Problem 5: Personality traits Flashcards
what is personality?
a pattern of traits and behaviours of a person
what are traits?
A consistent style of emotion/behaviour that a person displays across various situations (ex: introvert – extrovert, there is a gradient)
trait vs state
trait:
typical behaviour of a person over prolonged periods of time, relatively insensitive to situational contexts, occur in large variety of dif situations
state:
vary across time and situations
within-subject variations of behaviour
a person can act out of the ordinary
what are types of traits?
Types of traits: a clustering of various traits, thought of as distinct categories classification of people that possess the same characteristics (ex: introvert and extrovert as 2 dif types of people)
what are the 3 approaches to identify the most important traits?
lexical approach
idiographic and nomothetic approach
statistical approach
in what does the lexical approach consist? (2 criteria, criticism, implication)
Lexical hypothesis: all important individual differences between people are part of natural language.
Two clear criteria for identifying important traits:
Synonym frequency: the different words you have to describe the same trait
The more synonyms there are the more significant it is
Cross-cultural universality: more important traits are well-known in various countries
ex: In turkish there is no word for cherish which means it is less universal
Criticism: very broad and many traits might come up
Implication of following the lexical approach: not very descriptive, mainly focuses on language and not on the specific personality traits.
distinction between Idiographic and nomothetic approaches
Nomothetic: traits exist in the same way in every person, are general, and everyone falls on a scale
Nomo = law
Idiographic: traits are individualized, unique
Idio = self
Statistical approach? (criticism)
Factor analysis: identifies a group of items that covary (go together) but tend not to covary with other groups of items.
Factor loadings: correlations between the factors and each item within them.
indexes of how much the variation in an item is “explained”by the factor
ex: hardworking, productive and determined which all covary = 1 single trait
Criticism:
the decision of what to measure affects what you get
Limited by the quality of the input data
first trait theory?
400 B.C. – Hippocrates and Galen:
The different qualities of the four elements could explain the existence of all known substances.
According to the biology of his time Hippocrates attributed each temperament to a predominance of one of the bodily humors: yellow bile, black bile, blodd adn phlegm.
*umor, means body fluid in latin
Choleric - yellow bile - Fire
Determined, quick to act, fiery, energetic, passionate
Sanguine - Blood - Air
Warm hearted, outgoing, cheerful, optimistic, confident
Phlegmatic - phlegm - Water
Slow, patient, calm, quiet, shy, rational, consistent
Melancholic - Black Bile - Earth
Serious, sad, fearful, depressed, poetic, artistic
Galen saw a direct connection between the levels of humors in the body and different temperaments.
If one of the humors develops excessively the corresponding personality type begins to dominate.
another important trait theory in 1937? (pt1)
- by who
- approach
- goals
- properties
1937 – Gordon Allport
broad and integrative view of personality + sensitive and attentive to all its diverse aspects
he wanted to pursue 2 goals
1. to understand the differences between people in personality
2. to see how the different characteristics and processes that exist within an individual interact and function together in an integrated way
traits are determining tendencies or predispositions to respond. Allport believed that traits are relatively general and enduring and that they were able to make “many stimuli functionally equivalent” → meaning that they unite many responses to diverse stimuli, producing fairly broad consistencies in behaviour.
emphasis on structure rather than environment or stimulus conditions “the same fire that melts the butter hardens the egg”
defined traits by 3 properties: frequency, intensity, range of situations
Idiographic approach :
Allport was a pioneer for the importance of individual differneces : no 2 people are completely alike, and hence no 2 people respond identically to the same event.
each person’s behaviour is determined by a particular trait structure.
each person’s behaviour is determined by a particular trait structure.
Allport(pt2)
- traits
- functional autonomy of human motives
group the personality characteristics in traits:
cardinal traits – some people have dispositions that influence most aspects of their behaviour. (highly generalised dispositions)
you can observe in all behavior, determine their behaviour
Not everyone has them
Can be outcome of a trauma
Ex:
gandhi’s central trait: non violent ; Sadistic, machiavellian people
whole life seems to turn around goal achievement then achievement might be cardinal trait.
central traits – less pervasive but still quite generalised dispositions many people are influenced by these
in specific situations
everyone has them
Influence someone’s behavior but do NOT determine it
Ex:
kindness, friendliness
secondary dispositions or “attitudes” – more specific narrow traits
more situational
come up only in certain times
You need to know the context
Ex:
extroverted with close friends, but introverted (shy) with other people
From general to more specific : Cardinal → Central → secondary disposition
activities
states: short term and based on a specific situation, brief, transient.
Ex: I’m happy now. → can’t define the person as a happy person (not a trait)
Functional autonomy of human motives:
like Freud: the adult grows out of the old motives as a child (motives become independent of tension-reducing drives)
what began as an effort to reduce hunger or anxiety might become a source of pleasure and motivation and an end itself
what ws once extrinsic and instrumental becomes intrinsic and impelling; what began as an activity designed to serve a drive or a need can begin to serve the self-image (self-ideal) of the person
ex: playing violin because you need money then you get another job but keep playing violin because you like it
criticism: looking at 3 personality descriptors is not enough and you cant measure them
another theory? 1950, 1965 (by who? how did he divide traits?)
Raymond B. Cattell
trait is the basic unit of study
it is a “mental structure”, inferred from behviour, and a fundamental construct that accounts for behavioural regularity or consistency
distinguished between…
common traits: possessed by many people in different degrees
unique traits: occur only in a particular person and cannot be found in another in exactly the same form.
and between..
surface traits: clusters of overt or manifest trait elements (responses) that seem to go together
ex:
integrity, altruism – dishonesty, undependability
disciplined thoughtfulness – foolishness
thrift, tidiness, obstinacy – lability, curiosity, intuition
(16) source traits: the underlying variables that are the causal entities determining the surface manifestations
ex:
ego strength – emotionality and neuroticism
dominance – submissiveness
can only be found by means of the mathematical technique of factor analysis
the basic aim in research and assessment should be identification of source traits, these traits are divided between…
environmental-mold traits: those that reflect environmental conditions
constitutional traits: those that reflect constitutional factors
source traits may also either be:
specific: particularised sources of personality reaction that operate in one situation only (Cattell pays little attention to them)
general: those affecting behaviour in many different situations
traits might be grouped to classes on the basis of how they are expressed:
dynamic traits: traits that are relevant to the individual’s being “set into action” with respect to some goal.
ex: motivation to achieve goal
ability traits: traits concerned with effectiveness in gaining the goal
ex: intelligence
temperament traits: traits concerned with energy or or emotional reactivity
ex: motivation to achieve goal
How are general source traits measured according to Cattell?
to discover general source traits Cattell used 3 kinds of data:
Scientific databases relied on 3 different types/sources:
- life records → L-data: Life record data – collected from everyday behaviour (through observation)
Ex: school performance, interaction with peers
2.self-ratings → Q-data: self report questionnaire data – related with your own feelings and behaviour
Ex: Big 5, SIB
3.objective tests → OT-data: the person is observed in situations that are specifically designed to elicit responses from which behaviour in other situations can be predicted
Ex: tendency to be assertive: can be measured in behaviours such as long exploratory distance on a finger maze test, fast tempo in arm-sholder movement, and fast speed of letter comparisons
ideally the same factors or traits should be obtained from the 3 kinds of data.
the data from all 3 sources is subjected to factor analysis.
social action is based on 2 factors (Cattell)
States: emotion and mood at a particular delimited point in time
anxiety, depression, fatigue, arousal and curiosity
Roles: certain behaviours are more closely linked to a social role one must play than to personality traits one possesses.
shouting at football game but not at the church
how many factors did he determine and criticism on cattell?
through factor analysis Cattell defined 16 factors:
warm, abstract thinker, emotionally stable, dominant, enthusiastic, conscientious, bold, tender-minded, suspicious, imaginative, shrewd, apprehensive, experimenting, self-suficient, controlled, tense
theory based on measurements (some aspects are not detected)
cannot capture the content of “life stories” (through statistical technique of factor analysis) – opposed to Rogers
