Mischel - questioned existence of "personality"
Highest correlations found between traits and behaviors across situations --> .30.
Criticisms of Mischel's criticism:
1) .30 correlations - small, but not 0
2) Correlations between situations and behaviors aren't much higher
3) May seem more consistency and predictive power for some traits, for some ways of measuring:
How to make traits more effective predictors-
* Pick traits that people consider self-relevant:
* Make summary judgments
* Choose situations that are:
- novel
- ill-defined
- stressful
Predicting some of the people some of the time
Applying goals of science (describe, predict, explain, control) to personality theory
Hippocrates and bodily humors
Myers-Briggs typology: 16 types, based on combination of 4 binary categorizations:
introvert/extrovert
sensing/intuiting
thinking/feeling
judging/perceiving
face validity -
on the "face" of it, this measure seems valid
Not such good predictive validity - ability to predict how people will behave
Five Factor model -
extroversion - sociable, outgoing, assertive
agreeableness - honest, compliant, empathic, altruistic
openess (intellect) - into fantasy, aesthetically minded, open to new experiences
conscientiousness - orderly, reliable, disciplined, responsible
neuroticism (emotional stability, reversed.) - anxious, hostile, depressed
lexical hypothesis - If trait is important, it will be encoded in our language
factor analysis - mathematical technique for identifying larger common factors that underlie a wider range of measures.
Orthogonal factors - factors that are not correlated with each other. (Knowing the score on one factor won't help you predict score on another factor; they are independent of each other.)
Note that "not correlated" means a correlation of approximately zero. It doesn't mean a negative correlation!)
biological basis for introversion/extroversion?
1. seems heritable (genetic link)
2. activity level differs prenatally
3. different autonomic nervous system activity - greater sensitivity in introverts
Some evidence that introverts are more susceptible to some viruses (colds and HIV) because of differential neuronal response in immune system.
Geen (1984)- compared introverts and extroverts ability to learn cognitive task under different conditions.
- Suggests ideal level of stimulation differs
Is Five Factor model cross-culturally valid?
More likely to be reproduced if factors are translated from English into new language.
Less likely to be reproduced if you start with content of other language.
If factors other than Big 5 emerge, tend to be one of the factors split or merged.
Unfalsifiable- term applied to theories that can't be tested;
theories for which there is no clear specification prior to testing about what would indicate that the theory was wrong
Freud's model of the mind:
psychic energy
hydraulic model
- energy builds up, has to be released
- but release can be direct or indirect
contents of the mind (thoughts) divided into three categories:
conscious
preconscious
unconscious - beyond our awareness, but sometimes released in a disguised form
parts of personality:
Id -
* with us at birth
* operates on pleasure principle
Super-Ego
* controls urges of the ID
* develops as we internalize parental and cultural values
Ego
* "translates" and releases unconscious urges of id
* maintains balance between id and super-ego
*operates on reality principle
Freud's theories are called psychodynamic because of dynamic "struggle" between parts of personality
When id seems to be getting out of control, or super-ego is too harsh, anxiety results
Defense mechanism are a way of dealing with this anxiety indirectly:
repression
sublimation
projection
passive aggression
Stages of psychosexual development
- each stage associated with part of body associated with pleasure
oral stage (birth and infanthood)
anal stage (2-3)
phallic stage (4-5) -
Oedipal and Electra complexes
latency period (6)
genital stage (puberty)
fixation - if urges of the id are overly indulged or super-ego is overly harsh in denying pleasure