evaluating the big 5

Question 1

trait theory assumption

Answer 1

personality characteristics are stable over time

Question 2

what are the big 5

Answer 2

costa and mccrae
-extroversion
-neuroticism
-agreeableness
-conscientiousness
-openness to experience

Question 3

big 5 links to social correlates

Answer 3

traits influence how we relate to others

Question 4

social correlates of openness to experience

Answer 4

-colbert: leadership qualities include specific personality traits like openness to experience
-berry and hansen: openness to experience influences how likely we are to disclose info in social situations

Question 5

social correlate of conscientiousness

Answer 5

-tang et al: conscientiousness associated with low facebook addiction
-bogg and roberts: support for greater integration of conscientiousness into public health and medical research, with aim of understanding how facilitating more optimal trait standing fosters better health
(high in conscientiousness are more likely to engage in medical treatments)

Question 6

social correlates of extraversion

Answer 6

-eisenkraft and eifenbein: 48 work groups completed 5 factor questionnaire, pp with elevated extroversion (and low agreeableness) are more likely to elicit negative emtions towards collegues
-lucas: high extroversion links to high sociability and likelihood of reaching out to people
(reward sensitivity theory)
–the reward gain we get leads to higher sociability
–extroverts experience reward from engagement with individuals and feel a positive affect

Question 7

social correlates of agreeableness

Answer 7

-witt 2002: agreeableness associated with improved job performance through cooperation and social affiliation
-lui et al: anger promotes neg interpersonal relationships moderated by agreeableness

Question 8

social correlates of neuroticism

Answer 8

-those who are neurotic are also affected in terms of health
-mandelli: in stressful life events neuroticism showed strong association with depressive severity, independently from current dep state
-denissen and penke 2008: neurotic indiv react with heightened sensitivity to threatening social cues

Question 9

advantages of big 5

Answer 9

-various independent researchers have come up with 5 factor structure for personality
-costa and mccrae: same factor structure found across diff languages, racial groups and ages
-egger 2003: cross cultural replicability
-arrival of NEO personality inventory has bolstered 5 factor model and has similar findings to 5 factor model
-goldberg: big 5 factors are robust
-good predictive validity e.g predicts outcome in schools, work, marriage,, parenting, crime, politics etc

Question 10

examples of predictive validity of big 5

Answer 10

-conscientiousness predicts how faithful you are to your spouse
-openness to experience predicts likelihood of changing your job
-extraversion predicts eye contact and lifetime number of sexual partners

Question 11

disadvantages of big 5

Answer 11

-curtis et al: may be change, not as stable as thought, pos association between openness, cog ability and conscientiousness with slower rates of cognitive decline
-approach is atheoretical, data driven rather than theoretically driven
-maybe we need a theory to explain why the structure of personality falls into these 5 clusters
-some argue big 5 leaves out important traits like morals
–HEXACO picked up from big 5 by adding honesty to the model (6 factor model)
–other argue big 5 leaves out masculinity/femininity, religiosity, sense of humour etc

Question 12

evidence for big 5 disadvantages

Answer 12

paunovian and jackson: evidence many personality traits lie beyond big 5
-cattell: evidence that ongoing changes to personality occur across lifetime

Question 13

sex differences across traits

Answer 13

costa et al 2001
-there are differences in agreeableness, neuroticism, extroversion, dominance etc

Question 14

criticism by mischel

Answer 14

-argued personality traits are not stable across situations
-behaviour is product of situation rather than person
-e.g someone may be extroverted if situation calls for this
-personality traits are actually not good at predicting behaviour
-correlation between traits and behaviour is 0.1 - 0.3 and yet we make decisions based on these traits

Question 15

personality theorists response to mischel criticism

Answer 15

-correlation is likely 0.4 or 0.5
-most think behaviour is joint product of person and situation
-however personality is one variable among many influencing behaviour
-there is certainly danger in relying too heavily on personality measures