Personality Traits and Psychological Health

Trait Theory 2

• Research in trait theory mostly uses correlational designs.
• Traits should predict behavior.
• The focus is on individual differences.
• A strength is that it assesses and attempts to understand how people differ.
• A weakness is that it overlooks aspects of personality common to all people and how individuals are unique.

People Are Inconsistent

• Personality traits are not the only factors influencing behavior.
• Consider if traits are consistent across situations and behaviors change depending on the situation.
• Individual consistency in behavior can vary across people.
• Age can play a part in how consistent behaviour is.

Prediction and Consistency

• Students work in pairs/small groups.
• Analyze Big 5 personality test results.
• Select behaviours that can be predicted from traits
• Discuss consistency in performing these behaviours.
• Examine factors influencing consistent or inconsistent behaviour in relation to predicted traits.

Domains and Facets

• List of domains (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness) and their facets (specific traits within each domain e.g., Neuroticism: Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression).

Discussion Points

• Discuss consistency in behaviour.
• Evaluate factors influencing behavioural consistency.

The Person-Situation Debate

• The discussion of which is more important in determining behavior: the person or the situation.
• Mischel (1968) contributed to this discussion.

The Person-Situation Debate: Three Issues

• Does a person's personality transcend the immediate context and guide actions consistently, or does behavior depend wholly on the current situation?
• Are common intuitions about people fundamentally flawed or essentially correct?
• Why do psychologists continue to debate the consistency of personality?
• Situationism: behavior driven by the situation while personality is unimportant

Predictability: The Situationist Argument

• There is a limit to how well a person's personality can predict their behaviour.
• This limit is low.
• Correlations between measured personality and behaviour are rarely above .30 (sometimes .40).

The Response to the Situationist Argument

• The situationist argument might be unfair or selective in reviewing the literature.
• Some studies in the review had flaws in methodology.
• There is evidence of consistency in behavior despite situations.

The Response to the First Situationist Argument

• The upper limit of .40 may be due to methodological flaws.
• Better studies performed outside of laboratory settings could yield higher correlations.
• Studying individual behavioural consistency as a moderating variable.
• Examining consistent behavioural trends, however, this is difficult and important for personality research.
• There could be greater accuracy in prediction when compared to a relative standard.

The Power of the Situation

• Situations, not personality traits, entirely determine behaviour.
• Personality affects behavior through interactions, correlating traits and behaviour.
• Situations influence behaviour, and people are still consistent.

Conclusion: Both Personality and Situations Are Important Determinants

• Table shows situational variables, behavioral variables, and effect sizes (e.g., incentive, attitude change, effect size -.36).

The Power of the Situation (Cont.)

• Absolute versus relative consistency (different concepts of consistency).
• Empirical examples (e.g., Funder & Colvin, 1991, Leikas et al., 2012).
• Individual differences persist even with changes in behavior.
• Situational influences on behaviour, people remain consistent.

Everyday Perceptions of Personality Traits

• Everyday perceptions of personality traits are often inaccurate.
• The effects of personality on behaviour are often perceived accurately.
• The importance of personality traits is reflected in language.

Personality and Life

• Personality is important for more than just theoretical reasons.
• Personality affects and predicts important life outcomes.
• How a person acts over time will accumulate.

Persons and Situations

• Traits are important when describing how people's behavior generally tends to be, and this includes across time and different situations.
• Interactionism.
• The effect of a personality variable is influenced by the situation, or vice versa.
• Certain types of individuals gravitate towards particular situations.
• Individuals can alter the situations as needed.

Persons, Situations, and Values

• Situationism's perspective of human nature: individuals have freedom to do whatever they want, everyone is equal and differences are due to the specific situation.
• Nothing that is done is entirely the individual's fault if the situation is all powerful.
• Behavior influenced both by the situation and personality.
• Individuals have unique identities and consistent behavior across situations.

Reflect

• Consider whether consistent behavior across situations or adaptable behavior is better suited to individuals
• Reasons why people adapt behaviour
• How social media influences online and offline behavior, and interaction with personality.

Resolution of the Person-Situation Debate

• People maintain their personality even as they adapt to situations.
• People can adjust to different situations while maintaining consistent personality.
• Psychological differences matter and are important.

Personality Stability

• Consistent rank-order consistency (correlations of 0.60-0.90 over 10 years).
• Childhood personality predicts adult behavior and life outcomes.
• Personality disorders are relatively stable.

Causes of Stability

• Temperament is partly genetic (e.g., positive emotionality, negative emotionality, effortful control).
• Other factors include physical and environmental factors, and birth order (mixed research support).
• Person-environment transactions influence and magnify traits over time (active, reactive, and evocative).

Personality Stability (cont.)

• Consistency in traits and maturity over time.
• The environment becomes stable with age, leading to behavioral consistency in fulfilling adult roles.

Personality Development

• Development and stability can occur together.
• Cross-sectional studies examine mean-level changes over time.
• Cohort effects may influence observed age differences in cross-sectional studies.

Personality Development (cont.)

• Longitudinal studies support similar findings; people become socially dominant, agreeable, and more conscientious, emotionally stable, with increased honesty-humility, self-esteem, and ego development (particularly up to age 50).
• Risk-taking decreases.
• Consistent with the maturity principle (which suggests development over time).

Personality Development (cont.)

• Findings from studies refer to mean levels across traits rather than individual change.
• Not everyone changes in the same way.
• Personality continues to change even in old age

Causes of Development

• Physical development and strength changes.
• Increases in intelligence and linguistic abilities.
• Changes in hormones.
• Changes influenced by social roles and responsibilities.
• Erikson's theory of development relevant to aspects.

Personality Development (cont.)

• The social clock (expectations for certain ages leads to expectations in behavior.
• Women fitting or not fitting social expectations of femininity or masculinity

Personality Development (cont.)

• Narrative identity (three aspects: actor, agent, author).
• Views on life and trajectory to goals and dreams.
• Themes related to personality (e.g., agency, conscientiousness, redemption, healthier habits).

Personality Development (cont.)

• Goals across the span of life.
• Socioemotional selectivity theory for people of younger and older ages (goal orientation changes).

Try for Yourself 7.1

• Change Goals Inventory to assess how desired personality change might occur.

Personality Change

• Desire for positive change, usually in socially desirable directions.
• Reasons for wanting change, such as bettering life.
• Possible methods of change: psychotherapy, general interventions, targeted interventions, and life experiences.

Personality Change (cont.)

• Psychotherapy, such as the work of Carl Rogers, can cause long-term behavioural change (neuroticism reduction and extraversion increase).

Personality Change - Methodological Considerations

• General interventions for positive outcomes, targeting high-risk preschool students.
• Focused interventions address certain traits, such as openness to experience, stress tolerance, defensiveness, neuroticism, narcissism, and self-control.
• Interventions utilizing sociogenomic traits to lead to behavioural change

Personality Change (cont.)

• Positive experiences contribute favorably (e.g., exercise, starting college or a job, new relationships).
• Negative experiences (e.g., trying drugs, chronic diseases, being unemployed, negative life events, travel, military training).
• Obstacles to change include not seeing a reason for change, needing effort, and externalizing responsibility.
• Overcoming obstacles to change (preconditions: desirable change, feasibility of change, habitual self-regulated changing behaviours)

Has the Pandemic Changed Our Personality?

• Three timepoints: pre-pandemic, early 2020, late 2021-22.
• Large sample size (N=7109)
• Neuroticism declined, but other Big 5 traits also changed.
• Equivalent to a decade's worth of changes in personality.

Principles of Personality Continuity and Change

• Personality characterized in stability and change over the lifetime.
• Cumulative continuity principle: as people age, traits become more consistent (rank order).
• Maturity principle: Individuals are better able to handle aspects of life.
• Plasticity principle: personality can change.
• Role continuity principle: maintaining roles and consistent behaviours allows personality to remain stable.
• Identity development principle: seeks consistent identity to act accordingly.
• Social investment principle: changing social roles can lead to personality changes.
• Corresponsive principle: transactions between individuals can maintain or magnify traits.

McCrae and Costa on Stability of Traits (1994)

• Traits can change until about age 30.
• After 20-30, individuals become less emotional, more conscientious, and less thrill-seeking.
• Differences in gender, race, or health status don't impact stability.
• Stability is apparent across the five major traits (Big 5).
• Mean-level changes and rank-order stability distinguished.

Is Personality Change Good or Bad?

• Personality change can be both good and bad (stability and instability can cause problems).
• Most personality change is adaptive but happens slowly.

Clicker Questions and Answers

• Multiple choice questions and answers about different concepts like the person-situation debate, the trait approach, and personality development from the lecture.

Explore the intricate relationship between personality traits and various psychological health outcomes. This quiz covers key findings from personality research, examining how traits like neuroticism and openness can impact well-being and life satisfaction. Test your understanding of how these traits influence behavior and decision-making.