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Trait Perspective on Personality

Trait Perspective on Personality. The Trait Perspective. Trait a characteristic pattern of behavior a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports More interested in describing not explaining behavior. Personality Inventory

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Trait Perspective on Personality

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  1. Trait Perspective on Personality

  2. The Trait Perspective • Trait • a characteristic pattern of behavior • a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports • More interested in describing not explaining behavior. • Personality Inventory • a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors • used to assess selected personality traits

  3. Trait Approach • People are formed at birth with fundamental differences is an old idea: • Hippocrates (370BC) & Galen (190AD) vs. • People are born without predispositions are therefore largely malleable is a new idea: • Pavlov, Watson, Skinner (early to mid 20th century) vs • People are fundamentally alike in terms of basic drives (Freud – lust; Adler – superiority; Sullivan –social solidarity)

  4. Classifications • Greeks – Four Types • Melancholic (depressed) • Sanguine (cheerful) • Phlegmatic (unemotional) • Choleric (irritable) • Kagan – Children’s temperament • Type A (intense) • Type B (laid back)

  5. Body Type • Sheldon • Endomorph (relaxed and jolly) • Mesomorph (bold and physically active) • Ectomorph (high strung) • Very stereotypical!!

  6. The Trait Perspective Module 26: Trait and Social-Cognitive Perspectives on Personality

  7. The Trait Perspective: Identifying Traits Module 26: Trait and Social-Cognitive Perspectives on Personality

  8. Gordon Allport (1897-1967) • American psychologist and trait theorist who researched the idea that individual personalities are unique • Stressed importance of studying mentally healthy people • Resisted the idea of finding “personality law” that would apply to everyone

  9. Raymond Cattell (1905-1998) • English psychologist who researched whether some traits predicted others • Proposed 16 key personality dimensions or factors to describe personality • Each factor was measured on a continuum

  10. Hans Eysenck (1916-1997) • German psychologist who researched the genetically-influenced dimensions of personality • Two major dimensions: • Introversion/Extraversion • Emotionally Unstable/Stable

  11. Eysencks’ Personality Factors

  12. Eysencks’ Personality Factors

  13. Eysencks’ Personality Factors

  14. Eysencks’ Personality Factors

  15. Eysencks’ Personality Factors

  16. Eysencks’ Personality Factors

  17. The Trait Perspective: The “Big Five” Traits Module 26: Trait and Social-Cognitive Perspectives on Personality

  18. The “Big Five” Traits • Openness • Conscientiousness • Extraversion • Agreeableness • Neuroticism / Emotional Stability

  19. The “Big Five” Traits

  20. The “Big Five” Traits

  21. The “Big Five” Traits

  22. The “Big Five” Traits

  23. The “Big Five” Traits

  24. Extraversion • Refers to the degree to which a person can tolerate sensory stimulation from people and situations.  • Extroversion also is sometimes referred to as social adaptability, though the popularity of this term seems to be waning • Extroversion is defined as "a trait characterized by a keen interest in other people and external events, and venturing forth with confidence into the unknown" • Range 8 – 40 -- higher scores reflect greater extraversion

  25. Openness • Openness refers to the degree to which we are open to new experiences/new ways of doing things. • In general, openness refers to how willing people are to make adjustments in notions and activities in accordance with new ideas or situations. • 10 - 50 – higher scores reflect greater openness

  26. Agreeableness • Agreeableness refers to the degree to which we defer to others.  • High Agreeableness describes a person who tends to relate to others by being tolerant, agreeable and accepting of others. • Low Agreeableness describes one who tends to relate to others by being expressive, tough, guarded, persistent, competitive or aggressive.  Low accommodating people may not accept information without checking and may come across to others as hostile, rude, self-centered, and not a team player. • Agreeableness measures how compatible people are with other people, or basically how able they are to get along with others. • 9 -45 higher scores reflect greater agreeableness

  27. Conscientiousness • Conscientiousness refers to the degree to which we push toward goals at work.   • Dependable, cautious, perseverance, prudent, constrained or impulsive, careless, irresponsible. • Conscientiousness refers to how much a person considers others when making decisions. • 9-45 – higher scores reflect greater conscientiousness

  28. Emotional Stability/Neuroticism • The Need for Stability refers to the degree to which a person responds to stress.  • Anxious/emotional or stable and in control • The bases of neuroticism are levels of anxiety and volatility. Within these bounds, neuroticism is a dimension of personality defined by stability and low anxiety at one end as opposed to instability and high anxiety at the other end • 8 - 40 high scores reflect greater emotional stability

  29. The Trait Perspective: Testing for Traits Module 26: Trait and Social-Cognitive Perspectives on Personality

  30. Personality Inventories • Questionnaires on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors • Used to assess selected personality traits • Often true-false, agree-disagree, etc. types of questions

  31. Validity • The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is suppose to test • Personality inventories offer greater validity than do projective tests (e.g. Rorschach; used by proponents of the humanistic perspective).

  32. Reliability • The extent to which a test yields consistent results, regardless of who gives the test or when or where it is given • Personality inventories are more reliable than projective tests.

  33. MMPI • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) • Most clinically-used personality test • 500 total questions • Originally designed to assess abnormal behavior

  34. MMPI Scoring Profile

  35. MMPI-2 • Revised and updated version of the MMPI • Assesses test takers on 10 clinical scales and 15 content scales • Sometimes the MMPI-2 is not used as it was intended.

  36. The Trait Perspective: Evaluating the Trait Perspective Module 26: Trait and Social-Cognitive Perspectives on Personality

  37. Evaluating the Trait Perspective • Does not take into account how the situation influences a person’s behavior • Doesn’t explain why the person behaves as they do--just how they behave

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