Personality- 4 (Traits theories and measurement)

What is key about trait approach?

Does not try to EXPLAIN behaviour

What does the trait approach do?

identifies personality characteristics that can be represented along a continuum

What does a trait do?

categorizes people according to how much they display a certain characteristic

Briefly explain the basis of the trait approach

Trying to capture/group tpgether as many similar behaviours as possible and categorise them into an overarching theme

What is the difference between surface traits and source traits?

Surface- what we are observing

Source- fundamental aspect of personality- universal (everyone has them to some extent)

What is the difference between nomothetic and idiographic approaches?

Idiographic- describing people in a wya that can only describe them and not someone else

Nomothetic - traits that can be applied to everyone

What are the different types of traits?

Central Traits

Secondary traits

Cardinal traits

What are central traits?

Traits that can easily describe an individuals personality

What are secondary traits?

Preferences

What are cardinal traits?

something that dominates your personality (extraversion/neuroticism)

Who suggested that there are two primary personality traits?

Hans Eysenck

What were these 2 primary personality traits?

extraversion-introversion

Neuroticism

WHat is the Jungian personality theory?

Unconscious drives shaping personality and interactions

Assumption that you are one of these things and cant fall in between

What are the 4 main factors involved in Jungian personality theory?

Getting energy

Perceiving info

making decisions

Planning

What is a strength and a weakness of JUngian Theory?

Easy to put people in categories

Not great for predicting behaviour as people vary

What is factor analysis?

Put a load of data in and it groups traits together - does not name categories though

What are some advantages of factor analysis?

simplifies assessmentp shorter surveys and easier analysis

No more assumptions

Who used factor analysis to identify personality traits?

Raymond Cattell

How many personality traits did he propose?

16

What are some of these personality traits?

Outgoing- reserved

Stable- emotional

Tense- relaxed

What problems are there with Eysenck and Cattells proposals?

Goldilocks conundrum

Eysenck-not enough

Cattell- too many

Which theory was the right amount?

The Big 5

who proposed the big 5?

Costa and McCrae

What are the Big Five?

Openness

Conscientiousness

Extraversion

Agreeableness

Neuroticism

What is meant by openness?

imagination

Adventurous

Intellectual curiosity

What is meant by cosncientiousness?

organization

Responsibility

Self discipline

Attention to detail

Reliability

What is meant by agreeableness?

Cooperation

Compassion

Trust

Tolerance

Empathy

What are some problems with the Big five?

Factor analysis is not perfect

Dont know extent that these personality traits can predict behaviour

Are some traits missing? is it too broad?

How did psychologists start identifying traits?

lexical approach

What is meant by the lexical approach?

Took dictionaries and took every word out that could be used to describe human behaviour

Who used the lexical approach? Outline these steps

Allport and Oddell (1936)

18,000 words

Filtered down to 4500 terms

briefly outline how personality went from all words to the Big 5?

Allport and Oddell - 18,000 words then reduced to 4500

Cattell reduced it down to 16

Then reduced down to the Big Five

What are some issues with the Big Five?

Derives from the lexical approach- which may be flawed

• assumes personality is captured by everyday language

• Uses personality surveys to derive basic factors

What does the HEXACO model add to the Big 5?

Honesty-humility

What are some controversies in trait psychology?

Are personality traits consistent?

Is the structure of traits universal?

Traits or types?

Are traits sufficient for describing personality?

What type of data is usually used in factor analysis?

Continuous and ordinal data

What did Walter Mischel do?

Observed that behaviour and personality traits correlated weakly

Situation is main determinant of behaviour and TRAITS alone are weak predictors

What did Hartshorne and May do?

gave thousands of children multiple behavioural tests of dishonesty (lying/cheating/stealing)

What did Hartshorne and May find?

Dishonesty varied widely across situations, with little consistency