Lecture 7

Trait theorists

Carl Jung, Gordon Allport, Raymond B. Cattell, Hans Eysenck, Paul Costa Jr & Robert McCrae, and Henry Murray.

Trait approach

The belief that consistent patterns of behavior can be predicted based on an individual's personality traits.

Trait

A basic set of adjective dimensions that describe and scale individuals.

Gordon Allport defined personality as

the dynamic organization of psychophysical systems that determine an individual's behaviors and thoughts. Emphasized unique key qualities in each person.

Allport functional autonomy

The idea that traits become independent of their origins in childhood.

Allport personal dispositions

Traits that are a generalized neuropsychiatric structure unique to an individual.

Idiographic methods

Approaches that consider each person's uniqueness, identify differences between individuals, and take into account individual dispositions.

3 types of personal dispositions:

cardinal dispositions (behavior),

central dispositions (characteristics which can succinctly describe a person),

common traits (shared traits due to heritage).

Factor Analysis

A statistical technique used to rework or reduce information to make it more understandable.

Cattell's types of information analyzed in FA

Q-data, T-data, and L-data.

Q-data

Data obtained from self-reports and questionnaires.

T-data

Data obtained from controlled test situations.

L-data

Data obtained from an individual's life, such as school, work, and community.

Hans Eysenck

Proposed a three-type theory of personality, including extraversion, neuroticism (emotional instability), and psychoticism (tendency towards psychopathology).

Big Five by Costa & McCrae

A model of personality traits consisting of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Motives

Internal psychobiological forces that induce particular behavioral patterns.

Needs

Readiness to respond in a certain way under given circumstances.

Need for achievement

The need for success and identification with it.

Need for affiliation

The instinct to come together in groups and attachment to individuals.

Need for power

The desire for dominance.

Need for exhibition

The need for emotional communication and self-expression.

Expressive styles

The ways in which personality is communicated through vocal characteristics, facial expressions, and body gestures and movements.