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Personality & Individual Differences > Personality Trait Theory > Flashcards

Personality Trait Theory Flashcards

1
Q

PERSONALITY

A
  • person’s unique/relatively stable beh patterns
  • consistency of who you are/have been/will be
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2
Q

CHARACTER

A
  • personal characteristics that have been judged/evaluated
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3
Q

TEMPERAMENT

A
  • hereditary personality aspects ie. sensitivity/moods/irritability/adaptability
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4
Q

PERSONALITY TRAIT

A
  • stable qualities person shows in most situations
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5
Q

PERSONALITY TYPE

A
  • people w/several common traits
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6
Q

PERSONALITY TYPES

A
  • categorial
  • type approach assumes:
    1. each of us fits into 1 personality category
    2. all people in category = alike
    3. each personality type = dif from all others
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7
Q

PERSONALITY TRAITS

A
  • continuous
  • trait approach categorises people according to degree to which they manifest particular characteristics
  • people’s unique personalities explained by having ^/lesser trait amounts consistently found across people
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8
Q

THE TRAIT APPROACH

A
  • examines relationship between personality characteristics/thought/beh
  • basic views include:
    1. traits = organised
    2. traits = fundamental personality building blocks
    MCCRAE & COSTA (1990)
  • traits = dimensions of individual difs in tendencies to show consistent patterns/thoughts/feelings/actions
    ALLPORT (1937)
  • generalised/focalised neuropsychic system (peculiar to individual) w/capacity to render stimuli functionally equivalent; to initiate/guide consistent/equivalent forms of adaptive/expressive beh
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9
Q

TRAIT APPROACH ASSUMPTION I

A
  1. There are personality difs between people (relative/absolute).
    - we share same traits (ordinal measurement; no true 0) but composition/pattern of traits varies person to person
    - trait approach tries to measure degree to which person = ^/less sociable/introverted compared with others/norms rather than trying to measure traits in absolute/sense
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10
Q

TRAIT APPROACH ASSUMPTION II

A
  1. Personality traits = relatively stable across time/situations.
    - trait researchers = not interested in predicting 1 person’s beh in given situation
    - instead want to predict how people who score within certain trait continuum part will typically beh
    - compare beh of people who are relatively high on trait w/those relatively low on trait
    - personality consists of trait patterns which form unique combo in each relatively stable person over time/across situations
    - many argue that too much emphasis is placed on stability
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11
Q

THE TRAIT CONTINUUM

A
  • traits = normally distributed
  • scores will have normal distribution (fewer people score in extreme on any trait)
  • any personality characteristic can be illustrated w/trait continuum
  • wide range of behs can be represented on trait continuum (ie. achievement motivation = highly driven/persistent on one end; indifference/no drive at other extremes)
  • traits = bipolar; for any trait these is opposite lying on same continuum (ie. high/low optimism)
  • each person can be placed somewhere on continuum (ie. ^/less aggressive/friendly)
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12
Q

TRAIT CONTINUUM EXAMPLE

A

EG: CONFIDENCE
- all personality traits can be described on a continuum showing either end of trait
- ie. how confident are you?
apprehensive - cautious - self-assured
- ie. how emotionally stable are you?
emotionally stable - neutral - emotionally labile

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13
Q

TRAIT CONTINUUM: CONTINUITY

A
  • traits = continuous; people have ^/less of a trait via demonstrating beh:
    1. more/less frequently
    2. more/less intensely
    3. often/rarely across a wide situation range
  • traits can be distinguished from states:
    1. enduring/stable over long periods/situations
    2. brief/situation-specific
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14
Q

TRAIT CONTINUUM: INDEPENDENCE

A
  • dif traits generally seen as independent
  • person’s position on 1 trait has little/0 to do w/position on another trait
  • contrast w/type approach where similar trait clusters used to classify people into particular types
  • BUT controversy surrounds idea that dif traits = independent
  • highlighted by essential trait approach
  • dif approaches to factor analysis
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15
Q

TRAIT APPROACHES

A

TYPOLOGICAL APPROACH
- attempts to classify people into distinct categories using particular trait clusters
SINGLE-TRAIT APPROACH
- focuses on one particular personality trait to explain range of important behs
MANY-TRAIT APPROACH
- focuses on many dimensions of personality; correlates w/beh
ESSENTIAL-TRAIT APPROACH
- attempts to reduce ‘many-traits’ to a few essential traits to understanding personality

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16
Q

GORDON ALLPORT (1897-1967)

A
  • 1921; published first work on traits “Personality Traits: Their Classification/Measurement”
  • psychologists would do well to give full recognition to manifest motives before probing unconscious
  • personality = real entity w/physiological components in nervous system
17
Q

ALLPORT: HIGHLIGHTS

A
  1. Hierarchical organisation of traits; a few traits can explain most beh.
  2. Healthy personality = as important to study as neurosis.
  3. Conscious values/motives shape personality not just unconscious drives.
  4. Personality = dynamic; adult motivation (growth/coherence/creativity) = dif from children’s motivations (tension reduction).
  5. Functional autonomy.
18
Q

FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY

A
  • out motives become independent of their childhood origins (ie. a child might clean room to please parent BUT values tidiness as adult)
  • a likely reaction to Freud; Allport didn’t agree that childhood experiences continue to influence us strongly as adults
19
Q

IDIOGRAPHIC VS NOMOTHETIC APPROACHES

A

IDIOGRAPHIC APPROACH
- emphasises uniqueness of individuals; aims to identify unique combination of traits that best account for single individual’s personality
NOMOTHETIC APPROACH
- emphasises comparability among individuals; compares many people along same personality dimensions/traits
MORPHOGENIC APPROACH
- attempt to blend nomothetic/idiographic perspectives

20
Q

IDIOGRAPHIC METHODS

A
  • take into account each person’s uniqueness
  • behavioural observations
  • flexible self-reports
  • interviews
  • Q-sorts
  • takes into account each person’s personal dispositions; people have dif traits
21
Q

NOMOTHETIC METHODS

A
  • argues that people have dif amounts of a trait BUT they all have same finite set of traits (ie. Big Five)
22
Q

ALLPORT: THE LEXICAL APPROACH

A
  • all important traits = captured by language
  • identified 17,953 in English language each describing a personality trait
  • traits occur in dif combos; make each of us unique; influence our beh
  • each person has various types of traits organised hierarchically according to how they influence beh
23
Q

ALLPORT: STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

A
  • traits = building blocks
  • occur in combos; each person’s combo makes them unique
  • organised hierarchically based on how much they influence beh
  • common traits
24
Q

ALLPORT: HIERARCHICAL ORGANISATION

A
  • most people can identify 5-10 traits describing themselves best
  • these traits make us dif from others
    CENTRAL TRAITS
    CARDINAL TRAITS
    SECONDARY TRAITS
25
Q

CENTRAL TRAITS

A
  • personality building blocks
  • central traits best describe individual’s personality
  • traits in combo organise most of person’s beh
26
Q

CARDINAL TRAITS

A
  • occasional person can be best described by single/overriding dominant trait that influences beh/defines life (ie. Mother Teresa = kindness)
27
Q

SECONDARY TRAITS

A
  • many consistent traits which aren’t often exhibited/are of limited value in understanding individuals but may influence some beh
28
Q

COMMON TRAITS

A
  • within any particular culture there are common traits that are a part of it
  • everyone in that culture recognises/identifies them
  • traits that we share via common bio/cultural heritages
  • roughly comparable among people
  • make us the same
29
Q

PROPRIUM & THE SELF

A
  • proprium = organising structure of personality/the self/the core
  • responsible for self-esteem
  • self-identity
  • self-image
  • begins developing in infancy; continues throughout adolescence
30
Q

THE CALIFORNIA Q-SET

A

BLOCK (1978)
- California Q-set; 100 phrases each describing a personality trait:
- shy/reserved
- verbally fluent
- facially/gesturally expressive
- genuinely dependable/responsible person
- traits measured via Q-set at young ages can predict complex behs later (ie. drug abuse/political orientation/depression)
BLOCK ET AL (1991)
- depression in women aged 18 predicted by specific Q-sort items at age 7:
- shy/reserved/over-socialised/self-punishing/overcontrolled

31
Q

ESSENTIAL TRAIT APPROACH: EXTENDED

A
  • tried to synthesise/formalise many traits but important qs remain
  • debate continues; further complicated by traits labelled as subjective; similar traits given dif labels by dif theorists (ie. neuroticisim/emotional stability usually refer to same trait)
  • look for meaning that underlies trait > name
32
Q

ESSENTIAL TRAIT APPROACH: RESEARCHERS

A
  • psychologists developed statistical approaches to simplify/objectify personality structure; applied tools of scientific enquiry/scientific theory to human personality (aka. Psychometrics Theory)
    EYSENCK (1947)
  • short listed 3 essential traits: extraversion/neuroticism/psychoticism
    CATTELL (1961)
  • 16 essential traits: IQ/stability/friendliness
33
Q

THE BIG 5

A

MCCRAE & COSTA (1987)
- aka. OCEAN:
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism/Negative Emotionality

Personality & Individual Differences (17 decks)

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