Theories of Personality: Trait Theory

what is a personality trait?

consistent patterns in the way individuals behave, think, and feel

consistent - beyond time and place

not total determinants of behavior, average behavior across situations that can be used to predict behavior/life outcomes

trait approach

traits are continuous

everyone has some degree of a trait (cannot lack it), but can be higher or lower on a specific trait

focuses on the second level, traits are building blocks of personality

what are the aims of trait theory?

describe, predict, explain

two approaches to trait theory

nomothetic: looks at similarities across people (broad)
idiographic: looks at individual attributes (narrow)

who are the key theorists of trait approach?

Allport, Cattell, Eysenck, Costa and McCrae

Allport

Father of modern personality theory, approach found 4,000 traits in 3 types of traits (cardinal, central, and secondary), used lexical hypothesis

focused on positive, healthy parts of human nature

emphasized context, individuality, and situations

Lexical Hypothesis

refers to the most important personality characteristics as having become encoded in natural language

17,000 personality trait terms in English

cardinal traits

very obvious and affect all aspects of someone’s life; overall drive; rare and develops later in life

central traits

common foundations of personality

ex: honesty, assertiveness, anxiousness

secondary traits

situational, less general/consistent; related to attitudes and preferences

ex: experiencing anxiety when public speaking

Allport evaluation

major contributions but mainly descriptive; no in-depth look at traits/psychological processes behind them

Cattell Approach

whittled down Allport’s 4,000 traits by using factor analysis into surface traits and source traits

found 16 source traits (16 PF)

factor analysis

statistical technique used to group large amounts of data by looking for common threads and correlations among variables

surface traits

observable by behavior (4,500 identified by Cattell)

source traits

deeper, underlying trait clusters; the cause of surface traits

16 in three categories (ability, temperament, dynamic)

ability traits

skills and abilities, functional

temperament traits

emotional, relating to particular styles of behavior

dynamic traits

relating to motivation and striving in a person

what sources of data did Cattell use?

L data, S data, B data

what are the 16 PF?

warmth, emotional stability, liveliness, social boldness, vigilance, privateness, openness to change, perfectionism, reasoning, dominance, rule consciousness, abstractedness, apprehension, self reliance, tension

where are the 16 PF applied?

treatment planning, couples’ counselling, vocational guidance, hiring and promotion recommendations

Cattell evaluation

first to use factor analysis in personality, looked at stability of data across cultures and age groups, saw importance of social roles and context

controversy on his personal views on race and eugenics

Eysenck’s theory of personality

based on factor analysis

PEN (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism)

biological basis (twin studies and experimental research)

extraversion

extraversion (talkative, assertive, energetic) ←—> introversion (quiet, reserved, shy)

based on Jung’s extraversion-introversion typology

neuroticism

neuroticism (tense, anxious, nervous) ←→ emotional stability (stable, calm, relaxed)

psychoticism

psychoticism (aggressive, impulsive, anti-social) ←→ impulse control (empathetic, disciplined, soft hearted)

Eysenck evaluation

major contributions to psychology (intro to behavior therapy), extensive research supports ideas, development of scales, highly controversial research

Costa and McCrae approach

intersection of lexical and psychometric traditions; Big 5

psychometric traditions

personality traits being captured by psychometric data (questionaires)

The Five Factor Model (FFM)

Openness to experience: tendency to enjoy new experiences

Conscientiousness: tendency to show self discipline and aim for achievement

Extraversion: tendency to seek stimulation and company of others

Agreeableness: tendency to be compassionate about others

Neuroticism: tendency to easily experience unpleasant emotions

how are the big5 traits expressed (affect, behavior, or cognition)?

openness: reflected in cognition with some affect and behavior overtones

conscientiousness: deal with behavior and some cognition

extraversion: blend behavior and affect

agreeableness: reflects all 3 areas of cognition, affect, and behavior

neuroticism: focus on affect

McCrae and Costa evaluation

happy medium of traits, much work on cross cultural stability and temporal stability of traits, previous research has also identified the 5 traits

trait theory evaluation

data driven, no consensus on method of factor analysis used, cannot explain all of human nature

reliance on self-report, cross-culturally reliable, explanation of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings

objective, descriptive approach

The person situation debate

1. is what a person does utterly dependent on the situation at the time?

2. are common, ordinary intuitions about people fundamentally flawed or basically correct?

3. why do psychologists continue to argue about the consistency of personality?

situationism

behavior is driven by situation and personality is not important

explain the situationist argument

1. there is an upper limit to how well one can predict what a person will do based on any measurement of that person’s personality, and this upper limit is low

2. Therefore, situations are more important that traits

What is the response to the situationist argument?

selective review by Mischel (collected data for situationist argument), studies with poor methodology (move out of the lab)

focus on behavioral trends and study individual consistency as a moderator variable (difficult to do)

what do social psychology experiments conclude on the power of the situation?

both personality and situations are important determinants of behavior

situations influence behavior, but people are still consistent

interactionism

the effect of a personality variable may depend on the situation or vice versa

certain types of people go to find themselves in different situations (people change the situations that they are in)

situationism’s view of human nature

people are free to do whatever they want

differences are a function of the situation

personality’s view of human nature

behavior is partly determined by personality

everyone is unique

people develop consistent identities and styles that allow them to be themselves across situations

what are causes of personality stability?

rank-order consistency, temperament, physical/environmental factors, birth order, early experience, person-environment transactions, cumulative continuity and maturity

rank order consistency

the stability of individuals’ relative positions on a particular trait over time

if someone is more extroverted, they are likely to remain more extroverted over time

heterotypic continuity

the psychological trait or issue remains constant, but the expression of the behavior changes over time

temperament is partially determined by genes**

person-environment transactions

active: person seeks out compatible environments and avoids incompatible

reactive: different people respond differently to the same situation

evocative: aspect of an individual’s personality leads to behavior that changes the situations they experience

cumulative continuity principle

one’s environment becomes more stable with age

psychological maturity

behavioral consistency for traits that help one fulfill adult roles

cohort effects

impact of shared characteristics of experiences among individuals grouped by a specific temporal experience (age, birth order, etc)

may contribute to age differences in cross-sectional studies

cross-sectional studies

observational research that examines a population at a single point in time to provide a snapshot of characteristics and prevalence of conditions or traits

longitudinal study

research method that involves observing the same group of subjects over an extended group of time

longitudinal studies on personality development

people become more socially dominant, agreeable, conscientious, and emotionally stable with time

risk-taking decreases

consistent with the maturity principle

personality changes even in old age

causes of personality development

physical development and changes in strength

increases in intelligence and linguistic abilities

hormone level changes

changes in social roles and responsibilities

narrative identity

how a person views their life and how its trajectory fits into goals and dreams

three aspects: Actor (traits and roles), agent (goals and values), and author (life narratives)

socioemotional selectivity theory - Cartensen

when younger, prepare for future

when older, focus on things that are emotionally meaningful

related to changes in social roles and breadth of perspective about time

what are the potential methods of personality change?

psychotherapy, general interventions, targeted interventions, and life experiences

psychotherapy

can produce long-term behavior changes, often combined with psychiatric drugs

general interventions

aimed at important outcomes

evidence of success for intensive programs for high-risk students

targeted interventions

address certain personality traits, identify important goals and behaviors that would lead to goal achievment

behaviors and life experience

positive: exercise, starting a job, beginning a relationship

negative: drugs, unemployment

obstacles to personality change

people like consistency and predictability, blame negative experiences on external forces rather than own personality

Costa and McCraw on stability of traits

traits can change up until about 30 years of age; people become less emotional and thrill seeking from 20-30; gender, race, and health status do not impact stability; stability apparent across 5 major traits