Fun With Yourself!
Personality Psychology
Personality
An individual’s characteristic pattern of
thinking, feeling, and acting.
Each dwarf has a distinct personality.
The Trait Perspective
An individual’s unique constellation of durable
dispositions and consistent ways of behaving
(traits) constitutes his or her personality.
Examples of Traits
Honest
Dependable
Moody
Impulsive
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Exploring Traits
Each personality is uniquely made up of
multiple traits.
Allport & Odbert (1936), identified almost
18,000 words representing traits.
One way to condense the immense list of
personality traits is through factor analysis, a
statistical approach used to describe and relate
personality traits.
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Factor Analysis
Hans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that
personality could be reduced down to two polar
dimensions, extraversion-introversion and
emotional stability-instability.
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Biology and Personality
Personality dimensions are influenced by genes.
1. Brain-imaging procedures show that extraverts
seek stimulation because their normal brain
arousal is relatively low.
2. Genes also influence our temperament and
behavioral style. Differences in children’s shyness
and inhibition may be attributed to autonomic
nervous system reactivity.
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Assessing Traits
Personality inventories are questionnaires
designed to gauge a wide range of
feelings and behaviors assessing several
traits at once.
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Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory (MMPI)
• Most widely researched
and clinically used of all
personality tests.
Originally developed to
identify emotional
disorders.
• Developed by
empirically testing a pool
of items and then
selecting those that
discriminated between
diagnostic groups.
MMPI 2 TEST QUESTIONS IN ORDER
TRUE OR FALSE (567 QUESTIONS)
1.I like mechanics magazines
2.I have a good appetite
3.I wake up fresh & rested most mornings
4.I think I would like the work of a librarian
5.I am easily awakened by noise
6.I like to read newspaper articles on crime
7.My hands and feet are usually warm enough
8.My daily life is full of things that keep me
interested
9.I am about as able to work as I ever was
10.There seems to be a lump in my throat
much of the time.
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The Big Five Factors
Today’s trait researchers believe that earlier trait
dimensions, such as Eysencks’ personality dimensions, fail
to tell the whole story. So, an expanded range (five factors)
of traits does a better job of assessment.
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion
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Endpoints
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Questions about the Big Five
1. How stable are these traits?
Quite stable in adulthood.
However, they change over
development.
2. How heritable are they?
Fifty percent or so for each
trait.
3. How about other cultures?
These traits are common across
cultures.
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Evaluating the Trait Perspective
Person-Situation Controversy
Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out that traits may be
enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is
different.
“Traits are not good predictors of behavior.”
Christian Bale Freak Out
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Fun with Kids!!
Developmental Psychology
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Developmental Psychology
Issue
Nature/Nurture
Continuity/Stages
Stability/Change
Details
How do genetic inheritance
(our nature) and experience
(the nurture we receive)
influence our behavior?
Is development a gradual,
continuous process or a
sequence of separate stages?
Do our early personality
traits persist through life, or
do we become different
persons as we age.
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Prenatal Development: Teratogens
Viruses: e.g. HIV, flu
-Flu & Schizophrenia
Drugs: e.g. alcohol, crack
-FAS & “crack babies”
Chemicals: mercury, cigarettes
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Cigarettes:
Commercially Produced: 599 Additives
http://quitsmoking.about.com/cs/nicotineinhaler/a/cigingredients.htm
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General Development
• Brain development 
• Motor Development
– Sit  Crawl  Stand  Walking!!
• Cognitive Development
– Schemas + Assimilation + Accommodation
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Research With Babies
Your answer is only as good as your question!
Habituation works with babies.
Babies can do “novelty-preference procedures.”
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Babies also recognize the “impossible!”
Wynn (1992, 2000) showed children stared
longer at the wrong number of objects than the
right ones.
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Baby Math!
• Dr. McGrink’s (McCrink & Wynn, 2004)
• Work looks at large number math with
infants/children
– Babies stare longer at wrong “math answers”
– http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~mccrink/multimedia.html
• (Think of it less in terms of concrete numbers and more in terms of
“‘A lot’ minus ‘some’ shouldn’t equal ‘a lot’.”)
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Another Way to Study the Developing Mind
Dr. Santos’ work explores the
evolutionary origins of the human mind
by comparing the cognitive abilities of
human and non-human primates
Magic Shows
for Monkeys!
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Piaget’s Theory of Development
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Sensorimotor Stage
• Babies take in the world — through looking, hearing,
touching, mouthing and grasping (i.e., the senses)
• Children younger than 6 months generally do not have
object permanence, i.e., objects that are out of sight are
also out of mind.
– It’s why playing peek-a-boo with infants is so fun for them. You
literally disappear in their mind!
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Preoperational Stage
• From 2 to about 6-7 years, children are in
preoperational stage
– too young to perform mental operations.
• Focus is on words, images and intuition. Not
logic
– Why trying to engage in deep, explanatory
discussions with children does not work.
• Lack understanding of conservation
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Preoperational Stage: Criticism
DeLoache (1987) showed that children as young
as 3-years-old are able to use mental operations.
When shown a model of dog’s hiding place
behind the couch, 2½-year-old could not locate
the stuffed dog in an actual room, but the 3year-old did.
Monkeys can do this too!
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Preoperational Stage
Sally Boysen’s Brilliant Monkeys!
Thinking Monkeys
Number Crunch Monkeys
Note: Watch “Chimps Minds” for the “hide & seek”
(start it where Alda says “This is Sally Boysen”)
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Formal Operational Stage
• Around age 12 we move from concrete thinking
to abstract thinking
– Can now use symbols and imagined realities to
systematically reason
– Junior Socrates: you can now understand “If A, then
B” logic
• If John is in school, Mary is in school. John is in school. What
can you say about Mary?
– Why you aren’t doing calculus before this age 
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Origins of Attachment
Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin
Harlow (1971) showed
that infants bond with
surrogate mothers
because of bodily
contact and not
nourishment.
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Attachment Theory
Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys
experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth
mother was removed & were frightened.
Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin
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Attachment Differences
Placed in a strange situation, 60% children
express secure attachment, i.e., they explore
their environment happily in the presence of
their mothers. When mother leaves they show
distress.
The other 30% show insecure attachment, these
children cling to their mothers or caregivers,
and are less likely to explore the environment.
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Separation Anxiety
Separation anxiety peaks at 13 months of age.
No matter whether the children are home or
day care raised.
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Deprivation of Attachment
What happens when circumstances prevent a
child from forming attachments?
In such circumstances children become:
1. Withdrawn
2. Frightened
3. Unable to develop speech
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Prolonged Deprivation
If parental or caregiving support is deprived for
long, children are placed at risk for physical,
psychological and social problems, including
alterations in brain neurochemical levels.
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Child-Rearing Practices
Practice
Description
Authoritarian
Parents impose rules and expect
obedience.
Permissive
Parents submit to children’s
demands.
Authoritative
Parents are demanding but
responsive to their children.
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Authoritative Parenting
Authoritative parenting correlates with social
competence — other factors like common genes
may leading to a easy-going temperament may
invoke authoritative parenting style.
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