Week 2 Lecture 3 - personality approaches 2

Question 1

What is the Lexical Hypothesis?

Answer 1

all aspects of individual personality can be described from single words used in language

Question 2

Allport and Odbert (1936) - drawing on Baumgarten’s work - collected all personality terms from Webster’s Dictionary.

What did they do with these words?

Answer 2

• Total 555,000 words
• selected all terms referring to behavioural differences (18,000)
• removed terms relating to cognitive, physical or transient states (4500)
• Much overlap in meaning of terms –> 4500 terms likely represent smaller number of distinct terms

Question 3

What are latent (hidden) variables?

Answer 3

psychological variables (individual differences) that cannot be directly observed

Question 4

How are latent variables measured?

Answer 4

must be inferred/estimated on the basis of behaviour and self-reported experience

Question 5

What are psychometircs?

Answer 5

• the scientific measurement of psychological variables
• measuring the mind

Question 6

Explain how the latent variable of extraversion might be measured

Answer 6

measures of if a person:
- enjoys talking to others
- enjoys socialising with people
- makes friends easily
- are the life and soul of the party

• relates to words such as talkative, sociable, friendly and lively –> infer extraversion

Question 7

What do correlations do in relation to latent variables?

Answer 7

enables us to determine which terms are related to one another and so represent a common “latent factor”

• reduction of terms to latent factors

Question 8

If there is a strong positive correlation between 2 terms, what does this suggest?

Answer 8

they are related to a common latent factor

Question 9

If there is a strong negative correlation between 2 terms, what does this suggest?

Answer 9

Related to a common latent factor –> just on different ends of the same trait

i.e., extraverted and not extraverted

Question 10

If there is no correlation between the two terms, what does this suggest?

Answer 10

not related to a common latent factor
independent

Question 11

What is a correlation matrix? Is is good for assessing relationships between terms?

Answer 11

• shows the relationship between each pair of terms
• difficult to work out which items belong together –> doesn’t provide a clear picture

Question 12

What is factor analysis?

Answer 12

• a multivariate data reduction technique
• looks for the set of latent variables (factors) that best account for the pattern of correlation within the dataset
• is a statistical technique that uses patterns of correlations between several variables to identify a smaller number of underlying latent variables
• values show correlations for each items and each underlying factor –> factor loadings

Question 13

What must a researcher decide when using factor analysis?

Answer 13

• how many factors to extract
• what to name the factors based on the items that load on it

Question 14

What are cross loadings?

Answer 14

• items should load strongly on only one factor
• important because aim of factor analysis is to have independent factors

Question 15

How did Cattell construct his 16 personality factor model?

Answer 15

• took the 4500 words and sorted them into clusters of synonyms
• paired clusters with matched antonyms
• selected best example from each pair (171 words)
• 100 people rated an individual on each of these 171 terms and the correlations examined to identify 60 clusters
• Cattell then added a few more terms from psychiatric literature that he determined important
• reduced this to 45 terms based on own judgment and literature guidance
• factor analysed 45 “surface traits” to identify 16 personality factors (source traits) which explained the surface trait variability

Question 16

How did Cattel present his 16 PFs?

Answer 16

• scales not categories
• listed in order of importance / the amount of variance they explained

Question 17

What are 2 important observations the note from the presentation of Cattell’s 16 PFs?

Answer 17

• included abstract-concrete (reasoning) which directly maps on to intelligence –> controversial as many think intelligence should be independent of personality
• Cattell believed last 4 factors could only be measured through self report

Question 18

What are some limitations of Cattell’s 16PF?

Answer 18

• Subjectivity and arbitrariness in analysis.
• Many failures to replicate 16 factor structure.
• Sixteen – too many factors to work with.
• Correlations between factors – not independent.
• Better accounted for by fewer, independent factors ?

Question 19

What are some strengths of Cattell’s 16PF?

Answer 19

• Methodical, data-driven approach to theory development.
• Promoted use of Factor analysis in personality research.
• Revised 16PF questionnaires still used.
• Formed the basis of subsequent ‘big 5’ models.

Question 20

What is the Big Five model of personality?

Answer 20

• 5 factors are necessary and reasonably and sufficient for describing major features at a global level

factors:
- neuroticism
- extraversion
- openness to experience
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness

Question 21

How are each “super trait” of the Big Five measured?

Answer 21

• each super trait is made up of 6 facets (primary traits) which are measured
• facets measured with several items (questions) e.g., “I often crave excitement” is an item that measure an excitement-seeking facet which measures the extraversion super trait

Question 22

What is openness to experience?

Answer 22

• tendency to engage in intellectual activities and experience new sensations and ideas
• related to curiosity, imagination, unconventional attitudes, aesthetic sensitivity

Question 23

What is agreeableness?

Answer 23

• friendly, considerate and modest behaviour
• caring, nurturing and tolerant
• predisposition to pro-social behaviour

Question 24

What is conscientiousness?

Answer 24

• proactivity, responsibility and self-discipline
• efficiency, organisation, determination and productivity

Question 25

How do Eysenck’s PEN and the Big 5 compare?

Answer 25

Eysenck:
- thought openness was intelligence not personality and so shouldn’t be included
- thought agreeableness was just a mixture on P N and E not it’s own thing

• high correlation of E and N on both PEN and the Big 5 –> same conceptual overlap
• poor correlation for O A and C –> at least partially different

Question 26

What were some critiques of the Big 5 (OCEAN)?

Answer 26

• Factors derived from factor analysis depend on which variables are entered and on number of factors extracted
• Single words insufficient to describe all aspects of personality: sentences and paragraphs needed!
• Overreliance on lay persons, results in important omissions (e.g. ‘capricious’, ‘censorious’ etc).
• Simple correlations do not capture full complexity of relationships between terms
• Arbitrary choice of 6 facets per factor.
• Some important factors not represented e.g. narcissism.

Question 27

What are some strengths of OCEAN?

Answer 27

• Evidence for cross-cultural stability of factors
• Emerging evidence for biological basis e.g. Čukić & Bates (2014): openness associated with increased ANS activation at rest.
• The most widely-used model of personality.
• A useful ‘common currency’ in personality research –> basis for comparability

Question 28

What are 2 examples of other Big Trait models?

Answer 28

Alternative Big Five:
- impulsive unsocialized sensation seeking
- aggression-hostility
- activity
- sociability
- neuroticism-anxiety

HEXACO:
- Honesty-humility
- emotionality
- extraversion
- agreeableness
- conscientiousness
- openness to experience

(addition of 6th factor might address missing aspect of OCEAN)