Five Factor Models of Personality

Question 1

what traits make up personality according to the FFM AND the big 5

Answer 1

neuroticism

extraversion

openness

conscientiousness

agreeableness

Question 2

what method does FFM and big 5 use

Answer 2

exploratory factor analysis (EFA)

Question 3

what is exploratory factor analysis

Answer 3

a statistical approach to go from lots of individual item responses to shared dimensions based on shared variance

Question 4

what domains did costa and mccrae find that the 5 factor model had

Answer 4

neuroticism:
anxiety, depression, impulsivity

extraversion:
warmth, assertiveness, excitement seeking

openness:
aesthetics, values, fantasy

agreeableness:
trust, altruism, modesty

conscientiousness:
competence, self-discipline, achievement striving

Question 5

what domains did goldberg find that the big 5 had

Answer 5

emotional stability:
calm, at ease, not envious

extraversion:
extraverted, energetic, talkative

intellect:
intelligent, analytical, curious

agreeableness:
warm, kind, cooperative

conscientiousness:
organised, responsible, practical

Question 6

what is factor loading

Answer 6

the extent to which items fit onto a latent factor

Question 7

what are the structural differences between FFM and big 5

Answer 7

trait hierarchy (FFM)
no hierarchy (big 5)

different traits and facets (no neuroticism in big 5)

Question 8

how are FFM and big 5 measured

Answer 8

ffm - questionnaire items

big 5 - adjectives (“agreeable”)

Question 9

what are the differences in causality between the FFM and the big 5

Answer 9

ffm - traits cause behaviour

big 5 - no causal statement - they just represent natural language

Question 10

what are the differences in origins between the FFM and big 5?

Answer 10

FFM
traits derived from biological process, stable over time and culture

big 5
we evolve a corpus of adjectives we use to describe our behaviour - analysis of this provides description of main domain personality

Question 11

claim 1: five factors are present in both adjectives and questionnaire items

Answer 11

adjectives load on to 5 domains and the FFM facets onto their target 5 consistently across studies

Question 12

what did bouchard and mcgue find regarding evidence for biological genetics in the FFM model

Answer 12

no shared environment effect on personality - it tends to be genetics and non-shared environment

Question 13

what are genome-wide associations studies (GWAS)

Answer 13

examine the whole genome and look for associations with genes

any association found needs to be replicated and examined in targeted studies

Question 14

what did terracciano et al find regarding evidence for FFM having a genetic basis

Answer 14

a number of genetic mutations associated with variations in personality

Question 15

what is the evidence for neurological basis of personality

Answer 15

functional MRI show that brain activity on a task varies as a function of a trait

structural MRI show that traits are associated with brain regions associated with the behaviours linked to that trait

Question 16

what did deyoung et al find regarding MRI of the FFM

Answer 16

mapped personality traits to behaviours and tried to match them to a specific brain region

Question 17

did srivastava et al find that personality is stable over time

Answer 17

no - both men and women show reliable changes in personality traits as they age

Question 18

did specht et al find that personality is stable over time

Answer 18

4 people, A, B, C, D, assessed on trait at 3 time points

systematic shifts but tend to stay relative compared to the population

Question 19

what is gurven et al’s WEIRD problem

Answer 19

all cross-cultural FFM works on western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic people

however mostly male only / female only studies

Question 20

what did gurven et al find with the tsimane

Answer 20

forager villages in bolivia - no evidence of FFM

Question 21

what are the 3 critiques for the big 5 and FFM from block

Answer 21

problems using factor analysis to determine personality

adjectives selected to fit the model

if you select items or adjectives to reflect 5 factors, that’s what you’ll see

Question 22

what is mccrae et al’s critique for the FFM

Answer 22

CFA models too restrictive in specification, items correlated due to self report

Question 23

what is eysenck’s critique of FFM

Answer 23

agreeableness and conscientiousness better seen as facets of neuroticism and psychoticism

Question 24

what is digman’s critique of the big 5

Answer 24

the big 5 factors are highly correlated

Question 25

what is allen et al’s neural bases critique

Answer 25

current neuroimaging studies are descriptive rather than mechanistic

Question 26

what is bennett et al’s neural bases critique with the SALMON

Answer 26

salmon shown series of photos and asked to determine the emotion in photos

detected active voxels in salmon brain activity

this shows that just because there is brain activity it doesn’t mean what it’s being associated with is true