Contemporary Research on Personality Trait theory BIG 5

The Trait Perspective An individual’s unique constellation of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving (traits) constitutes his personality. This is different than “states” Describing rather than explaining – no interest in the why. OBJECTIVE 46-1| Describe the trait and perspective’s contribution to personality research. Traits like honestly, laziness, ambition, outgoing are thought to be stable over the course of your lives.

Gordon Allport First person to describe fundamental personality characteristics Cardinal trait (single most dominant and consistent trait) Central traits (a small number of significant tendencies) Secondary traits (present but not nearly as defining) Allport (1937) [8] began his work by reducing the 18,000 traits to a set of about 4,500 traitlike words that he organized into three levels according to their importance. He called them “cardinal traits” (the most important traits), “central traits” (the basic and most useful traits), and “secondary traits” (the less obvious and less consistent ones). Cattell (1990) [9] used a statistical procedure known as factor analysis to analyze the correlations among traits and to identify the most important ones. On the basis of his research he identified what he referred to as “source” (more important) and “surface” (less important) traits, and he developed a measure that assessed 16 dimensions of traits based on personality adjectives taken from everyday language.

Raymond Cattell Used factor analysis to analyze the correlations among traits and to identify the most important ones. Identified “source” (more important) and “surface” (less important) traits. OBJECTIVE 46-2| Describe some of the ways psychologists have attempted to compile a list of basic personality traits. Cattell found that large groups of traits could be reduced down to 16 core personality traits based on statistical correlations. All people are somewhere on this continuum Developed the 16 Personality Factor (16PF) inventory. that assessed 16 dimensions of traits based on personality adjectives taken from everyday language.

16 Personality Factor

Eysenck and Eysenck Suggested that personality traits could be reduced down even further. Extraversion versus Introversion Emotional stability versus Neuroticism (instability) Psychoticism is a third dimension added later.

Biology and Personality Brain scans Brain arousal – low levels of activity associated with extraversion Genetics Autonomic nervous system reactivity

Assessing Traits Personality inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors assessing several traits at once. OBJECTIVE 46-3| Explain how psychologists use personality inventories to assess traits, and discuss the most widely used of these inventories. MMPI was developed by empirically testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminated between diagnostic groups. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality inventories. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders.

MMPI Test Profile

Assessing Personality Traits Personality types, assessed by measures like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), consist of a number of traits that can be categorized into 16 distinctive personality types that result from the interactions among those traits and preferences. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a self-inventory test designed to identify a person's personality type, strengths and preferences.  Extroverted people mostly recharge from interacting with the external world around them. Introverted people find more interest in dealing with mental constructs, ideas, and imagination, and regain their energy from quiet time alone with their thoughts. Sensing people go for concrete facts, while Intuitors focus more on abstraction. Sensors look at the immediate picture, and Intuitors see the forest for the trees. Thinkers prefer to make decisions on the basis of impersonal inputs and effects, and Feelers make decisions based on how events affect people personally. If you prefer to decide on the basis of objective logic, using an analytic and detached approach, then your preference is for Thinking. If you prefer to decide using values - i.e. on the basis of what or who you believe is important - then your preference is for Feeling. MBTI classifies Thinking and Feeling as judging attitudes, while Sensing and Intuition as perceiving attitudes. Whether you use a judging or perceiving attribute to interact with the world around you. When your judging is extroverted, you show left-brain dominant characteristics: you prefer more order in your worldly dealings. When you have an extroverted perceiving attribute, you show right-brain dominant characteristics; you don't make as many plans and prefer to leave your external dealings more spontaneous where possible. If you prefer your life to be planned, stable and organised then your preference is for Judging (not to be confused with 'Judgmental', which is quite different). If you prefer to go with the flow, to maintain flexibility and respond to things as they arise, then your preference is for Perception.

The Big Five Factors Today’s trait researchers believe that Eysencks’ personality dimensions are too narrow and Cattell’s 16PF too large. So a middle range (five factors) of traits does a better job of assessment. OBJECTIVE 46-4| Identify the Big Five personality factors, and discuss some of the strengths of this approach to studying personality.

Endpoints

Questions about the Big Five 1. How stable are these traits? Quite stable in adulthood. Though change over development. 2. How heritable are they? Fifty percent or so for each trait. 3. How about other cultures? These traits are common across cultures. 4. Predict other personal attributes? Yes. Conscientious people are morning types, and extraverted evening types.

Evaluating the Trait Perspective The Person-Situation Controversy Walter Mischel points that traits may be enduring but the resulting behavior in different situations is different. Thus traits are not good predictors of behaviors. Trait theorists argue that behaviors may be different from situation to situation, but average behavior remains the same, thus traits matter. OBJECTIVE 46-5| Summarize the person-situation controversy, and explain its importance as a commentary on the trait perspective. You don’t always behave according to your traits. Must take into account the situation.

Social-Cognitive and Behavioral Perspective

Behaviorist Theory of Personality The way most people think of personality is meaningless. Personality changes according to the environment (reinforcers and punishments). Think Skinner If you change environment then you change the personality.

Social-Cognitive Perspective Bandura (1986, 2001, 2005) believes that personality is the result of an interaction that takes place between a person and his social context. Reciprocal determinism - we make choices in our environment which influence future choices and our experiences, and so on and so on… Adds cognitive processes to the behavioral approach Albert Bandura

Reciprocal Influences Stephen Wade/ Allsport/ Getty Images

Individuals & Environments Specific ways how individuals and environments interact. Different people choose different environments. The school you attend, the music you listen to, are partly based on your dispositions. Our personalities shape how we react to events. Anxious people react to situations differently than calm people. Our personalities shape situations. How we view and treat people influences how they treat us.

Positive Psychology Positive psychology attempts to foster human fulfillment. Positive psychology in addition seeks positive subjective well-being, positive character and positive social groups. Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Martin Seligman

Locus of Control Julian Rotter emphasized our sense of personal control – whether we control the environment or the environment controls us. External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate. OBJECTIVE 46-8| Discuss the effects of a perception of internal or external control, and describe the concept of learned helplessness. Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate.

This can lead to a lower sense of self-efficacy Learned Helplessness When unable to avoid repeated aversive events an animal or human learns hopelessness. This can lead to a lower sense of self-efficacy This can lead people to doubt their ability to affect their environment and accomplish what they try

Explanatory Styles According to Martin Seligman, an optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style – is your way of explaining positive or negative events. Defensive Pessimism – set low goals to cushion defeat. Anxiety can cause us to work harder and accomplish our goal. Excessive Optimism – blind to one’s own incompetence OBJECTIVE 46-9| Discuss the link between performance and optimistic or pessimistic attributional styles, and contrast positive psychology with humanistic psychology. Defensive Pessimism – set low goals to cushion defeat. Anxiety can cause us to work harder and accomplish our goal.

Assessing Behavior in Situations Social-cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and simulated situations because they have found that the best way to predict behavior of others is in similar situations. OBJECTIVE 46-10| Explain why social-cognitive researchers assess behavior in realistic situations.

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective Critics say that social-cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention to the individual, his unconscious mind, his emotions and his genetics. OBJECTIVE 46-11| Summarize the criticisms of the social-cognitive perspective.

Behavior Behavior emerges from an interplay of external and internal influences.

AP info… Know the schools and at least two people from each How does society and culture influence our view of people Connect this unit to the intro unit, and you will connect this one to the therapy unit later Know strengths and criticisms for each of the theories

More AP info… Psychoanalytic (Freud) id, ego, superego Psychodynamic (Adler, Jung, Horney)-relationships Humanistic (Maslow, Rogers) Trait (Allport, Cattell) cardinal, central, Big 5 Social-cognitive (Rotter, , Bandura, Seligman) locus of control, reciprocal determinism Behaviorists (Skinner) conditioning, rewards