4: Personality and the prediction of behavior Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in 4: Personality and the prediction of behavior Deck (83)
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1
Q

Is it the person or the situation that determines social behavior?

A

Neither the person nor the situation alone determines social behavior - features of the person and the situation work together

2
Q

What is it that drives us? (to act certain ways)

A

Motivation - the energy that moves people towards their desired outcome

3
Q

What is goals (in this context) and what do they do?

A

Goals are what we hope to achieve with a certain behavior.

Many of our goals have subgoals - steps towards a larger goal

4
Q

What is the connection between goals and motivation?

A

Motives are goals with a broad scope (the desire to gain status, protect families etc)

5
Q

What is a subgoal?

A

A smaller goal that helps us reach the final/overall goal.

We have multiple goals that help us reach more important goals of ours

6
Q

What we pay attention to is influenced by XXXX?

A

Our goals

7
Q

If our strategies are well-practiced they become XXXX?

A

automatized - like driving a car (it doesn’t require much attention when you have been driving for 20 years)

8
Q

What is a possible downside to automatized strategies?

A

We sometimes make mindless mistakes when things are automatized

9
Q

What is thought suppression?

A

When we try to suppress thoughts incompatible with our goals

10
Q

What often happens when we try to suppress thoughts in order to achieve our goals?

A

It is quite difficult NOT to think of something and therefore…..The more you try to suppress thoughts the more you will think about it

11
Q

We have various forms of knowledge…what are those forms?

A
  • Sensory memories (visual images, smells, sounds etc.)
  • Beliefs (beliefs about persons behaviors, traits, abilities, goals, relationships, etc)
  • Explanations (WHY people, groups, situations are the way they are)
12
Q

What is exemplars?

A

Knowledge of a specific episode, event, or individual

13
Q

What is a schema?

A

Knowledge that represents generalized information

14
Q

What does knowledge do?

A
  • Knowledge tells us what to expect from our encounters with the world
  • Knowledge guide our expectations and suggest what we ought to pay attention to and have we should behave
  • The knowledge we bring with us influences how we understand social events
15
Q

Situational priming

A

The situation you are in “primes” your thoughts - the thought that comes to mind when sitting in a lecture are different from the ones that come when you are having dinner with your family

16
Q

If you think of your brother there is a bigger chance that you will start to think about other family members as well. - This is refered to as?

A

Knowledge primed by related knowledge

17
Q

Some thoughts come to mind more readily than others ….these are called what?

A

Chronically accessible

18
Q

Social psychologists consider 3 general types of feelings - which?

A
  • Attitudes: Favorable or unfavorable evaluations of particular people, objects, events or ideas. Simple evaluations on a positive/negative continuum - we feel positive or negative about something
  • Emotions: Feelings such as fear, joy, anger, guilt. Richer and more complex than attitudes. In addition to attitudes positive/negative continuum, these also have a physiological arousal component
  • Moods: Feelings that are less focused and longer-lasting than emotions
19
Q

How do researchers get information about a person’s feelings

A

They use self-reports, behavioral indicators, and physiological measures

20
Q

What is a possible downside to behavoiral indicators?

A

people can sometimes manipulate their emotional expressions

21
Q

What is a possible downside to self-reports?

A

People sometimes hide their feelings and find it difficult to express them

22
Q

What is a possible downside physiological measures?

A
  • Different people often exhibit different biological responses to the same emotional state
  • Physiological measures are influenced by other processes than emotions
23
Q

What are genes and culture’s relationship to feelings?

A

Genes and culture together create the foundation for our experiences and expression of feelings

  • Genes contribute greatly to feelings - feelings are expressed the same way universally across the globe - blind people also express feeling the same way ‘
  • Culture teaches their members when and how to experience, express and understand feelings
24
Q

Physiological and cognitive processes can also influence our feeling - how?

A
  • The contraction and relaxation of certain facial muscles can influence the emotions people experience (if you smile, you feel happier)
  • Changes in the neurochemistry and the automatic nervous system can also alter feelings
  • Our feelings are strongly influenced by how we interpret/appraise situations
  • Counterfactual thinking - the kind of “what might have been” thinking
25
Q

What is counterfactual thinking?

A

The “what might have been”-thinking

this influences our feelings

26
Q

What is the primary function of emotions?

A

to alert us when something isn’t normal

27
Q

Why are attitudes important to us?

A

It enables us to make quick approach/avoidance judgements about things, without having to think too much about it

28
Q

Why are moods important to us?

A

They prepare us to deal with our current circumstances

29
Q

Positive emotions serve as an important, adaptive role in both long and short term - why?

A

They help us deal better with negative events and crisis

30
Q

Humans are self-reflective, how does this help us?

A

It enables us to know about ourselves, control our actions and present ourselves more effectively to others

31
Q

What is self-concept?

A

knowledge about ourselves

32
Q

What is self-esteem?

A

our attitudes towards ourselves

33
Q

Self-esteem influences what?

A

how you think, feel, act

34
Q

Do we have one or multiple selves?

A

Multiple

35
Q

Our self-concept includes multiple ………?

A

Selves

  • Some selves are linked to the roles you play and the relationships you have
  • Some er linked to the future and some to the present. Future selves are important because they help us define our goals and direct our actions
  • Most of us possess a group/collective self - part of something - I am a university student (EX)
36
Q

“I am part of a specific group” - what kind of self is this?

A

Group/collective self

37
Q

How do we develop and change our self-concept and self-esteem

A
  • through social comparison and reflected appraisal process (by observing or imagining what others think of us)
  • perception process = the process through which people observe their own behavior to infer their own internal characteristics (do you see yourself as a good or bad parent)
38
Q

What is a perception process

A

the process through which people observe their own behavior to infer their own internal characteristics (do you see yourself as a good or bad parent)

39
Q

We want people to validate the way we see ourselves - this is especially important for one group - which?

A

It is especially important for those who are certain of their self-images. If we believe we know who we are, we want others to see us the same way

40
Q

What is self-regulation?

A

the process through which people select, monitor and adjust their strategies in an attempt to reach their goals

41
Q

What is self-presentation?

A

the process through which we try to control the impressions people form of us - this plays a big role in our social lives
-How we decide to present ourselves publicly will influence how we view ourselves

42
Q

In a social situation, there is especially one thing that can affect how we think, act, behave, what is this?

A

The presence of other people

The different people in our environment creates different situations

43
Q

What are affordances?

A

The opportunities and threats that people and situations provide

44
Q

What are descriptive norms?

A

Information about what most people commonly do in a situation. - these can help up make the right choices

45
Q

What is pluralistic ignorance?

A

The phenomenon in which people in a group misperceive the belief of others because everyone acts inconsistently with their belief

46
Q

What are injunctive norms?

A

a norm that describes what as commonly approved or disapproved in a situation (what are you allowed to do inside a church)

47
Q

What is a scripted situation?

A

a situation in which certain events are expected to occur in a particular sequence.
These help us coordinate our behaviors with the behavior of others and avoid violating the injunctive norms of the situation

48
Q

Strong situations

A

Provide salient cues to guide behavior.
High degree of structure and definition.
Uniform interpretations
Constrain the influence of personality (situations are the stronger influence)
are often scripted
EX: funeral

49
Q

Weak situation

A

Do NOT provide salient cues to guide behavior
Low degree of structure and definition
Allow for different interpretations
Allow opportunities for personality to manifest itself (you can be yourself)

50
Q

Does the culture we live in influence how we think, act, feel?

A

Yes - it is especially apparent to see a difference between individualistic and collectivistic communities

51
Q

Do people in collectivistic or individualistic communities show more conformity?

A

Collectivistic

52
Q

Tight cultures (China)

A

Have strong norms and little tolerance of deviance

53
Q

Loose cultures (USA)

A

Norms are relaxed and deviation is more acceptable

54
Q

Why do people react to the same situation differently?

A

Because the situation means different things to different people

55
Q

Person-situation fit

A

The extent to which a person and a situation are compatible -> people can’t reach their goals unless their situation provides appropriate opportunities

56
Q

What does it mean that the situation chooses the person?

A

Most situations limit “enrollment” not everyone gets in. You can’t get into every situation it sometimes requires something specific that not everyone possesses.

57
Q

What does it mean that the person chooses the situation?

A
  • We play a large part in determining our own situations
  • We choose situations based on the opportunities they provide
  • We tend to choose the opportunities that appear to fit well with our desires and goals
58
Q

Different situations prime different parts of the person - what does this mean?

A

Cultural symbols can prime styles of thinking among members of other cultures

  • Ex: seeing an attractive person smile at you may prime thoughts of romance, whereas hearing the same person yell raises concerns about safety
  • Even small features of our situations can prime goals, beliefs, feelings, and habits
  • Therefore we might act politely in one situation and rudely in another
59
Q

What does it mean that persons change the situation?

A
  • Each person who enters a social situation has the ability to change it
  • People change their social situations in terms of better opportunities to achieve their goals
60
Q

What does it mean that situations change the person?

A

Socialization - the process through which a culture teaches its members about its belief, customs, habits and languages
ex: neglectful parent can turn calm infant into anxious toddlers

61
Q

Who is prominent on the situation side of the person-situation debate?

A

Mischel (1968)

62
Q

What are some of the situationist arguments?

A
  • There is an upper level to how well one can predict a person’s behavior based on personality and this upper limit is a small one (personality psychology that tries to predict behavior does a crappy job)
  • therefore situations are more important than personality
  • Personality psychology It is a waste of time and contains many flaws and sees people as being more consistent over time than they really are.
63
Q

According to Mischel the correlation between personality psychology will one be between what and what?

A

.3-.4

64
Q

Why might a correlation of .4 be ok?

A

Describing/predicting human behavior is difficult

  • humans are complex -> many sources of noise (random error) and low reliability
  • Human behavior is complex -> simple models fail and even the best have limited success
65
Q

It is very difficult to asses personality and therefore we don’t expect our result to be xxxxx?

A

Perfect - When we have trouble with extraversion we will give us self a little break and remember how much more difficult it is to measure (than ex hight)

66
Q

When we find a personality study with a very high correlation, we are xxx?

A

Suspicious

67
Q

What is the bystander intervention?

A

Correlation of likeliness to help with inducing participant to be in a hurry

68
Q

What is a moderator variable?

A

A variable that changes the relationship between 2 other variables
can be thought of as switches that can turn off or off the link between personality and behavior

69
Q

What are the different types of moderators?

A

Features of the person
Features of the trait
Features of the behavior
Features of the situation

70
Q

High self-monitoring individuals

A

Change behavior according to the situation and the people in the situation.
“what does the situation want me to be and how can I be that person?”
situational

71
Q

Low self-monitoring individuals?

A

Won’t change behavior or opinions to please someone else
“Who am I and how can I be in this situation?”
Dispositional

72
Q

Which personal moderators matter more for high self-monitoring individuals?

A

The situation matters most - the situational - the situation has the most influence on the behavior

73
Q

Which personal moderators matter more for low self-monitoring individuals?

A

The personality matters most - the dispositional - the personality has the most influence in the behavior

74
Q

Private self-consciousness

A

attention to one’s inner thoughts and feelings

75
Q

People high in self-consciousness

A

Engage in chronic introspection

Attentive to inner thoughts, feelings, moods, traits, values

76
Q

People low in self-consciousness

A

Give little thought to themselves as objects to be self-examined
Are relatively unaware of their traits and dispositions

77
Q

Trait moderator: Observability

A

The degree to which the trait in question gives rise to behaviors that are publicly observable
some are high in observability (extraversion) and some are low (neuroticism)

78
Q

Prototypicality

A

Some behaviors are better examples of the domain of criterion behaviors than others
EX: I introduced myself to a stranger

79
Q

What is aggregation?

A

The summing or averaging of multiple measures to arrive at one score

80
Q

What are the benefits of aggregation?

A
  • Less worry about random state effects interfering with my ability to detect trait levels
  • Less worry about having chosen an imperfect assessment
81
Q

Precipitating situations

A

Belong under the heading strong situations but encourages people to be who they are and engage in dispositionally-based behavior (voting booth)

82
Q

Why should we expect small effect when it comes to predicting major life outcomes based on personality?

A
  • A large conceptual gap between personality traits and most life outcomes
  • Multideternimation - many different paths to some major life outcomes (die early driving drunk vs die early from rescuing a child from a fire)
83
Q

Why should we expect large effect when it comes to predicting major life outcomes based on personality

A

Major lifeoutcomes represents natural aggregation