Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Lecture 3: Trait Perspective (Big Five Traits (Conscientiousness (better…
Lecture 3: Trait Perspective
background
history
Hippocrates' 4 types
Choleric (irritable)
melancholic (depressed)
Phlegmatic (calm)
sanguine (optimistic)
Types vs Traits
Types
discontinuous, discrete categories
Qualitative diff in people eg. introverts vs extroverts
Traits
continuous dimensions
differences in ppl are quantitative
views of traits
Nomothetic (law)
everyone stands somewhere on each trait that exists
individuality is reflected in combinations of traits
traits are universal
comparison among individuals is possible-->can compare large groups-->less time consuming
Idiographic
not all traits are shared, everyone is unique
traits may differ in connotation & importance among ppl
traits are idiosyncratic (only one trait for a person)
comparisons not possible
Trait approach (dimensional approach)
views people consistent in actions, thoughts feelings over time & situations
Ppl differ from one another in many ways
How to determine which traits matter?
Theoretical approach
Wiggins' Interpersonal circle
Dominance (Dominant/Submissive), Love (Cold-hearted/warm&agreeable)
also believes individual diff can be explained from combinations of these 2 dimensions-->criticised as oversimplistic
assumes that core traits derive from those that concern interpersonal functioning
Cattell's Empirical/Statistical Approach
factor analysis
disadvantages
interpretation of what makes a factor is subjective
what you get out of a factor analysis depends on what traits you put into it & what questions you ask
process
Compute correlations between ALL pairs of variables
extract factors & label them based on
factor loadings
Collect data from many people
collect measurements on many traits via self-reports/observations
decomposes large numbers of intercorrelations into basic underlying dimensions
he factor analysed 171 trait names-->result in 16 primary factors of personality
Eysenck
believes many individual differences can be explained with combinations of these 3 supertraits (NOTE: but for normal ppl, can be explained with extraversion and emotionality)
types can be further broken down into component traits
3 supertraits
Emotionality-Stability
Psychoticism (least studied)
Introversion-extraversion
Lexical Hypothesis
synonym frequency
if personality attribute is impt, adjective will have more synonyms
cross-cultural universality
if personality attribute is impt, more languages will have more words for it, not just in that specific country
eg. "unokai" is very culturally specific & cannot be used universally
personality traits & diff that are most important & relevant have become encoded within natural language
Big Five Traits
Agreeableness
greater social support from family
protect against being victimised by peers
maintaining +ve relations with others
desire for group welfare & harmonious family relations, inversely related to desires for wealth, political influence & exciting lifestyle
Neuroticism (emotionality)
impairs academic performance
more likely to smoke-->earlier death
diff interactions among married partners-->less r/s satisfaction
-ve emotional tone when writing about self
distress in a wide variety of diff situations
Conscientiousness
better peer relationships and social influence in organisations
take better care of themselves-->live longer
higher academic achievement
less substance abuse
desire for career but not necessarily high standard of living
less antisocial behaviour
Extraversion (sociability
Extraverted men interact better with female strangers
peer acceptance
value achievement & stimulation
less cooperative when facing social resource dilemmas
relate to having social impact
Openness
react less intensely to stress
desire artistic expression & devalue the possibilty of an easy, lazy life
greater engagement with existential challenges of life
larger range of social experience
more favourable inter-racial attitudes, less likely to stigmatise others
Honesty-Humility dimension (from HEXACO)
Is behaviour really trait-like?
SItuationism
situations really drive behaviour
& diff in personality are irrelevant
but data doesn't support this (eg. football match spectators)
Interactionism
Some traits are specific to some situations eg. Test anxiety
Certain situations evoke behaviours out of character (eg. emergency)
diff in personality & situations interact to cause behaviour
Low association bet trait self-reports & behaviour
Behaviour across contexts tend to vary
Walter Mischel's personality coefficient (r=.30)
why
faulty trait self-reports (eg. social desirability)
faulty measurement of behaviour (observations inaccurate)
Personality's influence on situations
personality influences the situations people choose to enter
ppl evoke diff responses from others (eg. a strict instructor will cause students to behave less openly)
New view of traits
diff in traits & situations lead to a unique interaction that represents one's individuality
hence there may not be trait consistency across situations
Personality is linked to behaviour only when in a situation that brings it out
