PSY2205 Lecture 4: Personality Trait Theory

Question 1

What are personality traits as opposed to personality types?

Answer 1

Personality Traits are continuous
The Trait approach categorises people according to the degree to which they manifest particular characteristics.
People’s unique personalities are explained by having relatively greater or lesser amounts of the traits that are consistently found across people.

Question 2

What are the assumptions of Personality Trait Theory?

Answer 2

1. There are no absolute zeroes. Traits are measures ordinally, and relative to other people (the norm) rather than in an absolute sense.
2. Traits tend to be stable across time and situation. Trait researchers interested in how people typically behave rather than in certain situations.

Question 3

How does the Trait continuum work?

Answer 3

Any personality trait can be illustrated with a trait continuum.
People have more/less of a trait by demonstrating more/ less of behaviour across a range of situations.

Question 4

Are traits seen as independant from eachother/ not affecting eachother in Personality Trait Theory?

Answer 4

Yes. A person’s position on one trait has little or nothing to do with their position on another trait.

Contrast this with the Type approach whereby similar clusters of traits are used to classify people into particular Types.

It is also challenged by Essential Trait Approach

Question 5

Gordon Allports was like the pioneer of trait theory. What was a summary of what he argued?

Answer 5

1. Hierarchical organisation of traits - a few traits can explain most behaviour.
2. Healthy personality is as important to study as neurosis.
3. Conscious values and motives shape personality – not just unconscious drives.
4. Personality is dynamic. Adult motivation (growth, coherence, creativity) is different from children’s motivations (tension reduction).
5. Functional autonomy- Our motives become independent of their childhood origins
   For example, a child might clean their room to please a parent. But as an adult, values being neat and tidy.
   A likely reaction to Freud - Allport didn’t agree that childhood experiences continue to influence us strongly as adults.

Question 6

Describe Gordon Allport’s Idiographic vs. Nomothetic approaches to personality measurement and description

Answer 6

Allport identified different ways researchers can use traits to study personality:

The idiographic approach emphasises the uniqueness of individuals and aims to identify the unique combination of traits that best account for the personality of a single individual.

The nomothetic approach compares many people along the same personality dimensions/traits.

The morphogenic approach is Allport’s attempt to blend the nomothetic and idiographic perspectives.

Question 7

Build upon Gordon Allports Hierarchical Structure of Personality?

Answer 7

Traits are building blocks. They occur in combinations. Each person’s combination makes them unique.
Organized hierarchically based on how much they influence behavior.

Central traits are the building blocks of personality. Allport believed that central traits best describe an individual’s personality. These traits in combination organise most of a person’s behavior.

Cardinal traits: An occasional person can be best described by a single, overriding dominant trait that influences behaviour and defines their life. e.g. Mother Teresa – kindness and compassion

Secondary traits: many consistent traits which are not often exhibited and are of limited value in understanding individuals but may influence some behavior

Common Traits: Within any particular culture there are common traits ones that are a part of that culture, that everyone in that culture recognizes and identifies.

Question 8

What does the Many-trait approach consist of?

Answer 8

The many trait approach looks at the relationship between a particular behavior (e.g. drug abuse, depression, delayed gratification) and as many different traits as possible.

The California Q-set (Block, 1978): 100 phrases, each describing a personality trait.
Traits measured by the Q-set at very young ages can predict complex behaviours later, such as drug abuse, political orientation and depression.

Question 9

What does the Essential Trait Approach consist of?

Answer 9

Psychologists developed statistical approaches to simplify and objectify the structure of personality. They applied the tools of scientific enquiry and scientific theory to human personality.
The scientific measurement of personality became known as Psychometrics or Psychometric Theory.

Hans Eysenck (1947, 1986) short listed 3 essential traits:
extraversion; neuroticism and psychoticism.

Raymond Cattell (1961) 16 traits are essential:
intelligence, stability and friendliness. 

The BIG FIVE (McCrae & Costa, 1987): OCEAN
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (also called negative emotionality)