Psychology Personality Traits, Big Five, and Motivation

Personality trait

A relatively consistent characteristic that influences how a person thinks, feels, and behaves.

Trait approach

A perspective that describes personality through stable individual characteristics.

Gordon Allport

A personality psychologist known for emphasizing individual traits and personal uniqueness.

Cardinal traits

Characteristics that dominate and shape nearly every aspect of a person's life.

Central traits

General characteristics that form the basic foundation of someone's personality.

Secondary traits

Characteristics that appear in specific situations or circumstances.

Henry Murray

A psychologist who developed a theory emphasizing psychological needs, including achievement.

Need for achievement

The desire to accomplish challenging goals and meet standards of excellence.

Raymond Cattell

A psychologist who used factor analysis to identify underlying personality traits.

Factor analysis

A statistical technique used to identify patterns and underlying dimensions among related variables.

Big Five

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

Openness to experience

A trait involving imagination, curiosity, creativity, and willingness to try new experiences.

Conscientiousness

A trait involving organization, responsibility, dependability, and self-discipline.

Extraversion

A trait involving sociability, assertiveness, and enjoyment of social interaction.

Agreeableness

A trait involving cooperation, compassion, trust, and consideration for others.

Neuroticism

A trait involving a tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety and worry.

OCEAN

A mnemonic for remembering the Big Five personality traits.

Self-report inventory

A personality assessment in which individuals answer questions about themselves.

MMPI

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; a widely used personality assessment with clinical scales and validity indicators.

Person-situation debate

A discussion about whether behavior is influenced more by personality traits or situational circumstances.

Achievement motivation

The desire to accomplish goals, overcome challenges, and demonstrate competence.

Achievement goal

A goal focused on learning, improving, or demonstrating one's abilities.

Mastery goals

Goals focused on learning, understanding, and improving personal skills.

Performance goals

Goals focused on demonstrating ability or comparing performance with others.

Attribution

The explanation a person gives for why an event or outcome occurred.

Internal attribution

Explaining an outcome through factors within the individual.

External attribution

Explaining an outcome through factors outside the individual.

Stable attribution

An explanation involving a cause believed to remain relatively consistent over time.

Unstable attribution

An explanation involving a cause that can change over time.

Controllable attribution

An explanation involving a cause that a person can influence or change.

Type A behavior pattern

A behavioral pattern traditionally involving competitiveness, impatience, time urgency, and sometimes hostility.

Type B behavior pattern

A behavioral pattern traditionally associated with a more relaxed and less time-urgent approach to life.

Hostility

An enduring tendency toward anger, irritability, or cynical distrust of others.

Social anxiety

Fear or apprehension about being negatively evaluated in social situations.

Introversion

A personality tendency toward quieter environments and lower levels of social stimulation.

Positive affectivity

A tendency to experience positive emotions such as enthusiasm and excitement.

Negative affectivity

A tendency to experience negative emotions such as distress and worry.

Defensive pessimism

A strategy involving anticipating possible negative outcomes and preparing for them.

Optimism

A general tendency to expect positive outcomes.

Pessimism

A general tendency to expect negative outcomes.

Biological approach

A personality perspective emphasizing genetics, brain processes, physiology, and temperament.

Hans Eysenck

A psychologist who developed a biologically oriented theory of personality.

Eysenck's personality dimensions

Extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.

Psychoticism

A dimension in Eysenck's theory associated with characteristics such as aggressiveness, impulsivity, and tough-mindedness.

Extraversion-introversion

A dimension describing differences in sociability and stimulation-seeking.

Neuroticism-emotional stability

A dimension describing differences in emotional reactivity and stability.

Heritability

A population-level estimate of how much variation in a trait is associated with genetic differences.

Genetics

The study of inherited biological information and how it influences characteristics.

Nature versus nurture

The discussion of how genetic and environmental factors influence personality.

Temperament

Early-appearing, partly biologically based differences in emotional reactivity and self-regulation.

Behavioral inhibition

A tendency to respond cautiously or fearfully to unfamiliar people and situations.

Behavioral disinhibition

A tendency to approach unfamiliar people and situations with less hesitation.

Environment

External influences and experiences that contribute to personality development.

Gene-environment interaction

The process through which genetic tendencies and environmental experiences influence one another.

Evolutionary psychology

A perspective examining how psychological characteristics may have developed through evolutionary processes.

Physiological arousal

The level of activation or alertness within the body's nervous system.

Cortical arousal

Activation of the cerebral cortex, which Eysenck proposed was related to extraversion and introversion.

Goodness of fit

The degree to which an individual's temperament matches the demands and expectations of their environment.

Behavior genetics

The field studying genetic contributions to behavioral and psychological differences.

Individual differences

Characteristics that make one person psychologically or behaviorally different from another.

Twin study

A research method comparing twins to investigate genetic and environmental influences.

Identical twins

Twins who develop from the same fertilized egg and share nearly all their segregating genetic variation.

Fraternal twins

Twins who develop from separate eggs and share approximately half their segregating genetic variation on average.

Adoption study

A research method examining similarities between adopted individuals and their biological or adoptive relatives.

Genetic influence

The contribution of inherited genetic differences to individual characteristics.

Environmental influence

The contribution of experiences and surroundings to personality development.

Cortical arousal theory

Eysenck's proposal that differences in cortical arousal help explain extraversion and introversion.

Biological predisposition

An inherited or biological tendency that may influence behavior.

Gene-environment correlation

The process in which genetic tendencies are associated with the environments people experience.

Longitudinal research

A research method that follows individuals over an extended period of time.

Correlation

A statistical relationship between two variables that does not automatically establish causation.

Causation

A relationship in which one variable directly contributes to producing a change in another.

Temperament stability

The tendency for some early temperamental characteristics to continue across development.

Research limitation

A factor that restricts how confidently researchers can interpret or generalize findings.

Nature-nurture interaction

The idea that genetics and environmental experiences work together to shape personality.

Humanistic approach

A personality perspective emphasizing free will, personal growth, human potential, and subjective experience.

Carl Rogers

A psychologist who developed person-centered theory and emphasized self-concept and unconditional positive regard.

Abraham Maslow

A psychologist known for developing the hierarchy of needs and the concept of self-actualization.

Self-concept

A person's beliefs and perceptions about who they are.

Ideal self

The person an individual would like to become.

Real self

A person's perception of who they currently are.

Congruence

Consistency between a person's experiences, self-concept, and behavior.

Incongruence

A mismatch between a person's experiences and their self-concept.

Unconditional positive regard

Accepting and valuing a person without making their basic worth dependent on specific expectations.

Conditional positive regard

Acceptance or approval that depends on meeting certain expectations or standards.

Conditions of worth

Beliefs that a person's value or worth depends on meeting certain expectations.

Person-centered therapy

A therapeutic approach developed by Rogers that emphasizes empathy, acceptance, and genuineness.

Self-actualization

The process of developing one's abilities and reaching one's personal potential.

Hierarchy of needs

Maslow's model describing five broad levels of human needs.

Physiological needs

Basic survival needs such as food, water, and sleep.

Safety needs

Needs involving security, stability, and protection.

Love and belonging needs

Needs involving affection, friendship, intimacy, and social connection.

Esteem needs

Needs involving respect, competence, achievement, and recognition.

Fully functioning person

Rogers's description of a psychologically healthy person who is open to experience and personal growth.

Flow

A state of deep concentration and involvement in an activity that can feel intrinsically rewarding.

Q-sort technique

An assessment method in which individuals sort descriptive statements according to how well they characterize themselves or another person.

Self-disclosure

The act of sharing personal information, thoughts, feelings, or experiences with another person.

Disclosure reciprocity

The process in which one person's self-disclosure is followed by disclosure from another person.

Intimacy

Emotional closeness and connection between individuals.

Loneliness

The subjective feeling that one's social relationships do not provide the desired level of connection.