The essential trait approach continued

Question 1

what does the ETA attempt to do?

Answer 1

reduce large numbers of traits to a few traits that are essential to understanding personality

Question 2

what important Qs remain?

Answer 2

What traits are basic or essential to personality?

How many essential traits are there?

Question 3

the debate continues

Answer 3

Underpinned by psychometric theory and factor analysis.

Further complicated because the labelling of traits is subjective.

• Similar traits have been given different labels by different theorists (e.g., neuroticism and emotional stability usually refer to the same trait).
• Therefore, we need to look for the meaning that underlies a trait, rather than simply looking at its name.

Question 4

ETA - Raymond Cattell (1961)

Answer 4

16 source traits, including:

intelligence, stability and friendliness.

Question 5

ETA - Eysenck (1947, 1986)

Answer 5

essential traits:

extraversion; neuroticism and psychoticism.

Question 6

ETA - big 5 - Macrae and Costa (1987)

Answer 6

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (also called negative emotionality)

Question 7

similarities between Eysenck and Cattell

Answer 7

Placing great importance on biological and genetic factors.

Both adopted a nomethetic approach and emphasised the scientific discovery and measurement of psychological traits rather than using clinical methodology.

Both used factor analysis to arrive at their theories but they used it in different ways
Cattell used oblique rotation and Eysenck used orthogonal rotation.

Both theorists were primarily concerned with explaining the personality of “normal” adults.

Question 8

differences - Cattell

Answer 8

primary factors: source traits

data driven - inductive

oblique rotation - factors can be correlated with each other.

Question 9

differences - Eysenck

Answer 9

second-order factors: ‘supertraits’ – does extra analysis.

theory driven - deductive

orthogonal rotation - factors are not correlated, they are independent of each other.

Question 10

Eysenck (1916-1997)

Answer 10

Eysenck’s theory emphasises three second-order factors called supertraits - derived from intercorrelations between source traits.

Supertraits are genetically determined.

Focused on temperament (what we’re born with) - the emotional, motivational and non ability related cognitive aspects of behaviour.

Question 11

Eysenck hierarchical model of personality

Answer 11

Hierarchical structure - super-traits are broad traits that subsume a large number of source or narrow traits.

Extraversion vs Introversion
high extroversion = low levels of cortical arousal

Neuroticism vs Emotional stability
high levels of neuroticism = excessive activity of the autonomic nervous system.

Psychoticism
A tendency towards psychotic/sociopathic behaviour

Question 12

Eysenck and E

Answer 12

includes Cattell’s factors of social boldness and privateness

Introvert - shy, quiet, enjoys solitude.

Extravert – outgoing, loud, sociable, enjoys social gatherings.

Can be deceptive

Question 13

what does E-I result from?

Answer 13

the balance of “inhibition” and “excitation” in the brain itself.
- Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS) structure in brainstem controls overall cortical arousal. ARAS acts as gate to arousal.

Question 14

high E

Answer 14

believed to have low levels of cortical arousal.

• Extraverts: Lower levels of activity in the ARAS.
• The ARAS system of the extravert allows too little arousal in. Therefore, extraverts seek out contexts with high stimulation

Question 15

high I

Answer 15

believed to have high levels of cortical arousal.

• Introverts: Higher levels of activity in the ARAS
• Introverts’ ARAS allows too much arousal in. Therefore, introverts seek out contexts with low stimulation

Question 16

Eysenck and N

Answer 16

• includes Cattell’s source factors of emotional stability and apprehensiveness
• people who score high on the neuroticism scale are not necessarily neurotics but they might be more susceptible to neurotic problems.

Eysenck - some people have a more responsive sympathetic nervous system (limbic system). Controls emotional responsiveness to emergency situations. Prepares us for fight or flight.

High levels of neuroticism arise from hypersensitivity or excessive activity of the sympathetic nervous system. React more to threatening environments

“Archetypal” neurotic symptom is the panic attack

Question 17

N and PTSD

Answer 17

Holeva and Tarrier (2001) studied victims of road traffic accidents across 2 time periods (4 weeks and 6 months post accident).

• Neuroticism (and to a lesser extent psychoticism) is associated with the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
  
  • High levels of trait anxiety or heightened conditionability appear to increase the risk of developing PTS

Question 18

N/negative affectivity and psych disorders

Answer 18

Various studies highlight a link between neuroticism /negative affectivity and psychological disorders including:

• Ormel & Wohlfarth, (1991) found links between neuroticism and psychological distress in life changing situations.
• Watson and Clark (1984) found an association between negative affectivity and the experience of aversive emotional states.
• Clark, Watson and Mineka (1994) showed associations between temperament, personality and the mood and anxiety disorders.

Question 19

Eysenck and P

Answer 19

Psychoticism: added later and less well researched

• Possibly linked to dopaminergic system.
• Includes Cattell’s factors of sensitivity and rule consciousness.
• Developed from research conducted in mental institutions and prisons – realized hadn’t reached all populations when looking at E and N – broader range of people – angry at psychoanalytic approach to psychopathy damaging people

A tendency towards psychotic/sociopathic behaviour.
- high scores on psychoticism measure indicate a certain recklessness, a disregard for conventions, a degree of inappropriate emotional expression, a tendency to be hostile, manipulative and impulsive.

Question 20

EPQ

Answer 20

Extroverts are more likely to have sexual intercourse at younger ages and with more partners than introverts (Eysenck, 1976; Giese & Schmidt, 1968).
- Genetic modelling of twin data showed that risky sexual behav sig pos correlated with Impulsivity, E, P and N

Introverts tend to demonstrate superior academic achievement. This is found in both Western and nonwestern cultures (Furneaux, 1957; Kline, 1966).

Individuals with high E, high N and high P scores are more likely to engage in criminal activity (Eysenck, 1967, 1977).

Question 21

the Big 5

Answer 21

openness

conscientiousness

extraversion/introversion

agreeableness

neuroticism

Two of the five super traits/factors, neuroticism and extraversion, are practically identical with two of those identified by Eysenck.

The 5-factor model is commonly measured by the NEO-PI (Costa & McCrae, 1985).

Each of the five supertraits is measured by 6 subordinate traits.

• Neuroticism (e.g., ‘hardy-vulnerable’ and unemotional-emotional).
• Agreeableness (e.g., ruthless-soft-hearted and suspicious-trusting)

Question 22

openness

Answer 22

High: tendency to be an unconventional and independent thinker.

Low: tendency to be conventional and to prefer familiar rather than new.

Question 23

conscientousness

Answer 23

High: tendency to be controlled and organised.

Low: tendency to be careless, easily distracted and undependable.

Question 24

E/I

Answer 24

High: tendency to be sociable, energetic and assertive.

Low: tendency to be reserved, independent and even-paced.

Question 25

agreeableness

Answer 25

High: tendency to be helpful, trusting, sympathetic and cooperative.

Low: tendency to be antagonistic and skeptical

Question 26

neuroticism

Answer 26

High: tendency to higher levels of emotional distress and swings in emotions.

Low: tendency to be calm and well adjusted

Question 27

the big 5 and behav

Answer 27

The Big Five personality factors have emerged in studies of school children and appear to be fairly stable over time (Soldz & Vaillant, 1999).

The Big Five have been associated with various behaviours (Paunonen, 2003):

• People high in extraversion exercise more, drink more alcohol and are more honest.
• People high in conscientiousness get better grades and are seen as more honest.
• People high in openness are more likely to play a musical instrument.
• Highly agreeable people are consistently found to smoke less

Question 28

the big 5 and job perf (Barrick and Mount, 1991)

Answer 28

C showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups

E predicted success in management and sales (requiring social interaction)

O and E predicted training proficiency

A and N predict performance when employees work in groups

Question 29

the big 5 and job satisfaction (Judge, Heller and Mount, 2002)

Answer 29

Job satisfaction was correlated with each of the traits individually.

Only the relationships between N and E and job satisfaction generalized across all studies

Question 30

problems with the big 5

Answer 30

The Big Five can be reproduced cross-culturally. But problems remain. They are not always the same five, nor are there always five.
- The “Big Five” plus or minus two (Briggs, 1989).

Sex differences have been found on three of the Big Five. Women score consistently higher than men in neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

The fact that the Big Five traits, albeit with some variation, keep popping up again and again, irrespective of the measures used and the populations studied, have led to claims that these traits make up the essential “structure” of personality (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1998).

But there seems to be more to personality than just five traits.

• For example you could summarise the trait authoritarianism as a combination of high neuroticism, high conscientiousness, low openness and low agreeableness, but that seems to miss the essence of the construct.
• It fails to account for authoritarian characters being deferential and agreeable with those of higher rank but mean and nasty to those of lower rank.

There are numerous examples of traits that could be recast using the Five Factor Model but they always seem to leave something out.

Question 31

are the big 5 orthogonal, separate and independent traits?

Answer 31

Eysenck (1991) argued that advocates of the Big Five mix superfactors (extraversion, neuroticism) with primary traits (agreeableness and conscientiousness).

Draycott and Kline (1995) analyzed both Costa and McCrae’s NEO-PI and the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R). They support Eysenck’s claim, the Big Five mixes lower order with higher order factors.