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Personality Traits & Taxonomies (copy)

Personality Traits Defined

Personality traits are defined as "Dimensions of individual differences in tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions." (McCrae & Costa, 2003, p. 25). Traits are dimensions, not categories, meaning individuals can have low, moderate, or high levels of a trait, allowing for comparison and observation of stability over time (though traits are generally stable).

Approaches to Identifying Important Traits

Three main approaches are used:

Lexical Approach

The lexical hypothesis asserts that all important individual differences are encoded in natural language, meaning if a trait is important, a word for it exists. Criteria for identifying important traits include:

  • Synonym frequency: More synonyms indicate a more important trait.

  • Cross-cultural universality: The trait term appearing in more languages suggests greater importance across cultures.

Methods involve searching dictionaries for adjectives, which historically led to the development of the Big Five. Limitations include ambiguous or obscure trait terms, dictionary biases, and the fact that personality is conveyed through various parts of speech.

Statistical Approach

The goal is to identify major personality dimensions using statistics. Factor analysis is a key method, correlating items and grouping them into factors (traits), thus reducing many adjectives to a few broad traits and identifying their hierarchical structure (super-traits and sub-traits/facets).

Theoretical Approach

This approach starts with a pre-existing theory to determine which variables are important, contrasting with the statistical approach's reliance purely on mathematical correlations. Examples include Freudian psychoanalytic theory or Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Taxonomies of Personality

Many taxonomies exist, often blending lexical and statistical approaches.

Eysenck: Hierarchical Model of Personality (PEN Model)

This model proposes three super traits:

  • Extraversion (E): Sociable, active, assertive.

  • Neuroticism (N): Anxious, depressed, tense.

  • Psychoticism (P): Aggressive, cold, impulsive.

It features a hierarchical structure with super traits at the top, followed by narrower traits, habitual acts, and specific acts. Eysenck's criteria for basic dimensions included heritability and identifiable physiological substrates. Limitations include missing other important traits.

Cattell: The 16 Personality Factor System (16-PF)

Cattell used the lexical and statistical approaches, identifying 16 source traits. Limitations include limited replication and potentially too many traits.

Wiggins: Circumplex Taxonomies of Personality

Wiggins focused on interpersonal traits, defined as interactions involving exchanges. The model uses a circumplex (circle) with two primary dimensions:

  • Status (or dominance/extraversion broadly).

  • Love (or agreeableness/communion).

Relationships between traits are defined by:

  • Adjacency: Traits next to each other are positively correlated.

  • Bipolarity: Traits opposite each other are negatively correlated.

  • Orthogonality: Traits at 90-degree angles have no correlation.

Advantages include a specific definition of interpersonal behavior and identifying trait relationships. Disadvantages include limiting personality to two dimensions.

Five-Factor Model & The Big Five (OCEAN/CANOE)

This widely accepted taxonomy emerged from combined lexical and statistical approaches. The five traits are:

  • Openness to Experience (O): Creative, imaginative, intellectual.

  • Conscientiousness (C): Organized, responsible, diligent.

  • Extraversion (E): Talkative, sociable, assertive.

  • Agreeableness (A): Kind, sympathetic, cooperative.

  • Neuroticism (N): Moody, anxious, irritable.

The consensus for the Big Five stems from its replication across diverse samples, item formats (adjectives, sentences), and languages (though with some variation). Limitations include inconsistency in the interpretation and measurement of the fifth factor (Openness), and questions about its comprehensiveness by omitting aspects like positive/negative evaluation, masculinity/femininity, or religiosity.

HEXACO Model

This model expands on the Big Five by adding a sixth factor:

  • Honesty-Humility (H): Sincere, honest, modest (contrasting with greed, boastfulness).

The HEXACO list includes: Honesty-Humility, Emotionality (similar to Neuroticism), eXtraversion, Agreeableness (where anger falls under Agreeableness rather than Neuroticism), Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience. Mixed cross-cultural evidence supports this 6^{th} factor.

Conclusion

Personality psychologists blend lexical and statistical approaches, often testing theories with statistical methods. The Big Five and HEXACO models are the most commonly used taxonomies today, while Eysenck's and Wiggins's models are also still referenced.