Traits, Types, and the Basic Personality Dimensions

This is the DISPOSITIONAL PERSPECTIVE, which assumes that internal personality dispositions influence behavior.

If you think of a person who is A) Sociable, B) Independent, and C) Assertive; these three aspects of a person can have two meanings. These aspects can be mere descriptions of the person. Or, if you believe that these aspects (or characteristics) are within the person and influence why the person does what he/she does, then these aspects are personality traits. The DISPOSITIONAL PERSPECTIVE = TRAIT PSYCHOLOGY.

TRAITS such as being Sociable, Independent, and Assertive may correlate or combine with each other to form a personality TYPE. So an EXTRAVERTED TYPE of person would be someone characterized by the TRAITS of Sociability, Independence, and Assertiveness.

What TYPE of person would Freud call someone with the following TRAITS?

Well organized, punctual, neat, compulsive, stingy, hoarding, and rigid?

What TYPE of person do researchers call someone with the following TRAITS?

Hard-working, easily frustrated, in a hurry, excessive competitive drive, always meets deadlines, frequently does multi-tasking, is prone to heart problems.

NOMOTHETIC approaches to personality traits emphasize ways that people are similar and comparing people on a trait. Nomothetic research is usually group research. IDIOGRAPHIC approaches to personality emphasize ways that individuals are unique. Idiographic research usually studies an individual over time.

CATTELL used a statistical procedure called FACTOR ANALYSIS to discover the most important underlying traits. Cattell gathered three types of data believing that the most fundamental underlying dimensions of personality would be replicated across data sets:

L-data - Life history data

Q-data - Questionnaire data

T-data - Objective test data

Imagine filling in this rating scale to describe yourself or someone you know.

RATINGS

VERY NEUTRAL VERY

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

A. COOPERATIVE VS. OBSTRUCTIVE

B. TRUSTING VS. SUSPICIOUS

C. SOFT-HEARTED VS. HARD-HEARTED D. ADAPTABLE VS. RIGID

E. MATURE VS. IMMATURE

F. CALM VS. IMPULSIVE

G. REALISTIC VS. EVASIVE

A through G above are called TRAIT ELEMENTS, also called SURFACE TRAITS.

Now imagine that the correlations among the 7 trait elements are : A B C D E F G

A +1.0 +.70 +.80 +.80 -.10 .00 .00

B +1.0 +.90 +.70 +.10 +.10 .00

C +1.0 +.80 -.10 -.10 -.10

D +1.0 .00 -.10 .00

E +1.0 +.80 +.70

F +1.0 +.70

G +1.0

Notice that the first four trait elements are inter-correlated among each other, but are not correlated with the last three elements, which are also correlated with each other. These two clusters of inter-correlations are called factors (also called 1st order traits, also called SOURCE TRAITS by Cattell).

Pp. 60-61 of the textbook provides another example of factor analysis.

For Cattell, the most important SOURCE TRAIT (FACTOR A) is

WARM VS. RESERVED, comprised of trait elements:

Cooperative vs. Obstructive

Trusting vs. Suspicious

Soft-hearted vs. Hard-hearted

Adaptable vs. Rigid

(Which were A-D in the previous example)

The third most important source trait is

EMOTIONALLY STABLE VS. REACTIVE, comprised of surface traits

Mature vs. Immature

Calm vs. Impulsive

Realistic vs. Evasive

(Which were E-G in the previous example)

In his research program, Cattell began with 171 trait elements=surface traits. The first factor analysis of L-data reduced these 171 trait elements=surface traits to 35 1st order traits=source traits. Cattell believed that only traits found in all 3 types of data were reliable, so he repeated this research using Q-data. A factor analysis of the 171 trait elements using Q-data identified 16 source traits=1st order traits that were found in both L and Q data. These 16 source traits are listed in p. 63 of the text.

A factor analysis of the 16 source traits=1st order traits produces 7 second order traits: The most important underlying dimensions of personality according to Cattell. Factor analyses of t-data produce 2nd order traits immediately. The 2 most important of Cattell’s 2nd order traits are: INVIA-EXVIA (Introversion-Extroversion), and ANXIETY LEVEL (Neuroticism).

These data are very similar to other factor analytic work done by Hans Eysenck, who found 3 major types (similar to Cattell’s 2nd order traits).

Eysenck’s Types

1. Introversion -Extroversion

2. Neuroticism (similar to anxiety level)

3. Psychoticism

Both Cattell and Eysenck have similar hierarchical models of personality traits with the most general traits at the top and more specific levels of personality at lower levels. For Example,

CATTELL, each 2ND ORDER TRAITS, for example, INVIA VS. EXVIA is comprised of a number of more specific 1 ST ORDER, SOURCE STRAITS, such as SOBER VS. HAPPY-GO-LUCKY and WARM VS. RESERVED

EACH FIRST ORDER, SOURCE TRAIT, for

Example—Outgoing vs. Reserved—is comprised of a number of more specific TRAIT ELEMENTS, such as

COOPERATIVE vs. OBSTRUCTIVE and

TRUSTFUL VS. SUSPICIOUS

EYSENCK’S SIMILAR SYSTEM—An example of this hierarchical system is found on p. 65 of your text.

The TYPE of NEUROTICISM consists of a number of more specific Traits of ANXIETY PRONENESS, DEPENDENCY, and EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY.

(The book example shows that the TYPE of EXTRAVERSION consists of a number of different more specific traits: Sociability, Dominance, Assertiveness, Activity, and Liveliness)

The TRAIT of DEPENDENCY consists of more specific HABITS: IS AGREEABLE, SEEKS ADVICE, and FOLLOWS ORDERS.

Each SPECIFIC HABIT (for example, Seeks Advice) is comprised of a set of more specific responses, “WHERE IS THE LIBRARY?” “ DOES MY SHIRT LOOK OK?”

Notice that Eysenck’s TYPE level is similar to Cattell’s 2nd order trait level. Eysenck’s TRAIT level is similar to Cattell’s 1st order, source trait level. Eysenck’s HABIT level is similar to trait elements in Cattell’s theory. Cattell does not have a level similar to Eysenck’s SPECIFIC RESPONSE level.

After examining work done by many factor analytic researchers (and their own work), McCray and Costa have proposed the 5 ROBUST FACTOR MODEL. These personality factors can be measured by the NEO-PI-R test. The 5 factors are:

EXTROVERSION

NEUROTICISM

AGREEABLENESS

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS

OPENNESS TO EXPERIENCE (INTELLECT)

Traits, Situationism, and Interaction

This section refers to a controversy over the importance of personality traits as explanations of why we do what we do. As stated on p. 74 of the text, Mischel pointed out that correlations between self-report personality tests and relevant behaviors seldom exceeded r = .3. This small correlation suggests a) that personality variables might not be an important influence on behavior and b) situations might be more important. Situationism is represented by the Learning Perspective (Behaviorism), which will be covered later in the semester.

Researchers fought for decades over whether personality was more or less important than situations in explaining why we do what we do.

A third perspective was that the interaction between personality variables and situations was more important than either personality or situations alone. This perspective states that personality variables have effects only in certain situations, not always. Figure 4.4 in the textbook on p. 76 provides a good example of an interaction, showing that the personality variable of depression proneness (high vs. low) only has an effect when the situation is one of high stress. In low stress situations, depression proneness will theoretically have no effect on behavior, i.e., r = .0.