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• Classic-Fiction

• Collective efficacy is our perception that with collaborative effort our group will obtain its desired outcome. Research studies indicate high self-efficacy is more beneficial in individualistic societies and high collective efficacy in collectivistic societies for achievement of group goals.

• Julian Rotter’s locus of control is the degree to which we expect that a reinforcement or outcome of our behavior is contingent on our own behavior or personal characteristics (internal locus of control), as opposed to the degree to which we expect that a reinforcement or outcome of our behavior is a function of luck or fate, is under the control of others, or is unpredictable (external locus of control).

• Walter Mischel developed a cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS). Interaction among five factors (our encoding strategies, our expectancies and beliefs, our goals and values, our feelings, and our personal competencies and self-regulatory processes) and characteristics of the situation account for our individual differences.

Trait theory—A trait is a relatively permanent characteristic of our personality that can be used to predict our behavior.

Gordon Allport’s trait theory proposed three levels of traits:

• Cardinal trait—defining characteristic, in a small number of us, that dominates and shapes all of our behavior.

• Central trait—general characteristic; between 5 and 10 of these shape much of our behavior.

• Secondary trait—a characteristic apparent in only certain situations. Our unique pattern of traits determines our behavior.

Hans Eysenck—three genetically influenced dimensions describe personality; used factor analysis, a statistical procedure that identifies common factors among groups of items, to determine his three dimensions:

• Extroversion (also extraversion)—measures our sociability and tendency to pay attention to the external environment, as opposed to our private mental experiences.

• Neuroticism—measures our level of instability—how moody, anxious, and unreliable we are—as opposed to stability—how calm, even-tempered, and reliable we are.

• Psychoticism—measures our level of tough-mindedness—how hostile, ruthless, and insensitive we are—as opposed to tender-mindedness—how friendly, empathetic, and cooperative we are.

Raymond Cattell studies surface traits—hundreds of visible areas of personality.

• Sixteen basic traits, source traits, underlie personality characteristics.

• Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, 16 PF, yields trait profiles of personality.

Paul Costa and Robert McCrae used factor analysis to identify five broad dimensions of personality. Five-factor model of personality, nicknamed “The Big Five,” includes the traits of openness, conscientiousness, e xtraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Assessment techniques to measure personality:

Unstructured interviews involve informal conversation centered on the individual.

Structured interviews involve the interviewer posing a series of planned questions that the interviewee answers.

Halo effect—tendency to generalize a favorable impression to unrelated dimensions of the subject’s personality.

Behavioral assessments—record the frequency of specific behaviors in an observation.

Hawthorn effect—when people know that they are being observed, they change their behavior to what they think the observer expects or to make themselves look good.

Psychoanalysts use projective personality tests—presenting ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots or pictures, with the assumption that test takers will project their unconscious thoughts or feelings onto the stimuli. Examples are Rorschach inkblot test and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).

Self-report methods, the most common personality assessment techniques, involve answering a series of questions, such as a personality questionnaire, or supplying information about himself or herself.

• Jung’s personality types are measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

• Cattell’s personality traits are