclusions:
o there is no consistency in a person’s conscientious behavior in different situations
(i.e., no ‘cross-situational consistency’)
o conscientiousness must depend on the situation
o personality does not (or barely) exist
Jackson & Paunonen (1985): divided these 19 behaviors into 2 sets of behaviors
- created a score for everyone on the two behavior sets (aggregation)
- high correlation between the two sets of behaviors: r ≈ .50
- conclusion:
o based on a single behavior, another single behavior is difficult to predict, but based
on a number of behaviors, it’s possible to predict how someone behaves on average
in a number of other situations
Asch and Milgram experiments: participants may conform to group or authority pressure
- Asch experiment according to personality psychs:
o situation in which diff in conformism are expressed
- Milgram experiment according to personality psychs:
o diff between expressions of agreeableness and conscientiousness
trait activation: a personality trait is only expressed in trait-relevant situations
are situations independent of personality traits?
- situation selection: seeking out situations known to elicit certain emotions/behaviors
- situation evocation: emotional/behavioral/cognitive responses evoked by a situation
strategies for inventory construction:
- empirical strategy: uses observation and experimentation
- factor-analytical strategy: simplifying complexity of large pool of variables
- rational strategy: relies on logical reasoning and existing knowledge
o more valid than empirical method
correlation to views of one’s personality
- high level of self-observer agreement of personality among highly acquainted people (r ≈ .60)
- videotaped behaviors that is rated by research assistants (direct observations)
o r ≈ .20 - .30 with self-ratings
o r ≈ .30 - .40 with acquaintances ratings
- biases in self- and observer ratings small when personality tests are properly constructed
2
,2 personality structure
‘old’ personality structures
- the four humors:
o sanguine (outgoing/sociable)
o phlegmatic (calm/composed/peaceful)
o choleric (quick-tempered/irritable/ambitious)
o melancholic (sad/introverted/reflective)
- three somatoform types:
o ectomorph: thin, fragile structure
▪ introverted, self-conscious, analytical
o mesomorph: muscular, athletic structure
▪ outgoing, confident, risk-taker
o endomorph: round, soft structure
▪ sociable, relaxed, friendly
- Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): 16 types
o extraversion vs introversion
o sensing vs intuition
o thinking vs feeling
o judging vs perceiving
how do you determine the number of constructs used to describe personality?
Goldberg (1981): lexical approach
- individual differences important in human interactions encoded in language
- the more important individual difference is, the more languages have one/more words for it
- sufficiently encompassing dictionaries of a language provide a repository of words related to
individual differences
Francis Galton (1884):
- “I tried to gain an idea of the number of the more conspicuous aspects of the character by
counting in an appropriate dictionary the words used to express them”
- “it may seem hopeless to deal accurately with so vague and wide a subject”
- but which words?
o nouns
o adjectives
o verbs
3
, Allport & Odbert (1936): first selection adjectives
- Webster’s 1925 ‘new international dictionary’ contained approximately 400.000 words of
which 4,5% personality characteristics = 17.953 adjectives
- but adjectives that described the following were removed:
o physical appearance (tall, fat)
o intellectual capacities (capable, intelligent)
o temporary moods (hurt, surprised)
o strong judgement (abnormal, bad)
manageable lists of adjectives:
Cattell (1947):
- used 35 adjectives to make sure the factor-analysis calculations wouldn’t be too complex and
time-consuming
Goldberg (1982, 1990):
- adjectives describing stable traits: 3.584
- 1.710 out of these ‘common’ words used in study
-
Brokken (1978):
- 1.203 adjectives
- 551 used in Dutch follow-up study (Hofstee & De Raad, 1991)
-
factor analysis
- large pool of items
- group according to correlation coefficients
Big Five: 5 personality structures
- openness
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
HEXACO: maximum of 6 ‘cross-culturally replicable’ dimensions of personality
- honesty-humility
- emotionality
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
- openness to experience
4
what personality psychs study:
- universal approach → human nature
o neoclassical economic model
o behaviorism
▪ tabula rasa: ppl are born with a blank slate
o evolutionary psychology
- nomothetic approach → individual/group variation
o how ppl are like other ppl
- idiographic approach → individual uniqueness
o how ppl are not like other ppl
personality: differences among individuals in a typical tendency to behave/think/feel in some
conceptually related ways, across a variety of relevant situations and across a fairly long
period of time
- general, enduring, non-intellectual psychological individual difference
ABC in psych:
- affect: emotional/subjective experience of an individual
o shapes behavior and cognition
o influences how someone responds to stimuli, makes decisions, and interacts with their
environment
- behavior: observable (re)actions or responses of an individual
o influenced by cognition and affect, as well as by external factors
- cognition: mental processes involved in acquiring/processing/storing/using info
o interpretation/understanding of info, which in turn influences affect and behavior
individual differences
- physical (= height, attractiveness)
- psychological
o intellectual (= knowledge, mental skills/abilities)
o non-intellectual
▪ fleeting (= emotions, feelings)
▪ enduring
• specific (= habits, attitudes)
• general (= interests, values) → personality
does personality exist?
Hartshorne & May (1928): children observed in different situations in which (lack of) ‘moral
character’ could be displayed:
- keeping money vs giving it to charity
- stealing money from a puzzle-box
- cheating on various contests
1
, Mischel (1968): very weak relations (r ≤ .20) between an individual’s behavior in one situation and an
individual’s behavior in another situation
Mischel & Peake (1982): cross-situational consistency of conscientiousness
- class attendance; completion of class readings; thoroughness class notes; punctuality
assignment; neatness assignment; neatness room; neatness personal appearance
- low average correlation (r ≈ .13) of 19 behaviors.
- conclusions:
o there is no consistency in a person’s conscientious behavior in different situations
(i.e., no ‘cross-situational consistency’)
o conscientiousness must depend on the situation
o personality does not (or barely) exist
Jackson & Paunonen (1985): divided these 19 behaviors into 2 sets of behaviors
- created a score for everyone on the two behavior sets (aggregation)
- high correlation between the two sets of behaviors: r ≈ .50
- conclusion:
o based on a single behavior, another single behavior is difficult to predict, but based
on a number of behaviors, it’s possible to predict how someone behaves on average
in a number of other situations
Asch and Milgram experiments: participants may conform to group or authority pressure
- Asch experiment according to personality psychs:
o situation in which diff in conformism are expressed
- Milgram experiment according to personality psychs:
o diff between expressions of agreeableness and conscientiousness
trait activation: a personality trait is only expressed in trait-relevant situations
are situations independent of personality traits?
- situation selection: seeking out situations known to elicit certain emotions/behaviors
- situation evocation: emotional/behavioral/cognitive responses evoked by a situation
strategies for inventory construction:
- empirical strategy: uses observation and experimentation
- factor-analytical strategy: simplifying complexity of large pool of variables
- rational strategy: relies on logical reasoning and existing knowledge
o more valid than empirical method
correlation to views of one’s personality
- high level of self-observer agreement of personality among highly acquainted people (r ≈ .60)
- videotaped behaviors that is rated by research assistants (direct observations)
o r ≈ .20 - .30 with self-ratings
o r ≈ .30 - .40 with acquaintances ratings
- biases in self- and observer ratings small when personality tests are properly constructed
2
,2 personality structure
‘old’ personality structures
- the four humors:
o sanguine (outgoing/sociable)
o phlegmatic (calm/composed/peaceful)
o choleric (quick-tempered/irritable/ambitious)
o melancholic (sad/introverted/reflective)
- three somatoform types:
o ectomorph: thin, fragile structure
▪ introverted, self-conscious, analytical
o mesomorph: muscular, athletic structure
▪ outgoing, confident, risk-taker
o endomorph: round, soft structure
▪ sociable, relaxed, friendly
- Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): 16 types
o extraversion vs introversion
o sensing vs intuition
o thinking vs feeling
o judging vs perceiving
how do you determine the number of constructs used to describe personality?
Goldberg (1981): lexical approach
- individual differences important in human interactions encoded in language
- the more important individual difference is, the more languages have one/more words for it
- sufficiently encompassing dictionaries of a language provide a repository of words related to
individual differences
Francis Galton (1884):
- “I tried to gain an idea of the number of the more conspicuous aspects of the character by
counting in an appropriate dictionary the words used to express them”
- “it may seem hopeless to deal accurately with so vague and wide a subject”
- but which words?
o nouns
o adjectives
o verbs
3
, Allport & Odbert (1936): first selection adjectives
- Webster’s 1925 ‘new international dictionary’ contained approximately 400.000 words of
which 4,5% personality characteristics = 17.953 adjectives
- but adjectives that described the following were removed:
o physical appearance (tall, fat)
o intellectual capacities (capable, intelligent)
o temporary moods (hurt, surprised)
o strong judgement (abnormal, bad)
manageable lists of adjectives:
Cattell (1947):
- used 35 adjectives to make sure the factor-analysis calculations wouldn’t be too complex and
time-consuming
Goldberg (1982, 1990):
- adjectives describing stable traits: 3.584
- 1.710 out of these ‘common’ words used in study
-
Brokken (1978):
- 1.203 adjectives
- 551 used in Dutch follow-up study (Hofstee & De Raad, 1991)
-
factor analysis
- large pool of items
- group according to correlation coefficients
Big Five: 5 personality structures
- openness
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- neuroticism
HEXACO: maximum of 6 ‘cross-culturally replicable’ dimensions of personality
- honesty-humility
- emotionality
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
- openness to experience
4
