Personality

1
Personality
2
Three Minute Review

• SOCIAL PSYCH DEGREES OF SEPARATION
• Milgrams experiment
• 6 deg of separation
• under- or over-estimation?
• power law distribution
• hubs
• degrees of separation can vary
• Hollywood 3
• Internet 19
• may have many applications
• understanding networks (e.g., internet)
• public health
• terrorist networks
• brain connectivity

3

• SIGMUND FREUD
• Genius or misguided misogynist pervert?
• huge impact on pop culture
• Copernicus - Darwin - Freud
• huge impact on some psychologists but largely
  debunked now
• historical context important
• hysterical women in Victorian Vienna
• humans driven by unconscious motives, early
  development
• psychoanalysis
• talking cure
• catharsis
• hysteria
• e.g., glove anesthesia
• Case study Anna O.
• can include hypnosis and free association
• seduction theory vs. repressed desires?

4

• structures of the mind
• unconscious, preconscious, conscious
• id
• it
• fuelled by libido
• pleasure principle
• ego
• self
• reality principle
• superego
• conscience
• ego ideal
• could there be brain-based analogs of these
  structures?
• hierarchical functions
• newer areas (esp. frontal lobes) inhibit older
  areas (esp. limbic system)

5
Test Yourself

• Elena and Robert have trouble getting along
  because she lives her life based on the pleasure
  principle and he lives his life based on his
  conscience.  Freud would say Elena is driven by
  her __________ and Robert is driven by his
  ______________.
• A.    superego, ego                               
           
• B.     id, ego                      
• C.    id, superego
• D.    ego, superego
• E. ego, id

6
What is Personality?

• A persons behavior is often consistent across
  situations

7
How can we explain personality types?

• Non-psychological
• Hippocrates four humors (5th century B.C.)
• Astrology
• Psychological
• Trait theories
• Sheldons body types
• Type A vs. B
• Sensation Seekers
• Cattells 16 Trait Model
• The Big 5
• Other theories stay tuned till Thursday

8
Hippocrates Four Humors

• PHLEGM
• phlegmatic
• sluggish
• apathetic
• dull

• BLOOD
• sanguine
• cheerful
• confident
• optimistic

• BLACK BILE
• melancholic
• depressed
• gloomy
• pessimistic

• YELLOW BILE
• choleric
• irritable
• violent

• In the 5th C. B.C., Hippocrates theorized that
  the body contained four humors (fluids), each
  associated with a particular temperament

9
Astrology
10
Sheldons Body Types

• William Sheldon (1942) suggested physique is
  related to temperament
• still popular in media today
• motivated Yale and Wellesley to take nude photos
  of 1000s of students to test hypotheses

11
Sheldons Body Types

• ECTOMORPH
• thin, long, fragile
• brainy, artistic, introverted

• MESOMORPH
• muscular, rectangular, strong
• physical, energetic, courageous

• ENDOMORPH
• fat, soft, round
• relaxed, sociable, warm
• likes to eat, sedentary

Niles Crane on Frasier
Arnold Schwartzenegger
Dan on Roseanne
12
Type A Personality

• Type A
• competitive
• self-critical
• driven
• demanding of self and others
• urgency
• everything must be done NOW!
• easily irritated by delays
• anger/hostility
• become easily angered even if they dont express
  it overtly
• Type B
• low competitiveness, urgency, and hostility
• stop and smell the roses

Appointment book of Type A person who died of a
heart attack soon after this date
13
Type A ?
1. I often choose to spend time with my friends
or family, even though I have something important
to do. 2. People who don't know what they want
get on my nerves. 3. I function best under
stress or pressure. 4. Talking about emotions
is a sign of weakness and can be used by others
to get at you. 5. If everybody did their job
properly, my life would be much easier.
No Yes Yes Yes Yes
14
Type A Personality

• Type As
• respond more quickly and strongly to stress
• seek more demanding situations
• have greater reactivity to stress
• when competing in a video game rigged so they
  always lost and taunted by their competitor, Type
  As showed greater flight or fight responses
• cause and effect not clear
• beta-blockers (? SNS responses) ? ? Type A
  behavior
• more common in males than females
• experience health risks
• more respiratory problems, coronary heart disease
  (e.g., 2X rate of heart attacks)
• theyre also more likely to drink, smoke, be
  obese and overwork but the health risks remain
  even when these are factored out\

15
Type C Personality?

• suggested in 1990s
• sociable, nice people who keep negative emotions
  bottled up
• may be at increased risk for cancer and less
  likely to survive if they get it

16
Optimists live longer

• optimists have half as many illnesses
• optimists diagnosed with cancer live longer
• optimists have stronger immune systems
• optimism/pessimism test at age 25 predicts health
  after age 45

17
Sensation Seeking

• "defined by the need for varied, novel, and
  complex sensations and experiences and the
  willingness to take physical and social risks for
  the sake of such experiences
• most common in men aged 16-19
• less common in women
• declines with age

18
Sensation Seeking Tests
Sample items I would like to try parachute
jumping. I sometimes do crazy things just to see
the effect on others. I wish I didnt have to
waste so much of the day sleeping. What would you
do if you won one million dollars? High SS
sports cars, big sailboats, one-night stands Low
SS luxury or comfort items
High SS not simply party animals, often become
entrepreneurs, entertainers, scientists, and
adventurers.
19
Cattells Trait Theory
Remember this guy? (Fluid vs. Crystallized
Intelligence)

• How can we decide what fundamental traits are?
• dictionary identifies 18,000 personality
  descriptors (Allport, 1937)
• Cattell narrowed this down to 170 and used factor
  analysis to group them
• Cattell derived 16 source traits

Raymond Cattell 1905-1998
20
Factor Analysis
CORRELATION
CORRELATION MATRIX
Coke Classic Dr. Pepper 7-UP Ginger Ale
Coke Classic --- .70 .20 .33
Dr. Pepper --- --- .16 .18
7-UP --- --- --- .77
Ginger Ale --- --- --- ---
21
Factor Analysis of Personality

• What would you conclude from the following
  patterns?

CORRELATION MATRIX
Sociable Talkative Worrying Impatient
Sociable --- -.03 -.02 .07
Talkative --- --- .05 .01
Worrying --- --- --- -.01
Impatient --- --- --- ---
Sociable Talkative Worrying Impatient
Sociable --- .70 .02 .-.26
Talkative --- --- .10 -.03
Worrying --- --- --- .67
Impatient --- --- --- ---
22
Differences in Traits
Both are equally intelligent
Clergy members are more cheerful
Researchers are more radical
23
Eysencks Three Factors

• Extroversion (vs. Introversion)
• Do you like mixing with people? ()
• Do you like plenty of bustle and excitement
  around you? ()
• Are you rather lively? ()
• Neuroticism (Stable vs. Unstable)
• Do you often feel fed up? ()
• Do you often feel lonely? ()
• Does your mood often go up and down? ()
• Psychoticism
• Do good manners and cleanliness matter to you?
  (-)
• Does it worry you if you know there are mistakes
  in your work? (-)
• Do you like taking risks for fun? ()

24
Eysenck is similar to Hippocrates
25
The BIG Five
Mnemonic O C E A N