2130 Personality Psychology“Know Thyself”

Professor Ian McGregor

Research Methods

Quiz 2 Written Answer Questions

1. Compare and contrast contemporary research on the Big-5 to Freud’s view of personality development? (4 marks; two double spaced pages max).

2. Describe four ways that people can come to “know what isn’t so,” i.e., hold false beliefs with such conviction? (4 marks; two double spaced pages max)

ADVICE: Compose your exact answers before test!!!

Lecture 4 Outline

Traits review and links to goals and attitudes—how are traits transmitted? The case of agreeableness and testosterone.

How we know what isn’t so

Research Methods (how to know what is so)Correlational

Experimental

Myers Briggs (Based on Jung’s Theory)

Circle your summary on Table of TypesFrom previous slide

Matches vs. mismatches? Correlated with 4 of the Big-5 Simple, less pejorative labels &

appreciating “Gifts Differing”Good for marriages and workplaces!

Beyond the golden rule…

Big-5 (NEOAC) & Plato, Galen, Freud, MBTI

Brass/Iron, Silver, Gold Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic,

Melancholic Oral, Anal, Phallic EI, SN, TF, PJ The role of Mom?

Genetics and PersonalityCorrelations of Big-5 Traits Between

Adopted kids and parentsAdopted siblings Biological kids and parentsBiological siblingsNon-identical (dz) twinsIdentical (mz) twinsIdentical twins raised apart

00.1.1.25.5.5

Heredity Estimate (rmz – rdz) x 2 x100 = % Variance from genes No effect of parents? (stay tuned!) Non-Shared Environment? Harris: Where is the Child’s Environment? Is it Error? Multiple raters boost genes to 70% Culture? People are getting taller, and smarter,

and more anxious… Change is possible, genetic predisposition not

absolute destiny. Young adulthood is difficult. Neur. goes down!

Openness: Awed or odd?Openness to Experience

•Aesthetics

•Fantasy

•Values

•Actions

•Ideals

•Feelings

Sex, politics, and religion

Ideal friends and marriage

Traits and Divorce

What if MZ twin and parentsa) got divorced?

80% divorced

b) stayed married? 10% divorced

Trait Divorce Pronenesshigh E, high O, low C, high N, r=.4Traits also predict MZ twin’s divorce, r=.4!

Trait Correlations with Major Life GoalsRoberts & Robins, 2000, PSPB

$$ success: E = .3; C = .2; O = -.3; A = -.2 Career and graduate school: C = .2 Aesthetic: O = .4 Social Welfare: A = .3 Relationships and Children: E = .3 Political Influence: E = .3 Fun and Excitement: E = .4 Personal Growth: O = .3 Traditional Marriage: O = -.3

Traits and AttitudesOlson et al., 2001, JPSP

MZ DZ Crossword puzzles 46 11 Immigration 47 20 Euthanasia 45 21 Racial discrimination 37 0 Organized sports 52 10 Looking one’s best 42 14 Abortion 53 28 Organized religion 43 21 Leading groups 40 08 Reading books 55 24

How Can Traits be Heritable but Not Run In Families?

7 rings, fire captains, fashion design etc…

Son of a Baptist minister and traditional religious belief…????How can traits and attitudes be genetic but

not run in families?Emergenesis: jigsaw puzzle analogy

How do genes translate into traits?E.g., oxytocin, testosterone, &

agreeableness

Disagreeable Forms of Coping(Reinisch, 1981, Science)

0

24

68

10

1214

16

Disagreeable forms of Coping

No Yes

Testosterone Therapy for Mother's Pregnancy Complications

GirlsBoys

Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia and “Boy Toys”(Berenbaum & Hines, 1992, Psychological Science)

0123456789

10

Preference for Boy Toys

No Yes

CAH Intrauterine Testosterone Exposure

GirlsBoys

Higher or Wider?

Longer? Wider?

Chase Scene?

How We Know What Isn’t So

1. Representativeness heuristic

2. Overinterpreting chance: Excessive impact of vivid confirming information

3. Knowing what we expect

4. Knowing what we want

Representativeness Heuruistic

Joseph is a very quiet, timid, introverted, and organized person. If you had to bet money, would you bet that he was:

Truck driver or librarian?

phenomena that resemble each other seem likely to be functionally related.

WWII Strategic Bombing of London?

Psychic Powers?Mom Calls Doesn’t Call

MindOn

Mom 5MindNotOn

Mom

Psychic Powers?Mom Calls Doesn’t Call

ThinkOf

Mom 5 50

NotThink

OfMom

28 282

1/10

1/10

Seeing What We Expect

Is my Father a Baptist Minister?

Divide class in half for next exercise, and look at image for 5 seconds…

Gary

Switch and other half close eyes and other half look for 5 seconds.

Mary

What do you see when I flash the next image?

Who saw a man in the last slide? Who saw a women

TAT: What do you see?

Try not seeing Spot

Believing What They Expected to Believe About Capital Punishment: Polarizing Effect of Exposure to Mixed Evidence(Idealized pattern of results from Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979, JPSP)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

How Much In Favour of CP?

Before Info After Info

Exposure to Mixed Evidence

Pro-CPAnti-CP

Believing What They Wanted to Believe about Extraversion(Idealized pattern of results from Kunda, 1987, JPSP)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

How Extraverted

Are You?

Before Exposure After Exposure

Exposure to Bogus Articles

Bogus Article TopicsHi Extr = loveLo Extr = love

Need for Research

Correlational Theories and hypotheses Operational definitions of variables Scatter Plots

Correlations Vary from -1 to 1

Around r = .5 Around r = .2r = 1.0

Need for Research

Correlational Theories, hypotheses, variables Width of scatter and steepness of slope Reliability decreases scatter (error)

Problems Confounding “third” variables Reverse causation External validity but cant get at causes

Experiments Random assignment to conditions Manipulation independent variable Experimental control can “bottle

causal relations in the lab” Internal validity but limited external

validity sometimes

The Smart Unconscious(Dijksterhuis, Science, 2006)

0

1

Simple Choice Complex Choice

ConsciousDeliberation

UnconsciousIncubation

Correct

Incorrect

“Transference” onto Interaction Partner Who Resembles Your Own Lover (Anderson, 2004)

0

1

Someone Else's Lover Your Lover

SimilarAttributes

Are:

PositiveNegative

Interaction Partner Described as Resembling

1.Good Actions2. Good Feelings3. Good Memory

Good

Bad

Displaced of Aggression(Idealized pattern of results from Marcus Newhall, Pedersen, et al.,2000)

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1Participants' Noise-BlastAggression

Against Brian

No Yes

Does Andrew Provoke the Participant?

Does Brian Resemble Andrew?

Yes No

Dream Rebound (Idealized from Wegner, et al.,2004)

0

1

Friendin

Dreams?

Think of Friend #1Before Bed

Suppress thinking ofFriend #1 Before Bed

Friend #1

Friend #2

Yes

No

Participants Asked to Talk about “Worst Moments”(Idealized pattern of results from Weinberger & Davidson, 1994)

0

1

How long they took to

answer?

Non-Repressors Repressors

InstructionsBe VulnerableBe Businesslike

Slow HereAlso, more Hedges and Qualifications

Also blood pressure and HR up

Slow

Fast

Responses of Repressors to Seeing Horrible Movie(Idealized pattern of results from Boden & Baumeister, 1997)

0

1

How Longto Think of

Happy Thoughts

Non-Repressors Repressors

Movie TopicNiceHorrible

Slow

Fast

Reasons for Personality Science Revival

Big-5 Experimental Personality Research

Trait aggression X situational frustration or priming

(press)