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PSY1008 > Week 4 - Trait Theories of Personality > Flashcards

Week 4 - Trait Theories of Personality Flashcards

1
Q

Explain the Trait Approach to personality

A
  • Identifies personality characteristics that can be represented along a continuum
  • Categorises people according to the degree to which they display a particular characteristic
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2
Q

What is a surface trait?

A

Characteristics or attributes that can be inferred from observable behaviour
- basically the behaviours we see from a person

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3
Q

What is a source trait?

A

Fundamental, broad and basic traits that are thought to be universal and few in number

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4
Q

Describe the Nomothetic Approach to personality

A
  • Describing personality along a finite number of traits (Extraversion, neuroticism)
  • These traits can be applied to everyone
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5
Q

Describe the Idiographic Approach to personality

A
  • Identifies any combination of traits to describe individuals
  • Infinite possibilities
  • Idiographic traits may not apply to everyone
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6
Q

Describe central traits

A

Can easily describe an individual’s personality

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7
Q

Describe secondary traits

A

Preferences, not main predictor of behaviour

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8
Q

Describe cardinal traits

A

Single dominating trait in personality
- ex. Extraversion, Neuroticism

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9
Q

What are the two primary personality traits suggested by Hans Eysenck?

A

Extraversion-Introversion and Neuroticism (emotional instability)

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10
Q

Describe the Jungian Personality Theory

A
  • Proposed by Carl Jung (psychoanalyst)
  • Focused on personality traits for perceiving the environment and obtaining/processing information
    1. Getting Energy: Extraversion-Introversion
    2. Perceiving Information: Sensing-Intuitive
    3. Making Decisions: Thinking-Feeling
    4. Orienting to the External World: Judging-Perceiving
  • Limitation: Not empirically-based, it simply makes assumptions about behaviour
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11
Q

How is statistics used in personality studies?

A

Factor Analysis;
- Data reduction technique
- Simplify relations among variables
- Identify common patterns in data

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12
Q

Why is Factor Analysis important?

A
  • Simplifies assessment; Shorter surveys and easier analysis
  • Finds naturally occurring and covarying traits; No more assumptions and processes data by looking for patterns and groupings
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13
Q

What did Raymon Cattell propose?

A
  • Used factor analysis to identify personality traits
  • Proposed 16 personality traits
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14
Q

Who proposed The Big Five?

A

Costa and McCrae

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15
Q

What does OCEAN (The Big Five) stand for?

A

O - Openness
C - Conscientiousness
E - Extraversion
A - Agreeableness
N - Neuroticism

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16
Q

Describe the The Big Five and how it was established

A
  • Established via factor analysis
  • Tested in more than 50 cultures
  • Biologically influenced
  • Traits seem stable over lifespan
  • A good amount of categories
17
Q

Explain Openness in OCEAN

A
  • Active imagination, divergent thinking and intellectual
  • High end -> unconventional and independent thinkers
  • Low end -> prefer the familiar rather than the imaginative
18
Q

Explain the Conscientiousness in OCEAN

A
  • High end -> organised, plan-oriented, determined
  • Low end -> careless, easily distracted from tasks and undependable
19
Q

Explain the Extraversion in OCEAN

A
  • High end -> Extraverts; very sociable people
  • Low end -> Introverts; reserved and independent people
20
Q

Explain the Agreeableness in OCEAN

A
  • High end -> Helpful, trusting, sympathetic
  • Low end -> Antagonistic, skeptical
21
Q

Explain the Neuroticism in OCEAN

A
  • High end -> More emotionally unstable; more susceptible to anxiety, depression, etc.
  • Low end -> Less emotionally unstable; tend to be more calm and well-adjusted
22
Q

What are the limitations of The Big Five?

A
  • Factor analysis is not perfect (subjective interpretation of results)
  • Ongoing issues (too broad? are there any missing or more important factors?)
23
Q

How did psychologists start identifying traits?

A
  • Lexical approach
  • Examine traits used within language
  • Traits already embedded in everyday speech
24
Q

Describe the lexical approach to personality traits

A
  • Allport and Odbert (1936)
  • Searched the dictionary for words that describe people (18,000) and filtered them (4,500)
  • Raymond Cattell
    *Simplified it by using factor analysis to find primary traits -> 16 factors
25
Q

What did Hans Eysenck propose, against the lexical approach?

A
  • Developed a two-factor model (Neuroticism, Extraversion)
  • Proposed a third factor, which is Psychoticism
  • In this model, psychoticism encompasses the traits: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness
26
Q

Describe the HEXACO Model of Personality

A
  • Adds one factor to the big five
    H - Honesty-Humility
    E - Emotionality (Neuroticism)
    X - Extraversion
    A - Agreeableness
    C - Conscientiousness
    O - Openness to Experience
27
Q

Why is trait psychology controversial?

A
  • Issue of whether personality traits are consistent
  • Issue of whether the structure of traits is universal
  • Traits or types? (traits are continuous, types are nominal)
  • Issue if traits are sufficient for describing personality
28
Q

What did Walter Mischel say about personality?

A
  • Observed behaviour and personality traits correlate weakly
  • Situation is the main determinant of behaviour
  • Traits are weak predictors of behaviour alone
29
Q

What are the limitations of Walter Mischel’s claims?

A
  • Weak correlations are still important
  • Need for an interactionist view that recognises traits, situations and their combined effects
30
Q

Explain Hartshorne & May’s study on honesty

A
  • Gave thousands of children multiple behavioral tests of dishonesty
  • Dishonesty varied widely across situations with little consistency (ave. correlation = .26)
31
Q

Explain the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory

A
  1. Harmony
  2. Ren Qing (relationship orientation)
  3. Modernization
  4. Thrift vs. Extravergence
  5. Ah-Q Mentality (defensiveness)
  6. Face
32
Q

Differentiate Traits vs Types

A
  • Traits are dimensional and have a continuum
  • Types are categorical or nominal

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