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