PSYC10004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Relationship Marketing, Conscientiousness, Hans Eysenck
29 Jun 2018
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PSYC10004 Mind, Brain & Behaviour 2
WEEKS 7 - 9: PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
LECTURE 19 (7.1) – What is Personality ?
Personality through history
Personality as personhood (English term first used in 14th century)
oQuality of being a person
oUnique to humans: rationality; intellect; moral virtue
oPersonality = shared humanity
Personality as a character
oPersona as a mask
oPersonality as a role in the drama of life
oCharacter sketches from ancient times (Theophrastus, 319 BC)
Personality as what is ‘beneath the mask’
oAuthentic ‘true self’
oSeparate from social roles
oLinked to rise of individualism
Personality as charisma (vivacity)
oA ‘good’ personality
oCelebrities as personalities
Personality as individuality (now)
oIndividual differences: psychological; non-intellectual; enduring; broad
Not cognitive abilities
oFundamental dispositions
Personal identity & self-concept
Social communication & gossip
Impression formation
Person perception; inferring about peoples’ personalities;
dispositional inference & correspondence bias
Stereotypes: largely made up of personality traits
Personality within psychology
Dedicated to study differences between people, ‘whole person’ approach
Closely related to abnormal & clinical psychology
Emphasis on intrinsic factors
oPerson vs situation; contrasts social psychology
Entertainment preferences
Dimensions: communal; aesthetic; dark; thrilling; cerebral
Music tastes
oFactors: mellow, unpretentious, sophisticated, intense, contemporary
oPeople have stereotypes of people with different tastes
Involves personality features
Personality relates to tastes
1
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PSYC10004 Mind, Brain & Behaviour 2
LECTURE 20 (7.2) – Trait Psychology
Requirements for a scientific psychology of personality
•Need descriptive unit & classification (taxonomy)
Personality traits
•Trait: simplest descriptive unit
•Consistent pattern of behaviour, thinking or feeling
oRelatively stable over time & consistent across situations; varying between
people; dispositional
•Generally vary in generality (bandwidth): broad/narrow
•Structure
oSurvey traits encoded in language to start developing scientific taxonomy of
personality
Lexical approach
Assumes important distinctions for describing people are incorporated in daily
speech
Attempts to survey the ‘trait universe’
•Allport and Odbert (1936): 18,000/550,000 words in dictionary describing
differences between people
oThen filtered words, removing: physical attributes, cognitive abilities &
talents, transient states, highly evaluative words
o4500 terms remain
•Raymond Cattell
oStill too many, many synonyms or closely related so reduced the set
oSorted words into 171 groups of synonyms/antonyms
Reduced them to 16 factors using factor analysis technique, each factor
representing a basic dimension of personality
Reserved vs outgoing
Stable vs neurotic
Expedient vs conscientious
Shy vs venturesome
Tough-minded vs tender-minded
Trusting vs suspicious
Practical vs imaginative
Forthright vs shrewd
Less intelligent vs more intelligent
Humble vs assertive
Sober vs happy-go-lucky
Placid vs apprehensive
Conservative vs experimenting
Conforming vs independent
Undisciplined vs controlled
Relaxed vs tense
Factors still correlated
oDifferent factors might reflect a single underlying super-factor
2
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Document Summary
Personality through history o o o o o o o o o o o o o. Personality as personhood (english term first used in 14th century) Personality as a role in the drama of life. Character sketches from ancient times (theophrastus, 319 bc) Person perception; inferring about peoples" personalities; dispositional inference & correspondence bias. Dedicated to study differences between people, whole person" approach. People have stereotypes of people with different tastes. Relatively stable over time & consistent across situations; varying between people; dispositional o. Survey traits encoded in language to start developing scientific taxonomy of personality speech. Assumes important distinctions for describing people are incorporated in daily. Allport and odbert (1936): 18,000/550,000 words in dictionary describing differences between people o. Then filtered words, removing: physical attributes, cognitive abilities & talents, transient states, highly evaluative words o o o. Still too many, many synonyms or closely related so reduced the set.
