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
Plaster hypothesis?
Personality traits become stable by age 30
Contextualist perspective?
Personality emerges from multiple sources; person-environment interactions
Mean-level stability?
In a population, people’s average level of a trait at different ages
-> significant average shifts in
personality over time
Maturity principle?
People tend to increase on traits that
promote optimal behavior in adult social roles, and decrease on less socially desirable traits
Rank-order stability?
Consistency of individual differences on traits
Is the most extraverted child still the most
extraverted adult?
Is the least agreeable college student still the least agreeable 40 year-old?
Rank-order stability?
Consistency of individual differences on traits
-> relative personality levels remain
generally stable, and increasingly so with age
Why does personality change or stay stable?
Environmental influences—stable vs. unstable
Individual cognitions—development of selfconcept and cohesive identity
Person-environment transactions
People select situations based on their personalities
▫ e.g., a conscientious individual enrolls in an honor’s class
Situations in turn influence people’s personalities
▫ e.g., an honors student becomes more conscientious
