4.6a - Social-Cognitive and Trait Theories of Personality: Trait Theories

trait

a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel/act in certain ways

-assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

personality inventory

a questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings/behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits

-usually true-false or agree-disagree

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

most widely researched/clinically used of all personality tests

_{^{-originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use)}}

_{^{-now used for many other screening purposes}}

empirically derived test

large pool of items → select ones that differ between groups to make a test

_{^{ex) MMPI}}

Big Five factors

five traits — openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — that describe personality

_{^{openness - imaginative, creative, curious}}

_{^{conscientiousness - organized, responsible}}

_{^{extraversion - outgoing, sociable}}

_{^{agreeableness - cooperative, empathetic, trusting}}

_{^{neuroticism - anxiety, self doubt, negative emotions}}

!!! Trait theory

-stable

-personality test better predicts how one of your friends would describe you

-nature

-generally stable across situations