- Sara is an extremely extroverted person. Choose 3 of the following personality theorists: Eysenck, Buss, and Mischel, and describe how each of the 3 theorists you chose would explain why Sara is extraverted. How you organize your response is up to you but do not just summarize each theory. You must clearly and succinctly explain how each theorist would explain Sara’s personality.
BIOLOGICALLY BASED FACTOR EYESENCK:
Discuss Eyesenck's Trait theory of a strong biological basis for each super factor (only talk about extraversion).
Traits could be described using two main dimensions or continuums: introversion-extroversion.
– Introverts: over-aroused nervous system try to avoid excitement
– Extraverts: under-aroused nervous system seek out excitement
Sarah is an extrovert, so Eyesenck would say she is characterized by sociability and impulsiveness and jocularity, liveliness, optimism, quick-wittedness, and other traits indicative of people who are rewarded for their association with others.
Sarah has a LOWER LEVEL OF CORTICAL AROUSAL, so she has higher sensory thresholds and lesser reactions to stimulation. Thus, since she has a low level of cortical arousal, she needs a high-level of sensory stimulation to maintain an optimal level of stimulation. This explains why Sarah is extraverted, sociable, craving excitement and change, and can become bored.
BUSS'S EVOLUTIONARY THEORY OF PERSONALITY:
Personality Traits as Evolved Mechanisms- Buss argues the big 5 dimensions of personality can be thought of as summarizing the social landscape; they signal to other people our ability to solve survival & reproductive problems. Buss believed individual differences to solved survival & reproductive problems. More importantly, being sensitive or aware of these differences in personality before its reproductive advantages in the perceiver. If you know who is cooperative and/or dominant, you have an advantage over those who are oblivious to such traits. These dispositions are inherently evaluative, and they allow others to evaluate us on the adoptive problems; disposition signals other people their ability to solve survival and reproductive problems.
Sarah is a SURGENT person who is driven to achieve and often tends to dominate and lead others.
COGNITIVE SOCIAL THEORY:
Discuss Mischel's Cognitive-Affective Personality System and its two components (Consistency Paradox and Person-Situation Interaction) related to the trait theory of why Sarah is extroverted.
The Cognitive Affective Units that contribute to Sarah's behavior as they interact with stable personality traits & a receptive environment. The most important variables are (1) encoding strategies, or how people construe or categorize an event (2) competencies & self-regulating strategies: what people can do and their strategies & plans to accomplish a desired behavior (3) behavior outcome & stimulus outcome expectancies & beliefs regarding a particular stimulation (4) subjective goals, values, & preferences that partially determine selective attention to events (5) affective responses, including feelings & emotions as well as the effects that accompany physiological reactions.
Sample Solution