PSYC 2600 Lecture 5: Measuring Traits & States - Personality in Context

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering theoretical issues, person-situation debate, state-trait measurements, and taxonomies from PSYC 2600 Lecture 5.

HEXACO Model

A personality taxonomy that adds Honesty-Humility as a sixth factor to the traditional Big Five model.

Honesty-Humility (H)

A HEXACO trait dimension characterized by being sincere, honest, faithful/loyal, modest/unassuming, and fair-minded versus sly, greedy, pretentious, hypocritical, boastful, and pompous.

Emotionality (E)

A HEXACO trait dimension characterized by being emotional, oversensitive, sentimental, fearful, anxious, and vulnerable versus brave, tough, independent, self-assured, and stable.

eXtraversion (X)

A HEXACO trait dimension characterized by being outgoing, lively, extraverted, sociable, talkative, cheerful, and active versus shy, passive, withdrawn, introverted, quiet, and reserved.

Agreeableness (A)

A HEXACO trait dimension characterized by being patient, tolerant, peaceful, mild, agreeable, lenient, and gentle, which places anger under Agreeableness rather than Neuroticism.

Conscientiousness (C)

A HEXACO trait dimension characterized by being organized, disciplined, diligent, careful, thorough, and precise versus sloppy, negligent, reckless, lazy, irresponsible, and absent-minded.

Openness to Experience (O)

A HEXACO trait dimension characterized by being intellectual, creative, unconventional, innovative, and ironic versus shallow, unimaginative, and conventional.

Differential Psychology

A field of psychology concerned with meaningful differences between individuals, operating on the premise that people differ in trait amounts that can be accurately measured.

Situationism

The perspective that if behavior varies across situations, then situational differences—and not personality traits—determine behavior.

Hartshorne & May (1928) Study

A study investigating academic and play situations in children that found low cross-situational correlations for trait honesty, helpfulness, and self-control.

Walter Mischel's Personality and Assessment (1968)

A influential book proposing situationism by arguing that correlations between personality traits and behaviors are small ($.30$ to $.40$), sparking the Person-Situation Debate.

Person-Situation Interaction Formula

Kurt Lewin's (1936) formula $B = f(P \times S)$, declaring that behavior ($B$) is a function of the interaction between personality traits ($P$) and situational forces ($S$).

Situational Specificity

A person-situation interaction phenomenon where certain specific situations provoke behavior that is out of character for an individual.

Strong Situation

A situation in which nearly all people react in a similar way, suppressing individual personality differences.

Situational Selection

The tendency of individuals to choose or select specific situations in which to spend their time.

Evocation

The process by which an individual's personality traits unintentionally elicit specific responses from other people.

Manipulation

The deliberate process by which people influence or change the behavior of others.

Aggregation

The process of averaging several single observations of behavior over time to uncover a person's average trait level and reduce situational noise.

Density Distribution Approach

William Fleeson's approach using experience-sampling methods (ESM) to conceptualize personality traits as distributions of personality states across moments.

Personality States

How an individual behaves, thinks, and feels in a specific, given moment.

Whole Trait Theory

A broader personality framework developed by Fleeson & Jayawickreme (2015) that integrates density distributions of states with cognitive and motivational mechanisms.

Adjective Measures

Personality tools rooted in the lexical hypothesis that use lists of single adjectives and can easily adapt to measure both traits and states.

TIPI (Ten Item Personality Inventory)

A brief 10-item Big Five measurement scale created by Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann (2003) using pairs of adjectives.

Sentence/Phrase Measures

Personality instruments (e.g., NEO-PI-R-3, BFI-2) that assess traits using complete phrases or situational statements rather than standalone adjectives.

NEO-PI-R-3

A 240-item personality assessment developed by Costa, McCrae, & Martin (2005) evaluating 5 major traits and 6 facets per trait using descriptive statements.

International Personality Item Pool (IPIP)

A free, public-domain resource providing personality items and scales equivalent to commercial inventories like the NEO.

HEXACO-PI-R

A personality inventory developed by Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton designed to assess the six dimensions of the HEXACO model.