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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
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