Trait taxonomy

Question 1

What is a trait

Answer 1

A trait is an adjective that describes the way same people are and others arent

Question 2

Key elements of traits

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What are NOT personality traits

Answer 3

Temporary states (eg: embarrassed)

Attitudes (sexist, liberal)

Cognitive ability (e.g. GRE scores)

Physical attributes (tall short thin)

Social categories(bully, jock)

Question 4

Lexical approach

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Fundamental Lexical Hypothesis

Answer 5

If something is important in all cultures, there will be a word for it

Question 6

Trait taxonomy

Answer 6

Comprehensive system that includes all of the major traits in a hierarchy

Question 7

What happened in 1968

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Rise of social psychology

Answer 8

Lewin’s interactionsim
Festinger’s situationsm

Question 9

Lewin’s interactionsim

Answer 9

B= f(P*S)
Behavior is a function of person and situations

Question 10

Festinger’s situationsm

Answer 10

Reduced to B= f(S)

Behavior is a function of situations
Personality is irrelevant, error variance

Question 11

Situationism

Answer 11

Emphasis on the power of the situation to shapes people’s behavior

Asch’s confromity study, milgrams obedience,prison study

Question 12

Mischel’s Critique

Answer 12

*B=f(P) is wrong
*Personality does not predict behavior

*People act differently in different situations

Question 13

The results of Mischel’s critique

Answer 13

*Personality psychology suffered

*Social psychology blossomed

…but over time personality psychology became stronger

Question 14

Personality’s response

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Adult personality is linked to child temperament

Answer 15

Babies temperament dimension is correlated with the big 5 dimension for adults

Question 16

Resolution:person-situation debate

Answer 16

interactionism: both personality and situation are important predictors of behavior

Question 17

situational characteristics are better predictors of behavior when _____

Answer 17

when situation is strong with high level of constraint(people likely to show little variation in behavior)

ie:in move theater

Question 18

personality traits are better predictors of behavior when _____

Answer 18

when situation is weak with a low level of constraint (people likely to show most variation in behavior)

(ie:ur bedroom)

Question 19

Trait taxonomy: Theoretical Approach(Eyesenck)

Answer 19

personality taxonomy should be rooted in biology

Question 20

Eyesenck’s “PEN”

Answer 20

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)

Question 21

Some criticisms of the psychoticism dimension

Answer 21

Label accuracy (should it be called antisocial personality instead)

Relevance of sub-traits(creativity conceptualized as a sub trait of psychoticism)

Question 22

Circumplex taxonomies:Eyesenck’s Big Two

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Problems of PEN

Answer 23

Not all inclusive(Other empirical studies found more than 3 factors)

Other traits show heritability, not just PEN

Other taxonomies developed to address issues

Question 24

The Five Factor Model/Big 5

Answer 24

Opennes
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism

Question 25

FFM:Factor analysis

Answer 25

*empirical way of identifying groups of items that go together, but tend to not be related to other traits

Combination of lexical and statistical approaches

Question 26

FFM strong empirical support

Answer 26

Factor analysis repeatedly finds 5 factors

*Cross cultural replication
*Replication with different measures
*Genetic links
*Cross species replication
**Ie: dogs, hyenas, monkeys

Question 27

What’s missing from BIG 5

Answer 27

religiosity/spirituality

honesty/humility
*HEXACO model account for honesty/humility as a 6th factor

Question 28

FFM traits predicts

Answer 28

outcomes

ie: high C, low N predicts good grades