trait perspective Flashcards
traits differ within a person (intrapersonal) or between people (interpersonal)?
interpersonal - between people
________ personality theories focus on scientific study, evolution and adaptations to help us survive.
galton’s personality theories are based on ________ and a direct, __________ approach.
carl jung’s personality theories are based on chaotic ________. Either _____ or _________.
darwin’s
intelligence; lexical
biology; introverted, extraverted
what kind of thinking eventually lost favor to a more continuous mode of personality consideration?
typology (this or that type)
types is to qualitative differences as trait is to __________________ between people.
quantitive differences
gordon allport discussed 2 views of traits. What are they?
- nomothetic view
- idiographic view
nomothetic vs idiographic view (gordon allport)
nomothetic
- general laws and principles
- experimental
- generalisable
idiographic
- individual cases and the uniqueness of each person’s experience
- observation and case studies on specific individuals
- specific
what is factor analysis?
statistical procedure directed at finding associations in a set of variables
if 2 or more qualities correlate on a variable, may reflect an underlying trait that contributes to both qualities.
factor analysis steps
- collect data (measurements from many variables across large group of people - usually self-report)
- correlational computation - compute correlations of every item with every other item
- factor extraction
- factor loading (high/low loading - highly/not linked)
- how much each item reflects the underlying dimension/trait - name factors aka traits
- naming conveys the essence of the underlying quality
factor extraction is step ___ of factor analysis.
what is factor extraction?
3.
reduces matrix to manageable number of underlying dimensions (link btwn items constitue a dimension eg. 2,3,5 or 1,7)
under factor extraction, step 3 of factor analysis,
dimensions of underlying commonality is are known as _______ which are ____ entities that aren’t clear yet.
factors; hazy
in naming factors, you are conveying the _________ of the underlying quality. naming factor means naming the __________.
it is easy/not easy. because…
the name that is chosen will guide __________.
essence; trait
not easy.
- only guide is the items it loaded onto
- ambiguous nature of items/factors
future thinking n research
what are the 3 merits of factor analysis?
- reduces multiple reflections of personality to a smaller set of traits
- basis that some traits matter more than others
- aids in development of assessment tools
who is one of the first to use factor analysis? how many trait names did he come up with via factor analysis? this resulted in how many primary factors?
he argued that any trait that matters would be encoded in ______________.
he believes there is a ________ criterion of importance. the more descriptive words, the more __________ the quality.
raymond cattell; 171; 16
natural language
lexical; important
eysenck disagreed with raymon cattell. he thinks that a _______ approach would be a better jumping off point.
- use ______ ideas about what to measure
- began with typologies of ________
- conceptually identified 3 supertraits. what are they and which is the least studied?
- individual differences can be explained by the cross between _______ and ___________.
- types can be broken down into ____________ and component traits can be broken down into __________.
theoretical
well-developed; galen
PEN supertraits
- psychoticism (least studied)
- extraversion-introverion
- neuroticism-emotional stability
extraversion; neuroticism; component traits; habits
melancholic, choleric; sanguine; phlegmatic
which is unstable-introvert?
which is unstable-extravert?
which is stable-introvert?
which is stable-extravert?
unstable-introvert: melancholic
unstable-extravert: choleric
stable-introvert: phlegmatic
stable-extravert: sanguine
wiggin and friends emphasised the interpersonal/intrapersonal aspect of personality.
what are the 2 core traits they proposed?
what is based on the combinations of these 2 core traits?
interpersonal
- dominance (dominant - submissive)
- love (cold-hearted - warm-agreeable)
individual differences
why are researchers disagreeing on the names of the big 5 factors? just give 3 reasons.
- subjective labelling of factors
- results depend heavily on items the researcher begins with
- interactions, complexity
- methodological issues
- changing theoretical perspectives
what is the name for the big 5 factors in the end?
OCEAN
openness
conscientiousness
extraversion
agreeableness
neuroticism
what is the relevant life domain of OCEAN?
how agreeable is that trait name among researchers?
openness - intellect (v. low)
conscientiousness - work (low)
extraversion - power (ok)
agreeableness - love (ok)
neuroticism - affect (good)
1) standing assumption: traits are stable aspects of ____________ that influence ______ in a wide range of settings. differences on _____ should predict differences in trait-related _____________.
BUT
2) do trait and behavior have high correlation?
3) what are the 2 main reasons?
1) personality; behaviours; trait; behaviour
2) no. according to walter mischel, r=.3
3) reasons:
- faulty self-report
- faulty measurements of behaviour
assumption: solely situational factors determine ___________ not ______________. extreme emphasis on role of ___________. low correlations were due to _________ variables that overwhelmed __________.
is this wrong or correct?
behavior; personality; environment; situational; personality
WRONG
why were the assumptions of situationalism wrong?
- comparison is tough because situation and traits were reported in ________ statistics.
- they calculated situation coefficients from famous studies again, and situation corrections were the ______ size.
differing
same
traits and situations interact to influence behavior - this is called ________.
it takes an ________ understanding of behavior where:
- effect of personality on behavior depends on ________ or _____ situations
- situations affect people differently
weak situation - ________ expression of personality
strong situation - ________ expression of personality
interactionism
analysis of variance; strong; weak
weak situation - easy expression of personality
strong situation - restricted expression of personality
personality influences the __________ people choose to enter.
situations
what are verbal hedges?
verbal hedges are words like maybe, may, somewhat, usually, often.
when used to describe personality, it gives the vibes of ambiguity and uncertainty. it limits a trait’s applicability.
eg. “john is somewhat friendly” instead of “john is friendly”
traits aren’t simply freestanding ways of acting. they have ___________.
patterns of linkages/associations
when we consider problems, traits may equate to __________. this is explained in the _________ model. someone with a genetic predispostion of depression may be more likely to be depressed in certain situations compared to others.
susceptibility; diathesis-stress
therapeutic changes are how traits are ______, not changes to the ____ itself.
displayed; trait
