Personality in Space & Time Lecture PDF

3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time Unit Lecture Important Issues personality across situations person-situation interaction person-environment fit agreegat...

3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time Unit Lecture Important Issues personality across situations person-situation interaction person-environment fit agreegation personality over time personality stablity & change when change is out of your control personality coherence can you actively change your personality? Personality Across Situations situationists: argue that behaviour varies across situations and situational differences (not traits) determine behaviour if situations mainly control how ppl behave, the existance or relevance of traits is questionable trait psychologists: assumed cross-situation consistency Integration (Interactionism) person x situation interaction: personality and situation interact to produce behaviour 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 1  Situational Specificity certain situations can provoke behaviour that is out of character for an individual person acts in a specific way under specific circumstances Strong Situations certain situations that prompt similar behaviour from everyone ex. situations in which most ppl behave the same Weak Situations certain situations that are ambigious or weak in effect, such that personality has a stronger influence on behaviour Mechanisms of Interaction 1. situational selection: the tendency to choose or select situations in which one finds oneself as a function of personaltiy a. ex. extraverted ppl more likely to use social media apps and more frequently 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 2  b. high agreeableness, enuroticism, and conscientiousness are associated w more frequent use; openness inconsistent 2. evocation: certai personality traits may naturally evoke specific responses from others a. ex. neuroticism associated w receiving more angry responses to posts b. narcissism associated w receiving more likes and comments 3. manipulation: various means by which ppl intentionally influence behaviour or alter environments a. ex. extraverts post abt social activities, use emoticons, tend to relationships b. high conscientions ppl ask for help; more open ppl post abt intellectual topics; narcissists self-promote these mechanisms often unflod in sequential fashion 1. selection a. ex. ppl in dark tetrad traits select situations that hv ppl who admire them 2. evocaion a. ex. viewed as brilliand and entertainign or selfish and egocentric 3. manipulation a. ex. manipulate those who stick around Do you “Fit” Your Environment theory of person-environment fir: there are certain environments/situations that are more complementary to a person’s traits and characteristics may motivate individuals to select certain situations over others could be match or congruence btwn environment and person’s personality (ex. extroverted person seeks highly social situation) 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 3  some environments require specific traits to make the environment unfold ( ex. some situations call for leadership so person might be good fit for envionrment bc they fuflill its need) some environments fulfill need of individual (ex. introvert may need quiet time so they look for environment that satisfies that need like a library) ex. a job you’re struggling in might not be a good fit for your personality practical implications → optimal functioning, performance, coping, health, happiness, etc introverts prefer mountains and seculded areas while extraverts prefer open terain (ocean) flatter states hv more extroverts in US mountainous states hv more introverts in US Choosing the Right Person for the Job personality tests are increasingly used to screen out “wrong” individuals from pools of job applicants ex. police officers, sales positions, service jobs, management roles ex. minnesota multiphasic personaltiy inventory, california personality inventory, 16 personality factor questionnaire, six factor personality questionsnaire (SEPQ), myers brigg type indicator (MBTI) ethical concerns about using personality assessment in hiring → biases, stereotypes, misidentifying who is approporiate for the job Myers-Brigg Type Indicator (1998) myers-brigg type indicator: a self-report assessment of personality, designed to identify psychological preferences in how ppl perceive the world and make decisions developed by katherine briggs and her daughter isabel briggs myers 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 4  katherine briggs teacher w degree in agriculture → interested in predicting which careers would be best for her students she stumbled on Carl Jung’s 8 psychological types (this was not one of his contributions that are valued in the world of psychology today) 1. where do you get your energy? Extraverted (E) / Introverted (I) a. correlated w extraversion 2. how do you take in information? Sensing (S) / Intuitive (N) a. intuitive correlated w openness 3. how do you make decisions? Thinking (T) / Feeling (F) a. feeling correlated w agreeableness 4. your orientation to the world? Judging (J) / Perceiving (P) a. judging correlated w conscieniousness neuroticism is mising; some new versions of MBTI includes/addresses neuroticism problem is that it typecasts ppl in two binaries → but ppl may be on spectrum Problems w Myers-Brigg categorical vs dimensional approach to personality “types” bc it assumes large between-type differences; bimodal distribution: in reality: 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 5  most ppl fall closer to the middle than at extremes → if someone close to middle completes MBTI over number of years, they might be categorized as E or I depending on when they take it also, the median score of a trait changes based on one study or the next depending on the sample pool are thinking and feeling rlly opposites? → they often co-occur neurotiism is missing where are narrow traits like industrious (conscneitiousness)? is the definition of introversion-extraversion complete and accurate? MBTI has no predictive validity (school or jobs) many studies hv found low test-retest reliability → bc personality is not completly consistent across situations some hv found as manny as 50% of respondants will be classified into a diff type over short test-retest intervals many suggest MBTI is “popular bc it’s popular” Aggregation: Understanding the Relationship btwn Traits and States behaviour is not expressed in perfectly consistent, reliable way 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 6  aggregation: process of adding up or averging several single observations, resulting in a better (more reliable) measure of a personality trait than a single observation aggregation implies that traits refer to the person’s avg level of experience or behaviour across situations/over time traits vs states & actions (more momentary) Practical Example rate current level of happinesss in this moment (1-3) this score may not reflect overall mood today and reflect personality “Density Distribution” of States traits are measured by more frequent state-intensities → might conclude this person is more happy person 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 7  we should not, however, only look at external behaviours → just how we might conceive of traits in first place Our Situational Assumptions we tend to underestimate the role of situational factors when evaluating the experiences of others fundemental attribution error: we tend to emphasize the internal characteristics of other ppl (rather than external factors) when explaining their behaviour but we better recognize situational factors in our own behaviour trait ascription bias: we tend to view ourselves as reatively variable in terms of personality, behaviour and mood (accross diff situations), while viewing oters are much more predictable across diff situations Predicting Human Behaviour prediting single acts of behaviour is challenging bc: causal density: causal variables are numerous contextual factors are important, and also numerous all we can do is measure the ones that seem to hv the most impact we can predict the likelihood of an individual to engage in behaviour in certain situation over time exceeds chance alone Personality Over Time: Examining Personality Stability and Change Over Time over the course of your life, how much hv you changed? The Dunedin Study (New Zealand, 2003) Capsi et al/harrington et al. studied over 1000 three year old children who exhibited five tempermental types: 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 8  1. well-adjusted 2. confident 3. reserved 4. undercontrolled 5. inhibited reexamiend 96% of children as adult 23 years later using self-and other- reports on big give found evidence that children’s early emerging behavioural styles were associated w behaviours, thoughts and feeligns in adulthood ex. temper tantrums as child correlated w higher job turnover and likelihood of divorce in adulthood (some of those correlations high as 0.6) Personality Change: 2 Key Qualities conceptually, a personality change should be: internal change: changes are internal to a person, not occuring in the external environment or surroundings difficult to measure enduring change: changes are enduring over time, not temporary practically speaking, this is dificult to sort out w a diagnosis of mental condition, we want to seperate their condition from their personalit however, it does affect personality, but not say their personality is a result of their diagnosis to help w hope for recovery Studying Personality Change rank order: one’s position within a group change → peron’s trait changes relative to other individuals 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 9  stability → little to no change in rank-ordering within a group assessed by test-retest (correlation btwn time points) mean level: average level of a population change → avg level changes over time (’normative’) stability → no significant change in average level over time measured by longitudinal studies (mean differences) Personality Change: Sensation-Seeking sensation-seeking peaks in late adolesence 16-20 sensation-seeking decr as ppl continue to age corresponding decr in impulsivity w age Personality Change: Self-Esteem day-to-day changes in self-esteem → ppl differ ind egree to which self- esteem changes dialy self-esteem declines markedly during adolescence more significant for girls young men recover self-esteem more quickly than young women into adulthood Personality Change: The Big Five agreeableness, conscientiousnesss, emotional stability, and social dominance gradually incr from young adulthood to middle age openness and other aspects of extraversion gradually decline Longitudinal College Study of Stability and Change in Big Five (4 years, N = 270) 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 10  perceptions of change during college: ppl seem to overestimate how much they’ve changed 98% believe they changed significantly in at least one dimension only 64% of ppl had acc changed significantly in at least onen dimension Are Extreme Changes Possible? 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 11  case of Phineas Gage → survived severe brain injury of metal rod through skull affect frontal lobe more impulsive, indulgent, disrespectful, less restraint and forethought case of Kent Cochrane → survived multime brain injuries. 3rd in motorcycle acidenant affect temporal lobes less sociable and gregarious, no longer high in thrill seeking, no changes to agreeableness extreme changes are definitely possible trauma associated w changes to brain structure and function deep psychology: most extreme personality changes result from changes in brain biology caused by injury or disease conclusions on change: we primarily see moderate evidence for mean-level change rank-order stability is very high changing your position within a group is difficult changeability also varies from person to person → some change a lot and others less or not at all stability incr w age and peaks in 50s evidence of sign change in big 5 from 55 to 85 Personality Coherence coherence: predictable changes in the manifestations of personality over time even if the underlying characteristsics remain stable stability is underling trait but change is the outward manifestation of that trait ex. chidlhood tantrums associated w alter areer and relationship instability 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 12  Volitional Personality Change → Actively Changing your Personality evidence you can become more extraverted intentional goals on a daily basis strongly associated w state measures of extraversion ex. trying to connect w ppl, trying to hv fun, trying to make others laugh evidence you can worry less and become less anxious mindfulness-based meditation training associated w decreased trait anxiety and incr conscientiousnesss and cooperativeness suggests we can learn to manage anxiety evidence you can become more open-minded intervention to incr cognitive ability in older adults for 16 weeks → sig incr in openess to experience high dose psiolocybin → sig incr in openness → openness remained higher for a year Psychedelics as Agents of Change? psychedelics may reduce antisocial tendencies menreportedusing either acid or mushrooms reduced likelihood of perpetrating physical violence against partner and report better emotioanl regulation Interventions for Change students in 16 week intervention coahed to make chnges on big 5 traits as they desired → incr their agreeableness, conscneintiousness, emotioanl stability, and extraversion if desired by setting practical intentions biggest results w extraversion simply hving goal to hange personality weakly predited change over time 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 13  BUT interventions to support personality change were successful in promoting change associations strongest for extraversion and neuroticism and weakest for agreeableness and openness What You Can Definitely Change specific behaviours, thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, values,a nd social roles ex. as ppl become more ivnested in their job → incr conscientiousness ex. investing in romantic relaitonship associated w incr in emotional stability 3: Are We Stuck? Personality in Space & Time 14