Eysenck, Cattell, Costa and McCrae: Factor Analytic Trait Theories 47 Slides

Generalities of Factor Analytic Trait Theories Individual’s Differ in their makeup Individuals differ in their traits. Traits can be measured through tests. Personality is a measure of Adaptation and Adjustment Both neurosis and psychosis can be described as a combination of traits that are influenced by heredity. Where maladaptive biological traits combine. Cognitive Processes are part of personality Mental abilities can be measured objectively. Intelligence tests can be free of cultural influences. Self report measures are also considered valid. Table 2.1 (p. 35) 47 Slides

Generalities of Factor Analytic Trait Theories Societal influence Differences among groups and nations exist and can be measured. The factors found by testing are universal across all cultures Biological Influences Heredity affects personality traits Development – Environmental influences Some traits can be influenced by early experience. Environment interacts with biology. Some traits can change in adulthood. Most aspects of personality are extremely stable. 47 Slides

Hans Eysenck 47 Slides

History Born in Berlin Germany in 1916 Both of his parents were actors At approximately age 5 he acted in a film with his mother He liked acting and his father wanted him to pursue it His mother “the more practical” did not want him to act His parents were divorced when he was 2 He was raised by his maternal grandmother He was a wild child At one point he broke every bone in his right arm He almost lost his right eye playing with other boys while playing with paper arrows and rubber bands – his eye never fully healed and he was blind in the right eye by the age of 60 47 Slides

History He was athletic and good at many sports He also fought to defend himself He never started a fight, but also never backed away from one and made sure he won any he was forced into He was very interested in society and politics This was Germany between the wars He had a view of socialism that could be summed up as: One who is not a socialist in his youth has no heart One who remains a socialist in middle age has no head He held no one political party above another His religious ideals were very similar His father was Catholic and his mother protestant He was Christened in a Lutheran church 47 Slides

History He left Germany in 1934 at the age of 18 Hitler assumed power in German politics Hans was a known Jewish sympathizer He was told he could not attend University unless he entered the SS His step father was a Jewish film producer So, his mother and step father moved to France So, he left for France and studied literature and history Eventually he made England his new home He enrolled in the University of London He believed the arts were for fun not a vocation He wanted to go into Physics, but it would take an extra year for him to get the requirements He asked for another science and was told to go into psychology – he didn’t even know what it was! 47 Slides

History The psychology department included well known psychologists like Charles Spearman. He studied genetics and statistics His first wife was a mathematician His second wife was a psychologist Altogether he had four sons and a daughter During WWII he tried to enlist in the RAF but he was turned down as an enemy alien He had trouble getting any job for the same reason He was an iconoclast a person who likes to attack the establishment He was also a reductionist 47 Slides

History He finally got a job at an emergency hospital where he studied Suggestibility in hysterics Mood disorders Screening tests for neurotics Memory tests Motivation effects on intelligence He also did a factor analysis on the patients He found two major personality factors in the analysis Neuroticism and extraversion Later he added psychoticism as a third factor 47 Slides

History After the war he ended up working in the best known psychiatric hospital in England He was later appointed director of the psychological unit at the hospital The hospital wanted him to set up a training program for clinical psychologists He traveled to the U.S. to get an idea of how Clinical programs were designed in the U.S. and discovered Clinical programs were run by psychiatrists Clinical psychologists tended to use psychiatric principles Invalid and unreliable projective tests were the main tool He decided to set up an independent psychology department Moving away from psychoanalysis and moving toward a scientific orientation Eysenck died of a brain tumor on September 4 1997 47 Slides

Theory Eysenck believed that theory should proceed experimentation and that psychology could be broken into two major groups Those who experimented Those who ignored the individual differences Those who studied personality Those who ignored the requirement for empirical evidence The result Psychology has dozens of theories of personality but very little in the way of factual support for them To fix this we need to Devise theories of personality Identify the main dimensions of personality Devise means of measuring them Link them with experimental quantitative procedures 47 Slides

Theory Eysenck defined personality as a fairly stable and enduring organization of a person’s character, temperament, intellect and physique which determines his unique adjustments to the environment. He emphasizes traits which cluster together to form types. Types lead to habits. Eysenck believed that our genes were very important to personality and environment had very little to do with it. We are biosocial beings born with an innate predisposition to respond a certain way, but social demands can alter our responses. 47 Slides

Eysenck’s Big Three Traits are derived from three biological systems Extroversion / Introversion outgoingness and assertiveness Neuroticism / Stability instability and apprehensiveness Psychoticism / Normality tendency toward psychopathology Extraverts are social and impulsive and like excitement Extraversion predicts a high level of Social Well Being Introverts are quiet, introspective and prefer order 47 Slides

Eysenck’s Big Three Neurotics are Psychotics are Emotionally unstable with unreasonable fears Some may be obsessive or impulsive or both Anxious at a level disproportionate to the situation Unable to assess the consequences of their actions Asocial and antisocial people Psychotics are Insensitive to others, subject to panic attacks Creative: ability to think in bizarre and unusual ways Hostile, cruel, and inhumane Those who have a need to upset others Psychoticism is linked to the endocrine system. 47 Slides

Physiological connections The three traits are connected to biology The sympathetic nervous system Controls emotional responses in emergencies Some people have over stimulated sympathetic systems It is a matter of inhibition vs. excitation Excitation is the brain waking itself up Inhibition is the brain calming itself Also shutting off to protect itself for over stimulation An extravert has a strong ability to inhibit Includes conversion disorders and dissociative disorders An introvert does not inhibit well Includes obsessive compulsives and phobias 47 Slides

Inhibition Individual differences are determined by biology Differences are highly genetic in origin Determined by cerebral cortex organization and functioning Extraverts have strong inhibitory and weak excitatory functions in the central nervous system This gives them a large capacity to tolerate stimulation and gives them a better ability to multitask Their brains react slowly and weakly to stimuli creating a need for strong sensations Introverts have weak inhibitory and strong excitatory functions in the central nervous system This gives them a small capacity to tolerate stimulation They are already more aroused than extraverts and can not tolerate much more stimulation than their brain produces 47 Slides

Inhibition Reactive inhibition Is a concept that neurons fatigue At some point the fatigue becomes excess and the person can no longer respond Extraverts are more prone to reactive inhibition So they get tired of activities faster and have a hard time staying on topic 47 Slides

Arousal Arousal is easier to measure in the brain than inhibition Arousal of the ascending reticular activation system (ARAS) results in increased alertness and cortex arousal The relationship with the cortex is reciprocal because the cortex responds by changing activity in the ARAS Much data has confirmed that introverts are more sensitive to stimulation Introverts do worse on tests in noisy environments Introverts should reduce stimulation while studying 47 Slides

Raymond Cattell 47 Slides

History Born in England, 1905 to a middle class family He enjoyed a rather happy childhood He was a Science major at the Univ. of London B.S. in Chemistry at the age of 19 PhD in Psychology at age 24 Was a research assistant for Charles Spearman After graduation Cattell became director of a psychology clinic Went to New York Research assistant to Thorndike at Columbia University Held professorships at Clark, Harvard and Duke He settled down at the Univ. of Illinois in 1945 47 Slides

History He worked as an therapist and accepted many of the ideas of psychoanalysis He retired from academia in 1973 and moved to Colorado where he started the Institute for Research on Morality and Self Realization In 1977 he moved to Hawaii and worked with the University of Hawaii (now there’s a cushy retirement job!) Throughout his life Cattell condemned the mixing of the races and supported the Eugenics movement which cost him at least one award. He died in his home in Honolulu in 1998 47 Slides

Personality defined Cattell’s definition of personality was Personality is the thing that permits us to predict what a person will do in a given situation. Cattell felt suspicious of theories built too much ahead of data. He felt that data should be collected before the theory was derived. Then new experiments could be performed to test the theory. He called this the inductive-hypothetico-deductive spiral (IHD spiral) He believed in the Pearson correlational coefficient which shows a link between two variables. Once the link is known and one variable is measured, we can predict the other variables value The variables (traits) from which personality stems must be found and any correlations between them established 47 Slides

The Correlational Coefficient A measure of the association between two variables ranging from 1 to -1. Where Zero indicates no association and +1 or -1 indicates either a strong positive or negative association Positive Correlation Negative correlation Low high Low high Self reported confidence levels Extraversion score Low high Low high Anxiety Levels Number of time a person talks in class 47 Slides

Experimental paradigms Cattell believed that Bivariate experiments would not show real world results Because not much in the world is based on only two variables Instead he pushed for Multivariate experiments because they considered the whole person rather than bits and pieces. Multivariate experiments are too complicated to consider without the use of computers to factor all the variables and find connections The connections associating the surface traits to each other were termed source traits Variables that are strongly correlated are determined to be measuring the same source 47 Slides

Factor analysis techniques Cattell preferred the factor analysis technique which is used to assess large populations of people called the R-technique. However, he did use the P-technique to discover trait structures unique to an individual Cattell believed that traits are relatively permanent tendencies which are the building blocks of personality 47 Slides

Traits defined Some traits are determined by nature and others by nurture Constitutional traits are derived from biology The Ergs are innate biological and dynamic source traits Examples would be Fear and Anger Environmental-mold traits are determined by experience Metaergs refer to the learned dynamic source traits Examples would be our sentiments which are general and attitudes which are more specific Sentiments are learned early in life and do not change much in later life. They are enduring! The most important sentiment is the self-sentiment. Cattell called this the master motive. Attitudes are a more specific expression of the sentiments. Cattell called attitudes an interest in a course of action in a given situation. 47 Slides

Traits defined Other types of traits include: Ability – such as intelligence The person’s skill at dealing with the complexity of situations Temperament – such as boldness Tendencies in behavior and thought Dynamic – such as sports oriented Deals with the person’s motivations and interests Almost all of Cattell's work deals with common traits because most of his work was nomothetic. However, he did dabbled in idiographic unique traits of individuals as well. 47 Slides

Personality sphere To find all the source traits one must first have an idea of all possible surface factors. A list of all the surface factors was known as the personality sphere. He determined to populate the sphere using language to find all the possible ways we define people. A fallacy here is that English only has so many ways to describe a person while other languages may do a better or worse job. It is a subjective use of language. He decided to use the 4500 trait names that Allport reported. He reduced this to 171 by eliminating synonyms He then identified 36 clusters of surface traits and added another 10 to account for psychotics and years of testing 47 Slides

Primary factors Cattell’s personality sphere contained 46 traits From the 46 surface traits they discovered correlations for 16 source traits or primary factors From these 16 sources Cattell put together a test to measure these in the population. He called his test the Sixteen Personality factor (16pf) questionnaire. 47 Slides

Cattell’s 16 Source Traits Warmth Reasoning Emotional Stability Dominance Liveliness Rule-Consciousness Social Boldness Sensitivity Vigilance Abstractness Privateness Apprehension Openness to change Self-reliance Perfectionism Tension 47 Slides

Five Second-Order Factors If the 16 traits are put through a second factor analysis they are reduced to five factors. Extraversion Anxiety Tough-mindedness Independence Self-control These five second-order traits that Cattell found are very similar to what we use today as the big five traits. It is heartening to know that all these theorists are coming up with nearly identical answers But then, math can do that and still be wrong! [Note that only the first 2 of these are identified in the text, p. 231.] 47 Slides

Factors of psychopathology Cattell later did factor analysis on sick individuals to get surface traits and source traits for the unhealthy. He discovered another 12 more factors that measure psychopathological individuals. Hypochondriasis Zestfulness Brooding discontent Anxious depression Energy euphoria Quilt and resentment Bored depression Paranoia Psychopathic deviation Schizophrenia Psychasthenia General psychosis 47 Slides

Intelligences From his testing Cattell identified two forms of intelligence (crystallized and fluid) Crystallized intelligence is what the IQ test measures. It is your accumulated knowledge Fluid intelligence is how you do in solving problems Cattell felt that crystallized intelligence came from learning while fluid intelligence was biological. Since crystallized intelligence is based on learning any test for it would be culturally biased. Cattell devised a test for fluid intelligence which he believe to be independent of any cultural influences. Fluid intelligence increases from birth to about 18 years of age and then declines Crystallized intelligence, on the other hand, can increase throughout the lifespan. 47 Slides

MAVA Cattell created the MAVA This Multiple abstract variance analysis is a statistical method for determining the relative biological or environmental basis for certain traits Studying identical twins, fraternal twins, siblings and people who are not related raised apart and together and calculating their correlational coefficients we should be able to determine which traits are controlled more by genetics. Heritability is the extent to which a trait is influenced by genetics The science of the time showed a large genetic effect on intelligence and this concept led to the development of eugenics and later to eugenics “sterilization” laws. Today we know that most personality traits are only about 50% genetic 47 Slides

Wrapping up Cattell Once a person’s traits are totally evaluated a scientist should be able to create a mathematical formula to predict how that person will be able to perform in different situations. This is called the specification equation. If you have ever seen the movie “Gattaca” you know how bad that can turn out! Another word that you should know is Syntality (rhymes with totality) As Cattell proposed it this describes how different groups have their own personalities and each group is different from another. 47 Slides

Costa and McCrae Paul Costa Robert McCrae 1964 - B.A., Clark University, in psychology 1968 - M.A., Univ. of Chicago, in human development 1970 - Ph.D., Univ. of Chicago, in human development Robert McCrae 1971 - B.A., Michigan State University in philosophy 1974 - M.A., Boston University, in personality psychology, 1976 - Ph.D., Boston University, in personality psychology, 47 Slides

The Big Five (OCEAN) Costa and McCrae have done a tremendous amount of research on 5 factors that appear throughout the world Openness High scoring individuals Creative, Imaginative and Prefer variety Low scoring individuals Uncreative, Down-to-earth, and Prefers routine Conscientiousness Conscientious, Hardworking, Ambitious and Responsible Negligent, Lazy, Aimless and Irresponsible 47 Slides

The Big Five (OCEAN) Extraversion Agreeableness High scoring individuals Talkative, Passionate, Active, Dominant and Sociable Low scoring individuals Quite, Unfeeling and Passive Agreeableness Good natured, Soft Hearted, Trusting Irritable, Ruthless, Suspicious 47 Slides

The Big Five (OCEAN) Neuroticism High scoring individuals Worrying, Emotional, Vulnerable and Anxious Low scoring individuals Calm, Unemotional, Hardy, Self controlled and have a Sense of well being New factor analysis seems to indicate that there is a sixth factor found throughout the world but it is not yet accepted by a large number of psychologists. The possible sixth factor is Honesty vs. Humility 47 Slides

The five factor’s facets Each factor has six facets Extraversion Warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, positive emotions Agreeableness Trust, Straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, tender-mindedness Neuroticism Anxiety, hostility, depression, self consciousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability Openness Fantasy, Aesthetics, Feelings, Actions, Ideas, Values Conscientiousness Competence, order, dutifulness, achievement oriented, self disciplined, deliberation 47 Slides

Heritability of the 5 factors Although many people want to say that our personality is inherited from our parents, research does not support that position. Studies of inheritance of these traits indicate that the Big Five factors have different but specific amounts of heritability less than 50% .36 extraversion .28 agreeableness .31 neuroticism .28 conscientiousness .46 openness 47 Slides

Traits measured over time Are traits stable or not? Many people say that our personalities are extremely stable over our lifetime. Some research disputes and others confirm this. It depends on what part of personality you are considering. From the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003, Vol. 84, No. 5, 1041-1053 132,515 subjects tested 47 Slides

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003, Vol.84, No. 5, 1041-1053 47 Slides

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003, Vol.84, No. 5, 1041-1053 47 Slides

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003, Vol.84, No. 5, 1041-1053 47 Slides

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003, Vol.84, No. 5, 1041-1053 47 Slides

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003, Vol.84, No. 5, 1041-1053 47 Slides