Week 12 - Trait Theories Flashcards
What are traits?
A fundamental concept in personality
Psychometricians were first to introduce the concept of traits
-used factor analysis to reduce diversity of personality descriptors to underlying traits
Allport suggests a trait is two things:
- An observed tendency to behave in a certain way
- An inferred underlying disposition that results in this behavioural tendency
Traits and trait theories
Emotional, cognitive and behavioural tendencies constituting underlying personality dimensions
Descriptive approach-
- according to individuals underlying attributes and tendencies the structure of personality
Some consensus exists re number of traits
-but not all theorists agree
Extroversion- introversion is the most famous of the trait dimensions
- first discussed by Jung
- takes up by Hans Eysenck
Trait theories are not new
Hippocrates - Greek physician proposed the 4 humors (temperaments), based on excess of specific bodily fluids:
- sanguine (blood)
- choleric (Yellow bile)
- melancholic (black bike)
- phlegmatic (phlegm)
Greek trait theories explained
Sanguine: good natured, sociable, easy going
Chloeric: quick tempered, decisive, fast thinking
Melancholic: intellectual, pragmatic, contemplative
Phlegmatic: calm, stable, rational
The humor balance has been disproven, but the terms still are used today. And the trait descriptions are similar to some modern theory traits
What is the lexical approach to personality
Guiding to scientific theory in personality psychology (2 assumptions)
- Important personality characteristics become part of the language
- More important personality characteristics will be defined by a single word
Major foundation for:
- McCrae & Costa & the Big 5
- HEXACO
- Cattell & 16PF
Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert
Influential trait theorists throughout 1900’s
People have some fundamental traits that influence most aspects of their behaviour
- Cardinal traits
- central traits
- secondary traits
Raymond Cattell
Reduced Allports list from 4500+ to 171
Argued for three types of data
- life data
- experimental data
- questionnaire data
Cattell and the 16PF
Distinguished traits in a number of ways
Common vs. unique traits
Surface traits - obvious individual characteristics easily identifiable
Source traits - deep, less obvious mental structures which give rise to surface traits
Identified 16 source traits using factor analysis
Measured these using a self report survey called the 16PF
The Big 5 personality factors
The five factor model (FFM) comprises 5 personality dimensions
The factors are dimensions. Not ‘types’ of personality. They do not describe an overall personality, but represent the highest level of a hierarchy
Factors are stable during adulthood
Factors are culturally universal
Specific facets are believed to be heritable, at least in part
What are McCrae and Costas personality types (big 5)
Hint: OCEAN
Openness of experience
-curious, creative, independent, intellect
Conscientiousness
- reliable, careful, hard working, well organised
Extraversion
- sociable, talkative and open with others
- introverts are withdrawn discrete
Agreeableness
-friendly, understanding, caring, empathetic
Neuroticism
-nervous, sad, hostile, insecure
Big 5 by culture
Factors are generally culturally universal
-May be universal for four of five traits
•surgency (extraversion)
•agreeableness
•emotional stability (neuroticism)
•conscientiousness
-but openness to experience is not supported in some Asian countries
Also, some variation in means between cultures (but cf individual differences within a given country)
Big 5 by gender
Women tended to be somewhat higher than men in neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness
Most consistent difference throughout a number of countries was increased neuroticism
Differences are larger in more developed countries
Personality and applications
Some personality tests are designed to determine presence of psychopathology
Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI 2), 567 items, designed to test clinical disorder symptoms
Provides score on 10 clinical scales against 3 validity scales
Combinations of their scales can be used for specific disorders
Individual performance across scales can detect abnormally strong characteristics, which may be associated with specific psychopathologies
Beliefs about the personality characteristics of men and women
Worldwide, people tend to regard men as having personalities that are more active, loud, adventurous, obnoxious, aggressive, opinionated, arrogant, coarse and conceited
Women, in contrast, are regarded as having personalities that are more affectionate, modest, nervous, appreciative, patient, changeable and fearful
HEXACO - Ashton and Lee
Six dimensional model
Honesty - humility Emotionality eXtraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness to experience
What are cultural universals
This approach to culture and personality attempts to identify features of personality that appear to be universal, or present in all cultures
Cultural differences in self concept (Markus and Kitayama)
• Markus & Kitayama: each person has two fundamental “cultural tasks” that have to be confronted:
- Communion or interdependence: Concerns how you are affiliated with, attached to, or engaged in the large group of which you are a member
- Agency or independence: How you differentiate yourself from the larger group
• Cultures appear to differ in how they balance these two tasks
– Non-Western, Asian cultures focused more on interdependence
– Western cultures focused more on independence
• Independence is similar to individualism and interdependence similar to collectivism
The dark triad/ tetrad
A constellation of socially undesirable traits - they are maladaptive but not psycho pathological
- Narcissism
- entitled, superiority, dominance - Machiavellianism
- cynical, unprincipled, manipulative - Psychopathy
- impulsivity, thrill seeking, low empathy
And
- Sadism
- gaining pleasure or satisfaction from others misfortune/ suffering, and I’d engaging in behaviour that harms others
Culture and personality
Personality psychologists believe it is useful to explore personality across cultures:
– Are concepts of personality that are prevalent in one culture applicable in other cultures?
– Do cultures differ in the levels of particular personality traits?
Behavioural genetics method
- Selective Breeding—Studies of Humans’ Best Friend
– Can only occur if a desired trait is heritable
– Selective breeding studies of dogs
• Can you make a breed aggressive,friendly or loyal?
• Cannot be ethically conducted with humans - Family Studies
- Twin Studies
- Adoption Studies
What is the dark tetrad?
Scoring high on these traits is associated with a range of antisocial behaviour:
- reduces empathy
- sexual harassment
- bullying/cyberbullying
- prejudice
- aggression
However, each contributes differently.
Why does the dark tetrad exist if assocated with negative behaviours?
Life history theory (Wilson 1975), an evolutionary theory which suggests individuals might make trade offs to improve survival and mating chances. Social isolation
Psychopathy and the workplace
Eg – those high in psychopathy often engage in behaviours that will promote their own success at the expense of others in the workplace
• Claimcreditforotherswork
• Takeadvantageofothers
• Superficiallypleasant–dowellatinterview • Don’tmindfiring/makingruthlessdecisions
Evaluating trait theory
• Trait theory, especially the Big 5 model, is able to describe personality
– Cross-cultural human studies find good agreement for the Big 5 model in many cultures
– Appear to be highly correlated in adulthood, childhood and even late preschoolers
– Three dimensions (extraversion, neuroticism and agreeableness) have cross-species generality
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Evaluating Trait Theory
• Mischel’s argument concerning behavioral inconsistency
• Traits are predictors of aggregate, not isolated behaviors
Contributions and limitations of trait theory
• Easily measured and testable
• Allows for individuality in trait expression
• Provides a categorisation tool for personality attributes – The most widely accepted being the ‘Big 5’
• Heavy reliance on self-report, – Potential Barnum effect
• Analyses may govern outcome
– Heavy reliance on Factor Analysis
• Does not examine the process of personality
Controversy about genes and personality
• Behavioural geneticists attempt to determine the degree to which individual differences in constructs such as personality are caused by genetic and environmental differences
• Highly controversial
– Ideological concerns
– Concerns about renewed interest in eugenics
Modern behavioral geneticists who study personality are typically very careful about addressing implications of work and are sensitive to ideological concerns
– Knowledge is better than ignorance
– Finding that a personality trait has a genetic component does not mean the environment is powerless to modify trait
Goals of behavioural genetics
- Determine the percentage of individual differences in a trait that can be attributed to genetic or environmental differences
- Determine how which genes and environment interact to produce individual differences
• Determine where in the “environment” environmental effects exist
– parental socialisation
– different teachers
Misconceptions about heritability
- Heritability CANNOT be applied to single individual
- Heritability is NOT constant or immutable
- Heritability is NOT a precise statistic
Summaries of behavioral genetic data yield heritability estimates for major personality traits of about
20-45%
