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Selection

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Personality characteristics of others influence whether we select them as friends, dates, or mates Our characteristics play role in kinds of situations we select to enter and stay in

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Personality Characteristics Desired in a Marriage Partner

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Mutual attraction/love is the most favored characteristic Beyond love, top choices were personality characteristics (dependable character, emotional stability, pleasing disposition)

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Assortative Mating

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(people are married to people who are similar to themselves) Couples show positive correlation on a variety of features, both physical (e.g., height, earlobe length!) and personality traits

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Botwin et al. (1997) studied dating and married couples

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-Correlated preferences for Big 5 personality characteristics desired in a potential mate, and person's own personality characteristics -Correlations are consistently positive: Positive correlations between own personality and ideal partner personality are due, in part, to direct social preferences, based on personality characteristics of those doing the selecting -Correlations between preferences for ideal personality characteristics in a mate and the actual personality characteristics of an obtained mate Consistently (modest, but) positive correlations: People seem to get mates they want in terms of personality

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Personality and the Selective Breakup of Couples

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According to violation of desire theory (Buss, 1994), break-ups should be more common when one's desires are violated than when they are fulfilled Failing to marry someone who is dependable, emotionally stable, and has a pleasing disposition puts you at risk for divorce Extraversion and dominance not associated with satisfaction or breakups.

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Personality and the Selection of Situations

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Personality affects situations to which people are exposed through selective entry into, or avoidance of, certain activities ---Empathy and community volunteering ---Psychoticism and spontaneous, volatile situations ---Shyness and avoidance of interactions

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Evocation

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Once we select others to occupy our social environment, second class of processes set into motion—evocation of reactions from others and evocation of our own reactions by others -Personality characteristics of others evoke responses in us -Our personality characteristics evoke responses in others

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Hostile attributional bias

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Tendency to infer hostile intent on the part of others in the face of uncertain behavior from others Because they expect others to be hostile, aggressive people treat others aggressively—people treated aggressively tend to aggress back Thus, hostility from others is evoked by an aggressive person

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Evocation of Anger in Partners

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Person can perform actions that evoke emotional response in the partner Person can elicit actions from the partner that upset the original elicitor

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Buss (1991)

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Role of personality on evocation of anger and upset in married couples Assessed personality characteristics of husbands and wives Strongest predictors of upset are low agreeableness and emotional instability

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Expectancy confirmation

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People's beliefs about personality characteristics of others cause them to evoke in others actions that are consistent with initial beliefs

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Snyder and Swann (1978)

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People's beliefs led them to behave in an aggressive manner toward an unsuspecting target, then the target behaved in a more aggressive manner, confirming initial beliefs

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Manipulation

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Personality is linked to ways in which we try to influence or manipulate others Manipulation (social influence) includes ways in which people intentionally alter, change, or exploit others

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Manipulation can be examined from two perspectives within personality psychology

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Are some individuals consistently more manipulative than others? Given that all people attempt to influence others, do stable personality characteristics predict tactics that are used?

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A Taxonomy of Manipulation Tactics: 11 manipulation tactics identified

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Developed through a 2-step process: Nominations of acts of influence Factor analysis of self-reports and observer-reports of nominated acts

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Personality Predictors of Manipulation Tactics (Buss, 1992)

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-High Extraversion/Dominance: Coercion, responsibility invocation -Low Extraversion/Dominance: Self-abasement, hardball (e.g., deception, violence) -High Agreeableness: Pleasure induction, reason -Low Agreeableness: Coercion, silent treatment -High Conscientiousness: Reason -Emotionally unstable people use a variety of tactics to manipulate others, but the most common is Regression tactic -High Intellect-Openness: Reason, pleasure induction, responsibility invocation -Low Intellect-Openness: Social comparison

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Machiavellianism

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Manipulative strategy of social interaction, personality style that uses other people as tools for personal gain ----People who score high on Machiavellianism ("high Machs") select situations that are loosely structured, untethered by rules that restrict the deployment of exploitative strategy

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High Machs

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High Machs tend to evoke specific reactions from others, such as anger and retaliation for having been exploited High Machs manipulate others in predictable ways, using tactics that are exploitative, self-serving, and deceptive

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Narcissism

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style of inflated self-admiration and constant attempt to draw attention to self and keep others focused on self. ---High narcissism defined by being exhibitionistic, grandiose, self-centered, interpersonally exploitative

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Narcissism and Social Interaction

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Selection: Associate with people who admire them, who will reflect positive view they hold of themselves Evocation: Exhibitionism splits people—some view them as brilliant and entertaining, others as selfish and boorish Manipulation: Highly exploitative of others

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24-year personality study (Twenge et al., 2007)

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Steady increase in the rate of narcissism Narcissism more prevalent in college students born after 1982

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Facebook study (ages 18-25) using Narcissism Personality Inventory and Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale:

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People who use Fb more and update statuses, pictures, and quotes/mottos score higher on narcissism 2012 survey of divorce lawyers showed that FB had been implicated in 1/3 of all divorce filings in the previous year

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Sex differences

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Average differences in personality or behavior between men and women

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Gender

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Social interpretations of what is means to be a man or a woman

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Gender Stereotypes

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Beliefs that we hold about how men and women differ, which are not necessarily based on reality. -There are many ways we believe men and women differ -There is controversy around the notion of actual sex differences

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Science and Politics: Study of sex differences is also controversial

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Arguments Against: ---Findings might be used to support political agendas or status quo ---Findings merely reflect gender stereotypes, not real differences ---Findings reflect biases of scientists, not objective reality Arguments For: ---Scientific psychology and social change will be impossible without coming to terms with real sex differences that do exist

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Calculation of Effect Size (How large are the sex differences)

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Researchers developed more precise quantitative procedures for examining conclusions across studies and thus for determining sex differences: Meta-analysis

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Effect size (d statistic)

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used to express the average difference in standard deviation units Effect size can be calculated for each study of sex differences, then averaged across studies to give an objective assessment of the difference (-).20 = small (-).50 = medium (-).80 = large Convention: positive d means men higher than women, and negative d means women higher than men Even the large effect size for the average sex difference does not necessarily have implications for any one individual Even when one sex greatly exceeds the other in a particular ability, there is a large area of overlap. (Ex: some women can throw a ball better than the average man)

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Minimalists describe sex differences as small and inconsequential

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Most effect sizes are small Differences that do exist do not have practical importance

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Maximalists argue that the size of sex differences should not be trivialized

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Magnitude of sex differences similar to other effects in psychology Small effects can have important consequences

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1930s Research about Sex Differences

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Researchers assumed sex differences on various personality items were attributable to differences along the single personality dimension of masculinity-femininity Men (assertiveness, instrumentality, dominance) women (nurturance, empathy, emotional expression)

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Androgynous

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person who scores high on both and has both masculine and feminine characteristics

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1970s: researchers challenged the assumption of the single dimension

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Two new measures were developed to assess two dimensions, now assumed to be independent Researchers who developed sex role measures believed androgyny was ideal (most valuable elements of both sexes) 1970s conception of sex roles: Low Femininity, High Masculinity: Masculine Low Masculinity, High Femininity: Feminine Low Both: Undifferentiated High Both: Androgynous

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Several recent studies suggest that masculinity and femininity are not independent and likely describe a single bipolar trait

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Those scoring high on masculinity tend to score low on femininity and vice versa Both constructs are multidimensional, containing many facets ---This has called into question notion of androgyny ---Androgyny measures were likely assessing personality traits of instrumentality and expressiveness (Janet Spence)

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3 Categories of Gender Stereotypes

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Cognitive (how we categorize people) Affective (how we feel about people in categories) Behavioral (how we respond to people in categories)

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Content of gender stereotypes: Attributes we believe men and women possess

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Similar across cultures: Men (Aggressive, Autonomous, Achievement oriented, Dominant, Exhibitionist, Persevering) and Women (Affiliative, Deferential, Heterosexual, Nurturant, Self-Abasing)

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Prejudice and gender stereotypes

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Gender stereotypes can have important real-life consequences for men and women. Consequences can damage people in health, jobs, odds of advancement, and social reputations

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Socialization

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Boys and girls become different because boys are reinforced by parents, teachers, and media for being "masculine," and girls for being "feminine"

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Bandura's Social Learning Theory

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Boys and girls learn by observing behaviors of same-sex others Cross-cultural evidence for different treatment of boys and girls Criticism: too simple in suggesting that pathway is unidirectional (parents to children); lacks origin

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Social Role Theory

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Sex differences arise because men and women are distributed differently into different occupational and family roles Some research supports social role theory Criticism: No account of origins of sex-differentiated roles Breadwinner Role (Learn to be: Tough, aggressive) Homemaker Role (Learn to be: Nurturing, Supportive)

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Hormonal Theories

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Hormonal and physiological differences cause boys and girls to diverge over development After puberty, little overlap in the levels of circulating testosterone (with men having about 10 times more) Sex differences in testosterone linked with traditional sex differences in behaviors (e.g., aggression, dominance, career choice, sexual desire) Criticisms: Research suggests link between hormones and behavior is bi-directional no account of origins of hormonal differences

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Evolutionary Psychology Theory

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Sexes are predicted to differ only in those domains in which people are recurrently faced with different adaptive problems (i.e., problems that must be solved to survive and reproduce) Research supports many predicted sex differences, especially in sexuality Criticism: No clear account of individual- and within-sex differences

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An Integrated Theoretical Perspective

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Integrated theory of sex differences would include all levels of analysis into account (socialization, hormonal, evolutionary), because they are compatible Direction for future research? -Some sex difference are real and not artifacts of particular investigators or methods -But the magnitude of sex differences vary greatly -Some sex differences are constant over generations and across cultures -Needed is integrative theory that includes each of these levels of analysis—social, physiological, and evolutionary

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Stress

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(Subjective feeling in response to events that are perceived as uncontrollable or threatening) All animals have a stress response, which can be life-saving in some situations. Stress is not "out there" in our lives, representing something that happens to us. Instead, stress lies in part in how we interpret and respond to those events. Thus, stress lies "in between" the event and the person

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Interaction Model

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Objective events capable of producing stress --> coping responses (personality contributes to this) --> physiological arousal --> illness Objective events happen to a person, but personality determines the impact of events by influencing a person's ability to cope Personality moderates (influences) the relation between stress and illness by having an effect on coping Coping response influences degree, duration, and the frequency of a stressful event

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Transaction Model

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Personality has three potential effects (look at slide 9...same model as interaction, but with multidirectional arrows) ---Can influence coping (like in previous model) ---Can influence how a person appraises/interprets events ---Can influence events themselves People don't just respond to situations, they also create situations through choices and actions

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Health Behavior Model

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Personality does not directly influence the relationship between stress and illness. Instead, personality affects health indirectly, through health promoting or health degrading behaviors Bad eating habits...too much fast food (health degrading behavior)

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Predisposition Model

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Associations may exist between personality and illness because of a third variable that is causing them both Association found between illness and personality because of some predisposition that underlies them both Predisposition--> physiological responses--> Illness AND/OR personality

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Illness Behavior Model

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Personality influences the degree to which a person perceives and attends to bodily sensations, the degree to which a person interprets and labels sensations as illness, and illness behaviors

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Stressors

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Events (positive or negative) that lead to stress and have several common attributes ---Produce a state of feeling overwhelmed or overloaded ---Produce opposing tendencies in us, such as wanting and not wanting some activity or object ---Perceived as uncontrollable

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Stress Response

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Startle, heart beats fast, blood pressure increases, sweaty palms and soles of feet—fight-or-flight response, increase in sympathetic nervous system activity

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General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS- Hans Selye)

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Stage 1 (Alarm): fight or flight Stage 2 (Resistance): depletion of bodily sources This happens if stressor continues because body uses resources at above average rate, even though fight-or-flight response subsided Stage 3 (Exhaustion): susceptibility to illness and disease If stressor is constant, because physiological resources are depleted

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Type of Stress

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Acute stress, Episodic (repeated) acute stress, Traumatic stress (e.g., Post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]), Chronic stress Stress has additive effects, accumulating in a person over time According to Lazarus (1991), in order for stress to be evoked, two cognitive events must occur

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Primary appraisal

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Person perceives an event as a threat to goals

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Secondary appraisal

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Person concludes they do not have resources to cope with demands of threatening event

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The Role of Positive Emotions in Coping with Stress

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General Hypothesis—Positive emotions and appraisals may lead to a lowered impact of stress on health

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Positive reappraisal

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Person focuses on the good in what is happening; seeking opportunities for growth

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Problem-focused coping

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Thoughts and behaviors that manage or solve an underlying cause of stress

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Creating positive events

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Creating positive time-out from stress and using humor

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Attributional Style

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dispositional way of explaining bad events

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Dispositional Optimism

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expectation that good events will be plentiful, and bad events will be rare. Optimism predicts good health and health-promoting behaviors These findings are correlational Psychologists have tried to devise ways to increase optimism

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Type A

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Behavior Pattern: Collection of three subtraits Competitive achievement motivation Time urgency Hostility and aggressiveness when blocked from goal Misconception that these personality types (type As and Bs) are true categories- more like spectrum with most falling in between Early studies of Type A found it was an independent risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease Early studies conducted by physicians using structured interviews; Later research used self-report surveys Studies using surveys less likely to find relationships between Type A and heart disease than studies using structured interview Structured interview gets at the lethal component - Hostility

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Type B

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Purposely slooooooooow down (allow more time for pacing) Practice doing one thing at a time Practice active listening (catch urge to interrupt) Remove your watch Practice meditation or relaxation exercises

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Building Blocks of Personality Disorders

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Symptoms of personality disorders can be viewed as maladaptive variations within the domains of: traits, emotions, cognitions, motives, and self-concept

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Personality disorders

answer

as maladaptive variations or combinations of normal personality traits and common motives, especially power and intimacy Cognitive processes can become distorted in personality disorders Several personal disorders include extreme variations in experienced emotion Most personality disorders include distortion of self-concept

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Biology forms a building block of several personality disorders

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Genetic epidemiologic studies indicate that all ten personality disorders (PDs) are modestly to moderately heritable Molecular genetic studies indicate that genes linked to neurotransmitter pathways, especially in the serotonergic and dopaminergic systems, are involved.

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Psychological disorder

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Pattern of behavior or experience that is distressing and painful to the person that can lead to disability or impairment in important life domains Associated with the increased risk for further suffering, loss of function, death, or confinement

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Abnormal psychology

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Study of mental disorders, including thought disorders, emotional disorders, and personality disorders

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What is abnormal?

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Statistical definition: Whatever is rare, not frequent, and not statistically normal Social definition: Whatever society does not tolerate Statistical and social definitions are tied to changing social or cultural norms Psychopathology: Study of mental disorders Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed. (DSM-V): Widely accepted system for diagnosing and describing mental Movement towards dimensional view of personality

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Looking inward for abnormal

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Psychological definition: disorganized thoughts, disruptive perceptions, or unusual beliefs that do not match circumstances Combining statistical, social, and psychological definitions of abnormality to develop field of psychopathology

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Diagnostic Views of Personality Disorders

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Categorical view: you have it or you don't Dimensional view: personality occurs on a spectrum from 'normal' to 'disordered'

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Dimensional Models of Personality Disorders

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Distinctions between normal personality traits and disorders are in terms of: extremity, rigidity, maladaptiveness Parallel with chemistry: A little of this trait, some of that trait, and amplifying to extremely high (or low) levels, resulting in specific disorder Dominant model currently is categorical model (DSM-V)

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DSM 5-What is a Personality Disorder?

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Enduring pattern of experience and behavior that differs greatly from expectations of a person's culture Disorder is usually manifested in more than one of following areas: Thoughts, feelings, how a person gets along with others, and the ability to control own behavior (e.g., impulse control) Pattern of behavior is rigid and displayed across a variety of situations, leading to distress in key areas of life (work and relationships) Pattern of behavior typically has a long history in a person's life, often back to adolescence or childhood Pattern must not be attributable to drug abuse, medication, or other medical condition All personality disorders involve impaired social relations

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Personality disorders can be ego-syntonic

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Thoughts, feelings, beliefs and/or behaviors that one accepts as part of self and is not considered problematic. Symptoms feel 'normal' and may be perceived as values aspects of self More likely to view others as the problem This poses challenges for effective treatment

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Basis of Diagnosis

answer

Clinical Impressions Self-Report Scales Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire- Revised (PDQ-R) Structured Interviews Informant Reports

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Cluster A (The Eccentric Cluster)

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People with these disorders appear odd, eccentric, do not get along well with others Schizoid Schizotypal Paranoid

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Schizotypal Personality Disorder: Symptoms

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Anxious in social relations and avoids people Appears "different" and non-conforming Suspicious of others, distrusting Odd or eccentric beliefs (i.e., outside of cultural norms) Cognitive distortions (e.g., ideas of reference) Unusual perceptual experiences (e.g., scar no one can see) Inappropriate or flattened affect

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UFO AIDER

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Unusual perceptions Friendless except for family Odd belief, thinking, speech Affect—inappropriate, constricted Ideas of reference Doubts others—suspicious Eccentric—appearance and behavior Reluctant in social situations—anxious

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Areas of Study in Schizotypal

answer

Difficulties, Situations/Environments where patients function well, Potential causes, Treatments

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Cluster B (Erratic)

answer

Appear erratic, have trouble with emotional control, and have difficulties getting along with others Antisocial Borderline Histrionic Narcissistic

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Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

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Common symptoms are: Little concern for others Impulsive Easily irritated and assaultive Reckless and irresponsible Glib or superficial charm Callous social attitudes Lack of guilt feelings or remorse Indifferent to suffering of others ASPD: greater emphasis on observable behaviors

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Psychopathy

answer

greater emphasis on subjective characteristics Two clusters of symptoms: Emotional and interpersonal traits (incapacity to feel guilt, callous social attitudes) Social deviance (e.g., impulsive behaviors, early behavior problems) Not all people with ASPD are psychopaths NOT: superficial charm, egocentric, shallow emotions, lack of empathy)

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Histrionic Personality Disorder:Symptoms

answer

Excessive attention seeking Emotionality Sexually provocative Opinions are shallow and easily change Suggestible, easily swayed Strong need for attention

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I CRAVE SIN (Histrionic Personality Disorder:Symptoms)

answer

Inappropriate behavior—provocative, seductive Center of attention Relationships are seen as closer than they really are Appearance is important Vulnerable to other's suggestion Emotional expression is exaggerated Shifting emotions, shallow Impressionistic manner of speaking (lacks details) Novelty is craved

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Cluster C (anxious)

answer

anxious, fearful, apprehensive, have trouble with social relationships Avoidant Dependent Obsessive-compulsive

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Dependent Personality Disorder: Symptoms

answer

Excessive need to be taken care of Acts submissively Seeks reassurance from others Rarely takes initiative, rarely disagrees with others Does not work well independently May tolerate abuse from others to obtain support

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DARN HURT (Dependent Personality Disorder: Symptoms)

answer

Disagreement is difficult to express Advice—needs excessive input Responsibility for major areas delegated to others Nurturance—seeks excessive degree from others Helpless when alone Unrealistically preoccupied with being left to care for oneself Relationships are desperately sought (when an established one ends Tasks—has difficulty initiating projects

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Obsessive-Compulsive PD Symptoms

answer

Over-concern with rules and details Preoccupied with order Strives for perfection Devoted to work, seeks little leisure time or friendship Frequently miserly or stingy Rigid, inflexible, and stubborn

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LOW MIRTH (Obsessive-Compulsive PD Symptoms)

answer

Leisure activity is minimal Organizational focus Work and productivity predominate Miserly spending habits Inflexible around morals, values, etc Rigidity and stubbornness Task completion impaired (by perfectionism) Hoards items (cannot discard)

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OCPD ≠ OCD

answer

OCD: anxiety disorder(state), intrusive distressing thoughts/images, ego-dystonic OCPD: personality disorder (trait), perfectionism (delay of reward), ego-syntonic

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OCPD

answer

Difficulties patients experience in life, Causes and risk factors, Treatments

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Summary

answer

Personality disorders refer to enduring patterns of experience and behavior that differ greatly from the norms and expectations of a person's culture Disorder shows up in how a person thinks, feels, gets along with others, and the ability to control own actions Pattern is displayed across situations, leading to the distress in self or others in key areas of life such as love and work Disorder typically has a long history in a person's life

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