Trait and Dispositional Theories

Question 1

Factor Analysis

Answer 1

A mathematical procedure that helps to sort test responses into relatively homogenous clusters of items that are highly correlated. (It can clarify which response patterns go together.)

Question 2

Trait

Answer 2

Any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another.

Question 3

Central trait

Answer 3

Less pervasive than cardinal traits but quite generalized.

Question 4

Validity (convergent, discriminant)

Answer 4

Convergent is the extent to which variables are related; discriminant is the extended to which variables aren’t related.

Question 5

Error variance

Answer 5

The noise or error that needs to be removed. In social psychology, the person became the error variance as the focus was the general effects and power of situations regardless of individual differences.

Question 6

Personality paradox

Answer 6

Lack of consistency of traits/behaviors vs. intuitive belief that traits are relatively stable across time and different situations.

Question 7

Person x situation interaction

Answer 7

The interaction of individual differences and particular conditions, not just the individual or context separately, is important.

Question 8

Cardinal trait

Answer 8

Dispositions that influence most aspects of someone’s behavior ie if a person’s life is organized around goal achievement. (Mother Teresa, compassion)

Question 9

Secondary disposition

Answer 9

Narrow traits, or attitudes (impatience while waiting in line, public speaking anxiety)

Question 10

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 10

Belief that social behaviors are the result of and explained by personality traits. (Situations are more powerful predictors of specific behaviors, while traits are good at predicting general patterns.) The tendency to focus on dispositions in causal explanations.

Question 11

The Big Five structure

Answer 11

The same set of five relatively independent factors appeared consistently across several studies. They are: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and and Conscientiousness

Question 12

Interactionism

Answer 12

The idea that the individual’s experience and action cannot be understood as the result of separate personal and situational factors. It is a dynamic interaction between aspects of personality and situations. Interactionism focuses on how the expressions of the stable personality system are visible in the person’s unique patterns of if…then situation behavior relationships. Experiences and actions are the product of dynamic interactions between aspects of personality and situation.

Question 13

What are the benefits of classification?

Answer 13

• convenient summary of observations
• aids in communication (objectify individual perceptions)
• enhances heuristic value of many constructs
• brings sense of order

Question 14

What does it mean that trait theories are empirically based?

Answer 14

• correlation
• factor analysis
• other multivariate techniques

Question 15

Trait

Answer 15

Any distinguishable, enduring way in which one individual varies from another.

Question 16

Basic assumptions of trait theory

Answer 16

• stable, enduring characteristic
• continuous
• quantifiable and scalable
• can be inherited, learned or both
• personality can be meaningfully described using trait terminology

Question 17

G. Allport

Answer 17

Theorized that each person has unique trait structure (cardinal v. central v. secondary) and de-emphasized environmental influence

Question 18

R. Cattell

Answer 18

• traits reflect mental structures
• common (possessed by all people) v. unique traits
• surface (clusters of trait elements that seem to go together) v. source traits (underlying variables that determine surface manifestations)

Question 19

Bem’s tripartite model

Answer 19

Consider person, situation, behavior variables together. “Person will show x types of behaviors in z types of situations.”

Question 20

How are traits and dispositions similar to one another? How are they different?

Answer 20

Traits are generalized and stable; dispositions are attitudes and are more specific.

Question 21

Generally how are tests/measurement tools constructed using factor analysis?

Answer 21

Factor analysis helps to sort test responses into relatively homogenous clusters of items that are highly correlated. Factor analysis can clarify which response patterns go together.

Question 22

How can cardinal traits be differentiated from central traits, and again from secondary dispositions?

Answer 22

Cardinal traits influence most aspects of someone’s behavior (Einstein known as a genius, or if someone’s life is organized around goal achievement) while central traits are less pervasive- kindness, honesty. Secondary dispositions are more like attitudes and are more narrow.

Question 23

As applicable to general trait theories, what are their limitations in attempting to describe personality and/or behavior?

Answer 23

General trait theories are unable to predict behavior without accounting for situation.