Chp 8 - Trait Theories Flashcards
Trait Perspective
Personality Trait:
*A stable dimension of personality
*Quantifiable
*Limited number of personality traits
Types vs Traits
Introversion – extroversion as types
-Mutually exclusive
As traits: Is a spectrum
-High introversion to high extraversion
-Like a bell curve
Trait as Trait as Internal Cause
Causes of behaviour,
“Personality is something and does something”
(Allport, 1937, p. 48)
Trait as Descriptive Summary
Convenient, efficient way to describe a set of behaviours
e.g. “they are extroverted” = “they are talkative, social , outgoing, active, assertive”
Gordon Allport
- Uniqueness of psychologically healthy
individuals - Dispositions/traits
(Research on personality is almost all coming from clinical psychology:
Which meant not all those were healthy, and influenced the way theories were created)
Finding Traits: Lexical Analysis
Language: How do we describe each other?
- Allport: did a language analysis, go through dictionary and find words to describe a person
- We describe others using descriptors such as whether the person is friendly, generous, poised, relaxed, outgoing, conscientious
- We create words for things that are important to name
Trait Theories: Allport
Emphasized
* Individual differences
*Measurement and description of personality
*Heritable, biological substrate (Some kinds of activity in the brain)
* Experience works on biological substrate;Heredity and environment
* Stability of traits(Due to the genetic makeup does not change in any important way from childhood to adulthood)
“Dynamic Organization” of Personality
- All aspects integrated, organized
- Emerges across development
- Active and proactive process
(We choose environments, activities that fit our personalities, we plan and grow
If we reinforce the behaviours, eg extroversion, then the trait will become more stable )
Alport: Personality Traits
Common traits:
Shared
- Traits we share because of shared biological and cultural heritage
What makes us the same
Personal dispositions:
Individual
- Unique to the individual
- Responsible for the individual’s behaviour
- The individual’s common traits modified by experience
- What makes us different
Alport: Functional Equivalence
Regularities in thought emotion, behaviour emerge because different situation treated as similar
e.g. meeting with co-worker and classmates similar so behave the same
Different stimuli, events, situations functionally equivalent
- evoke similar behaviours
Alport: Functionally Autonomous Motives
- Motivation to behave in a particular way changes over time
- Can become independent from original motivation
e.g. motivation to succeed in school from desire for parental approval,
Over time motivation becomes independent of parental approval
I.e., it becomes functionally autonomous
- The reason why your behaviour is consistent over time, autonomous
Raymond Cattell
Personality Traits,
Personality Inventories,
Predicting Behaviour
Raymond Cattell’s Definition of Personality
“Personality is that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given situation”
(Cattell, 1950, p.2).
Goal is to measure traits to predict behaviour
Cattell: Personality Traits
Surface Traits:
*situational
*temporary
Source Traits:
*consistent
*stable
*The underlying elements of personality
Finding Personality Factors
- Lexical data (Analysis of language, what words do we have to describe each other and what can be grouped tgt as traits )
Data from
*S-data: Survey (personality inventories)
*O-data: Observational (Behavioural observation)
*L-data: Life (diaries, archives)
Factor analysis
16 Personality Factors
- Described as Bipolar Dimensions
- Ask about behaviour in specific situations (e.g.,“Do you enjoy being part of a group?”)
- 3 validity scales (Social Desirability, Acquiescence,
Infrequency) - If personality can be described mathematically,
behaviour can be predicted mathematically.
Infrequency
Statements of behaviours that are phrased in a way which sound to be normal, but in reality in extremely rare
Acquiescence
Likely to agree with questions
Personality Profiles 16PF has been used for:
Olympic Games
Career counseling
Employment
Promotion
Hans Eysenck
Trait Theory
Three Personality Traits
Biological Bases of Personality
Eysenck’s Test of Extroversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism
Hans Eysenck: Extroversion
Extroverted vs. Introverted
1.Do you like mixing with people?
2.Do you like plenty of bustle and excitement
around you?
Hans Eysenck: Neuroticism
Neurotic vs. Emotional Stability
1.Do you often feel “fed-up”?
2.Does your mood often go up and down?
hose who are high in neuroticism, is less emotionally stable, not mean neurosis
Hans Eysenck: Psychoticism
1.Does it worry you if you know that there are
mistakes in your work?
2.Do you like taking risks for fun?
Eysenck’s Test of Extroversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism, what he thought were the most important?
Eysenck argued that Extroversion and Neuroticism most important.
Trait Theories: Hans Eysenck
Each dimension is independent, or
orthogonal, to other dimensions
- Scoring high in one aspect does not show relation
The Big Five
- Based on lexical data, personality inventories, observer ratings
- Extension of Eysenck
What are the 5 factors in Big Five?
Extroversion vs. Introversion
Agreeableness vs. Antagonsim
Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism
Conscientiousness vs. Undirectedness
Openness vs. Closed
The Big 5: Extroversion vs. Introversion
Predicts development of social relationships, leaderships
The Big 5: Agreeableness vs. Antagonsim
Based of Eysenck’s psychoticism- self-control
Correlates with prosocial acts, empathy
The Big 5: Emotional Stability vs. Neuroticism
From Eysenck
Correlated with health, risk taking, stress coping
The Big 5: Conscientiousness vs. Undirectedness
life satifaction, social relationships, health
The Big 5: Openness vs. Closed
Correlates with personal growth, creativity, dream recall
Heritability Coefficients of the Big 5
- Found that heritability between .4- .6
- Highest for extroversion
- Hard to find above .6
- Clear environmental/experiences factors
Eysenck
- To be meaningful, personality traits must be based on heritable physiological differences
- Would expect consistency across time
Stability of the Big Five
- Very stable in adulthood
- Less stable from childhood to adulthood
- But significant correlation for 4 of 5 traits
- Extroversion most stable
- Neuroticism least stable
Cross-linguistic agreement
(espec N, E, A)
Cross-cultural agreement:
- Tend to find agreement in the factors, generally applicable to humans, no specific culture
Motive
Motives closely related to traits
Motive= Internal forces that energize, direct and maintain specific patterns of behaviour
*Need for Achievement (n Ach)
*Need for Affiliation (n Aff)
*Need for Power (n Power)
*Need for Exhibition (n Exh)
