Trait and Factor Theories

Trait and Factor Theories

Overview

This section covers trait and factor theories of personality, including:

  • Hans Eysenck's Biological Theory of Personality
  • Raymond Cattell's 16 Personality Factors
  • Gordon Allport's Dispositional Theory
  • McCrae and Costa's Five Factor Theory

Trait Theorists

  • Gordon Allport
  • Hans Eysenck
  • Raymond Cattell

Hans Eysenck's Biological Theory

  • Born in Berlin, Germany; March 4, 1916 - September 4, 1997
  • Left Germany in opposition to the Nazi regime and eventually completed his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of London
  • Known as a controversialist (psychoanalysis and intelligence)
  • Published more than 75 books and over 1600 journal articles
  • Developed 3 Personality Dimensions (PEN Model)
3 Personality Dimensions (PEN Model)

Eysenck developed a model of personality based upon just three universal traits. He believed that we all have these traits but we express them in different degrees.

  1. Extraversion: Degree of sociability
  2. Neuroticism: Emotional stability
  3. Psychoticism: Degree to which reality is distorted
Hierarchy of Behavior Organization

  1. 1st Level: Specific Behaviors or Cognitions

    • Individual behaviors or thoughts that may or may not be characteristic of a person

  2. 2nd Level: Habitual Acts or Cognitions

    • Responses that recur under similar conditions

  3. 3rd Level: Traits

    • Important semi-permanent personality dispositions
    • Significant intercorrelations between different habitual behaviors

  4. 4th Level: Types or Superfactors

    • Made up of several interrelated traits
Extraversion / Introversion
  • Extraverts are characterized by sociability, impulsiveness, jocularity, liveliness, optimism, and quick-wittedness, whereas introverts are quiet, passive, unsociable, careful, reserved, thoughtful, pessimistic, peaceful, sober, and controlled.
  • Principal difference between extraverts and introverts is one of cortical arousal level. Higher in introverts, causing lower sensory threshold.
Neuroticism / Stability
  • Frequently have a tendency to overreact emotionally and to have difficulty returning to a normal state after emotional arousal.
  • Diathesis-Stress Model: Some people are vulnerable to illness because they have a genetic or an acquired weakness.
  • In other words, the higher the neuroticism score, the lower the level of stress necessary to precipitate a neurotic disorder.
  • People who are neurotic seem to be anxious, tense, irrational, moody, having guilt feelings, and low self-esteem
Psychoticism / Superego Function
  • High P scorers are often egocentric, cold, nonconforming, impulsive, hostile, aggressive, suspicious, psychopathic, and antisocial.
  • People low on psychoticism (in the direction of superego function) tend to be altruistic, highly socialized, empathic, caring, cooperative, conforming, and conventional.
  • The higher the psychoticism score, the lower the level of stress necessary to precipitate a psychotic reaction.
Behavior Activation System (BAS)
  • The BEHAVIOR ACTIVATION SYSTEM (BAS) located at the left hemisphere (esp in the frontal and temporal lobes) is marked by low to moderate autonomic arousal and a tendency to approach is related to feelings of happiness and anger.
  • Associated with Extraversion
Behavior Inhibition System (BIS)
  • Increased activity of the frontal and temporal lobes of the right hemisphere is associated with the BEHAVIOR INHIBITION SYSTEM (BIS), which increases attentions and arousal, inhibits action, and stimulates emotions such as fear and disgust.
  • Associated with Neuroticism

Raymond Cattell

  • Born on March 20, 1905, in a small town in England
  • His father worked on projects developing military equipment for WWI
  • First person from his family to attend college, earning his BS in Chemistry from the Kings College when he was just 19
  • Completed a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of London
Media of Observation
  • L Data: This is life record data such as school grades, absence from work, etc.
  • Q-data: This was a questionnaire designed to rate an individual's personality (known as the 16PF)
  • T-data: This is data from objective tests designed to 'tap' into a personality construct.
  • Argued that it was necessary to look at a much larger number of traits in order to get a complete picture of someone’s personality.
16 Personality Factors

The 16 personality factors are:

  • Warmth
  • Reasoning
  • Emotional Stability
  • Dominance
  • Liveliness
  • Rule Consciousness
  • Social Boldness
  • Sensitivity
  • Vigilance
  • Abstractness
  • Privateness
  • Apprehension
  • Openness to change
  • Self-Reliance
  • Perfectionism
  • Tension
Cattell vs. Eysenck

CATTELL

  • used inductive method
  • used 3 different sources of data
    1. L Data
    2. Q Data
    3. T Data
  • 16 Personality Factors
  • used factor analysis

EYSENCK

  • used deductive method
  • limited to self-report questioners
  • 3 Personality Dimensions
  • used factor analysis

Gordon Allport

  • Born in Montezuma, Indiana in 1897
  • 4th and youngest son of a country doctor and a former school teacher.
  • His brother was a Social Psychologist
  • Earned undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Economics from Harvard
  • While in Europe, he had a fortuitous meeting with Sigmund Freud which helped him decide to complete Ph.D. in Psychology
Levels of Personal Dispositions

  1. Cardinal Traits

    • A ruling passion, a powerful force that dominates behavior
    • Not present in everyone

  2. Central Traits

    • All people have 5-10 central traits or characteristics around which their lives revolve

  3. Secondary Traits

    • Are less reliable and less conspicuous than central traits.
Allport's View on Personality Development

Allport considered personality to be discrete, or discontinuous. He found no continuum of personality between childhood and adulthood. Primitive biological urges and reflexes drive infant behavior, whereas adult functioning is more psychological in nature.

Functional Autonomy

Functional autonomy proposes that the motives of mature, emotionally healthy adults are not functionally connected to the prior experiences in which they initially appeared.

  • Two levels of functional autonomy:
    • Perseverative functional autonomy: The level of functional autonomy that relates to low-level and routine behaviors.
    • Propriate functional autonomy: The level of functional autonomy that relates to our values, self-image, and lifestyle. Motives that enhance our self-esteem or self-image

Five Factor Model

Robert Roger McCrae
  • Born April 28, 1949 in Maryville, Missouri, the youngest of three children.
  • After completing an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Michigan State University, he earned a PhD in psychology from Boston University.
  • Following the lead of Raymond Cattell, he began using factor analysis as a means of measuring the structure of human traits.
  • After completing his academic work, McCrae began working with Paul Costa at the National Institute of Health, where he is still employed.
Paul T. Costa Jr
  • Born September 16 in Franklin, New Hampshire.
  • He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from Clark University and a PhD from the University of Chicago.
  • In 1978 he began working with Robert McCrae at the National Institute of Aging, where he continues to conduct research on human development and aging.
  • The collaboration between Costa and McCrae has been unusually fruitful, with well over 200 co-authored research articles and chapters, and several books.
Taxonomy vs. Theory
  • Taxonomy: a classification of things according to their natural relationships. Essential to the development of science because without classification of data, science would not grow
  • Theory: set of abstract concepts developed about a group of facts/ events in order to explain them. Set of related assumptions that allows scientist to use logical deductive reasoning to formulate testable hypothesis.
The Big Five Personality Traits
  1. Openness
  2. Conscientiousness
  3. Extraversion
  4. Agreeableness
  5. Neuroticism
Openness to Experience

Concern about people’s willingness to try new things, their ability to be vulnerable, and their capability to think outside the box. High O scorers prefer variety in their life and are contrasted to low O scorers who have a need for closure and who gain comfort in their association with familiar people and things.

Conscientiousness

The tendency to control impulses and act in socially acceptable ways, behaviors that facilitate goal-directed behavior. People high on the C scale tend to be ordered, controlled, organized, ambitious, achievement -focused, and self - disciplined. Low scorers are negligent, lazy, disorganized, and aimless

Extraversion

Concerns where an individual draws their energy from and how they interact with others. People who score high on E tend to be affectionate, jovial, talkative, a joiner, and fun-loving, whereas low E scorers tend to have opposing traits.

Agreeableness

Concerns how well people get along with others. People who score high on A tend to be trusting, generous, yielding, acceptant, and good-natured. Low A scorers are generally suspicious, stingy, unfriendly, irritable, and critical of other people.

Neuroticism

Encompasses one’s emotional stability and general temper. People who score high on N tend to be anxious, temperamental, self-pitying, self-conscious, emotional, and vulnerable to stress-related disorders, whereas people with low scores on N tend to have opposite characteristics.

Evaluation of the Five Factor Model
  • Very high on generating research
  • Moderate on falsifiability
  • High on organizing knowledge
  • Moderate to low as a guide for practitioners
  • Moderate to low internal consistency
  • Very high on parsimony

Strengths of Trait Theories

  • Used empirical objective measures (less bias & subjectivity)
  • Many practical applications
  • Vast research contributions

Criticisms of Trait Theories

  • Does not explain the development of traits or how to help people with extreme scores
  • Lack of an agreed upon framework

Additional Considerations

  • Not concerned with concepts of determinism versus free choice
  • Not concerned with optimism versus pessimism
  • Not concerned with causality versus teleology
  • Conscious over unconscious
  • Biology over social influence
  • Mix on Uniqueness over similarity