TRAIT THEORY PERSONALITY

THINKING Think about one of your friends or a member of your family and write down eight words that describe their personality.

TRAIT THEORIES Personality trait: a personality characteristic that endures (lasts) over time and across different situations. Trait theories of personality focus on measuring, identifying and describing individual differences in personality in terms of traits.

ASSUMPTIONS Personality traits are relatively stable and predictable over time. Personality traits are relatively stable in different situations. Personality consists of a number of different traits, some people have ‘more’ or ‘less’ of each trait than others. Some traits are closely interrelated than others and occur together.

CONTINUUM Trait theorists usually describe traits on a continuum Example: Continuum for confidence

GORDON ALLPORT (1897-1967)

GORDON ALLPORT (1897-1967) Searched the entire dictionary for words that could describe personality – 17, 953 Eliminated synonyms e.g. nasty, horrible, mean, awful and spiteful Eliminated words not often used e.g. chrematistic and stultiloquent Left 4500 words

ALLPORT Organised words into 3 categories – cardinal, central and secondary traits Arranged 3 categories into a hierarchy

ALLPORT TRAIT CATEGORIES Cardinal Trait: these are traits that dominate an individual’s whole life, often to the point that the person becomes known specifically for these traits. Allport suggested that cardinal traits are rare and tend to develop later in life.

ALLPORT TRAIT CATEGORIES Central Trait: general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality. These central traits, while not as dominating as cardinal traits, are the major characteristics you might use to describe another person. Independence, trustworthiness, competitiveness, possessiveness, kindness, sensitivity, fearlessness How other people see us!!

ALLPORT TRAIT CATEGORIES Secondary Trait: These are the traits that are sometimes related to attitudes or preferences and often appear only in certain situations or under specific circumstances. i.e. getting anxious when speaking to a group or impatient while waiting in line. Secondary traits are characteristics more specific to certain situations and control far less behaviour. Circumstantial

ALLPORT EXAMPLE

ACTIVITY Using Allport’s trait theory and based on the example of Martin Maloney on the previous slide, write a personality profile for yourself or someone you know.

HANS EYSENCK (1916-1997)

HANS EYSENCK Used factor analysis to reduce Cattel’s 16 factors to 2 (he added a 3rd in 1970’s) Preferred term “dimensions of personality” Continuum Introversion – Extraversion Neuroticism – Emotional stability Psychoticism Possible combinations of first 2 dimensions

RESEARCH Individual differences of personality due to: Genetic make-up (tendency to be ‘low’ or ‘high’) Research – Identical twins obtain similar scores on personality trait tests Functioning of brain and nervous system Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)

TRAIT THEORIES - STRENGTHS Provide useful descriptions of personality and its structure Basis for development of reliable and valid personality tests Tell us: Why we develop the traits we have How we come to have the combinations we do Why we have more or less of particular traits Why traits are enduring and stable across different situations

TRAIT THEORIES - LIMITATIONS Lead people to use oversimplified classifications and descriptions of people – human personality too complex to be described by simple labels Under-estimate the way(s) in which specific situations and socio-cultural factors influence behaviour Identification of personality traits through statistical procedures – human behaviour unpredictable