Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
PERSONALITI PART II
VALIDATING PERSONALITY TRAITS
3 MAIN TOPICS
1. Methodological approaches
to the study of personality
2. Validation of personality
traits as predictors of real-life
outcomes
3. Alternatives approaches to
psychometric approach to
personality
1. Introduction
This chapter will examine the
relationship of personality
with:
Education achievement
Job performance
Anti social behavior
Interpersonal relation
Happiness
Itwould be impossible to
understand the relation
between personality & any
other construct without having
statistical analyses used
2. TESTING PERSONALITY
THEORIES
The beginnings of personality
research were characterized by the use
of precarious methods of data collection.
Personality theories were often derived from
introspection, observations & case
studies.
Prosocial behaviors
(altruism, volunteerism, community
involvement & social services)
Antisocial behaviors
(crime, substance abuse & truancy)
Personality correlates of prosocial
behavior
are Extraversion & Agreeableness =
have tendency to help others & are more
motivated to engage in altruistic behaviors
(volunteering/charity work)
The 3 assumptions:
1) Extrovert & introvert; neurotic &
stable - individuals differ in their
levels of arousal
2) Performance is best at an
intermediate level of arousal
Personality Traits
Predict broad indicators of physical health
(absence of illness & longevity) (Caspi et
al,2005)
May predict mental illness prognosis including
individuals responses to treatment (APA,1994)
Contrada, Cather & OLeary (1999)
conceptualized 3 ways that personality
may influence health outcomes:
1) Intrinsic characteristics
Associated with psychological processes that
have ve physical outcomes
Eg. Agreeableness, its minor dimensions of
anger & mistrust may lead to higher
activation of the sympathetic nervous
system & in turn enhance the chances of
coronary artery disease (Smith & Spiro,2002)
2) Risky behavioral choices
Eg. Smoking, unhealthy diet may
threaten individuals health.
Unhealthy behaviors are more typical in
individuals with low conscientiousness
scores
3) Prevention of & reaction to health
problems
Eg. Conscientious individuals will be
more likely to visit the doctor if they
sense health problems & take a more
proactive approach to treatment of
illness
7. PERSONALITY & HAPPINESS