Ch. 7 Trait Approach Flashcards
Traits
- predispositions
- fundamental building blocks of human personality
What does trait theory assume
- traits are stable over time
- 2. traits are stable across situations
Ways trait theorists differ from psychoanalytic theorists
- trait approach has no school of psychotherapy
- trait approach places less emphasis on identifying the underlying causes of behavior than other approaches
- focus less on individuals, more on groups of people (based on their traits)
Gordon Allport introduced 2 traits to personality field
common traits and personal traits
common traits
can be used to describe everyone
personal traits
describe an individual disposition
cardinal trait
- a single trait that dominates a person’s personality and determines everything they do
- somewhat rare, not everyone has one
central traits
- 5 to 10 traits most important that dominates a person’s personality and determines everything they do
- who they are
Secondary traits
- other traits that aren’t central but occur regularly
- includes personal preferences and tastes
Cattell’s
- goal to discover basic elements of human personality
- factor analysis
- surface personality traits; source traits
Big 5 traits
- neuroticism
- extraversion
- openness
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
assessment techniques
- self report
- problems with self report
Nomothetic approach
- used this approach to assume that all people can be described along a single dimension according to their level of assertivenss or anxiety
Idiographic approach
researchers using this approach identify the unique combinations of traits that the best accounts for the personality of a single individual
factor analysis
purpose to account for a large number of measures with a smaller number of basic dimensions
