Lecture 7

Trait theorists: Carl Jung, Gordon Allport, Raymond B. Cattell, Hans Eysenck, Paul Costa JR & Robert McCrae, Henry Murray.

Trait approach: consistent reaction patterns of an individual can be predicted from knowing person’s personality traits.

Trait: basic limited set of adjective dimensions which describe and scale individuals.

Gordon Allport defined personality as: the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine one’s characteristics behaviors and thoughts. Emphasize traits and that each person has unique key qualities.

Allport functional autonomy: traits have become independent of their origins in childhood.

Allport personal dispositions: trait is a generalized neuropsychiatric structure peculiar to an individual.

Idiographic methods: take into account each person’s uniqueness, indentify the differences between people and take into account each person’s individual disposition.

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: statistical technique which reworks or reduces information we already have in order to make it more understandable.

Cattell’s types of information analyzed in FA: Q-data, T-data and L-data.

Q-data: data from self-reports and questionnaires.

T-data: data from controlled test situations.

L-data: data from person’s life, school, work, community and etc.

Hans Eysenck: 3 type theory, ENP.

Eysenck’s types: extraversion, neuroticism (emotional instability) and psychoticism (tendency towards psychopathology).

Big five by Costa & McCrae: OCEAN; openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

Motives: internal psychobiological forces that help induce particular behavioral patterns.

Needs: readiness to respond in a certain way under given circumstances.

Need for achievement: identity closely identifies with success.

Need for affiliation: gregarious instinct (wanting to come together in groups) and sentiment instinct (socialized to be attached to an individual).

Need for power: dominance.

Need for exhibition: need for emotional communication and to showe self before others.

Expressive styles: personality communicated through vocal characteristics, facial expression and body gestures&movements.