Lecture 2 - Personality Traits Flashcards
What is personality trait defined by
(Burger, 1997)
The dimension of personality used to categorise people
-according to the degree to which they manifest a particular characteristic
(Burger, 1997)
What are the two underlying assumptions of personality trait theory
- Personality characteristics are relatively stable over time
- Traits show stability across situations
What is the lexical hypothesis
The words people use in the English language, reveal what people find important when describing personality
Galton (1822-1911)
(when looking to describe personality, turn to dictionaries)
What are the two assumptions of the lexical hypothesis
- Most meaningful traits will be used in language as single terms
- Number of words in a language (that refer to the trait) correspond to its importance (in describing personality)
What is a criticism of the lexical hypothesis (Norman, 1963)
- If lexical hypothesis is valid
- then it should apply across diff cultures & languages
But it doesn’t (evidence of this later)
What kind of approach did the lexical hypothesis use for its means of collecting data
Nomothetic approach
What is a nomothetic approach strategy
Focus on similarities btwn groups of indivs
-Indivs are unique only in way their traits combine
What is the goal of the nomothetic approach
Identify the basic structure of personality
& Indentify the minimum number of traits required to describe personality universally
What is the methodology of the nomothetic approach
Quantitative methods to:
- Explore structures of personality
- Produces measures of personality
- Explores rship btwn variables across groups
What is the means of data collection for the nomothetic approach
Self-report personality quennaires
What are the advantages of the nomothetic approach
Discovery of general principles that have a predictive function
What are the nomothetic approach disadvantages
- Fairly superficial understanding of any one person
- Training needed to analyse personality profiles accurately
What is Cattell’s Factor Analysis (16 PF)
Way of reducing data from many variables to their underlying dimensions
find correlated traits & list as one cluster/factor (common denominator)
What was Cattell’s theory of personality
16 PF
- Personality is the characteristics of the indiv that allow prediction of how they’ll behave in a given situation
- Traits are stable, long-lasting building blocks of personality
Where did the 16 factors come from
Cattell 16 PF
- Factor analysis revealed 16 personality factors
- Cattell’s 16PF came from the factor analysis of the list of 4,500 trait names identified by Allport and Odbert (1936)
Weakness of Cattell 16 PF
Problems with replication attempts (Conn and Rieke, 1994)
What is Eysenck’s 3 factor approach
- Observe responses in specific situations
- Typical responses = habitual response
- Particular traits emerge
What is a supertrait
Eysenck 3 factor approach
Grouping of traits
next logical step of the model
What are the 3 supertraits of Eysenck’s 3 factor personality model
Sociability
Neuroticism
Psychoticism
How was personality measured in Eysenck’s 3 factor model
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (1975)
Weakness of 3 factor model
Eysenck
Too reductionist
3 traits is far too few
What is Costa & McCrae’s (1992) Personality Theory
5 factor approach
OCEAN
- Built on lexical hypothesis foundation
- Statements that pps agree/disagree with can better access components of personality
- Analysed the data
- NOT based on a theory of 5 factors, which is then tested, but rather a data-driven hypothesis
What is the HEXACO model
Ashton & Lee (2007)
- Honesty-humility
- Emotionality
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Conscentiousness
- Openness
Developed after conducting international research using the 5 factor model, discovering a 6th
How can the 6 traits in the HEXACO model be organised
Ashton & Lee (2007)
- Honesty/Humility, Agreeableness, Emotionality
-contribute to altruism - Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness To Experience
-relate to biological separate areas of behaviour
Which factor is best? 3, 5, or 6
- Eysenck’s 3 seem to have lost the debate. Irrelevant
- HEXACO might be a useful revision to the Five factor model
- Difficulties in determining the “truth” may reflect the use of factor analysis. Could be argued it’s just “agreeableness” for the sake of discovering something new
- Multiple methods may be needed
lowkey depends on your own opinion
How are personality traits measured
- Self-report
- Other report (e.g., observer report)
- Behaviour observation
- Physiology
-hormones
-brain activity
-genetics
What the bombaclaat is the big one
Musek (2007)
2 Main Factors
Stability (conformity)
Plasticity (non-conformity)
2 factors are further reduced to 1 big ass factor
The general factor measures the factors that are cross culturally highly valued
Advantages of self-reports as a means of measuring personality
- Quick & easy; cheap
- You yourself (arguably) have the best insight
Disadvantages of self-reports as a means of measuring personality
- Biases in responding: social desirability & dishonesty
- Not measuring the biological basis
e.g., neuroticism at the level of self-report may be masked by learned strategies
Advantages of observer reports as a means of measuring personality
- Quick & easy; cheap
- Close peer has good insight into mind of their friend
- Can provide convergent perspective
Disadvantages of observer report as a means of measuring personality
- Some traits MUCH harder to judge externally
-e.g. smiling/laughing marker of extraversion
whereas neuroticism harder to access - Peer has no access to inner thoughts
-despite perception that they do - (Although not that important for Big Five but rather for other more intimate aspects of personality e.g. sexuality)
Weaknesses of personality trait approaches as a whole
Mischel 1968 & 2009
- Discrepancy btwn what he observed & assumptions of trait theory (some have 3, 5, 6 factors, disagreements etc)
- Trait models largely descriptive & not predict behaviour
- Lack of cross-situational consistency of behaviour
-Can’t be predicted using trait theory
(characterised as the person-situation debate)
