The Trait Persepctive Flashcards
What Greek philosopher contributed to the early research of the trait perspective
Hippocrates
What did Hippocrates propose a relationship between?
He proposed a relationship between personality and humours(body fluids)
What 4 examples did Hippocrates use when proposing a relationship between personality and humours (body fluids)
- Melancholic (depressed)
- Sanguine (cheerful/optimistic)
- Phlegmatic (unemotional/apathetic)
- Choleric (irritable/short tempered)
What was the name of the theory that sheldon developed in 1940?
Sheldon theory of somatotypes
Outline Sheldon’s (1940) three body types in his theory of somatotypes
- ectomorph (long and lean,. Little body fat or muscle)
- mesomorph (more muscle than fat)
- endomorph (softer bodies with curves)
Outline types (4)
- discontinuous categories (eg introverts/extroverts)
- represent qualitative differences in people
- labelling convenience
- often viewed as biologically or genetically based
Outline traits (4)
- continuous dimensions (eg, continuum from introversion to extraversion)
- represent quantitative differences in people
- individual differences reflect differences in amount of a trait
What is the MBTI typologies theory?
Myers Briggs Type Indicators
Outline the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (3)
- Based on the ideas of Carl Jung
- Popular with companies wanting to assess employees
- Groups people into one of 16b types, based on 4 categories
Strength of the MBTI
- Holistic sense of what a person is like
2 limitations of the MBTI
- based on intuition
- little empirical evidence
What is factor analysis?
Statistical technique for decomposing large numbers of intercorrelations into basic underlying dimensions.
Limitation of factor analysis
GIGO - garbage in, garbage out.
Steps in factor analysis (5)
- Collect measurements on many variables - subjective (self-reports, observations)
- Collect data from many people
- Compute correlations between all pairs of variables
- Extract factors
- Label factors based on factor loadings - subjective
Who demonstrated the empirical approach and what did he do
Raymond Cattell, he used statistical analysis to derive key personality traits
What is lexical hypothesis
Language has evolved to describe the basic qualities of human nature
What’s cattells theory
Sixteen factors of personality
Problems with cattells theory of personality
Failed to replicate
Some factors correlated
Consensus with cattells theory of personality (3)
- advancements in computing power - allowed for more objective analyses
- funding - access to larger samples
- growing body of evidence suggests there are five basic superordinate traits
