Chapter 4: Types, Traits, and Interactionism

1. Chapter 4: Types, Traits, and Interactionism Theories of Personality January 31, 2003 Class #2

2. Types • Carl Jung (1933) • Are you introverted or extroverted??? • We are a “type”…either one or the other, distinct and discontinuous • Like male and female…can only be one • Any appearance to the contrary is just a distortion of one’s basic personality

3. Traits: The Dimensional Approach • People differ across dimensions which are continuous • People differ in varying amounts • Differences among people are quantitative rather than qualitative • People vary from one another in varying amounts concerning their personality characteristics – not talking about different aspects just different degrees of the same aspect

4. What traits are basic to personality? • Factor analysis • Rates people on a number of items representing different dimensions (in this case, traits) • Looks at the correlations among the items (what traits were high at the same time and what traits were high when others were low) • Creates groups based on this correlations • Used to group a large amount of data

5. Nomothetic View of Traits • A trait has the same meaning for everyone • Allows for comparisons among people • Draw on underlying dimensions identified through factor analysis

6. The Idiographic Approach • Belief in the uniqueness of individuals • Concerned with the whole person • Often employ case-study methods • Advocates include: • Allport (1937) • The humanistic psychologists • Maslow, Rogers, etc)

7. Gordon Allport(1897-1967) • Gordon Allport was born in Indiana • As a child he felt different from others, both in his childhood play and his interests • After high school he followed his older brother Floyd to Harvard University • Floyd made a name for himself in social psychology, but Gordon felt like an outsider in this arena • He was not a psychology major

8. Allport’s Background • He taught sociology in Turkey, then returned to Harvard to learn how to teach Psychology • After receiving his Ph.D., he traveled to Berlin, Hamburg, and Cambridge for additional study, spent 4 years teaching at Dartmouth, and returned to Harvard for the rest of his career • He is credited with being the first to teach a course on Personality Psychology

9. Allport’s Background • Gordon was interested in personality, and at the time, personality was not a formal sub-discipline of psychology and it certainly was not as fashionable as social psychology • He probably followed his brother through school in an attempt to find himself • He reported feeling different from others, including his older brother • This feeling, however, might have helped him succeed in his chosen profession

10. Gordon Allport • In 1920, one year after receiving his bachelor’s degree from Harvard, this curious psychology student met Sigmund Freud for the only time in his life… • He set up an appointment to interview Freud, who was 64 years old at the time… • Later, Allport would describe the event as a “traumatic developmental episode in his life”

11. Their meeting… • Allport arrives at Freud’s office and is taken back by the complete silence that Freud opens the meeting with… • In an attempt to lighten the tension, Allport mentions an incident that had occurred on the train on the way to Freud’s office: • A four year-old boy displayed a pronounced phobia towards dirt • To the boy, everything was dirty…the seat was filthy…“don’t let that dirty man sit next to me”, etc.

12. Plunging too deep??? • It clearly appeared to Allport to be caused by the boy’s dominant mother who sat next to him and he related this feeling to Freud… • Freud finally breaks his silence by asking Allport, “and was that little boy, you? • From this interview Allport leaves feeling that psychoanalysts might be better off recognizing obvious motives rather than probing the unconscious

13. Disagrees with Freud on a couple of accounts… • Allport suggested that normal, mature human beings were not irreversibly driven by the events of childhood • Allport presented a positive and hopeful picture of people in conscious control of their own lives • Note: • He genuinely liked people and cared about them • By all accounts, these feelings were reciprocated by his students

14. Trait Theory • Takes behavior at “face value” • Allport was less concerned with explaining why we differ from one another and more concerned with describing how we differ… • So, the big distinction between Freud and Allport is explanation vs. description • Allport wrote that psychologists should give full recognition to manifest motives before delving into the unconscious • Allport was not completely opposed to psychoanalysis, he just felt it would be better to combine his ideas with it…this is important because not all trait theorists agreed with him on this point

15. People are unique… • Allport was convinced, along with Freud, that what Freud called "the American approach to psychology" was not only boring, but misleading • According to Allport, compiling ranks of statistics, averaged across individuals describes everyone in general and no one in particular • It misses the personal meaning of life's events, and the individual ways of responding to life's events that Allport called traits • Allport called this statistical approach to understanding human nature the nomothetic method, and contrasted its emptiness and aridity to the richness of the idiographic approach -- an approach centered on the meanings and stories of the individual

16. Trait Theory • Trait theorists do what Freud would not…they describe personality in terms of fundamental traits – they look at people’s characteristic behaviors and conscious motives… • Allport is able to do something that Freud for the most part could not… • He felt that traits could be measured and studied? • Where does Freud get his stuff? • Did he use the scientific method?

17. Trait Theory • Allport goes through the dictionary and finds about 18,000 separate words that he feels could be used to describe one’s personality • After eliminating synonyms, he is still left with about 4500 descriptors • The problem crucial to all trait theories…which of these were the most basic traits???

18. Trait Theory • 3 basic categories of traits: • Cardinal trait • Central traits • Secondary traits

19. Trait Theory • Cardinal trait • This is the single characteristic trait that directs most of a person’s activities • For example, a totally selfless person might direct all their energies toward humanitarian activities

20. Trait Theory • Central traits • These are the major characteristics of the individual (5-10 traits) • For example, honesty and sociability may be two central traits that make up the core an individuals’s personality

21. Trait Theory • Secondary traits • These show up in fewer situations and are less influential than central or cardinal traits • For example, a preference for modern art or clothing style or what’s your favorite ice cream is could be secondary traits

22. Situational factors… • Allport also recognized that the situation was important but thought that traits were stable over a range of situations • So, his is a strong vote for personality having a stronger influence than the situation on behavior

23. Raymond Cattell (1905-1998) • Born in England • His father was a mechanical engineer and craftsman-designer who worked on such projects as developing World War I military equipment, the steam engine, and a new internal combustion engine • His mother and father both extremely intelligent with IQ’s of 150 and 120 respectively

24. Cattell’s Background • Cattell describes a happy childhood and youth both at home and at school, which upon comparison with other behavior and personality theorists is an unusual situation • Cattell distinguished himself in high school and earned a county scholarship to attend London University where he majored in chemistry • After a period of soul-searching, he concluded that work in the new social science of psychology would be most relevant in solving the outstanding political and economic problems that he saw around him • He felt that traditional solutions were not working and that developing an understanding of human nature was necessary to find new solutions

25. Cattell’s Background • After working in various applied settings, in 1937, he accepted an invitation to join E.L. Thorndike's research staff at Columbia University • He taught briefly at Clark University and then at the invitation of Gordon Allport, Cattell joined the Harvard University faculty in 1941 • In 1945, he took a faculty position at the Univ. of Illinois where he retired in 1973

26. Cattell’s Approach • Used a Lexical Approach • Presumably the importance of a trait is related to the number of words used to describe it (???) • Cattell took 4500 trait words (already reduced by Allport) and removed obvious synonyms and then factor analyzed them

27. Cattell’s Approach • His definition of personality: • That which a predicts what a person will do at a certain situation • Started the actual measurement of personality • Developed 16 PF • The 16 factors are NOT orthogonal • Orthogonal: a unique category (factor) by itself • Oblique orthogonal: related with other factors

28. Cattell’s Approach • Measured many different aspects of personality • Identified 16 “source traits” or basic dimensions of personality • Based on this model of personality, he created “16PF” (see page 64) • He used self-reports, observer ratings, and objective tests to help determine a person’s traits • Used statistics, formulas, probabilities, etc. • He called this his multivariate approach

29. Cattell’s Approach • Analyzed the following traits: • Manifest (overt) = surface factors • Latent (covert) = source factors • Constitutional traits (biological) • Environmental molded traits (social cultural)

30. Ergs • Cattell felt that labels were highly subjective and easily misinterpreted so he invented many words… • “Ergs” • Anger, curiosity, fear, greed, hunger, sex, etc. • Each erg is associated with a particular goal • He felt that the levels of ergs differ from person to person due to genetics

31. Hans Eysenck(1916-1997) • Hans Eysenck was born in Germany on March 4, 1916  • His parents were actors who divorced when he was only two, and so Hans was raised by his grandmother • He left there when he was 18 years old, when the Nazis came to power • As an active Jewish sympathizer, his life was in danger

32. Eysenck • He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of London in 1940 • During World War II, he served as a psychologist at an emergency hospital, where he did research on the reliability of psychiatric diagnoses • Later, he taught at the University of London • He has written 75 books and some 700 articles, making him one of the most prolific writers in psychology • Eysenck retired in 1983

33. Hans Eysenck • Eysenck regards personality as being primarily an inborn phenomenon-- that means that personality, to him, is more like eye color or height than it is like learned phenomena • He proposed that we have two super traits which operated on a type of continuum… • Unstable (neurotic) vs. stable • Extraverted vs. introverted • He used factor analysis to determine these dimensions

34. Super Traits • Neuroticism is the name Eysenck gave to a dimension that ranges from normal, fairly calm and collected people to one’s that tend to be quite “nervous”  • His research showed that nervous people tended to suffer more frequently from a variety of “nervous disorders” we call neuroses, hence the name of the dimension • But understand that he was not saying that people who score high on the neuroticism scale are necessarily neurotics -- only that they are more susceptible to neurotic problems

35. Super Traits • The extraversion dimension concerns tendencies towards sociability, craving excitement, liveliness, activeness, and dominance • The emotional stability dimension concerns the ease and frequency with which the person becomes upset and distressed • Greater moodiness, anxiety, and depression reflect greater emotional instability

36. Extraversion-introversion • Shy, quiet people “versus” out-going, even loud people. This dimension, too, is found in everyone, but the physiological explanation is a bit more complex… • Introverts were over-aroused individuals therefore they try to keep stimulation to a minimum • Extroverts were under-aroused individuals, therefore they tried to increase stimulation • He felt that personality was partly due to genetic factors

37. A Point for Nature… • Note: • Notice how the study of personality reflects the nature-nurture problem… • Eysenck's theory leans toward the nature end of the continuum • It is  based primarily on physiology and genetics • He considers personality differences as growing out of our genetic inheritance • He is primarily interested in a person’s temperament

38. The Big Five • Several researchers have found evidence for the existence of five basic dimensions of personality through factor analysis • 5 factors are independent of one another • Everyone can be placed along a continuum for all 5 factors/traits

39. The Big Five • Extraversion • Agreeableness • Conscientiousness • Emotionality (also referred to as Neuroticism) • Intellect (also referred to as Openness)

40. What researchers say… • From a review of literature the following are some of the important characteristics of the five factors: • The factors are dimensions, not types, so people vary continuously on them, with most people falling in between the extremes • The factors are stable over a 45-year period beginning in young adulthood • The factors and their specific facets appear heritable • The factors are considered universal • Knowing one's placement on the factors is useful for insight and improvement through therapy

41. What Are These Five Factors? • Extraversion • Bold versus timid • Outgoing versus introverted • Talkative versus silent • Agreeableness • Friendliness versus indifference to others • A docile versus hostile nature • Compliance versus hostile noncompliance • Conscientiousness • Responsible versus irresponsible • Hardworking versus lazy • Cautious versus rash

42. What Are These Five Factors? • Neuroticism • Adjustment versus anxiety • Level of Emotional stability • Dependence vs. independence • Openness • Reflection of an inquiring intellect • Flexibility versus conformity • Rebelliousness versus Subduedness

43. Okay, is behavior really trait-like? • Are traits stable across a wide range of settings? • Walter Mischel says no • See next slide

44. Mischel (1968) • A long-time personologist attacked trait theory • Disputed the “generalized and enduring causal effects on behavior” • Coined the phrase “personality coefficient” to characterize the modest correlations between trait self-reports and behavior which he said typically were between .20 and .30 • Note: Mischel’s biography and more in-depth coverage of his theories will be covered near the end of the semester (Chapter 16 – Contemporary Cognitive Views)

45. Mischel (1968) • For example, the consistency between children's honesty in one social situation (e.g., one's willingness to steal some change left on the table of an empty classroom) and their honesty in a different social situation (e.g., willingness to cheat during an exam) amounted to a correlation of .20

46. Situationism: The person vs. the situation debate rages on… • Data of this sort, pointing to the low cross-situational consistency of personality traits, constitute a strong situationist challenge to the power of person factors in accounting for human behavior

47. Personality psychologists on the defensive… • Many personality psychologists were disturbed by these challenges, and some were even enraged because they felt it was an invalid attack against a whole discipline • The social psych camp went on an attack mode originated in the “heresy” committed by former personologist Mischel

48. The rebuttal… • Personality psychologists claimed that Social psychologists can easily create situations in which personality influences are minimized • Doesn’t give a true picture of what happens in the real world • The personality dispositions that a person values very highly or those that are integral to his or her goals in life will influence his or her behavior more markedly than other dispositions • The situation won’t affect behavior if its dealing with an important disposition

49. Mischel’s idea led to interactionism… • Its not the person or the situation but rather the person and the situation…??? • They interact to produce the behavior…??? • Variations in situations affect some people in one way and affect others in a different way • For example, last week’s video camera may have caused the extroverts in this class to want to give longer introductions whereas the introverts may have wanted to dig a hole and hide

50. Lets go a little deeper… • What is a situation? • Do situations change people? • Or do people change or even make a situation? • Hastorf and Cantril (1954)