Personality Flashcards
Developed the trait theory of personality
Allport
Three types of traits within the trait theory of personality
Cardinal traits
Central traits
Secondary traits
Type of personality trait which is so pervasive that most of a person’s actions or behaviour can be traced back to this - not everyone has one of these.
Cardinal trait
Type of personality trait which are found as a group of 5-10 traits which can be easily identified in someone
Central trait
Type of personality trait which are least important and only evident in certain circumstances or to certain people
Secondary trait
Psychologist who developed the 16 personality factor questionnaire by reducing Allport’s traits down to 171 elements and then grouping these into 16 dimensions
Cattell
Three traits in Eysenck’s approach to personality testing
Neuroticism
Psychoticism
Extraversion
The four dimensions of temperament described by Cloninger which were said to be highly heritable and manifested early in life
Novelty seeking
Harm avoidance
Reward dependence
Persistance
The three character dimensions described by Cloninger which were said to be shaped by the environment in which someone grew up
Self-directedness
Co-operativeness
Self-transcendence
Developed the locus of control theory of personality
Rotter
Locus of control in Rotter’s personality theory where people perceive themselves as having a high degree of control over their behaviour
Internal locus
Locus of control in Rotter’s personality theory where people feel their behaviours occur as a result of luck or environmental factors
External locus
Big Five personality traits as suggested by McCrae and Costa
Openness Conscientiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism
Big Five personality traits that increase with age
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Big Five personality traits that decrease with age
Openness
Neuroticism
Extraversion
Personality tests designed to access unconscious areas of a person’s mind
Projective
Examples of projective personality tests
Rorschach inkblot
Thematic apperception test
Draw-a-person test
Sentence completion test
Personality tests which have a clear structure and often multiple choice answers
Objective
Examples of objective personality tests
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
Sixteen Factor Personality Questionnaire
NEO Personality Inventory
Esyenck Personality Test
The idea that physical body shape can correlate with personality traits
Typology
Introduced Type A and Type B personalities
Freidman and Rosenman
Features of Type A personality
Competitive Aggressive Impatient Difficulty relaxing High achieving
Features of Type B Personality
Easy-going
Creative
Evade stress
Cope poorly when placed under stress
Projective personality test where a subject is shown a variety of picture cards and has to make a story out of each picture
Thematic Apperception Test
Alternative name for extraversion in the big five personality traits
Surgency
Alternative name for neuroticism in the big five personality traits
Emotional stability
Projective personality test where two parallel forms of inkblot cards are used
Holtzman inkblot technique
Personality studies of whole populations - giving personality ‘types’ e.g. Eysenck’s type theory
Nomothetic approach
Personality studies of individuals
Idiographic approach