The processing of self-relevant personality trait information was examined using the five factor model of personality. The major question addressed was whether these five personality dimensions impact on the manner in which individuals process information about themselves, relevant to these personalty dimensions, across a range of cognitive processes. Accessibility of self-knowledge, attention and memory were assessed in relation to each of the five factors. Given the strong relation between personality and affect, the role of affect in processing personality information was also examined. Overall, the results indicate that personality and mood states both influence the processing of self-relevent personality trait terms. On a self-endorsement task, Neuroticism, Extraversion and Conscientiousness were associated with shorter response latencies, indicating that individuals can access rapidly information about themselves in relation to these personality dimensions. The results of memory tasks indicate that negative mood exerted a largely disruptive influence on memory performance. On an analog Stroop task, individuals in negative mood states were found to orient to negatively-valenced trait information. An interaction was found between negative mood states and Neuroticism: individuals high in Neuroticism who were also in a negative mood state were more likely to orient to negative trait information. These findings indicate that both personality and mood factors are important variables which operate on different cognitive processes. The results are interpreted in terms of model of representation of the self.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.35631 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Sullivan, Maureen, 1955- |
| Contributors | Moskowitz, D. S. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001641336, proquestno: NQ44603, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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