PSYC10004 Lecture Notes - Spring 2018 Lecture 21 - Schizotypy, Environmentalism, Trait theory
20 Sep 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSYC10004
Lecture Twenty-One
Notes - Personality Psychology
Trait Controversies!
Are individual differences consistent?
"Traits are ways in which behaviour is consistent across situations!
"But is behaviour consistent in this way!
"Mischel (1968)!
""Situationism!
""Behaviour expressing a trait in different situations often correlates weakly (<0.3)!
""Individual variability is the rule!
""The situation is the main determinant of behaviour (eg. social psychological factors)!
""Traits are weak predictors of behaviour!
""Marshmallow Test!
""Personality Psych is wrong, Social Psych is right!
"Eg. Hartshorne & May (1928)!
""Gave thousands of 10-13 year children multiple behavioural tests of dishonesty!
"""Lying!
"""Cheating!
"""Stealing!
""Dishonesty varied widely across situations, little consistency!
""Average correlation among tests = 0.26!
""If there is a consistent moral character, the correlation between the three tests
should be stronger!
""If the trait is situational, the correlation between the three tests should be weaker!
""Consistency is greater for aggregate behaviour vs single behaviours!
""Situational influences are about as weak as dispositional influences!
""We need an interactionist view that recognises traits, situations and their combined
effects"!
""Therefore both situations and personality traits should be utilised together!
""We can think about a person as having a distribution of behaviours along a trait
dimensions, from low to high!
""People high on a trait just engage with a trait-related behaviour in more situations!
Is the structure of traits universal?
"Trait models like the Big 5 purport to be about universal human nature!
"Might they be artists of language or in other ways cross culturally variable?!
"Evidence for Universality (Indigenous Approach)!
""One way to assess consistency of personality structure across cultures is to
translate English personality tests into other languages!
""Multiple tests across many translations suggest strong consistency!
""Some evidence of subtle differences!
"""Factors sometimes have minor differences of content!
"""Eg. Extraversion and Agreeableness!
""""better described as Dominance and Love in some Asian cultures!
"""Among several European languages!
""""strong congruence for most Big Five factors except Openness!
"""Occasionally apparent culture specific factors emerge!
""""Eg. Chinese tradition factors!
""""(Harmony, Relationship Orientation, Thirft, Face, Adventurousness)!
""Example!
"""6900 person descriptive terms extracted from a Filipino dictionary!
"""Reduced to 1297 by experts!
"""Factor analysis of ratings yield 7 dimensions!
""""Concern for Others vs Egotism!
""""Conscientious!
""""Self-Assured!
""""Temperamental!
""""intellect!
Document Summary
Traits are ways in which behaviour is consistent across situations. Behaviour expressing a trait in di erent situations often correlates weakly (<0. 3) The situation is the main determinant of behaviour (eg. social psychological factors) Personality psych is wrong, social psych is right. Gave thousands of 10-13 year children multiple behavioural tests of dishonesty. If there is a consistent moral character, the correlation between the three tests should be stronger e ects dimensions, from low to high. If the trait is situational, the correlation between the three tests should be weaker. Consistency is greater for aggregate behaviour vs single behaviours. Situational in uences are about as weak as dispositional in uences. We need an interactionist view that recognises traits, situations and their combined. Therefore both situations and personality traits should be utilised together. We can think about a person as having a distribution of behaviours along a trait.
