Introduction to Personality

MAR 3503

March 22, 2012

How do we know who someone is?

• The psychoanalytic approach– Freud pioneered this view of personality– Personality composed of:

• Id: Unconscious psychic energy, strives to satisfy base needs (sex, food, aggression); operates on the pleasure principle

• Ego: Conscious mind, mediates between id, superego, and reality; operates on reality principle

• Superego: Both conscious and unconscious, represents internalized ideals; serves as one’s conscience

• But…• Thus, the trait approach

Humors

Type Appearance Temperament

Sanguine Hot and moist; blood

More fleshy than proper, hairy, and hot to the touch

Courageous, hopeful, amorous

Phlegmatic Cold and moist; phlegm

Gross, fat, and lax, soft white skin, hair tawny and not abundant; limbs and muscles weak; veins invisible

Timid, spiritless, and inactive

Choleric Warm and dry; yellow bile

Abundant dark hair; large & prominent veins, dark skin, muscular body

Irritable, easily angered and bad tempered

Melancholic Cold and dry; black bile

Hard, slender, white bodies, fine muscles, small joints, little hair

Depressed, despondent, and sleepless

Myers-Briggs Types

Sensing Types Intuitive Types

Introverts

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ

ISTP ISFP INFP INTP

Extraverts

ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP

ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ

Myers-Briggs Types• DO YOU PREFER:• Extraversion versus introversion– Outer world of people versus inner world of

experience• Sensing versus intuition– Observant of data versus imagining new possibilities

• Thinking versus feeling– Logic versus empathy

• Judging versus perceiving– Planning versus flexibility

Myers-Briggs

• Does seem to reflect something about a person• But…– Measures preferences rather than actual traits– Dichotomous nature of types may not reflect actual

standing—forces people to be one or the other• Can’t we be somewhere in the middle? Or judging

sometimes and perceiving others?

– Low test-retest reliability– Are the types the best way to divide up personality?

The Big Five

• Openness• Conscientious• Extraversion• Agreeableness• Neuroticism

The Big Five

Trait Calculate:

Openness = (8 – your score on item 10) + Your score on item 5

Conscientiousness = (8 – your score on item 8 + Your score on item 3

Extraversion = (8 – your score on item 6) + Your score on item 1

Agreeableness = (8 – your score on item 2) + Your score on item 7

Neuroticism = (8 – your score on item 9) + Your score on item 4

The Big Five

Big Five Domain Females Males

Openness 10.8 10.7

Conscientiousness 11.0 10.4

Extraversion 9.1 8.5

Agreeableness 10.6 10.1

Neuroticism 6.7 5.7

Openness • People high on openness

tend to be…– Creative, imaginative,

abstract, curious, deep thinkers, inventive, and value arts and aesthetic experiences

• People low on openness tend to be… – Conventional, concrete,

traditional, preferring the known to the unknown

• High scorers tend to…– Engage in fantasy to create a

more interesting world– Appreciate beauty in art &

nature and are involved and absorbed in aesthetics

– Have good access to and awareness of their feelings

– Be eager to try new activities, travel to foreign lands, and have different experiences

– Be open-minded to new and unusual ideas, and enjoy debating intellectual issues

– Be ready to challenge authority, convention, and traditional values

Conscientiousness• People high on

conscientiousness tend to be…– Thorough, dependable,

reliable, hardworking, task focused, efficient, good planners

• People low on conscientiousness tend to be… – Disorganized, late,

careless, impulsive

• High scorers tend to…– Believe they have the

intelligence, drive, and self-control necessary for achieving success

– Keep lists and make plans– Have a strong sense of moral

obligation– Have a strong sense of

direction– Have the ability to persist at

difficult or unpleasant tasks until they are completed

– Take their time when making decisions

Extraversion

• People high on extraversion tend to be…– Talkative, energetic,

enthusiastic, assertive, outgoing, sociable

• People low on extraversion tend to be… – Reserved, quiet, shy

• High scorers tend to…– Genuinely like other

people and make friends quickly

– Enjoy the excitement of crowds

– Like to speak out, take charge, and direct the activities of others

– Lead fast-paced, busy lives– Be easily bored without

high levels of stimulation– Experience a range of

positive feelings

Agreeableness

• People high on agreeableness tend to be…– Helpful, selfless,

sympathetic, kind, forgiving, trusting, considerate, cooperative

• People low on agreeableness tend to be… – Fault finding,

quarrelsome, critical, harsh, aloof

• High scorers tend to…– Assume that most people are

fair, honest and have good intentions

– Be candid, frank, and sincere– Find that doing things for

others is self-fulfillment rather than self-sacrifice

– Be willing to make compromises

– Not like to claim they are better than other people

– Be tenderhearted and compassionate

Neuroticism

• People high on neuroticism tend to be…– Anxious, easily ruffled

or upset, worried, moody

• People low on neuroticism tend to be… – Calm, relaxed, able to

handle stress well, emotionally stable

• High scorers tend to…– Feel as if something

dangerous were about to happen

– Feel resentful and bitter when they feel they are cheated

– Lack energy and have difficulty initiating activities

– Be easily embarrassed or ashamed

– Be oriented toward shorter pleasures

– Experience panic and helplessness under stress

The Big Five

The Big Five• …Are stable– Some changes post-college (OEN typically decrease,

CA increase), but for the most part, your standing will stay the same

• …Are heritable– Up to 50% or so for each dimension

• …Are largely cross-cultural• …Are predictive of other personal attributes and

activities– Morning doves versus night owls– Marital satisfaction

The Big Five

The Big Five• …Are stable– Some changes post-college (OEN typically decrease, CA

increase), but for the most part, your standing will stay the same

• …Are heritable– Up to 50% or so for each dimension

• …Are largely cross-cultural• …Are predictive of other personal attributes and

activities– Morning doves versus night owls– Marital satisfaction

• …Are found in both self- and peer-reports

Secondary traits

• The five factors are composed of smaller, more specific traits

• We can use these traits to make more specific predictions about people’s behavior

• What are some traits that are particularly useful to know in consumer contexts?

Maximizers & Satisficers

• Maximizers need to feel that each decision they make is the best decision they could make, that they choose the best option

• Satisficers set standards and choose what is “good enough” to meet them, without concern that there may be a better choice

• Can also vary by person and by decision• Maximizing appears to be related to increased

levels of regret, depression, and lower levels of subjective well-being

Maximizers & Satisficers

• Maximizers tend to make better objective decisions but worse subjective ones– Which is better?

• Regret– Regret and maximizing go together– Maximizers tend to have higher levels of “buyer’s

remorse” when a decision goes poorly or not as well as hoped.

– They also have higher levels of anticipated regret

Tightwads & Spendthrifts

• How much pain do you feel at the thought of spending money on something?– Tightwads feel lots of pain when they spend

money, and end up spending less than they might like

– Spendthrifts don’t feel enough pain when they spend money, and spend more than they would like

– Unconflicted people spend about as much as they would like

Tightwads & Spendthrifts

• Some moderators– Men are more likely to be tightwads than women– Older people are more likely to be tightwads than

younger people– The more educated one is, the more likely one is to

be a tightwad• How to use this in a marketing context?– For spendthrifts, emphasize attributes of the

products and how much they’ll enjoy owning them– For tightwads, focus on reducing price and making

payment less painful

Materialism

• Material Values Scale (MVS)• How important buying and owning material

goods is to achieving goals– How good are possessions in gauging a person’s

success in life?– How central are your possessions to your self-views?– Do possessions lead to happiness and satisfaction?

• Socially desirable responding?

Materialism

• People who are high in materialism…– Tend to be less inclined to donate organs or give

money to charity– Are less inclined to save money and more open to

borrowing money– Tend to be less happy

• How might materialism interact with being a tightwad or a spendthrift?

How useful is personality?• Walter Mischel– What matters more—the person or the situation?– Inconsistency in behavior more the rule than

consistency• People behave very differently in different situations

• Tim Wilson– Two parts to personality:

• Adaptive unconscious: below our mental awareness, this system evaluates, looks for patterns; fixed, stable, hard to change; created by genes and how you’re raised

• Constructed self: our conscious choices about how to think and behave

Thin slices

• Short exposure can be just as good as extended exposure– “Thin slices” research has shown that people

exposed to a teacher’s lecture for 3 10-second clips are remarkably correlated with ratings of that teacher by students in the class for the whole semester. Even 2-second clips yielded similar ratings

– Other traits can be divined in similar manners—from still photographs, even outlines

Brand personality

SinceritySincerity ExcitementExcitement CompetenceCompetence SophisticationSophistication RuggednessRuggedness

Down-to-earth

Down-to-earth HonestHonest WholesomeWholesome CheerfulCheerful

Down-to-earth

Family-oriented

Small-town

Down-to-earth

Family-oriented

Small-town

Honest

Sincere

Real

Honest

Sincere

Real

Wholesome

Original

Wholesome

Original

Cheerful

Sentimental

Friendly

Cheerful

Sentimental

Friendly

Brand personality

SinceritySincerity ExcitementExcitement CompetenceCompetence SophisticationSophistication RuggednessRuggedness

DaringDaring SpiritedSpirited ImaginativeImaginative Up-to-dateUp-to-date

Daring

Trendy

Exciting

Daring

Trendy

Exciting

Spirited

Cool

Young

Spirited

Cool

Young

Imaginative

Unique

Imaginative

Unique

Up-to-date

Independent

Contemporary

Up-to-date

Independent

Contemporary

Brand personality

SinceritySincerity ExcitementExcitement CompetenceCompetence SophisticationSophistication RuggednessRuggedness

ReliableReliable IntelligentIntelligent SuccessfulSuccessful

Reliable

Hardworking

Secure

Reliable

Hardworking

Secure

Intelligent

Technical

Corporate

Intelligent

Technical

Corporate

Successful

Leader

Confident

Successful

Leader

Confident

Brand personality

SinceritySincerity ExcitementExcitement CompetenceCompetence SophisticationSophistication RuggednessRuggedness

Upper classUpper class CharmingCharming

Upper class

Glamorous

Good looking

Upper class

Glamorous

Good looking

Charming

Feminine

Smooth

Charming

Feminine

Smooth

Brand personality

SinceritySincerity ExcitementExcitement CompetenceCompetence SophisticationSophistication RuggednessRuggedness

OutdoorsyOutdoorsy ToughTough

Outdoorsy

Masculine

Western

Outdoorsy

Masculine

Western

Tough

Rugged

Tough

Rugged

Summary

• Personality can be measured many ways– The trait approach is the most common these days

• The Big Five capture the bulk of a person’s traits– Secondary traits can give a more specific look at who

a person is– Even brands are seen as having personality

– Next time: What does your stuff say about you?