The Five Factor Model of Personality Flashcards
What are the domains of the Big 5 (Lexical approach, Goldberg, 1992)?
Emotional stability Extraversion Intellect Agreeableness Conscientiousness
What are the domains of the Five Factor Model (FFM, Costa & McCrae)?
Neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
Describe the basic ideas behind the Big Five.
- Proposed by Goldberg (1992)
- Language has evolved to describe core features of human behaviour
- These are naturally occurring trait descriptors (adjectives)
- These core features (traits) can therefore be found through factor analysis, a statistical technique for grouping variables together.
- No ontological claims - inductive not deductive, no theoretical basis.
Describe the basic ideas behind the Five Factor Model.
- Costa & McCrae (1995)
- Has a theoretical basis (deductive)
- Used the Big 5 as an organising framework
- States that personality is described by 5 domains
- Each domain consists of facets, and facets can be divided into behaviours (hierarchical structure)
- Individual differences in domains are stable over time
- There’s a genetic basis and the domains are derived from an internal biological system (heritable, neurobiological).
What are the four key claims of the FFM?
- Five factors are present in adjectives and questionnaire items.
- FFM has a biological basis
- Should be observed universally
- Should show temporal stability
What does the Big Five show about the claim that five factors are present in adjectives and questionnaire items?
EXTRA
The 556 adjectives correlate with FFM model scales (NEO-PI). Found that the transparent format was slightly clearer structure for bi-polar adjectives. Self and others formats produced congruent findings.
What does a joint factor analysis of NEO-PI-R and Eysenck’s P-E-N suggest?
Costa & McCrae 1995
Suggested that Eysenck’s P is a conflation of C and A - do they represent different things?
Openness not present in PEN or RST - part of FFM or part of intelligence?
What does behavioural genetics show about the claim that the FFM has a biological basis?
EXTRA
- Common pathway model (embodies hierarchy) fits nicely and supports the biological basis, suggesting that over 50% of each trait is explained by genetics.
- For adjectives and questions, much lower and more varied rates of genetic contribution were found.
- The independent pathway suggests that different adjectives had different levels of genetic contribution.
- Cholesky decomposition found no contribution of genetics for Agreeableness.
What do twin studies show about the claim that the FFM has a biological basis?
McGuffin, Riley and Plomin (2001):
Used recent twin studies to estimate the contribution of genetics to personality as about 40%.
Leohlin et al. (1998):
Found rates of above .5 for each trait due to genetics - over half of variability
Shared environment doesn’t account for any variability
What are the genome-wide associations with the FFM found by Terracciano et al. (2010)?
Neuroticism (SNAP25 – rs362584)
- Region linked to ADHD and psychiatric disorder
Extroversion (CHD13 & CHD23)
- Calcium dependent adhesion genes
- 13: heart
- 23: neuro-sensory (link to Eysenck’s PEN - under-arousal idea, extroverts seek extra stimulation)
Openness (CNTNAP2 – re10251794)
- Linked to autism and complex schizophrenia phenotype
Agreeableness (CLOCK – encode for circadian rhythms)
- A is linked to morning-ness
Conscientiousness (DYRK1A0)
- Linked to Alzheimer’s and Down’s Syndrome
This supports questionnaire results, but further replication is necessary.
What support does DeYoung et al. (2010) provide for the claim that the FFM has a biological basis?
Neurological structures - used structural MRI to determine brain area associations, as any genetic effects must be instantiated through neural substrates - the brain translates genes to behaviour.
Found links between N (sensitivity to punishment) and the amygdala, mPFC and Mid-cingulate.
E = sensitivity to rewards, amygdala and OFC.
A = altruism and cooperation, superior temporal sulcus
O = working memory, dorsolateral PFC
C = impulse control, lateral PFC
What support does Canli et al. (2002) provide for the claim that the FFM has a biological basis?
EXTRA
Investigated extraversion and emotion through amygdala response to emotional faces in introverts and extroverts, found that extraverts are more tuned to happy than fearful faces and a strong positive correlation between extraversion and activity change.
What support does Kumari et al. (2004) provide for the claim that the FFM has a biological basis?
As extraversion increases, cortical activity decreases (when at rest)
High in extraversion increase signal to greater extent than those low in extraversion (under cognitive demand – N-back task)
- Also provides evidence for Eysenck
What do cross-cultural effects show about the claim that FFM should be observed universally?
FFM is stable across 50 cultures (McCrae, Robert, Terracciano & Antonio, 2005)
What evidence does Vaidya et al. (2002) provide for the claim that FFM should show temporal stability?
Rank order stability
Found that over a 2.5 year period:
- Structural – stable
- Mean – increases in E, O, A, C
- Individual – 79-85% showed no change
- Rank order: N = .61; E = .72; O = .65; A = .59; C = .64
- Mean and rank order stability aren’t influenced by life events.
This suggests long term lifetime stability.
