Chapter 2: Personality Traits

Question 1

Eysenck’s Theory of Personality

Answer 1

Consists of three biologically driven and heritable traits that were highly noticeable differences. These differences all divided into lower “facets” that correlated with each other. The three main traits were:

1) Extraversion (how one acts with others)
2) Neuroticism (how one acts inwards)
3) Psychoticism (how one acts outwardly)

Question 2

Shyness

Answer 2

Different from introversion!! Shyness is a mix of high extraversion and high neuroticism. It is a conflict of approach and avoidance.

Question 3

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Include dimensions)

Answer 3

Consists of 4 dimensions, allowing for 16 personality types. The creation of this test was inspired by Carl Jung’s work. The 4 dimensions consisted of:

1) Extraversion/Introversion: Whether you draw energy from the outside world, or your inside self.
2) Sensing/Intuition: Taking in logical information with your 5 senses, vs. relying on your 6th sense for intaking information.
3) Thinking/Feeling: Whether you prefer logic and organization, or relationships and values.
4) Judging/Perceiving: Whether you prefer to have order and control, or be spontaneous and flexible.

Question 4

What are the problems with the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator? (6)

Answer 4

1) Each dimension only has 7 questions, meaning VERY low content validity.
2) The questions are forced choices.
3) It is categorical, not distributional. This goes against what we know about personality as traits and not types.
4) There is no supportive research for it.
5) It uses the Barnum effect
6) It only persists because of pop culture and business culture.

Question 5

Cattell’s Theory of Personality

Answer 5

Formed by Cattell who created the statistical approach. Cattell’s theory consisted of 16 FACTORS. The lexical approach was used to discover the factors!

Question 6

What overlaps were present in Cattell’s theory?

Answer 6

Dominance and Boldness.
Sensitivity, Emotional Stability and Tension.
Conformity and Radicalism.
Shrewdness and Self-Discipline.`

Question 7

Big Five Factor Model

Answer 7

Created by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, who took Cattell’s 16 factors and statistically prevented the overlap to create the 5 factors:

1) Extraversion vs. Introversion
2) Neuroticism vs. Emotional Stability
3) Agreeableness vs. Disagreeableness
4) Conscientiousness vs. Casual
5) Openness vs. Closed

Question 8

IPIP-NEO

Answer 8

A form of the Big 5 test, although only measures neuroticism, extraversion and openness. Very effective.

Question 9

TIPI Personality Test

Answer 9

A form of the Big 5 test, although it is very weak as it only has 10 questions, meaning every factor is questioned only 2 times. This test proves that longer tests have greater reliability, as the TIPI personality test has low test-retest validity.

Question 10

HEXACO

Answer 10

Built on top of the Big 5 factors by Michael C. Ashton and Kibeom Lee. Added the 6th factor: Honesty-Humility.
The sub-factors of Honesty-Humility are:
Sincerity
Fairness
Greed Avoidance
Modesty

Question 11

Dark Triad

Answer 11

Defined by Delroy Paulhas after the creation of HEXACO as the opposite of the Honesty-Humility factor. The Dark Triad is a combination of:

1) Narcissism: Believing yourself is superior, and expecting attention because you believe you deserve it.
2) Psychopathy: Little empathy or conscience. A lack of feeling of remorse/guilt.
3) Machiavellism: Master manipulators. Do anything to get their way and take advantage of others.

Question 12

What effects does the Dark Triad have on relationships?

Answer 12

Men high in Dark Triad tend to not maintain long-term relationships. Women high in Dark Triad tend to stay in long-term relationships but are unfaithful.