Contemporary Research on Personality Module 35

Contemporary Research on Personality Module 35
Online link DID YOU BUY OREOS???? Module

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Contemporary Research on Personality
The Trait Perspective (overview) Exploring Traits Assessing Traits The Big Five Factors Evaluating the Trait Perspective Bernstein 536… Module

How do you eat your Oreo? Can the way you eat an Oreo cookie tell you something about your personality? Assign paper, how I eat an Oreo and what it says about me. Module

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Contemporary Research-- The Trait Perspective
a characteristic pattern of behavior a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports Identifiable behavior patterns – what can be expected of the person most of the time An individual’s unique constellation of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving (traits) constitutes his or her personality. Allport (originator of trait theory) interested less in explaining and more interested in describing, he thought Freud was too interested in hidden motives. Born in Indiana in 1897 Grew up in Cleveland Undergraduate student at Harvard University Graduate student in psychology at Harvard Professorship at Harvard Visited with Freud in 1919 Died in 1967 From Theories of Personality Susan Cloninger Traits relatively stable across situations Anxious, impulsive, impatient personality types at greater risk for addiction. You can breed an impulsive rat. Addicted rats might get addicted to exercise 90% of rats with unlimited access to cocaine were dead in a month. From Quirk 13. In general, trait theories emphasize which of the following? (AP13) (A) The changing and temporary nature of human characteristics (B) The role of current environmental conditions in controlling behavior (C) The lasting nature of personal characteristics (D) Identity confusion (E) Early childhood experiences Examples of Traits Honest Dependable Moody Impulsive Module

The Personality Inventory
Personality Inventory : a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors used to assess selected personality traits Myers-Briggs type indicator sorts people according to Jung’s personality types 126 Questions taken by 2.5 million Americans per year. Preview Question 11: What are personality inventories, and what are their strengths and weaknesses as trait-assessment tools? 64. Most tests of personality are in the form of (AP13) (A) inkblot tests (B) word association tests (C) structured interviews (D) self-report inventories (E) situational analyses Module

Exploring Traits Allport & Odbert (1936), identified almost 18,000 words representing traits. Inferring Traits from Language: The Dictionary Study Webster’s New International Dictionary 17,953 traits (4.5% of the dictionary) (Cloninger ppt) Preview Question 10: How do psychologists use traits to describe personality? Words in an unabridged dictionary Each personality is uniquely made up of multiple traits. An extroverted person says they like excitement, practical jokes and dislike quiet reading, this cluster reflects a basic factor or trait,…extroversion. Is a person who is moody also anxious, rigid or unsociable? Alport said there were 5 central traits industry, generosity, nervousness, extraversion, aggression. Module

Exploring Traits Factor analysis is a statistical approach used to describe and relate personality traits. Cattell used this approach to develop a 16 Personality Factor (16PF) inventory. OBJECTIVE 15| Describe some of the ways psychologists have attempted to compile a list of basic personality traits. One way to condense the immense list of personality traits is through factor analysis, a statistical approach used to identify clusters of related items. Raymond Cattell ( ) Module

From Behavior to Temperament?
How do psychologists find underlying dimensions when we can only observe specific behaviors? In the New York Longitudinal Study (Ch. 16), Thomas, Chess, and Birth wanted to infer an underlying temperament by just looking a behaviors. Rothbart’s IBQ asks parents about specific baby behaviors to infer an underlying temperament too. How did they do it? Work on this slide 98. Which of the following describes the different emotional dispositions of infants? (AP13) (A) Imprinting (B) Temperament (C) Mental set (D) Instinct (E) Attachment temperament temperament behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior behavior DevPsy.org Module

First Observation of Sea Monster(s)
DevPsy.org Module

How many animals are under the water?
DevPsy.org Module

Second Observation of Sea Monster(s)
DevPsy.org Module

DevPsy.org Module

Third Observation of Sea Monster(s)
DevPsy.org Module

DevPsy.org Module

Number of Sea Monsters How could you tell the number of sea monster when you could only see parts of them? You were able to tell how many sea monster there were because you watched how different visible parts moved together or independently. That is, you observed have move of sea monster parts are correlated. Just like statistical correlations we have seen in class. You saw visible parts move together and others move independently; you did an intuitive correlation. DevPsy.org Module

Number of Sea Monsters By looking at the correlations between all the parts we can see (observable behaviors), we can infer something about their underlying nature (theoretical constructs) You were able to tell how many sea monster there were because you watched how different visible parts moved together or independently. That is, you observed have move of sea monster parts are correlated. Just like statistical correlations we have seen in class. DevPsy.org Module

Number of Sea Monsters Factor Analysis is a statistical method that looks at how lots of different observations correlate and determines how many theoretical constructs could most simply explain what you see. DevPsy.org Module

Factor Analysis Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core personality traits based on statistical correlations. Excitement Impatient Irritable Boisterous Basic trait Superficial traits Impulsive Module

Raymond Cattell Module

Factor Analysis Hans and Sybil Eysenck suggested that personality could be reduced down to two polar dimensions, extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability. McCrae and Costa 5 factors of personality, openness to experience, contentiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism. Bernstein defining descriptions p 561 Gray sees extraverts as having a sensitive reward system and insensitive punishment system, introverts are the opposite. Do personality online. Module

Biology and Personality
Personality dimensions are influenced by genes. Brain-imaging procedures show that extraverts seek stimulation because their normal brain arousal is relatively low. Genes also influence our temperament and behavioral style. Differences in children’s shyness and inhibition may be attributed to autonomic nervous system reactivity. Identical twins more alike than non-identical twins (Borkenau 2002) 30-60% of the difference in personality due to genetic factors. (Caspi 2002) PET scans show frontal lobe areas for inhibition lower in extroverts (Johnson 1999) Gosling,…dog personalities are evident and can be as consistently judged as human personalities. (Groothius 2005) Birds have stable personalities. Birds can be bred with personalities. Module

The Trait Perspective Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use) now used for many other screening purposes The MMPI was developed by empirically testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminated between diagnostic groups. Tested normals & abnormals kept questions where normals and abnormals answered differently. Nothing in the paper interests me but the comics,…. answered yes by depressed people 84. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is used primarily to provide information about which of the following? (AP12) A. Achievement B. Communication skills C. Intelligence D. Body Image E. Clinical disorders Module

MMPI Test Profile Can be given & scored by computer.
Don’t lie…..can detect if you lie by answers to universally true statements like “I get angry sometimes.” 10 Clinical scales This graph plots the scores of ED, a depressed and anxious young man, before and after psychotherapy. Scores are converted to a “T-Scale,” such that an avg. score =50 and about 2/3 of people fall between T-Scores above 60 = psychological disorder. Module

The Big Five Factors Conscientiousness Agreeableness Neuroticism
Openness Extraversion Preview Question 12: Which traits seem to provide the most useful information about personality variation? Today’s trait researchers believe that earlier trait dimensions, such as Eysencks’ personality dimensions, fail to tell the whole story. So, an expanded range (five factors) of traits does a better job of assessment. Module

Endpoints Module

Questions about the Big Five
Quite stable in adulthood. However, they change over development. 1. How stable are these traits? Conscientiousness increases in your 20’s Agreeableness increases in your 30’s through your 60’s (Srivastava 2003) 2. Common to all cultures in a culture study (McCrae 2005) Fifty percent or so for each trait. 2. How heritable are they? These traits are common across cultures. 3. How about other cultures? Module

Evaluating the Trait Perspective
The Person-Situation Controversy Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out that traits may be enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is different. Therefore, traits are not good predictors of behavior. Preview Question 13: Does research support the consistency of personality traits over time and across situations? Psychologists who emphasize the importance of personality traits are most often criticized for (AP99) (A) being naive and overly optimistic (B) Being subjective in interpreting unverifiable phenomena (C) Overestimating the number of basic traits (D) Underestimating the role of emotions (E) Underestimating the variability of behavior from situation to situation In some ways personality stable over time situationally different. Module

The Person-Situation Controversy
Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation may be different, but average behavior remains the same. Therefore, traits matter. As we get older our personality stabilizes Ho do you act with parents? Friends? Is it different? Traits show up in our musical preferences. Classical, Jazz, Blues, & Folk lovers open to experience and verbally intelligent Country, Pop, & religious music lovers tend to be cheerful, outgoing & conscientious Module

Consistency of Expressive Style
Expressive styles in speaking and gestures demonstrate trait consistency. 2 second clips of a teacher Observers are able to judge people’s behavior and feelings in as little as 30 seconds and in one particular case as little as 2 seconds. Module

The Social-Cognitive Perspective Overview Reciprocal Influences Personal Control Assessing Behavior in Situations Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective Module

Social-Cognitive Perspective
An approach in which personality is seen as the patterns of thinking and behavior that a person learns. It builds on research in learning and cognition. The social-cognitive perspective on personality sensitizes researchers to how situations affect and are affected by individuals. The social-cognitive approach to personality differs from the psychodynamic and trait approaches in two important ways. First, social-cognitive theorists look to conscious thoughts and emotions for clues to how people differ from one another and what guides their behavior (Mischel, 2004b). Second, the social-cognitive approach did not grow out of clinical cases or other descriptions of people's personalities. It was based instead on the principles of animal and human learning described in the chapter on learning. In fact, the founders of the social-cognitive approach were originally known as social-learning theorists because of their view that what we call personality consists mainly of the thoughts and actions we learn through observing and interacting with family and others in social situations (Bandura & Walters, 1963; Funder, 2004). Module

Social-Cognitive Perspective
In his social-cognitive theory Albert Bandura (1999; 2006) sees personality as shaped by the ways in which thoughts, behavior, and the environment interact and influence one another. Preview Question 14: In the view of social-cognitive psychologists, what mutual influences shape an individual’s personality? Bandura (1986, 2001, 2005) believes that personality is the result of an interaction that takes place between a person and their social context. Remember the bobo doll research? He points out that whether people learn through direct experience with rewards and punishments or through the observational learning processes described in the chapter on learning, their behavior creates changes in their environment. Observing these changes, in turn, affects how they think, which then affects their behavior, and so on in a constant web of mutual influence that Bandura calls reciprocal determinism. According to Bandura, an especially important cognitive element in this web of influence is perceived self efficacy the learned expectation of success. Bandura says that what we do, and what we try to do, is largely controlled by our perceptions or beliefs about our chances of success at a particular task or problem. The higher our perceived self efficacy ill relation to a particular situation or task, the greater our actual accomplishments in that situation or task (Zimmerman & Schunk, So going to a job interview with the belief that you have the skills necessary to be hired may lead to behaviors that help you get the job. From Bernstein Alicia has started a new and very different job but believes in her skills and ability to carry out the tasks required of her. Albert Bandura would refer to Alicia’s sense of confidence as which of the following? (AP12) A. Reciprocal determinism B. Self-Determination C. Psychic determinism D. Self-efficacy E. Phenomenology Albert Bandura Module

Individuals & Environments
Bandura's notion of reciprocal determinism suggests that personal factors (such as cognitions, or thoughts), behavior, and the environment are constantly affecting one another. Different people choose different environments. -The school you attend and the music you listen to are partly based on your dispositions. Our personalities shape how we react to events. -Anxious people react to situations differently than relaxed people…. Anxious people perceive the world as threatening Our personalities shape situations. -How we view and treat people influences how they treat us For example, a person's hostile thoughts may lead to hostile behavior, which creates even more hostile thoughts. At the same time, the hostile behavior offends other people, which creates a threatening environment that causes the person to think and act in even more negative ways. As increasingly negative thoughts alter the person's perceptions of the environment, that environment seems to be more threatening than ever (Bushman et al., 2005) from Bernstein Behavior External Environments Personal Factors Module

Self efficacy: learned expectations about probability of success
Personal Control External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate. Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate. Self efficacy: learned expectations about probability of success Preview Question 15: What are the causes and consequences of personal control? Individuals who accept personal responsibility for their life experiences may be characterized as having (AP04) (A) Unrealistic expectations (B) Delusions of grandeur (C) An internal locus of control (D) A pessimistic view of reality (E) An introverted personality 47. Judy believes that her fate is determined by her own actions. Judy’s belief best illustrates (AP12) A. self-actualization B. psychological reactance C. a preoperational schema D. the basis for psychological determinism E. an internal locus of control Social-cognitive psychologists emphasize our sense of personal control, whether we control the environment or the environment controls us. Internals achieved more in school, act independently, enjoy better health and feel less depressed than externals (Bachman 1998) Better able to delay gratification, good adjustment, better grades & social success (Who wants to be around someone who blames others?) Module

Learned Helplessness When unable/unwilling to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness. Learned helplessness – Passive resignation Research w/dogs unable to avoid shocks learned helplessness (Sleigman 1975) Put in a new situation they still remained hopeless. Aaron Beck suggested that negative beliefs cause depression. To help change these negative beliefs, Beck used which of the following therapies? (AP04) (A) Cognitive (B) Psychopharmacological (C) Rational-emotive (D) Psychoanalytic (E) Social-learning 17. Individuals who believe that an unpleasant experience is unavoidable and therefore do nothing to change the course of events are exhibiting (AP12) A. self-actualization attributes B. the fight-or-flight response C. attributional deficits D. cognitive dissonance E. learned helplessness Martin Seligman’s research in the late 1960s addressed the question of how we react to repeated and unavoidable shocks or torture. In particular, Seligman studied the ability of dogs to learn avoidance behaviors when given an electric shock. He placed dogs into harnesses (much as Pavlov had done) then gave them a series of shocks paired with a conditioned stimulus (also similar to Pavlov’s experiment). He gave the dogs no opportunity to escape the shock. Low self efficacy Module

Learned Helplessness: Implications
The concept of learned helplessness has played an important role in the study of depression. This experiment showed the importance of having a sense of control over the situations in which we find ourselves. People who have a sense of learned helplessness are more likely than others to feel depressed because they do not feel that they can control what happens to them. Subsequent studies on humans included research into the role of control in nursing homes. Residents who received control over such decisions as what time to perform various activities and where to sit when guests arrive, or who were given plants to take care of (rather than having the staff take care of the plants), exhibited a greater sense of control and were less depressed than residents who did not receive these options. Think about what learned helplessness might mean for people in totalitarian governments, prisons, concentration camps, or abusive relationships. Learned helplessness is related to depression Totalitarian governments Nursing home studies Module

Optimism vs. Pessimism An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style is your way of explaining positive or negative events. Sleigman is the key theorist Negative attributional style more likely to earn low grades. (Noel 1987) Hopelessness dampens immune system Severe, long-lasting depression is especially common among people who their lack of control or other problems as caused by a permanent, generalized lack of personal competence rather than by a temporary condition or an external cause (Seligman et al., 1988). This negative attributional style is seen by some researchers as a partly inherited trait that leaves people prone to depression because they attribute negative events to their own characteristics and believe they will never be capable of doing better (Alloy, Abramson, & Francis, 1999; Hankin, Fraley, & Abela, 2005; Hunt & Forand, 2005). Are depressed people's unusually negative beliefs about themselves actually helping to cause their depression, or are they merely symptoms of it? A number of studies have assessed the attributional styles of large samples of nondepressed people and then kept in touch with them to see if, in the face of equivalent stressors, individuals with negative self-beliefs are more likely to become depressed. These longitudinal studies suggest that a negative attributional style is, in fact, a risk factor for depression, not just a result of being depressed (Evans et al., 2005; Garber, Keiley, & Martin, 2002; Gibb et al., 2004; Satterfield, Folkman, &; Acree, 2002). In one study, for example, adolescents who held strong negative self-beliefs were more likely than other youngsters to develop depression when faced with stress later in life (Lewinsohn, Joiner, & Rohde, 2001). Module

Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology
Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Blind optimism not useful. We have difficulty recognizing our own incompetence. Ignorance is bliss Positive psychology, attempts to foster human fulfillment. Positive psychology, in addition, seeks positive subjective well-being, positive character, and positive social groups. Courtesy of Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD Director, Positive Psychology Center/ University of Pennsylvania Martin Seligman Module

Sleigman on positive psychology
23:45 Martin Seligman talks about psychology -- as a field of study and as it works one-on-one with each patient and each practitioner. As it moves beyond a focus on disease, what can modern psychology help us to become? Module

Assessing Behavior in Situations
Social-cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and simulated situations because they find that it is the best way to predict the behavior of others in similar situations. Preview Question 16: What underlying principle guides social-cognitive psychologists in their assessment of people’s behavior and beliefs? Spy training real spy missions…CIA training in NY and other cities. Module

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective
Critics say that social-cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention to the individual, his unconscious mind, his emotions, and his genetics. Preview Question 17: What has the social-cognitive perspective contributed to the study of personality, and what criticisms have been leveled against it? Where is the person in this view of personality. Well duh, we have the psychoanalytic theory for the unconscious… Module

Exploring the Self Overview The Benefits of Self-Esteem Culture and Self-Esteem Self-Serving Bias Module

Exploring the Self The self organizes thinking, feelings, and actions and is a critical part of our personality. Our possible selves lay out our goals. University of Michigan students in med program earn higher grades if they have a clear vision of themselves as successful doctors Manilow t-shirts, 50% said people would notice, on 23% noticed. (1996) Used to say this… Research on the self has a long history because the self organizes thinking, feelings, and actions and is a critical part of our personality. Research focuses on the different selves we possess. Some we dream and others we dread. We overestimate our concern that others evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders (spotlight effect). Module

Benefits of Self-Esteem
Maslow and Rogers argued that a successful life results from a healthy self-image (self-esteem). Preview Question 18: Are we helped or hindered by high self-esteem? High self esteem results in more persistence at difficulty tasks, less shy, less lonely. Criticism: Maybe high self esteem follows success? Deflated self esteem (tell them they did badly on an aptitude test) results in more racial prejudice more likely to disparage others. Accept yourself and it is easier to accept others. When self-esteem is deflated, we view ourselves and others critically. Module

Culture & Self-Esteem Testing large numbers of law students in their first year of study she found that the optimists had greater physiological stress and poorer immune system functioning. This turned out to be due to the optimistic students being more likely to engage in conflicting goals. Law school is highly demanding, and socializing and making new friends often conflict with spending long hours studying in the library. Optimists were far more likely to do both and therefore bum themselves out, with the inevitable adverse consequences on their health. The intriguing finding, though, was that these short-term costs disappeared in the second year of study, when the students' immune functioning returned to normal. As a result of their increased engagement during the previous year, those who had worked the hardest now achieved the most, not only in their exams but also in building a supportive network of friends and colleagues. The short-term costs followed by longer-term gains helps to reconcile the apparently complex pattern of results on optimism and physical health. From RAINY BRAIN, SUNNY BRAIN: A leading psychologist explains the new science of mind. People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things they achieve and comparing themselves to people with similar positions. Module

Self-Serving Bias The tendency to attribute our successes to internal characteristics while blaming our failures on external causes. We accept responsibility for good deeds and successes more than for bad deeds and failures. Why did you lose the game? Most people see themselves as better than average…?!?!? 90% of college profs say they are better than peers….who do you want to be taught by? 90% Business managers say they are better than peers 86% of Australians rate their job performance as above average, only 1% rate their performance as below average. Defensive self-esteem is fragile and egotistic whereas secure self-esteem is less fragile and less dependent on external evaluation. Biases such as the ultimate attribution error help maintain people's negative view s of out-groups and positive views of their own in-group (Fiske, 1998). Like other aspects of social cognition, the fundamental attribution error may not be universal (Miyamoto 6c Kitayama, 2002). Researchers have found, for example, that people in collectivist cultures such as India, China, Japan, and Korea are less likely than those in the individualist cultures of North America and Europe to attribute people's behavior to internal causes. Instead, these people tend to see behavior as due to an interaction between individual characteristics and the situations or contexts in which the person is immersed (Lehman et al., 2004). Researchers have also pointed out that attributing behavior to internal causes may not always be an "error." Sometimes an internal attribution may simply be the most reasonable attribution to make, given the information available (Sabini, Siepmann, & Stein, 2001). Further, David Funder (2004) has argued that, in many situations, personality characteristics and other internal factors are indeed the true causes of behavior. In other words, according to Funder, social perception is much more accurate than many psychologists have previously recognized. Bernstein Module

Other Attributional Biases
The inclination toward internal attributions is much less pronounced when people explain their own behavior. Here, in fact, another bias tends to come into play: the actor-observer bias. Whereas people often attribute other people's behavior to internal causes, they tend to attribute their own behavior to external factors, especially when the behavior is inappropriate or inadequate. For example, when Australian students were asked why they sometimes drive too fast, they focused on circumstances such as being late, but saw other people's dangerous driving as a sign of aggressiveness or immaturity (Harre, Brandt, & Houkamau, 2004). Similarly, when you drive slowly, it's because you are looking for an address, or for some other good reason, not because you're a dimwitted loser like that jerk who crawled along in front of you yesterday. The actor-observer bias occurs mainly because people have different kinds of information about their own behavior and about others' behavior. When you are acting in a situation giving a speech, perhaps the information that is most available to you is likely to be external and situational, such as the temperature of the room and the size of the audience. You also have a lot of information about other external factors, such as the amount of time you had to prepare your talk or the upsetting argument that occurred this morning. If your speech is disorganized and boring you can easily attribute it to one or all of these external causes. But when you observe someone else, the most noticeable stimulus in the situation is that person You do not know what happened to the person last night or this morning, so you are likely to attribute whatever he or she does to enduring internal characteristics (Moskowitz, 2005). Of course, people do not always attribute their own behavior to external forces. In fact, the degree to which they do so depends on whether the outcome of their behavior is positive or negative. In one study, when people were asked what they saw as the cause of their good and bad experiences when shopping online, they tended to take personal credit for positive outcomes but to blame the computer for the negative ones (Moon, 2003). In other words, these people showed a self-serving bias, the tendency to take personal credit for success but to blame external causes for failure. This tendency has been found in almost all cultures, but as with the fundamental attribution error, it is usually more pronounced among people from individualistic Western cultures than among those from collectivist Eastern cultures (Mezuhs et al., 2004). Module

Self Serving Bias Module

More Self Serving Bias Module

The “Above Average Effect”
HS Seniors When asked to judge their ability to get along with others, 60 percent rated themselves in the top 10 percent 25 percent considered themselves in the top 1 percent Teachers 94 percent of college professors say they do above-average work How accurately do we perceive ourselves? Consider a survey of nearly one million high school seniors. When asked to judge their ability to get along with others, 100 percent rated themselves as at least average, 60 percent rated themselves in the top 10 percent, and 25 percent considered themselves in the top 1 percent. And when asked about their leadership skills, only 2 percent assessed themselves as being below average. Teachers aren't any more realistic: 94 percent of college professors say they do above-average work. Psychologists call this tendency for inflated self-assessment the "above- average effect," and they've documented it in contexts ranging from driving ability to managerial skills. In engineering, when professionals were asked to rate their performance, between 30 percent and 40 percent put themselves in the top 5 percent. In the military, officers' assessments of their leadership qualities (charisma, intellect, and so on) are far rosier than assessments of them made by their subordinates and superiors. In medicine, doctors' assessments of their interpersonal skill are far higher than the ratings they received from their patients and supervisors. From Subliminal: How your unconscious mind rules your behavior. Module

Jailed criminals think they are kinder, more trustworthy and honest than the average member of the public! …a team led by Constantine Sedikides has surveyed 85 incarcerated offenders at a prison in South East England about their prosocial traits. The inmates were aged 18 to 34 and the majority had been jailed for acts of violence and robbery. There is no information on the participants' gender. The inmates completed questionnaires anonymously and in relative privacy. Compared with "an average prisoner" the participants rated themselves as more moral, kinder to others, more self-controlled, more law-abiding, more compassionate, more generous, more dependable, more trustworthy, and more honest. Remarkably, they also rated themselves as higher on all these traits than "an average member of the community", with one exception - law-abiding. The prisoners rated themselves as equivalent on this trait relative to an average community member. Past research (pdf) on intellectual performance has shown that it is weaker performers who most over-estimate their own ability. Sedikides and his colleagues wondered if their new results add to this pattern, and raise the possibility of a more general tendency for those with especially poor skills or detrimental behavioural habits to lack insight into their own person. "Do serial divorcers think that they are better marital partners than the average spouse? Do people who overeat, smoke cigarettes, and fail to exercise assume they have better than average health habits," the researchers pondered. If so, the researchers warned that the prospects for helping such people (and for rehabilitating prisoners) is not promising. The poorer you perform the MORE likely you are to overestimate you ability! Module

Optimism Bias/Positivity Illusion
People consistently overestimate the likelihood of good things happening to them. What do you think are your chances of earning a higher salary than average? Its impossible for everyone to earn more than average, yet almost everyone believes that they are the exception The optimism bias, or what's often called the positivity illusion, is the finding that people consistently overestimate the likelihood of good things happening to them. Answer the following: What do you think are your chances of earning a higher salary than average? Be honest-what do you really think? Over your lifetime, do you think you will earn more than the norm, about average, or a bit less? Chances are you will say "more." But if you think about it for a moment, its impossible for everyone to earn more than average, yet almost everyone believes that they are the exception. Living longer than average or having a great marriage and great kids is no different. In his book Irrationality, the British psychologist Stuart Sutherland reported that 95 percent of drivers surveyed claimed that their driving was better than the norm. We all expect to drive better and live longer, healthier, wealthier lives than average. From RAINY BRAIN, SUNNY BRAIN: A leading psychologist explains the new science of mind Module

From Subliminal: How your unconscious mind rules your behavior.
In 1959, the social psychologist Milton Rokeach gathered three psychiatric patients to live together in Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan. Each of the patients believed he was Jesus Christ. Since at least two of them had to be wrong, Rokeach wondered how they would process this idea. There were precedents. In a famous seventeenth-century case a fellow named Simon Morin was sent to a madhouse for making the same claim. There he met another Jesus and "was so struck with the folly of his companion that he acknowledged his own” Unfortunately, he subsequently reverted to his original belief and, like Jesus, ended up being killed-in this case, burned at the stake for blasphemy. No one was burned in Ypsilanti. One patient, like Morin, relinquished his belief; the second saw the others as mentally ill, but not himself; and the third managed to dodge the issue completely. So in this case, two out of the three patients managed to hang on to a self-image at odds with reality. The disconnect may be less extreme, but the same could be said to be true even of many of us who don't believe we can walk on water. If we probed-or, in many cases, simply bothered to pay attention-most of us would notice that our self-image and the more objective image that others have of us are not quite in sync. From Subliminal: How your unconscious mind rules your behavior. Module

EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (7th Edition in Modules) David Myers
Build Rotter slide Rotter’s expectancy theory Rotter chose the empirical law of effect as his motivating factor. The law of effect states that people are motivated to seek out positive stimulation, or reinforcement, and to avoid unpleasant stimulation. Rotter combined behaviorism and the study of personality, without relying on physiological instincts or drives as a motive force. Expectancy. Expectancy is the subjective probability that a given behavior will lead to a particular outcome, or reinforcer. How likely is it that the behavior will lead to the outcome? Having "high" or "strong" expectancies means the individual is confident the behavior will result in the outcome. Having low expectancies means the individual believes it is unlikely that his or her behavior will result in reinforcement. If the outcomes are equally desirable, we will engage in the behavior that has the greatest likelihood of paying off (i.e., has the highest expectancy). Expectancies are formed based on past experience. The more often a behavior has led to reinforcement in the past, the stronger the person's expectancy that the behavior will achieve that outcome now. It is important to note that expectancy is a subjective probability, because one common source of pathology is irrational expectancies. There may be no relationship whatsoever between the person's subjective assessment of how likely a reinforcement will be and the actual, objective probability of the reinforcer's occurring. People can either over- or underestimate this likelihood, and both distortions can potentially be problematic. "Locus of Control." For many people, their only exposure to the ideas of Julian B. Rotter is his concept of generalized expectancies for control of reinforcement, more commonly known as locus of control. Locus of control refers to people's very general, cross-situational beliefs about what determines whether or not they get reinforced in life. People can be classified along a continuum from very internal to very external. PowerPoint Slides Aneeq Ahmad Henderson State University Worth Publishers, © 2008 Module

Barnum Effect The Barnum effect is the name given to a type of subjective validation in which a person finds personal meaning in statements that could apply to many people. Ie. Believing a horoscope describes you when its very generic. For example: You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. At times you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. If these statements sound like they came from a newsstand astrology book, that may be because they did. Such statements are sometimes called Barnum statements and they are an effective element in the repertoire of anyone doing readings: astrologers, palm readers, psychics, rumpologists and so on. If the statements appear on a personality inventory that one believes has been especially prepared for you alone, one often validates the accuracy of such statements and thereby gives validity to the instrument used to arrive at them. If Barnum statements are validated when they have originated during a psychic reading, the validation is taken as also validating the psychic powers of the medium. "Barnum effect" is an expression that seems to have originated with psychologist Paul Meehl, in deference to circus man P. T. Barnum's reputation as a master psychological manipulator who is said to have claimed "we have something for everybody." Module

Contemporary Research on Personality Module 35

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