Guest Lecturer on Trait Taxonomies Flashcards
Trait Taxonomies: Organizing Personality? (Theoretical approach: Hans Eysench)
Theoretical approach: Hans Eysench
- Personality taxonomy should be rooted in biology
3 major traits of interest: “PEN”?
Psychoticism (related to testosterone level) - aggressive, cold, egocentric, impersonal
Extraverion (realted to physicaiocagal arousal) - sociable, active, lively
Neuroticsm (related to fluctuations in autonomic nervous system)—anxious, depressed, tense
Some criticism of the psychoticism dimension?
- Label accuracy (should it be called “antisocial personality” instead?)
- Relevance of sub-traits (e.g., creativity conceptualized as a sub-trait of psychoticism)
Circumplex Taxonomies: Eysenck’s “Big Two”
Broad level factors are statistically independent
- Your level on one factor does not have any relation to your level on another facotr
- Possible to be high N + high E, high N + low E, etc.
Problems with PEN?
Not all-inclusive
- Other empirical studies found more than 3 factors
Other traits how heritability, like conscientiousness
Other taxonomies developed to address issues
- Wiggins’ theort of interpersonal traits
Agency (Status) + Communion (Love)
The Five Factor Model (FFM)
The Five-Factor Model or “Big 5” (OCEAN)
Openness: curious and unconventional
Conscientiousness: orderly and disciplined
Extraversion: exuberant and sociable
Agreeableness: caring and considerate
Neuroticism: emotional and anxious
FFM: Factor Analysis?
Combination of lexical and statistical approaches
- Started with over 17,000 terns
- Meaningful clusters identified from this long list of items though factor analysis
Factor analysis: empirical way of identifying groups of items that tend to go together, but tend not to go together with other groups of items
FFM: Strong Emprical Support?
Factor analysis repeatedly finds fice factors
- Cross-cultural replication
- Genetic links
- Cross-species replication, e.g. dogs, hyenas, monkeys
Subfacets of Openness to experience?
- Fantasy
- Aesthetics
- Feelings
- Ideas
Openness to actions (adventure)
Openness to values (challenging authorirty)
Open people remember dreams better, are more creative, and enjoy novel experiences
Subfacets of Conscientiousness?
- Competence
- Order
- Dutifulness
- Achievement-striving
- Self-discipline
- Deliberation
Conscientious people are successful in school and work, and have more stable, committed romantic relationships
Subfacets of Extraversion?
- Gregariousness
- Activity level
- Assertiveness
- Warmth
- Excitement seeking
- Positive emotions
Extraverts love social attention and leadership, and are happier
Subfacets of Agreeableness?
- Trust
- Altruism
- Modesty
- Compliance
- Straight-forward
Agreeable people resolve conflicts, are generous, and are well-liked
Subfacets of Neuroticism?
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Vulnerability
- Impulsiveness
- Self-consciousness
- Anger/Hostility
Neurotic people are highly emotional, have mood swings and
instability in relationships, and are more fatigued
What’s missing from the Big 5?
- Positive evaluation and negative evaluation of the self
- Religiosity/spiritualuty
- Honesty/humility
HEXACO model: accounts for honesty/humility as a sixth factor
Honest/humble: honest, sincere, trustworthy, unselfish
Dishonest/arrogant: arrogant, conceited, greedy, pompous, self-important, egotistical
Stability vs. Plasticity?
By definition, traits are stable dispositions across:
- Time, test-retest reliability
- Situations
