PSYC 1002 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Palmistry, Graphology, Face Validity
23 Oct 2018
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Psychology Chapter 12 Notes
- The study of personality focuses primarily on describing and understanding our individual
differences
- Sam gosling did research on whether or not dog and cat people were different types of
people
o Dog people tend to score higher on extraversion, agreeableness, and
conscientiousness but lower on neuroticism and openness than cat people
Defining personality
- Personality is used to explain why not everyone acts the same way in similar situations
- The concept of personality is used to explain
o The stability in a person’s behavior over time and across situations (consistency)
o The behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation
(distinctiveness)
- Personality: refers to an individual’s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits
- Pattern of characteristics, thoughts, emotions, behaviours.
o Relatively enduring over time.
o Stable across circumstances.
- How a person adapts to the world.
Measuring personality
- Describing yourself
- Ask people
- Palmistry
- Graphology
- Phrenology
- Astrology
- Palmistry, graphology, astrology, phrenology, NOT valid!!
- Broad, trivial statements (Barnum effect) that can apply to anyone.
- Projective tests.
o Assume we project personality into ambiguous stimuli.
- Self-Report tests.
o Assume we tell truth.
- Direct observation of behavior.
- Widely used in clinical practice (82% of clinical psychologists use occasionally)
- Lacks reliability and validity.
o Interpretation depends on clinician more than test taker.
o Still used because it starts a conversation
- Self-report tests
o Directly ask people whether items describe their personality.
o Also called inventories.
o Early tests based on face validity (assume honesty).
o “Do you enjoy a feeling of superiority over others?”
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o Problem: social desirability.
o Empirically keyed tests; if good managers like toast, then ask job candidates if they
like toast.
o Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
▪ psychological disorders.
▪ job candidates.
▪ career selection.
▪ 567 items.
▪ 10 clinical scales.
MMPI Clinical scales:
Scale
Example
1.Hypochondriasis
“At times I get strong cramps in my intestines”
2.Depression
“I am often very tense on the job.”
3.Conversion
“Sometimes there is a feeling like something is pressing in on my
head.”
4.Psychopathic deviate
“I wish I could do over some of the things I have done.”
5.Masculinity/Femininity
“I used to like to go to the dances in gym class”
- Behavioral and cognitive assessment.
o Therapist directly observes behavior.
- Or, ask spouse or co-workers to assess.
Personality traits
- Personality trait: a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of
situations
- A small number of fundamental traits determine other more superficial traits
- Factor analysis: correlations among many variables are analyzed to identify closely
related clusters of variables
o If the measurements of a number of variables correlate highly with one another,
the assumption is that a single factor is influencing all of them
- Raymond Cattell used factor analysis to conclude that personalities can be described
completely by measuring just 16 traits
- Hippocrates ~400 B.C. 4 human types:
o choleric (quick-tempered).
o phlegmatic (placid).
o sanguine (optimistic).
o melancholic (pessimistic).
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The five-factor model of personality traits
- Created by Robert McCrae and Paul costa
- “big five”: extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, agreeableness, and
conscientiousness
Extraversion
Outgoing, sociable, upbeat, friendly, assertive
and gregarious
• sociable or retiring.
• fun-loving or sombre.
• affectionate or reserved.
Neuroticism
Anxious, hostile, self-conscious, insecure and
vulnerable, overreact more in response to
stress, impulsiveness and emotional
instability
• calm or anxious.
• secure or insecure.
• self-satisfied or self-pitying.
Openness to experience
Curiosity, flexibility, vivid fantasy,
imaginativeness, artistic, unconventional
attitudes, tolerant of ambiguity and have less
need for closure, exhibit less prejudice
against minorities than others
• imaginative or practical.
• variety or routine.
• independent or conforming.
Agreeableness
Sympathetic, trusting, cooperative, modest,
and straightforward, constructive approaches
to conflict resolution, empathetic and helpful
• softhearted or ruthless.
• trusting or suspicious.
• helpful or uncooperative.
Conscientiousness
Diligent, discipline, well-organized, punctual,
dependable
• organized or disorganized.
• careful or careless.
• disciplined or impulsive.
- Neuroticism is associated with an elevated prevalence of virtually all major mental
disorders and a host of physical illnesses
- Conscientiousness is correlated with the experience of less illness and with reduced
mortality
- As socioeconomic levels rise, conscientiousness, extraversion and openness increase
while agreeableness and neuroticism as less prevalent
- Criticism
Document Summary
The study of personality focuses primarily on describing and understanding our individual differences. Sam gosling did research on whether or not dog and cat people were different types of people: dog people tend to score higher on extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness but lower on neuroticism and openness than cat people. Personality is used to explain why not everyone acts the same way in similar situations. The concept of personality is used to explain: the stability in a perso(cid:374)"s behavior over time and across situations (consistency, the behavioral differences among people reacting to the same situation (distinctiveness) Personality: refers to an i(cid:374)di(cid:448)idual"s unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits. Pattern of characteristics, thoughts, emotions, behaviours: relatively enduring over time, stable across circumstances. How a person adapts to the world. Broad, trivial statements (barnum effect) that can apply to anyone. Projective tests: assume we project personality into ambiguous stimuli. Self-report tests: assume we tell truth.
