Transcript Traits and Trait Taxonomies

DISPOSITIONAL
DOMAIN
Chapters 3, 4, & 5
Chapter 3
Traits and Trait Taxonomies
Trait-Descriptive Adjectives
• Words that describe traits – ____________________
________________________________________________
______________________________________________
__
• i.e., consistent and stable characteristics
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Three Fundamental Questions
Guide Those Who Study Traits
• How should we conceptualize traits?
• How can we identify which traits are the most
important from among the many ways that
individuals differ?
• How can we formulate a comprehensive taxonomy
of traits—a system that includes within it all the
major traits of personality?
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What Is a Trait?:
Two Basic Formulations
• Traits as Internal Causal Properties
• Traits as Purely Descriptive Summaries
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Traits as Internal Causal
Properties
• Traits are presumed to be internal in that ________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
• Desires and needs are presumed to be causal in
that they explain behavior of individuals who
possess them
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
• Whether the trait is expressed may depend on
the context/situation
• Scientific usefulness of viewing traits as causes of
behavior lies in ruling out other causes
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Traits as Purely Descriptive
Summaries
• Traits as descriptive summaries of attributes of a
person; _______________________________________
________________________________________________
• Argue that we must first identify and describe the
important individual differences among people,
then subsequently develop casual theories to
explain them
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Identification of the Most Important
Traits: Three Approaches
1. Lexical Approach
2. Statistical Approach
3. Theoretical Approach
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Lexical Approach
• Lexical hypothesis – ___________________________
________________________________________________
______________________________________________
__
• Over time, differences among people that are important
are noticed, and words (adjectives) are invented to talk
about those differences
• e.g., dominant, creative, reliable, cooperative, hot-tempered,
self-centered, manipulative, arrogant
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Lexical Approach
• Two criteria for identifying important traits
• Synonym frequency – __________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
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• e.g., Dominance
• Bossy, assertive, powerful, pushy, forceful, leader-like,
domineering, influential, authoritative, arrogant
• _____________________________ – the more important is an
individual difference in human transactions, the more
languages will have a term for it
• i.e., the trait is considered important across multiple cultures
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Lexical Approach
• Problems and limitations
• Many traits are ambiguous, metaphorical, obscure, or
difficult
• Personality is conveyed through different parts of speech
(not just adjectives), including nouns and adverbs
• Lexical approach is a good starting point for
identifying important an individual difference, but
should not be the exclusive approach used
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Statistical Approach
• Starts with a large, diverse pool of personality
items
• Most researchers using lexical approach turn to
statistical approach to distill ratings of trait
adjectives into basic categories of traits
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
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Statistical Approach
• Factor analysis
• ___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
• Provides means for determining which personality variables
share some property or belong within the same group
• Useful in reducing the large array of diverse traits into smaller,
more useful set of underlying factors
• _________________:
• Index of how much of a variation in an item is “explained” by a
factor (see next slide)
• Cautionary note:
• You only get out of factor analysis what you put in; thus, researchers
must pay attention to the initial selection items
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Statistical Approach
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Theoretical Approach
• Starts with a theory that determines which
variables are important
• For example:
• Freud – oral personality, anal personality, etc.
• Maslow/Rogers – motivation to self-actualize
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
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Evaluating the Approaches for
Identifying Important Traits
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
• Example: Norman (1963) and Goldberg (1990) started
with the lexical strategy to identify the first set of variables
for inclusion
• They then used factor analysis to reduce the set to a more
manageable number (five or six)
• (This can then be used to help generate/modify a theoretical
approach.)
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Taxonomies of Personality
• Eysenck’s Hierarchical Model of Personality
• Cattell’s Taxonomy: The 16 Personality Factor
System
• Five-Factor Model
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Eysenck’s Hierarchical
Model of Personality
• Model of personality based on traits that Eysenck
believed were ________________________________
________________________________________________
(i.e., strongly rooted in biology)
• Three traits met criteria:
• _________________________________
• ________________________________________
• ___________________
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Eysenck’s Hierarchical
Model of Personality
• Extraversion
• High scorers like parties, have many friends, require
people around to talk to, like playing practical jokes on
others, display carefree, easy manner, and have a high
activity level
• Neuroticism
• High scorers are worriers, anxious, depressed, have
trouble sleeping, experience array of psychosomatic
symptoms, and over-reactivity of negative emotions
• Psychoticism
• High scorers are solitary, lack empathy, often cruel and
inhumane, insensitivity to pain and suffering of others,
aggressive, penchant for the strange and unusual,
impulsive, and have antisocial tendencies
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Eysenck’s Hierarchical
Model of Personality
• Hierarchical Structure of Eysenck’s System
• _____________________________________
• Narrower traits at the second level
• Subsumed by each narrower trait is the third level—
________________
• At the lowest level of the four-tiered hierarchy are specific
acts
• Hierarchy has the advantage of locating each specific,
personality-relevant act within increasingly precise
nested system
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Eysenck’s Hierarchical
Model of Personality
• Biological Underpinnings
• Heritability
• For Eysenck, a key criterion for a “basic” dimension of
personality is that it has reasonably high heritability
• P, E, and N have ________________________________, but so do
many other personality traits
• Identifiable physiological substrate
• One can identify properties in the brain and central nervous
system that are presumed to be part of the causal chain that
produces personality traits
• Example: extraversion should be linked with central nervous
system arousal or reactivity
• Limitations
• Many other personality traits show moderate heritability
• _____________________________________________________
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Cattell’s Taxonomy:
The 16 Personality Factor System
• Cattell’s goal was to identify and measure the
basic units of personality
• Believed that the true factors of personality should
be found across different types of data, such as
self-reports and laboratory tests (using factor
analysis)
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
• Major criticisms
• Some personality researchers have failed to replicate the
16 factors
• Many argue that a smaller number of factors captures
important ways in which individuals differ
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Five-Factor Model
• Originally based on the combination of the lexical
and statistical approach
• ______________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
• Some critics argue that although the five factors
can be used for laypersons in everyday life, they
fail to capture underlying causal personality
processes (e.g., what does scoring low on
emotional stability actually mean?)
• Response: not the purpose of the the Big Five
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Five-Factor Model
• Five broad factors
• __________________________________ – talkative, assertive,
forward, outspoken versus shy, quiet, bashful, inhibited
• ____________________________ – sympathetic, kind, warm,
understanding, sincere versus unsympathetic, unkind,
harsh, cruel (aggressive)
• _____________________________ – organized, neat, orderly,
practical, prompt, meticulous versus disorganized,
disorderly, careless, sloppy, impractical
• ______________________________________________ – calm,
relaxed, stable versus moody, anxious, insecure (also
includes depressed, impulsivity)
• ___________________________________________ – creative,
imaginative, intellectual versus uncreative, unimaginative,
unintellectual
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Five-Factor Model
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Five-Factor Model
• Empirical Evidence for Five-Factor Model
• Replicable in studies using English language trait words
as items
• _____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
• _____________________________________________________
• Replicated in every decade for the past half century,
suggesting five- factor solution replicable over time
• Replicated using different item formats
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Five-Factor Model
• Empirical Correlates of the Five Factors
• Good grades: Conscientiousness (high) and Emotional
Stability (high)
• Risky sexual behaviors: Extraversion (high), Emotional
Stability (low), Conscientiousness (low), and Agreeableness
(low)
• Substance abuse disorders and pathological gambling:
Emotional Stability (low) and Conscientiousness (low)
• Happiness: Extraversion (high) and Neuroticism (low)
• Forgiveness: Agreeableness (high) and Emotional Stability
(high)
• Leadership effectiveness: Extraversion (high), Agreeableness
(high), Conscientiousness (high), Emotional Stability (high)
• Favorable attitudes toward being touched by an intimate
partner: Agreeableness (high) and Openness (high)
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Summary and Evaluation
• There are different approaches to identifying the
important traits
• Personality psychologists sometimes blend the
approaches
• The Big Five the most heavily endorsed model by
personality psychologists
• Formulating an overarching taxonomy of personality
traits is fundamental
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