Traits theory Flashcards
What are the main premises of the traits approach
- personality exists
- has quantitative and qualitative properties
- systematically describes psychological differences between and within individuals
- emphasises the need of a scientific useful taxonomy
- probabilistic system
What were the foundations of the traits approach?
- hippocrates: four humours (bodily fluids)
- Kant: 2- feeling (N), Activity (E)
- Wundt: 4 temperaments (after rotation)
What are traits?
- general dispositions that people possess
- cannot be observed directly (LATENT) but inferred from patterns of behaviour & experience that are known to be valid trait indicators
What is personality
- dynamic and organised set of characteristics possessed by a person
What are some of the premises of the trait concepts?
- every human possesses all traits but different intensities
- development assumed to end in early adulthood (longitudinal studies show this isn’t true)
- relatively stable over time and situation
- hierarchically arranged
- dimensionally arranged
What are the forces of traits?
- biology and genetics
- cognition
- evolution
- environment
What is temperament?
- characteristic REACTION PATTERNS present from early age
- biologically- based elements
- present in infancy & childhood
- inherited sub-class of personality dimensions
What are states?
- (moods) refer to the condition (arousal) of the corresponding traits at any given point in time
What is the hierarchical arrangement of personality?
- specific responses
- habitual responses (habits)
- temperament
- traits
- personality dimensions
How do we measure traits?
- statistics & psychometrics
- brain scans, EG, HR, twin-studies
- psychometric questionnaires
What are the common assumptions of
- personality space is made of dimensions
- dimensions are ORTHOGONAL
- dimensions are FINITE
- can discover these dimensions by decomposing the matrix
What are some issues with the traits approach?
- how many
- heavily dependent on statistics and probability
- traditionally dependent on self- reports
- idiographic vs. nomothetic
- do traits exist?
What are the advantages of the traits approach?
- scientific theories
- testable
- cross-cultural validity
- occupational/educational psychology
- used in forensic psychology
- psychopathology
What were the core ideas in Allport’s theory?
- DYNAMIC SYSTEM OF TRAITS
- personality is real (and not a construct or abstraction)
- personality is greater than the sum of its traits
What was the main focus of Allport’s theory?
- the emphasis is on the UNIQUENESS of the person and importance of INDIVIDUALITY
What were some core ideas of personality in Allport’s theory?
- personality is real (assumes traits are real and can be studied empirically)
- personality is greater than the sum of its traits (traits are ADDITIVE)
What is the difference btw nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality?
NOMOTHETIC: looking at universal group laws of human fning e.g. intelligence testing
IDIOGRAPHIC: attempt to identify the unique combination of traits that can best describe individuals e.g. case studies
According to Allport, how to traits come about?
- both biology and environmental habits
ALLPORT: Traits vs. temperament
TEMPERAMENT:closely linked to biological determinants and therefore limited changes in development.
ALLPORT: Traits vs. habits
HABITS: S-R (learned)
TRAITS: arises in part by biology by integrating several habits associated with a trait e.g. cleanliness
ALLPORT: Traits vs. attitudes
ATTITUDE: e.g. climate change is crap
TRAITS: e.g. Scepticism of scientific findings
According to Allport, what do traits do in response to diverse stimuli?
- e.g. TRAIT: friendliness
- will render diverse stimuli functionally equivalent
- indicators of a person’s characteristic behaviour and thought in diverse circumstances
What are different types of traits according to Allport?
CARDINAL:pervasive, outstanding, not everyone has them
CENTRAL: super traits that best describe an individual e.g. responsible, friendly
SECONDARY: peripheral to an individual’s personality e.g. musical taste
NB: can fall into any category depending on important for the individual
What were later traits introduced
COMMON TRAITS (Universal norms, group norms) INDIVIDUAL TRAITS (idiosyncratic traits)
