1 PART III: TRAITS & TEMPERAMENT

2 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF TRAITS TRAITS, TEMPERAMENT: Definitions & examples PROPERTIES OF TRAITS TRAIT-STATE DISTINCTION MAIN EMPHASIS OF TRAIT THEORY TWO DIFFERENT VIEWS OF TRAITS GORDON ALLPORT: Father of modern trait approach

3 TRAITS Stable psychological dispositions to behave in a certain way (e.g., friendliness, curiosity, anxiousness) that people have to different degrees TEMPERAMENT Biologically-based traits: Excitability Sociability Activity level Present at birth

4 Examples of traits: Extraversion Introversion

5 Warmth Hostility

6 Anxiousness Calmness

7 Reliability Flakiness Laziness is warm. Laziness is comfort. Laziness is the promise of sleep. The promise of rest. Laziness demands a new day. A new day to do what you didn't do today. I will do it tomorrow !

8 Open-mindedness Conventionality How about Vanilla ice-cream!

9 PROPERTIES OF TRAITS -Stability over time -Consistency across situations -Individual differences Examples of psychological constructs that are NOT traits: Adolescence’s identity confusion -> not stable over time Short-lived affect states (e.g., surprise) -> not consistent across situations Color vision -> not meaningful individual differences

10 STATE-TRAIT DISTINCTION State = Transient Psychological Condition. Usually related to specific environmental event e.g., low-energy, nervousness, anger Trait = General Tendencies, Dispositions. e.g., languidness, neuroticism, hostility Notice that frequent experience of certain affective states (e.g., anger, anxiety, tiredness) defines the core of certain traits (e.g., hostility, nervousness, apathy), which are called ‘affective’ traits (e.g., Positive and Negative Emotionality).

11 MAIN EMPHASIS OF TRAIT THEORIES Describing and classifying (vs. explaining) the more permanent personality characteristics that differentiate individuals Describing, classifying, and differentiating people’s traits involves comparison Favored method: Nomothetic (obtaining population norms for various traits so we can compare people)

12 friendliness TWO DIFFERENT USES OF TRAITS: Embedded in the notion of TRAIT is the idea of traits as (1) underlying behavioral tendencies (explanatory), but also as (2) behavioral summaries (descriptive). Trait (2) (1)

13 GORDON ALLPORT ( ) Taught the first course in personality psychology Viewed traits as building blocks of personality Cardinal traits: very pervasive and outstanding traits around which the lives of certain people seem to be organized (e.g.. manipulativeness for Machiavelli; hatred for Hitler) Central traits: 5-10 major characteristics of a person Secondary traits: enduring qualities of a person, but not very pervasive