What is Personality?

1. Stress and Disease Dr. Donald B. Giddon Harvard University, Fall 2013Personality as an intervening variable in the stress response

2. What is Personality? Definition: Distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, i.e. an enduring set of traits which encompass cognition, affect and behavior Etiology: Interaction of temperament and environment

3. Temperament may be reflected in nine dimensions, which can distinguish “easy babies,” “difficult babies,” and “slow-to-warm-up babies” • Activity level • Rhythmicity (hunger, sleep) • Approach/withdrawal to new stimuli • Adaptability to change • Intensity of reaction • Threshold of responsiveness • Quality of mood • Distractibility • Attention span/persistence

4. Many Ways to Describe • The Big Five Factors Openness • Conscientiousness • Extraversion • Agreeableness • Neuroticism

5. Relation to Coping Styles

11. The 16 Personality Factors and 4 Second-Order Indices from the 16PF (Cattel)

12. (IPD is also on course web site)

14. Stability of Personality Traits • Most traits are stable • May know the influence of all the variables, but not how much is operating in a given individual • But difficult to predict behavior from personality traits

15. Levels of consciousness Conscious What we are aware of Preconscious Memories etc. that can be recalled Unconscious Wishes, feelings, impulses that lies beyond awareness Structures of Personality Id Operates according to the “pleasure principle” Ego Operates according to the “reality” principle Superego Contains values and ideals Freudian Theory

16. Freudian Theory of Coping • Anxiety occurs when: • Impulses from the id threaten to get out of control • Ego perceives THREAT from the environment • E.g. Loss • Ego deals with the problem through: • Coping strategies • Defense mechanisms

17. Ego-Defense Mechanisms • Protect ego against painful and threatening impulses arising from the id by distorting reality • Normal behaviors which operate at unconscious level • Help the individual cope with anxiety • Prevent the ego from being overwhelmed • Have adaptive value unless become a style of escapism

18. Freudian Theory

19. Motivation: Humanistic Theory

20. Eysenck’s Model of Personality

22. Related Behaviors

23. Personality Types • Useful, but no longer empirically justified • Type A – demanding, time urgency, high levels of competitiveness, ambition, workaholic, aggression, hostility, self-referrent • Buffering role of target • Type B – more relaxed, less time urgency than Type A, agreeable, seeks consensus

24. Characteristics of Type A Personality – • Body language and speech patterns: • Tightening of facial muscles • Gesturing with a clenched fist • Grimacing • Using explosive speech • Interrupting or hurrying the interviewer

25. Type A Personality Health Risks • Greater rate of: • Cardiovascular disease • Heart attacks • Second heart attack or stroke • Need for target to direct hostility - Or reflected inward

26. The Type C Personality • Identified by Temoshok and Dreher* • Cancer-prone personality • Suppresses emotions • Resigned to failure * Also see: Klopfer. Psychological Variables in Human Cancer (on course web site)

27. Type D “Distressed” Personality Two stable personality traits • Negative affectivity • Social Inhibition Do not express negative emotions in social interactions

28. Anger and Hostility • Frustration-aggression hypothesis • Anger • Directed at anything • Reaction to a specific situation • Road rage • Hostility • An enduring anger directed at people • Anger in versus out • Relation to Disease • Role of target

29. Locus of Control (Rotter) • Internal locus of control • Life outcomes are under personal control • Positively correlated with self-esteem • Internals use more problem-focused coping • External locus of control • Luck, chance, and powerful others control behavior • Relation to Religious Beliefs

30. Self-efficacy • Beliefs concerning ability to perform behaviors needed to achieve a desired outcome • Four important determinants: • Previous performance attainments • Observational learning • Verbal persuasion • Controlling negative arousal • Importance in health care behaviors

31. Learned Helplessness-Giving Up, Seligman, 1975 • Lose all control and give up • Stop making efforts to control one’s environment-even it it is controllable • Pessimism-less healthy • Retirement-could be time of helplessness

32. Personality Assessment • Structured interviews • Behavioral assessment • Remote behavior sampling • Psychometrics • Objective • Projective

33. Methods of Assessing Personality Constructs Personality Scales and Self-ratings Responses on Projective Tests Interview Data Reports, Ratings by Other People Physiologic Measures Behavioral Assessment

34. The Hardy Personality • Identified by Kobasa and Maddi • Exhibits three personality traits that protect against ravages of stress • Commitment (other than work) • Control (internal locus of control) • Challenge (welcomes change, as an opportunity)

35. How Hardy Are You? • 0 = Strongly disagree1 = Mildly disagree2 = Mildly agree3 = Strongly agree • ___A.Trying my best at work makes a difference.___B. Trusting to fate is sometimes all I can do in a relationship.___C. I often wake up eager to start on the day’s projects.___D. Thinking of myself as a free person leads to great frustration and • difficulty. ___E. I would sacrifice financial security in my work if something really • challenging came along. • ___F. It bothers me when I have to deviate from the routine or schedule I • have set for myself. • ___G. An average citizen can have an impact on politics.___H. Without the right breaks, it is hard to be successful in my field.___I. I know why I am doing what I’m doing at work.___J. Getting close to people puts me at risk of being obligated to them.___K. Encountering new situations is an important priority in my life.___L. I really don’t mind when I have nothing to do.

36. Measurement of Personality Variables (Psychometrics) (See list on course web site)

37. Measurement of Some Psychological Variables The Twelve Most Frequently Used Tests in the United States

38. Projective Tests

39. comments

40. Uninhibited: outgoing dominant competitive proud sociable bold Inhibited withdrawn submissive not competitive humble unsociable timid Pertinent Traits in Schack Project

41. 29 landmarks Scion Image *points enlarged for presentation Facial Landmarks (Full Face)

42. 16 landmarks Scion Image *points enlarged for presentation Facial Landmarks (Profile)

43. The #1 Face • Successful • Honest • Influential • Intelligent

44. Relation of Physical Features to Personality • Hypothesis that perceptions of personality attributes are influenced by facial morphology • Narrower (Dolichofacial)- inhibited • Wider ratios (Brachyfacial)- uninhibited

45. Somatotypes (Sheldon) • Ectomorph • Self-conscious, Private, Introverted, Artistic, Intense • Mesomorph • Adventurous, Courageous, Indifferent to what others think or want, Assertive/bold • Endomorph • Sociable, Tolerant, Even-tempered, Relaxed

46. PHRENOLOGY

47. Explanations for links between face and personality • Both influenced by biology • genes, syndromes • Both influenced by same environment • poor nutrition, spouses • personality influences face • George Orwell, Oscar Wilde (Dorian Grey) • face influences the environment, personality • self-fulfilling / self-defeating

48. Other Biological Links • Rosenberg, Kagan • eye color, inhibited vs uninhibited • Kagan et al- dark eyes less inhibited • Salivary cortisol levels higher in inhibited children • Other pathways

49. Birth Order

50. Measurement of Some Psychological Variables The Twelve Most Frequently Used Tests in the United States