Introduction to the empirical study of personality

The location of Personality in the study of Psychology

• Temporal component -- the psychological spectrum
  • milleseconds of reaction time
  • 1 second shifts in attention
  • 10 second working memory span
  • 100's of seconds of emotional response
  • 1,000¹s of seconds - arousal shifts
  • 100,000's of seconds of diurnal variation
  • 1,000,000¹s of seconds of weekly rhythms
  • 10,000,000 seconds during a quarter
  • 100,000,000 seconds in 3 years of college
  • 3,000,000,000 seconds in a lifetime
• Level of analysis -- from the gene to society
  • genetic effects
  • biological bases
  • temperamental/development history
  • cognitive and affective reactions
  • meaning and life satisfaction
• Level of description
  • Theoretical-applied
  • formal models
  • verbal descriptions
  • clinical practice

Three approaches to the study of Psychology

1. General laws: All people are the same
   • The WHERE and WHAT of behavior
     • WHERE is the behavior occuring the effects of social context groups culture
     • WHAT is occuring cognitive representations task components
     • WHAT has been learned
   • Physiological/Cognitive/Social psychology the effect of X on behavior is Y Behavior = f(Environment) Individual differences as error
   • Evolutionary Psychology The WHY of behavior General problems of adaptation Species specific adaptations
2. Unique Behavior: No people are the same
   The WHEN and WHY of behavior
   • developmental
     • unique developmental histories of learning
     • combination of social context and biological predispositions
   • motivational
     • needs/desires
     • incentives/rewards
     • goals
   • clinical psychology
     • idiosyncratic behavior
     • life history as a way of telling a story
     • treatment of symptoms
3. Individual differences as parameter values of general laws: Some people are the same
   The WHO of behavior
   • typologies of distinct classes-- types
     • groups of people who behave in similar fashion in similar situations
     • classic approach
       • Galen's four temperaments
       • Freud's stages
       • Jung's typologies
     • types as prototypes -- fuzzy sets
       • the Diagnotistic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV
         • schizophrenics
         • depressives
     • see Meehl (1992) for arguements in favor of taxons
       • regressions with other variables are 0 with taxons, high between taxons
       • issues of measurement in detecting taxonomic classes
   • traits as dimensions
     • similarity as a multidimensional, continuous process
     • people are similar with respect to limited set of behavioral domains
     • variation along dimensions
     • short hand description of high and low on dimension becomes type
   • traits may be organized into higher order "types"
   • traits require fewer constructs than types but can account for multiplicity of individual variation
     • High/Low on 2 traits = 4 types
     • High/Med/Low on 5 traits = 243 types
     • color wheel as an analogy of dimensional approach 3 primary colors can produce thousands of different perceptual experiences
     • the search for the primary trait dimensions
       • "The Big 5"
       • "The Even Bigger 3"
   • Tests and measurement oriented
     • who has done well in the past predicts who will do well in future
     • give a test -- predict performance
     • Behavior = f(Personality)
     • IQ -- SAT -- GRE -- MMPI
   • Behavior = f(Personality, Environment)
     • additive effects
       • Behavior = f(Personality)+f(Environment)
         • adequate to study both domains separately
         • combining domains improves fit
         • considering individual differences allow for greater precision of prediction
     • interactive effects
       • Behavior =f(Personality)+f(Environment) + f(PxE)
         • no prediction without joint approach
         • eating, prior eating, and restraint
         • extraversion, caffeine, and GRE performance
   • Individual Differences as parameter values of general laws
     • restraint, prior food, and eating behavior
     • the example of extraversion, stimulation, and performance
       • stimulation leads to arousal
       • arousal is curvilinearly related to performance
       • introverts more aroused than extraverts across range of stimulation
       • introverts do better under conditions of low arousal
       • extraverts do better under conditions of high arousal
       (see also Vale and Vale, 1969)

Multiple approaches to the study of Individual Differences

• Descriptive taxonomies
  • Early taxonomies
  • Systematic analyses of the personality sphere
• Theoretical models
  • Biologically oriented
    • Eysenck/Gray/Strelau
    • Tellegen/Watson/Depue
    • Cloninger
  • Environmentally oriented
    • Atkinson/McClelland
    • Cattell
    • Bandura/Mischel
• Assessment and Prediction
  • IQ and the prediction of academic success
  • selection/admission
  • counseling/placement
  • personality assessment and job prediction
  • clinical assessment

Levels of analysis-from the gene to life satisfaction

• Genetic
  • evolutionary personality theory
  • behavior genetics
• Biological
  • Behavioral Approach System
  • Behavioral Inhibition System
  • Aggression and Fight/Flight System
• Temperamental/Developmental
  • childhood temperament
  • developmental patterns
  • temperament and life span developmental
• Cognition and Affect
  • cognitive
    • abilities
    • knowledge structures
  • affective‹non-cognitive
    • positive affect and approach motivation
    • negative affect and avoidance motivation
  • Meaning
  • personal constructs
  • self theories
  • life histories