Personality 12511

1. What is personality?
   1. Traits (tendencies to behave a certain way) that are stable across time and situations (e.g. at home or at work)
      1. Psychometric approach
         1. Traits can be measured
         2. Big Five (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism)
            1. Factor analytic traits
            2. As with "g," we can subdivide further if we want (e.g. Intellectually Curious vs. Thrill-seeking, as part of Openness)
      2. Situational approach
         1. Much behavior driven by situation
         2. Personality consists of stability of behavior across *similar situations*
   2. Sense of "self": descriptions, life narratives
2. Trait development
   1. Temperament: dimensions of basic responses
      1. E.g. easy, difficult, and in-between
      2. Possible genetic basis + parental responses
      3. Relationship between infant temperament and adult Big Five traits is largely unexplored
   2. Adult traits
      1. Rank within group stays reliable
      2. Overall scores may change (but most people in group change in same direction, hence consistent rankings)
         1. Less open, less anxious, less outgoing, more responsible, nicer
3. Sense of self-identity
   1. Identity: more or less rich description of who one is, what is most important to oneself
   2. Growth of identity
      1. Preschool: physical descriptions
      2. School-age: social comparison (unrealistic, early on)
      3. Adolescent and early adult: more psychological, abstract, differentiated but consistent
         1. Identity status
            1. diffusion: no crisis, no commitment
            2. foreclosure: no crisis, commitment
            3. moratorium: crisis ongoing
            4. achievement: crisis past, commitment
            5. Note Western bias in proposed life course
         2. Vocation as part of identity
            1. Childhood: fantasy
            2. Adolescence: tentative (explore interests, capabilities, values)
            3. Early adult: realistic
               1. Part of identity achievement
               2. Occupational "personalities"
                  1. Investigative, Artistic, Realistic, Conventional, Social, Enterprising
                  2. Specific *jobs* call on different "personalities," and people have profiles (not types)
            4. Constrained by social forces (status), cultural norms, etc.
      4. Adulthood
         1. Identity fairly stable, but has periodic "reassessment" with changes in situation
            1. E.g. birth of children, loss or change of job
      5. Late adulthood
         1. Life review: not more reminiscences, but make more sense of life