Chapter 13: Eysenck, McCrae, and Costa's Trait and Factor Theories

Question 1

Whereas many contemporary theorists believe that five is the magic number, earlier theorists such as Raymond B. Cattell found many more personality traits, and Hans J. Eysenck insisted that only _____ major factors can be discerned by a factor analytic approach

Answer 1

three

Question 2

In addition, we have seen that Gordon Allport’s commonsense approach yielded _____ traits that are central to each person’s life.

Answer 2

5 to 10

Question 3

_____ factor analytic technique yielded three general bipolar factors or types—extraversion/introversion, neuroticism/stability, and psychoticism/superego.

Answer 3

Eysenck’s

Question 4

According to _____, environmental experiences such as these two have little to do with personality development. To him, genetic factors have a greater impact on subsequent behavior than do childhood experiences.

Answer 4

Eysenck

Question 5

_____ was perhaps the most prolific writer in the history of psychology, having published some 800 journal articles or book chapters and more than 75 books.

Answer 5

Eysenck

Question 6

First, _____ used an inductive method of gathering data; that is, he began with no preconceived bias concerning the number or name of traits or types.

In contrast, Eysenck used a deductive method to identify three personality factors. That is, he had some preconceived hypothesis in mind before he began gathering data.

Answer 6

Cattell

Question 7

Second, _____ used three different media of observation to examine people. The three sources of data included:

A person’s life record (L data) derived from observations made by other people;

Self-reports (Q data) obtained from questionnaires and other techniques designed to allow people to make subjective descriptions of themselves; and

Objective tests (T data), which measure performance such as intelligence, speed of responding, and other such activities designed to challenge people’s maximum performance.

Answer 7

Cattell

Question 8

Eysenck’s three bipolar factors is limited to responses on _____. These self-reports confine Eysenck’s procedures to personality factors.

Answer 8

questionnaires

Question 9

Third, _____ divided traits into common traits (shared by many) and unique traits (peculiar to one individual).

He also distinguished source traits from trait indicators, or surface traits.

_____ further classified traits into temperament, motivation, and ability. Traits of temperament are concerned with how a person behaves, motivation deals with why one behaves, and ability refers to how far or how fast one can perform.

Answer 9

Cattell

Question 10

The largest and most frequently studied of the normal traits are the _____ found on Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factors Questionnaire.

By comparison, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire yields scores on only three personality factors.

Answer 10

16 personality factors

Question 11

A comprehensive knowledge of the mathematical operations involved in _____ is not essential to an understanding of trait and factor theories of personality, but a general description of this technique should be helpful.

Answer 11

factor analysis

Question 12

These more basic dimensions can be called _____, that is, factors that represent a cluster of closely related variables.

Answer 12

traits

Question 13

Traits generated through factor analysis may be either _____.

Answer 13

unipolar or bipolar

Question 14

_____ are scaled from zero to some large amount. Height, weight, and intellectual ability are examples of _____ traits.

Answer 14

unipolar

Question 15

_____ extend from one pole to an opposite pole, with zero representing a midpoint. Introversion versus extraversion, liberalism versus conservatism, and social ascendancy versus timidity are examples of _____ traits.

Answer 15

bipolar

Question 16

Correlations of scores with factors are called _____.

Answer 16

factor loadings

Question 17

This rotation can be either _____ or oblique, but Eysenck and advocates of the Five-Factor Theory favor the _____ rotation

Answer 17

orthogonal

Question 18

The personality theory of Hans Eysenck has strong psychometric and biological components.

Answer 18

Eysenck’s Factor Theory

Question 19

a_____ defined traits as “important semi-permanent personality dispositions”

Answer 19

Eysenck

Question 20

Eysenck, however, extracted only three general superfactors. His three personality dimensions are _____.

Answer 20

extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), and psychoticism (P)

Question 21

Has a strong hereditary component. As anxiety, hysteria, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Overreact emotionally.

Answer 21

Neuroticism

Question 22

Eysenck accepted the _____ model of psychiatric illness, which suggests that some people are vulnerable to illness because they have either a genetic or an acquired weakness that predisposes them to an illness. This predisposition (diathesis) may interact with stress to produce a neurotic disorder.

Answer 22

diathesis-stress

Question 23

P is a bipolar factor, with psychoticism on one pole and _____ on the other.

Answer 23

superego

Question 24

Measuring Personality: _____ scorers are often egocentric, cold, nonconforming, impulsive, hostile, aggressive, suspicious, psychopathic, and antisocial.

Answer 24

High P

Question 25

Measuring Personality: The _____ contains a lie (L) scale to detect faking, but more importantly, it measures extraversion and neuroticism independently, with a near zero correlation between E and N.

The _____ was extended to children 7 to 16 years of age by Sybil B. G. Eysenck, who developed the Junior EPI.

Answer 25

Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)

Question 26

Measuring Personality: The EPI was still a two-factor inventory, so consequently Hans Eysenck and Sybil Eysenck published a third personality test, namely the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), which included a _____ scale.

Answer 26

Psychoticism (P)

Question 27

Personality as a Predictor: Recall that Eysenck’s theory assumes that extraversion is a product of low cortical arousability. Therefore, introverts, compared with extraverts, should be more sensitive to a variety of stimuli and learning conditions.

Answer 27

Personality and Behavior

Question 28

Personality as a Predictor: Eyesenck and David Kissen found that people who scored low on neuroticism (N) on the Maudsley Personality Inventory tended to suppress their emotion and were much more likely than high N scorers to receive a later diagnosis of lung cancer.

Answer 28

Personality and Disease

Question 29

The Big Five: Taxonomy or Theory? Who are the two.

Answer 29

Robert R. McCrae and Paul T. Costa, Jr.

Question 30

Costa and McCrae focused initially on the two main dimensions of _____.

Answer 30

neuroticism and extraversion

Question 31

Almost immediately after they discovered N and E, Costa and McCrae found a third factor, which they called _____.

Answer 31

openness to experience

Question 32

Although _____ had first used the term “Big Five” in 1981 to describe the consistent findings of factor analyses of personality traits, Costa and McCrae continued their work on the three factors

Answer 32

Lewis Goldberg

Question 33

O-penness vs. Closed
C-onscientiousness vs. Spontaneous
E-xtroversion vs. Introversion
A-ggreableness vs. Hostile
N-eurotic vs. Stable

Answer 33

Big Five Personality Test

Question 34

In the personality theory of McCrae and Costa, behavior is predicted by an understanding of three central or core components and three peripheral ones.

The three central components include (1) basic tendencies, (2) characteristic adaptations, and (3) self-concept.

Answer 34

Units of the Five-Factor Theory

Question 35

Biological Bases
Objective Biography
External Influences

Answer 35

Peripheral Component

Question 36

Peripheral Component: The principal biological mechanisms that influence basic tendencies are genes, hormones, and brain structures.

Answer 36

Biological Bases

Question 37

The second peripheral component is _____, defined as “everything the person does, thinks, or feels across the whole lifespan”. _____ emphasizes what has happened in people’s lives (objective) rather than their view or perceptions of their experiences (subjective).

Answer 37

Objective Biography

Question 38

People constantly find themselves in a particular physical or social situation that has some influence on the personality system. The question of how we respond to the opportunities and demands of the context is what external influences is all about

Answer 38

External Influences

Question 39

Individuality
Origin
Development
Structure

Answer 39

Basic Postulates

Question 40

The _____ postulate stipulates that adults have a unique set of traits and that each person exhibits a unique combination of trait patterns.

Answer 40

individuality

Question 41

Second, the _____ postulate takes a clear if somewhat controversial stance: All personality traits are the result solely of endogenous (internal) forces, such as genetics, hormones, and brain structures.

Answer 41

origin

Question 42

Third, the _____ postulate assumes that traits develop and change through childhood, but in adolescence their development slows, and by early to mid-adulthood (roughly age 30), change in personality nearly stops altogether

Answer 42

development

Question 43

Finally, the _____ postulate states that traits are organized hierarchically from narrow and specific to broad and general, just as Eysenck had suggested. This postulate grows out of McCrae and Costa’s long-held position that the number of personality dimensions is five and only five.

Answer 43

structure

Question 44

The Biology of Personality Traits
Traits and Academics
Traits and Emotion

Answer 44

Related Research

Question 45

The Biology of Personality Traits: In general, Eysenck’s assumption that introverts are more _____ (have lower thresholds) than extraverts has been supported, with the qualification that it is reactivity rather than baseline activity levels that distinguishes introverts from extraverts.

Answer 45

reactive

Question 46

The most important trait for predicting both high school and college GPA was _____. Those who are high on the trait of conscientiousness tend to have higher GPAs in both high school and college.

Answer 46

conscientiousness