Trait taxonomy Flashcards
What is a trait
A trait is an adjective that describes the way same people are and others arent
Key elements of traits
1)Traits are personal(internal) rather than situational(external)
2)consistent across similar situations
3)Stable across time
4)universal dimensions: individual differences (across people)
~Allows for comparisons of all people across a continuum
5)descriptive not explanatory
What are NOT personality traits
Temporary states (eg: embarrassed)
Attitudes (sexist, liberal)
Cognitive ability (e.g. GRE scores)
Physical attributes (tall short thin)
Social categories(bully, jock)
Lexical approach
We can learn about personality by studying language
cross-cultural universality: If a trait is important, people everywhere will have a word for it
synonym frequency:If a trait is very important, there will be many words for it
Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis
If something is important in all cultures, there will be a word for it
Trait taxonomy
Comprehensive system that includes all of the major traits in a hierarchy
What happened in 1968
Changes in field of personality
End of the era of meg-theories (Freud, Jung, Maslow, Murray)
Era of middle-level theories
~Personality traits used to describe and predict certain types of behavior
~B= f(P); behavior is determined by personality
Rise of social psychology
Lewin’s interactionsim
Festinger’s situationsm
Lewin’s interactionsim
B= f(P*S)
Behavior is a function of person and situations
Festinger’s situationsm
Reduced to B= f(S)
Behavior is a function of situations
Personality is irrelevant, error variance
Situationism
Emphasis on the power of the situation to shapes people’s behavior
Asch’s confromity study, milgrams obedience,prison study
Mischel’s Critique
*B=f(P) is wrong
*Personality does not predict behavior
*People act differently in different situations
The results of Mischel’s critique
*Personality psychology suffered
*Social psychology blossomed
…but over time personality psychology became stronger
Personality’s response
1)personality traits predict behavior, but over the long term
2)broad traits predict broad behavior, narrow traits predict narrow behaviors
3)personality’s response
*Rank order consistency
same slope=perfect rank order consistency
4)personality traits are stable over long periods of time
Adult personality is linked to child temperament
Babies temperament dimension is correlated with the big 5 dimension for adults
Resolution:person-situation debate
interactionism: both personality and situation are important predictors of behavior
situational characteristics are better predictors of behavior when _____
when situation is strong with high level of constraint(people likely to show little variation in behavior)
ie:in move theater
personality traits are better predictors of behavior when _____
when situation is weak with a low level of constraint (people likely to show most variation in behavior)
(ie:ur bedroom)
Trait taxonomy: Theoretical Approach(Eyesenck)
personality taxonomy should be rooted in biology
Eyesenck’s “PEN”
P: psychoticism(related to Testosterone levels)
E: extraversion(related to physiological arousal)
**extraverts have low baseline for arousal
N: Neuroticism(related to fluctuations in autonomic nervous system)
Some criticisms of the psychoticism dimension
Label accuracy (should it be called antisocial personality instead)
Relevance of sub-traits(creativity conceptualized as a sub trait of psychoticism)
Circumplex taxonomies:Eyesenck’s Big Two
4 quadrants measured on a scale of neuroticism and extraversion(stable vs unstable emotions, extroverted vs introverted)
Broad level factors are statistically independent
*Level on one factor does not have any relation to your level on another factor
Problems of PEN
Not all inclusive(Other empirical studies found more than 3 factors)
Other traits show heritability, not just PEN
Other taxonomies developed to address issues
The Five Factor Model/Big 5
Opennes
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
