WEEK 12 - Traits Flashcards
What are traits?
- Fundamental in personality
- psychometrics were first used to introduce the concept of traits
- used factor analysis to reduce diversity of personality descriptors to underlying traits
What does Allport suggest a trait is?
- an observed tendency to behave in a certain way
2. Inferred underlying disposition that results in this behavioural tendency
What are the 2 most famous trait dimensions?
Intraversion and extraversion
(jung) then taken up by Hans Eysenck
What are the tendencies constituting underlying personality dimensions?
Emotional, cognitive, behavioural
What is the descriptive approach of personality traits?
According to individuals underlying attributes and tendencies, the structure of personality
What was the Hippocrates theory of traits?
- Greek physician proposed 4 hummers (temperaments) based on excess of specific bodily fluids
- Sanguine
- Choleric
- Melancholic
- Phlegmatic
In the Hippocrates theory of traits, describe each of the fluids and how they link to personality
Sanguine:
Good natured, sociable, easy going
Too much = insensitive/vague
Choleric:
Quick tempered, decisive, fast thinking
Too much = bout of rage
Melancholic:
Intellectual, pragmatic, contemplative
Too much = depression and antisocial behaviour
Phlegmatic:
Calm, stable, rational
Too much = apathetic, lack of drive
What was the first modern trait theory?
- Two factor trait theory
- Hans sybil primary personality factors as axes for describing personality variation
What is Eysenck PEN trait theory?
Four- level hierarchy of behavioural organisation
- Specific responses
- Habits (must be reasonably reliable and consistent)
- Traits
- Types ( Suprerfactors, super traits, made up of several interrelated traits
Three super traits:
- Psychoticism
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
What is the lexical approach to personality?
Guiding scientific theory in personality psychology
- 2 assumptions:
1. Important personality characteristics become part of the language
2. More important personality characteristics will be defined by a single word - Major foundation for:
- McCrae and costa and the big 5
- HEXACO
- Cattell & 16PF
Who was Gordon Allport and Henry Odbert and what were their views on personality traits?
- Influential trait theorists
- People have some fundamental traits that influence most aspects of their behaviour
- cardinal traits
- Central traits
- Secondary traits
- Identified approximately 4,500 traits
Who was Raymond Cattell and what was his influence on personality traits?
- Reduced Allport’s list from 45000+ to 171
- Argued for three types. of data:
- Life data
- Experimental data
- Questionnaire data
Explain Cattell and the 16PF
- Distinguished traits in a number of ways
- Common vs unique traits
- Surface traits: Obvious individual characteristics
Source traits: deep, less obvious mental structures which give rise to surface traits - identified 16 source traits using factor analysis
- Measured these using self-report survey called the 16PF
What are the traits in the 16PF? name 5.
- Warmth
- Reasoning
- Emotional Stability
- Dominance
- Liveliness
- Rule-Conscious
- Social Boldness
- Sensitivity
- Vigilance
- Abstractedness
- Privateness
- Apprehension
- Openness to change
- Self-Reliance
- Perfectionism
- Tension
Describe the ‘big 5’ personality factors
- The five factor model (FFM) comprises 5 personality dimensions
- The factors are dimensions, not types of personality
- Factors are stable during adulthood
- Culturally universal
- Specific facets are believed to be heritable, at least in part
Name McCrae and COsta’s big 5 traits
- Openness to experience
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
Describe culture’s role in the big 5 personality traits
Factors are generally culturally universal
- May be universal for four/five traits
- extraversions
- agreeableness
- Emotional stability
- Conscientiousness
- In some asian countries, openness to experiences is not supported
- Some variation in different countries
How does gender influence the big 5 personality traits?
- 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 countires
(Schmitt et al, 2008)
What is the HEXACO theory of personality by Ashton and Lee?
Six dimensional model
Honesty-Humility Emotionality Extraversion Agreeableness Conscientiousness Openness to experience
Big 5 _________ and _________ are similar to the HEXACO _________ and __________.
- Agreeableness and Neuroticism
2. Agreeableness and emotionality
Aspects of HEXACO _________-_______ are similar to traits described in the big 5 ________.
- HOnesty-humility
2. Agreeableness
What is the dark triad?
A constellation of socially undesirable traits that are maladaptive but not psychopathological
- Narcissism
- Machiavellianism
- Psychopathy
- Sadism
If you scored highly on traits in the dark triad, what anti-social behaviours may you be more associated with?
- Reduced empathy
- Sexual harrassment
- Bullying/cyber bully
- Prejudice
- Aggression
- Each contributes differently
Why does the dark tetrad exist. if they are associated with negative behaviours?
Life history theory (Wilson, 1975)
- An evolutionary theory which suggests that individuals might make trade-off to improve survival and acting chance
- Social isolation/consequences for self/others are incurred for a longer term goal, and so are somewhat ‘adaptive’ for the person
How is psychopathy relevant in the workplace?
- Those high in psychopathy often engage in behaviours that will promote their own success at the expense of others in the workplace
- Claim credit for others work
- Take advantage of others
- Superficially pleasant - do well at interview
- Don’t mind firing/making ruthless decisions
How may the big 5 model bu evaluated?
- Cross-cultural human studies find good agreement for the big 5 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
What is considered in Mischel’s argument concerning behavioural inconsistency?
Traits are predictors of aggregate, not isolated behaviours
What are contribution of trait theory?
- Easily measurable and testable
- Allows for individuality in trait expression
- Provides a categorisation tool for personality attributes
- most widely accepted being the big 5
What are the limitations of trait theory?
- Heavy reliance on self-report (Potential Barnum effect)
- Analyses may govern outcome
(heavy reliance on factor analysis) - Does not examine the process of personality
In the psychoanalytic perspective, here does behaviour spring from?
Unconscious conflicts between pleasure-seeking impulses and social restraints
In the social-cognitive perspective, where does behaviour spring from?
Reciprocal influences between people and their situation, coloured by perceptions of control
In the psychoanalytic perspective, what are some assessment techniques?
Projective tests aimed at revealing unconscious motivation
In the social-cognitive perspective, what are some assessment techniques?
a) Questionnaire assessments of people’s feelings of control
b) observations of peoples behaviour in particular situations
Provide an evaluation of the psychoanalytic theory.
A speculative, hard-to-test theory with enormous cultural impact
Provide an evaluation of the social-cognitive perspective
An integrative they that integrates research on learning, cognition, and social behaviour cruised as underestimating the importance of emotions and enduring traits
In the humanistic perspective, where does behaviour spring from?
Processing conscious feeling about one’s self in the light of one’s experiences.
In the trait theory, where does behaviour spring from?
Expressing biologically influenced dispositions, such as extraversion or introversion
What are some assessment techniques for the humanistic theory?
a) questionnaire and assessments
b) Empathetic interviews
What are some assessment techniques for the trait theory?
a) personality inventories that assess the strengths of different traits
b) Peer rating of behaviour patterns
Provide an evaluation for the humanistic perspective
A humane theory that reinvigorated contemporary interest in the self; criticised as subjective and sometimes naively self-centred and optimistic
Provide and evaluation of the trait theory
A descriptive approach criticised as sometimes underestimating the variability of behaviour from situation to situation
What do behavioural geneticists do?
Behavioural geneticists attempt to determine the degree to which individual difference in constructs such as personality are caused by genetic and environmental differences
What is highly controversial surrounding genes and personality?
- Ideological concerns
- Concerns about renewed interest in eugenics
What are modern behavioural geneticists careful about addressing?
- Implications of work
- Sensitive to ideological concerns
- Knowledge is better than ignorance
- Finding that a personality trait has genetic component does not mean the environment is powerless to modify trait
What are the goals of behavioural genetics?
- Determine the percentage of individual difference in a trait thatch be attributed to genetic or environmental differences
- Determine how much genes and environment interact to produce individual differences
- Determine where in the environment that environmental effects exist
- parental socialisation
- teachers
What are some misconceptions about heritability?
- It cannot be applied to a single individual
- Is not constant or immutable
- Not a precise statistics
What are some behavioural genetics methods?
- Selective breeding - studies of human’s best friend
- can only occur if a desired trait is heritable
- selective breeding studies in dogs
(cannot be ethically studied on humans) - Family studies
- Twins studies
- Adoption studies
What are two assumptions of the twins methods?
- Equal environments
- Representativeness
What did major finding from behavioural genetic research find?
Summaries of behavioural genetic data yield heritability estimates for major personality traits of about 20-45 percent
Why do personality psychologists find it useful to explore personality across cultures?
- Are concepts of personality prevalent in one culture applicable in other cultures?
- Do cultures differ in the levels of particular personality traits?
What did Markus and Kitayama state about cultural differences in self-concept?
Each person has 2 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 a larger group
What are some differences in culture and self-concept?
Cultures appear to differ in how they balance these two tasks
- Non-western, asian countries focused more on interdependence
- Western cultures focussed more on independence
Independence is similar to individualism and interdependence is similar to collectivism
What is culture universals?
This approach to culture and personality attempts to identify features of personality that appear to be universal, or present In most or all cultures
What are some beliefs about the personality characteristics of Men and women?
- World wide, people 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, modes, nervous, appreciative, patient, changeable, charming and fearful
Some personality tests are designed to determine the presence of ________.
Psychopathology
What is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory? (MMPI-2?)
- 567 items
- Used to assess for clinical disorder symptoms
What are the 3 validity scales in the MMPI?
L - Lie
F - Frequency
k - Correction
How many clinical scales are there in the MMPI- 2?
10
