Psychology 100:12
Chapter 12
Personality I
Outline
• Trait theories of personality
– The Big Five
• Psychobiology of personality
• Situationism, traitism,
and interactionism
• Social Psychology (ch 15)
– The Self
The four basic personality types
Study Question:
• Describe the “Big 5” theory of personality traits
Personality
Personality
• Trait theory on limited
dimensions.
– Allport (1936)
> Started with 18,000 descriptive words
– Cattell’s theory
>Used Allport’s list as a starting point,
>Reduced it to 16 source traits
 Developed the 16 PFQ
• 200 questions:
I like to go to parties
Yes ..... Occasionally .......No
Personality
Personality
• Trait theory
– Eysenck’s three factor theory
>Collected large amount of data
> Accounted for it with 3 factors
 Introversion - Extroversion
• (introspective vs. gregarious)
 Neuroticism - Stability
• (anxiousness, excitability vs. calmness)
 Psychotocism - Self-control
• (antisocial vs. considerate)
>Developed Eysenck Personality Inventory
Personality
Personality
• Eysenck’s two factor model and Galen.
Moody unstable Touchy
Anxious
Restless
Rigid
Agressive
Sober
Excitable
Pessimistic
Changeable
Reserved
Impulsive
Unsociable
Optimistic
Quiet
Active
Melancholic Choleric
Introverted
Extroverted
Passive
Sociable
phlegmatic Sanguine
Careful
Outgoing
Thoughtful
Talkative
Peaceful
Easygoing
Reliable
Lively
Even-tempered
Carefree
stable
Calm
Leadership
Personality
Personality
• Trait theory
– The Big Five
> Dimension
Extroversion - Introversion
Neuroticism - Placidity
Agreeable- Antagonistic
Conscientious- Indirectedness
Openness - Nonopenness
Example
fun-loving - sober
worrying - calm
selfless - selfish
reliable - unreliable
independent - conforming
> Measured by Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness
Personality Inventory ( NEO-PI)
 Self ratings/ ratings by others
Personality
Personality
• Brain mechanisms in Personality: Zuckerman
– Extroversion -> High sensitivity to reinforcement
> Infants with high activity levels ---> Extroverts
> Extroverts show reinforcement seeking behaviour
 Introverts have higher internal arousal levels
 Extroverts have lower internal arousal levels
– Neuroticism -> High sensitivity to punishment
> Oversensitive amygdala
– Psychopathy -> Low sensitivity to punishment
> Cannot learn when NOT to do something
 High tolerance (set point) for arousal and excitement
Personality
Personality
• Situationism
– Consistency
>Mischel’s View: Traits are situation specific
 Low consistency across situations
 Honesty scale and cheating behavior: r = .20-.30
>Interactionism
 Behaviour is a product of disposition, situation, and
the interaction between disposition and situation
Personality
Personality
• Concordance rates for traits
Personality
Personality
• Three levels of personality(McAdams)
– Dispositional traits
> Internal, global, and stable (e.g., friendliness)
– Characteristic adaptation
>Personal adaptation to motivational, cognitive,
developmental challenges
– In ‘life stories’ people say their personality
changes
>Narratives of the self to integrate the past,
resent and future.
Social
Social Psychology
Cognition
• Social Psychology: The study of social
influences on thought and behaviour.
– Allport’s Definition:
To understand and explain how thought, feeling,
& behaviour are influenced by the actual,
imagined, or implied presence of others
Social
Social Psychology
Cognition
• Perceiving one’s self
– Self: The mental representations of personal
experience, including thought processes, a
physical body, and conscious experiences of
individuality.
– Self-awareness: A state in which the sense
of self is the object of attention
Social
Social Psychology
Cognition
• Development of self aware-awareness
– Self-recognition
>The Paint test
 16 - 18 months
> Recognition in pictures
 2 yrs
Social
Social Psychology
Cognition
• Self- concept: the full store of knowledge that
people have about themselves.
– Self -schema: The cognitive aspect of the self-concept,
consisting of an integrated set of memories, beliefs, and
generalizations about the self.
Basketball
Gardener
Husband
Self
Humanist
Father
Professor
Musician
Social
Social Psychology
Cognition
• Multiple selves
– Social roles
> Interdependent social construals: Concept determined
externally
 Social roles, relationships
 Collectivist cultures
> Independent social construals: Concept determined internally
 Self reliance, personal success
• Self-esteem: your evaluation of your-self
– Social comparison: evaluate your actions by contrasting
them with others.
Social
Social Psychology
Cognition
• The Fundamental Attribution Error
– Actor-observer discrepancy -> The tendency to
attribute other people’s behaviour to dispositional
factors.
– The self-serving bias -> Actor-observer
discrepancy only holds for negative behaviour
>I did well on the exam because I work hard
>I did poorly on the exam because the prof. is
unfair
 After a college or pro sports game:
• Winners: 80% make internal attributions
• Losers: 53 % make internal attributions
Social
Social Psychology
Cognition
– Above Average Effect
>People see themselves as better than average
 e.g., driving ability, social skills, common sense,
attractiveness
• 90 % of business managers think they are better
than their average peer
• In Australia, only 1 % of people rate their job
performance as below average
• In one survey of 829,000 high school seniors, zero
percent rated themselves as below average in their
ability to get along with others!
• Most people think they are better than average at
not rating themselves better than average
Social
Social Psychology
cognition
• Attitude: An evaluative belief
– LaPiere’s (1934)Study
> Visited 50 hotels and 200 restaurants with Chinese couple

Only refused service by one hotel.
> Wrote to same hotels and restaurants

92 % said they would NOT serve Chinese.
• Functions and components of attitudes
> Very influenced by social context
1. Attitudes are far removed from sensory experience.
2. Attitutes hold strategic purposes in social interactions.
– Three components
1. Cognitive: Beliefs
2. Affective: Emotional reaction
3. Behavioural: Actions