week 4 Flashcards
What are traits
Higher level descriptions of peoples thoughts attitudes and behaviours and remain relatively stable across a life span
What are Facets
components of traits that tend to be more specific than traits that tend to become more or less relevant depending on the situation
What are characteristics
Temporal moments of facets that tend to be more associated with the physical acts of facets
What is idiographic approach
The study of one individual without comparing them with any other
What is nomothetic approach
describes personality in terms of set of dimensions that can be applied to other people
What is historical background part 1
Hippocrates and Galen began the classification of human temperaments or personality linked to the elements. Choleric, Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Melancholic
Historical background part 2
Persian polymath Avicenna theory of temperaments: emotional aspects, mental capacity, moral attitudes, self-awareness, movement and dream
Emmanuel Kant: theorised about multiple personality types based on feeling and activity levels
William Sheldon’s somatotypes
developed the idea of somatotypes and associated them with temperament
Types- endomorph-sociable, peaceful, tolerant, large body. Mesomorph: assertive, proactive, vigorous, muscular. Ectomorph: insecure, sensitive, delicate, weak muscles
Criticisms of somatotypes
Based on stereotypes and assumptions, most modern researchers prefer to measure the degrees to which an individual has particular personality trait
Allport theory
Cardinal traits: traits that dominate/shape behaviour-> central traits: basic building block of your personality-> secondary traits: variable traits like and dislike
dispositional approach
arising from the factor analytic method. the dispositional domain concerns those aspects of personality that are stable over time relatively consistent over situation
What are personality traits
is a dimension of personality used to categorise people according to the degree to which they manifest a particular characteristic
Rather than classifying people according to specific types or categories many theorists prefer to identify dimensions on which people differ along a range of values
Raymond Cattell
psychometric test to predict peoples behaviour socially and at work. Collected large amounts of data: L-data: life records, Q-data: questionnaires, T-data: lab observations and testing. Developed the 16 personality factor questionnaire
What are surface traits
collections of trait descriptors that cluster together
What are source traits
identified via factor-analysis and refers to underlying trait that is responsible for the variance in there observable surface traits
Hans Eysenck
identify personality dimensions, devise means of measuring them, test them using experimental procedures
Extroversion- interactivity with others, extraverts seen as sociable and impulsive who love excitement. Neuroticism- measure of emotional behaviours, neurotics were seen as emotionally unstable individuals with individual fears and obsessional symptoms
Hans Eysenck part 2
p on a spectrum from aggressiveness and egocentricity to a high degree of self-control, high levels of P were linked to vulnerability to mental conditions but also potentially related to creativity, believed there was a genetic, heritable aspect of p
Personality structure
he believed that these three types make up the basic structure of personality called PEN model. Developed a questionnaire to measure it called Eysenck personality questionnaire, good psychometric properties for E and N
Personality traits
psychotic individuals emphasize hostility cruelty and traits with a strong need to ridicule and upset others. Introverted individuals are described as being reserved; independent rather than followers, socially awkward
Origin to big five
emerged from a lexical hypothesis, five aspects of personality were identified by Fiske (1949) from lexical list: inquiring intellect, conformity, confident self-expression, Social adaptability, emotional control
Big Five
openness to experience- involves characteristics of showing intellectual curiosity, divergent thinking and willingness to consider new ideas and an active imagination
conscientiousness-this dimension describes the degree of self-discipline, control and the active process of planning, organising and carrying out tasks
extraversion- This factor represents a measure of individuals sociability assertiveness and activity
agreeableness- This dimension indicates characteristics that are relevant for social interactions, such as traits of altruism and cooperativeness
Neuroticism- this dimension measure individual emotional stability and personal adjustment and tendency to experience negative affect, such as fear, sadness and more
Big five measurement
Costa and McCrae originally developed a questionnaire to assess Neuroticism, this was then revised to include agreeableness and conscientiousness
revised to provide a more concise measure of the big 5 NEO-FFI. Consists of 5 scales, each consisting of 12 items resulting int total 60 items. Used 5-point likert scale format
Big five cross-culture replication
these five factors have found support cross-culturally and replicate well across research into a wide range of applications
Critical reflection Big five
what do you notice about the scientists whose work we’ve considered so far, whose voices might be missing, what is the effect of this on our understanding of personality
Strengths to big five
empirical investigation, questionnaires developed, not bound to theoretical assumptions, scientifically sound area of psychological research, cross-cultural consistency in factors
Limitations to big five
heavy reliance on self-reports. Derived from everyday language, factors analysis only as good as items included, descriptive but not explanatory, factors may not mean the same thing across cultures
