Week 4 - Trait Theories of Personality Flashcards
(32 cards)
Explain the Trait Approach to personality
- Identifies personality characteristics that can be represented along a continuum
- Categorises people according to the degree to which they display a particular characteristic
What is a surface trait?
Characteristics or attributes that can be inferred from observable behaviour
- basically the behaviours we see from a person
What is a source trait?
Fundamental, broad and basic traits that are thought to be universal and few in number
Describe the Nomothetic Approach to personality
- Describing personality along a finite number of traits (Extraversion, neuroticism)
- These traits can be applied to everyone
Describe the Idiographic Approach to personality
- Identifies any combination of traits to describe individuals
- Infinite possibilities
- Idiographic traits may not apply to everyone
Describe central traits
Can easily describe an individual’s personality
Describe secondary traits
Preferences, not main predictor of behaviour
Describe cardinal traits
Single dominating trait in personality
- ex. Extraversion, Neuroticism
What are the two primary personality traits suggested by Hans Eysenck?
Extraversion-Introversion and Neuroticism (emotional instability)
Describe the Jungian Personality Theory
- 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
How is statistics used in personality studies?
Factor Analysis;
- Data reduction technique
- Simplify relations among variables
- Identify common patterns in data
Why is Factor Analysis important?
- 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
What did Raymon Cattell propose?
- Used factor analysis to identify personality traits
- Proposed 16 personality traits
Who proposed The Big Five?
Costa and McCrae
What does OCEAN (The Big Five) stand for?
O - Openness
C - Conscientiousness
E - Extraversion
A - Agreeableness
N - Neuroticism
Describe the The Big Five and how it was established
- Established via factor analysis
- Tested in more than 50 cultures
- Biologically influenced
- Traits seem stable over lifespan
- A good amount of categories
Explain Openness in OCEAN
- Active imagination, divergent thinking and intellectual
- High end -> unconventional and independent thinkers
- Low end -> prefer the familiar rather than the imaginative
Explain the Conscientiousness in OCEAN
- High end -> organised, plan-oriented, determined
- Low end -> careless, easily distracted from tasks and undependable
Explain the Extraversion in OCEAN
- High end -> Extraverts; very sociable people
- Low end -> Introverts; reserved and independent people
Explain the Agreeableness in OCEAN
- High end -> Helpful, trusting, sympathetic
- Low end -> Antagonistic, skeptical
Explain the Neuroticism in OCEAN
- High end -> More emotionally unstable; more susceptible to anxiety, depression, etc.
- Low end -> Less emotionally unstable; tend to be more calm and well-adjusted
What are the limitations of The Big Five?
- Factor analysis is not perfect (subjective interpretation of results)
- Ongoing issues (too broad? are there any missing or more important factors?)
How did psychologists start identifying traits?
- Lexical approach
- Examine traits used within language
- Traits already embedded in everyday speech
Describe the lexical approach to personality traits
- 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
