Type and Trait theories of personality

Question 1

What are trait theory approaches?

Answer 1

Personalities seen as being composed of different traits, almost like different building blocks

Question 2

How are traits classified?

Answer 2

• Organsied hierarchically - including over-arching and sub-traits
• Along a continuum

Question 3

What are personality type approaches?

Answer 3

People are categorised according to their mosr dominant personality features

Question 4

What is the Myers-Briggs test and who made it?

Answer 4

Made of 16 different personality types, Carl Jung

Question 5

What is the Barnum Effect?

Answer 5

The tendency to believe that vague predictions or general personality descriptions, such as those offered by astrology, have specific applications to oneself

Question 6

What are objective tests?

Answer 6

Ask people a standard set of questions about their own personalities, or asked to the degree they agree with a staement (self-report)

Question 7

What are projective tests?

Answer 7

Ask people to respond to purposefully ambiguous ‘stimuli’ such as pictures/situations e.g. Ink Blot and Themeatic Apperception Test

Question 8

What are the 5 theories of personality?

Answer 8

Humanistic, Social-cognitive learning, Behavioural, Biological/Genetic, Psychoanalytic

Question 9

What are the 4 main types of data?

Answer 9

Self-report, Informant reports, Life outcomes, Behavioural observations

Question 10

What is an example of S-data?

Answer 10

Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (Paulhus, 1991)