Cattell's theory & The Big 5 Flashcards
What did Cattell’s theory on personality and traits suggest?
PERSONALITY: characteristics of an individual that allow predictions of behaviour
TRAITS: relatively stable and long-lasting building blocks of personality – predictive value
What did Cattell say are important factors in trait development?
- BOTH ENVIRONMENT AND GENETICS ARE IMPORTANT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY:
CONSTITUTIONAL TRAITS: genetically based
ENVIRONMENTAL-MOLD TRAITS: environmentally determined.
What were Cattell’s different types of traits?
-ABILITY TRAITS
- TEMPERAMENT TRAITS
- DYNAMIC TRAITS
(ALSO SURFACE TRAUTS AND SOURCE TRAITS)
What are ability traits?
- relates to how well we deal with specific situations and how well we reach our goals e.g. intelligence
What are temperament traits?
- relates to styles we adopt when pursuing our goals; highly heritable e.g. intelligence
What are dynamic traits?
- relates to elements guided by motivation e.g. altruistic, competitive
INCLUDES: attitudes (express our particular interests), sentiments (aggregates of attitudes e.g. values), ergs (innate drives)
What is the dynamic lattice?
- the organised complexity and interrelation of dynamic traits.
What are the 6 stages of personality development?
- 0- 6: influenced by parents and siblings
- 6-14: slow independence
- 14-23: emotional disorders and delinquency
- 23-50: generally productive, career, marriage etc
- 50 - 65: development in response to physical, social and psychological changes
- 65 to death: adjustment to different kinds of losses e.g. death of a spouse.
What are surface traits?
- individual’s overt behaviorus e.g. worry
- cluster together and have high correlations
- first order traits
What are source traits?
- major dimensons
- consist of constellations (clusters) of surface traits
What is Cattell’s Specification Equation to predict indvidual behaviour in a given situation?
P = S1T1 + S2T2…
What is the lexical approach to personality? (i.e. the lexical hypothesis - proposed by Galton)
- if individual differences are important, they should be encoded in language through TRAIT DESCRIPTORS
What are the assumptions of the lexical hypothesis?
- Frequency of word use –> importance of trait
- NO. of synonyms–> importance of difference
- Cros-cultural presence–> universality of traits/importance
What were the core ideas of Cattell’s theory of trait development?
ALLPORT’S 4508 TRAITS –> reduced to 171 through synonym elimination –> narrowed to 36 through experts’ ratings –> surface traits
What were Cattell’s sources of data?
L-DATA: (life record data)- behavioural records collected primarily from peer-ratings e.g. school records
Q-DATA:(questionnaire data)- psychometric self- report assessment
T-DATA: (test data)- objective tests e.g. psychological tests
What are some examples of Cattell’s 16 PFS? (primary factors)?
- warmth
- reasoning
- emotional stability
- dominance
- liveliness
- sensitivity
- vigilance
What are some negatives of Cattell’s theory?
- relative inability to replicate 16PF
- almost exclusively relies on FA and statistics (measurement in psychometrics needs to relate to the comprehensibility rule and rely on qualitative and quantitative factors)
- beyondism: suggests that the fittest should rule the world (evolutionary theory)
What are some positives of Cattell’s theory?
- major contributions to personality and intelligence
- proposed the state-trait dichotomy
- his data gave rise to the 5FACTOR MODEL
- developed the first really viable psychometric assessment
- major contributions to Behavioural genetics and measurement e.g. MAVA
What are some possible psychometric reasons for the inability to replicate Cattell’s 16PF
- rotation used (oblique vs. orthogonal)
- absence of simple structure (problem with convergence & discriminant validity)
- response invariance
- scaling
- low loadings (low correlations between surface & source traits cos all interrelated)
What was Fiske’s (1949) approach to psychometrics?
- took 22 surface traits of Cattell’s and couldn’t replicate it
What were Norman and Tupes & Christal’s (1958) approach to psychometrics based on Cattell’s structure?
- took both Cattell and Fiske’s facettes –> found 5 factors
What was Lewis Goldberg’s evolution of the lexical taxonomy?
Trait- descriptors are versions of 5 major features of personality:
- love (agreeableness)
- work (conscientiousness)
- affect (emotional stability)
- power (surgency)
- intellect
What was Goldberg’s assesment to create his 5 trait descriptors?
- used the Abridged Big 5- Dimensional Circumplex (a circular model of the personality domain, in which each pair comprises its own circle)
- the more symmetrical of a shape ppl make, the more healthy you are
What was Costa & McCrae’s OCEAN model based on?
- used 16PF but cluster analysed it (not FA)
- developed the NEO personality inventory (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness)
- later added Agreeableness & Conscientiousness (added artificially)
What were the different parts of the OCEAN’s NEO model?
- hierarchical factorial arrangement (5-pt likert scales)
- the personality dimensions are orthogonal (PCA, Varimax rotation)
- the NEO is probably the most validated personality arrangement and most commonly used
What does extraversion relate to?
(sociability)
- how much
facets (traits): gregarious, warmth, assertivenessness, excitement seeking, positive emotion
- observed behavioural correlates: prominence in social organizations
- heritability index: 0.36
What does neuroticism relate to?
(emotionality)
- relates to anxiety and distress
observed behavioural correlates: poor marital fning, impaired academic performance
heritability index: 0.31
What does agreeableness correlate to?
- maintaing positive relations with others
observed behavioural correlates: conflict resolution tactics, greater social support from others
heritability index: 0.28
What does conscientiousness relate to?
(responsibility)
- relates to will to achieve
Observed behavioural correlates: avoidance of risky behaviours, higher academic achievement
heritability index: 0.28
What does openness (to experience) relate to?
- relates to intelligences, will to experience social or existential experience
Observed behavioural correlates: greater engagement with existential challenges, artistic expression
Heritability index: 0.46
What are some positives of the Big 5?
- good cross-cultural validity and other psychometric properties
- most commonly used typology in personality research
- immediate applications in occupation and health
What are some negatives of the Big 5?
- disagreement about the exact nature
- are the dimension really orthogonal (e.g. N & C r=0.45)
- doesn’t really possess a solid theoretical base
- honesty- humilty dimension
- still a descriptive taxonomy
