Personality lecture 2 Flashcards
The trait approach (45 cards)
What are types and traits in terms of personality?
- Types are discrete categories
- Traits are placed along a continuum (how much of the trait they possess)
What does the trait theory assume? (2)
- Personality characteristics are relatively stable over time
- Traits are stable across situations
What did Gordon Allport find when examining the words used to describe people?
Identified 18000 words and 4500 described traits (clustered words describe the same area of personality)
What did Gordon Allport argue was the best approach for understanding personality?
Idiographic - considering individuals, not broadly applying things to everyone
What are 3 categories of traits according to Allport?
- CARDINAL: single , dominant traits (heavily influences behaviour)
- CENTRAL: 5-10 traits which describe a personality
- SECONDARY: preferences, not core to personality (these can therefore be changed based on time and situation)
What was Raymond Cattel one of the first to do?
Use factor analysis to identify attributes which cluster together
What was Raymond Cattel interested in? (3)
- How personality can predict behaviour
- The role of genetics (constitutional traits) and experience (environmental-mold traits)
- Investigating common traits
What are source and surface traits?
- A source trait is an underlying trait that influences behaviour
- A surface trait is the behaviours based on these traits that we can observe
What 3 types of data did Cattel collect from people when creating his traits?
- L-data (life-record data)
- Q-data (questionnaires)
- T-data (standardised tests)
How many factors did Cattel identify that can define personality? How does the quality of prediction differ down the list of words?
16 - to create the 16PF
The ones at the top of the list are better at predicting behaviour (e.g. outgoing-reserved, intelligence…)
What were arts students higher in than science students using the 16PF, according to Furnham et al (2013)? (6)
- Warmth
- Sensitivity
- Trusting
- Abstractive
- Imagination
- Openness to change
What were science students higher in than arts students using the 16PF, according to Furnham et al (2013)? (2)
- conscientiousness
- perfectionism
What are 2 strengths of the 16PF?
- used a lot in research
- shows good predictability
What are 3 limitations of the 16PF?
- internal consistencies of some factors were low
- not many have been able to replicate the 16 factors with the same methodology
- some evidence suggests that 16 factors can be reduced to 5
What are the 3 levels of Eysenck’s hierarchical model of personality?
- Trait level
- Habitual response
- Specific response
What does Eysenck’s theory of personality suggest? (2)
- Fundamental traits are biologically based BUT environment can impact on how traits are expressed
- Personality is based on character, temperament, intelligence, physique and nervous system
What are the 3 personality types of ‘super traits’ suggested by Eysenck after observations?
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
- Psychoticism
What does Eysenck’s personality questionnaire (EPQ) measure?
neuroticism, extraversion and psychoticism
What are 3 things that have been found in studies using the EPQ?
- ‘Criminals’ score high in E, N & P (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985)
- Creative people score high on psychoticism (Eysenck, 1993, 1994) - this link is debated in research
- Extroverts more willing to have sexual contact without commitment & report more sexual experience (Wright & Reise, 1997)
What did Eysenck suggest that neuroticism was related to? (2)
- Autonomic nervous system reactivity
- This link also causes a link with anxiety
What did Eysenck suggest about the tendency to respond very emotionally to stimuli?
It is seen as a predisposing condition to the development of a psychological disorder
What are 4 strengths of Eysenck’s theory?
- the 3 factors have been shown to be stable across time
- cross-cultural validity of the EPQ
- child version of the EPQ was developed
- the theory has a significant application in mental health
What are 2 limitations of Eysenck’s theory?
- the psychoticism scale has low internal reliability
- reducing personality down to 3 traits may be too simplistic
What are the 5 features of personality that triat descriptors relate to in Goldberg et al’s five factor model of personality?
- love
- work
- affect
- power
- intellect