Personality - 5 Flashcards
What methods are used in the dispositional approach of personality to identify major components of personality that influence behaviour
Tests
Questionnaires
Psychometrics
Statistical techniques
What are traits
Core characteristics
Stable and enduring qualities of a person, with behaviour being the same whatever time or situation
The differences in people occurs as their is a difference in the strength and number of dispositions each person has
What are the goals of the dispositional approach
Identify underlying dimensions of personality
To discover how people different
Influence and predict behaviour
What is the type theory of personality
Discrete categories view of personality
What is a great limitation of type theories
Human personality is so varied we won’t fit into a few categories. Most people are a mixture of types
What 2 groups did allport divide traits into
Common traits - shared by members of culture
Individual traits - a persons unique qualities
What 3 forms did allport suggest individual traits took
Cardinal traits - powerful trait that characterises all of a persons behaviour
Central traits- core behavioural tendencies highly characteristic of an individual. We each have 5-10, it’s what others see and guides is to behave consistently
Secondary traits - all the other traits in a person that show is some situations but not others
What does an idiographic approach focus on in personality
The individuals
What does a nomothetic approach focus on within personality
Groups of people, and how much they are similar or different
What did cat tell and Eysenck develope their theories from
Based on info about personality from questionarres
What statistical technique did Cattell and Eysenck use
Factor analysis - to help determine most important and number of traits
They found different answers
What a factor analysis
A mathematical technique based on correlations allows you to investigate and determine which particular items tend to be answered in the same way by a particular person
Allows you to infer which things go together
What is the orthogonal method of factor analysis
It results in a small number of powerful factors
Independent of each other
Used by Eysenck
What is the oblique method of factor analysis
A large number of less powerful factors
Correlated to some extent
Used by Cattell
What were Cattells findings from his study
He distinguished 2 types of trait
Surface trait - visible aspects of personality (35)
Source traits - underlying personality traits which surface traits are derived from (16)
Major personality traits can predict behaviour
