Trait Perspective Flashcards
(26 cards)
The trait perspective emphasizes two points and is also called the ___ perspective.
- People are consistent in their actions, thoughts, and feelings over time and situations.
- Each individual displays different trait qualities (intensities, frequency) that vary from individual to individual.
- Everyone has natural tendencies (dispositions) that arise from situational factors that are elicited and ate constant across experiences and the ways these tendencies interact with environment varies across situations.
What are types (Galens and Jung)
Galens types: When dealing with an ailment.
Choleric (irritable): By complaining a lot
Melancholic (depressed): By being sad
Sanguine (optimistic): With confidence
Phlegmatic (calm): Hard to arouse
Jung’s types:
Introvert: Prefers solitary activities
What are traits (continuous vs. discontinuous)
Traits are continuous dimensions of personality on which people vary.
- Traits represent quantitative differences in people.
- Individual differences represent the magnitude of differences in trait quantity.
- Important to look at traits on a continuum because someone who rates as a 1 on a scale will be lumped in with people who are a 3.9
What are the two views of traits
Nomothetic View: An approach that focuses on norms and variations among persons.
- Belief that traits are universal among people but are manifested differently.
- Personality science endorses this view.
Idiographic View: An approach that focuses on an individual’s uniqueness.
- Traits are idiosyncratic meaning they are not universal.
what method allows us to determine what traits reflect an underlying trait dimension?
To know what traits reflect an underlying trait dimension to predict behaviour and inform theories we can use factor analysis.
Factor Analysis: A statistical procedure used to find basic dimensions underlying a set of measures.
- A statistical procedure for determining if all of the items on a psychological measure assess the same psychological construct or if different items are infleunces by different psychological constructs
- Are they assessing different aspects of personality of a super trait or another one.
o Looking at correlations that exist across an entire data set for a large group of participants.
What are the 4 steps to factor analysis?
- Collect responses on many items
- Compute correlations between all pairs of items.
- It will extract factors and tell us if certain items were answered consistenyl with strong correlations
- Then up to us to label factors based on factor loadings
Factor analysis helps to…
- Reduce set of improtant traits
- Establish whihc traits are more important
- Developing assessmetn tools of personality
You onlt get what you put in
What kind of approach did Catell use and what was he trying to do? What term did he coin? What scale did he make?
Inductive exploratory factor analysis to determine what traits load together without any apriori hypotheses
Lexical criterion of importance
The more words that represent a factor the better making it more important
Developed the 16 Personality Factor Inventory
What kind of approach did Eysenck use and what was he trying to do? WHat did he come up with?
Used a deductive confirmatory factory analysis:
Wanted to see fi his theory was supported (he always had qualities and descriptors in mind that would load onto different factors
Dimensions of personality where people high in a super trait will be more liekly to have certain subordinate traits.
What are the Similarities between Cattell and Eysenck
The two super traits of Eysenck resemble two of the factors from Cattell’s 16PF, specifically as second order factors
What is extroversion and what are related traits?
Traits related to power and sociability
(Bold, outspoken, energetic)
What is neuroticism and what are related traits?
Traits related to anxiety and emotional stability
(anxious, impulsive, concerned, negative affect)
What is agreeableness and what are related traits?
Related to interpersonal functioning of maintaining relationships
(friendly, kind, polite, considerate)
What is conscientiousness and what are related traits?
Related to planning and goal striving
(hardworking, persevering, determined, responsible)
What is openness to expereince/intellect and what are related traits?
Related to knowledge and sophistication
(creative, curious, perceptive, intellectual)
What are some outcome of extraversion according to research
Men who are more extraverted “act better” around women they don’t know than more introverted men.
More likely to join groups (everyone), such as fraternities and sororities.
Go out and get the social contact that they want.
Seek out more exciting lifestyle and other energy enhancing activities.
What are some outcome of agreeablness according to research
Are more accepted by theri peers and have better relationships/family relationships/ and friends
What are some outcome of conscientiousness according to research
Live longer and take better care of their bodies
What are some outcome of intellect or openness according to research
Refrain from being discrimminating/stigmatizing
like more reflecting questions
What are some outcome of neuroticism according to research
- Married partners experience more difficult interactions and less relational satisfaction.
- Distance themselves from a romantic partner
- Related to pessimism
- Impairs academic performance (greater test anxiety, lack of sleep, & procrastinating)
- Early morality rates
What was a theory before the big 5 factor model? WHat two ideologies came about after?
- If personality is influential on behaviour and people are acting consistently and have individual differences, then we should see strong correlations.
o However, it only correlated moderately with behaviour of 0.30
o Situational pressures influence behaviour.
Situationism: The idea that situations are primary determinants of behaviour. - However situations do not predict behaviours more than traits.
Interactionism: The idea that situations and personality interact to determine behaviours (star highlight know this) – depends on two levels of a variable (e.g. context and how much of a trait they possess). - E.g. One’s level of extraversion can lead to seeking out others during stress (i.e., situation) or avoiding others.
What is teh diathesis stress model and what ideology is it related to?
Interactionism
Diathesis-Stress Model: A theory holding that vulnerability (how much of a trait an individual possesses) plus stress creates problem behaviour.
o Diathesis means susceptibility
o A person higher in neuroticism may be more likely to use passive coping strategies/ avoidant tendencies after a stressor than someone low in neuroticism.
What is Context-Dependent Expression of Personality and what term arose from this
Idea that a situational variable can draw out a trait (interactionist view because looking at context and trait)
o E.g. shy (trait) with strangers but not with family (situation).
Behavioural Signature: The pattern of a situation-behaviour links the person has established over experiences in some domain.
o Two people who have comparable levels of emotional stability but what makes then unique is that under one context a persons neuroticism is more heightened and in a different context draws out another persons. E.g. one in testing situations and one for studying. The behaviour nervousness and the trait neuroticism is similar but what makes it different is that different domains bring out those traits in people.
o Different domains make the traits matter. (interpersonal functioning, interactionist idea, relates to context dependent because there are situational factors that elicit the behaviour).
When you think of personality types you should think…
distinct categories
