Overview: Looking at traits or characteristics that capture what a person is really like

1. History

1. Gordon Allport – looked at adjectives used to describe people to come up with a usable classification system
2. Looked at physique among other things (endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph) to classify personality types


a. too difficult to hold a strict type approach, must fall into category X or category Y, not I between

3. Now use Trait Theory (TT)

1. Trait definitions

1. dimension of personality used to categorize people by degree that they display some characteristic

1. examples: aggression, friendliness, achievement motivation, introversion, self-esteem, etc.

1. Assumptions of TT

1. Stability over _______________________

1. some flexibility, but mostly stability
2. Used to predict behavior – as long as the trait is stable this is possible

1. Stability across _______________________

1. some flexibility, but mostly stability
2. see relatively stable amount of trait in any situation (average amount)

1. traits are quantifiable and measurable
2. Normal distribution of traits

1. On continuum from low in trait to high in trait where number of people with average amount of trait cluster in the center

1. Not concerned with _______________________ traits (_______________________ approach)

1. want to know how members with average amount of trait behave (e.g., achievement motivation)
2. want to predict how group of people will likely behave, NOT how one individual will behave (cf. Freud, post-Freudians)

1. Trait theorists are not interested in underlying mechanisms (cf. Freud, et al.)
2. TT does not lead to treatment, goals are prediction not therapy

1. Gordon Allport

1. first trait theorist
2. believed that motivation is more than what is in the unconscious
3. also recognized limitations of TT in that other environmental influences are important
4. believed we would find source of traits in nervous system (CNS as conceptual nervous system versus Central Nervous System – prelude to Cognitive theorists)
5. _______________________Approach – looking at groups of people and average traits as expressed by group
6. Idiographic Approach – looking at how the traits come together to best understand the individual

1. More detailed in examining the person
2. central traits of individual best describe him or her
3. secondary traits are important but less so
4. cardinal trait is one trait that describes all of behavior of an individual – this is rare

1. current behaviors are not necessarily rooted in childhood


a. _______________________ - behaviors that were established under one set of conditions are not always maintained by those same conditions (cf. Behavior analysis) – sometimes they are rooted in childhood, but not necessarily (e.g., studying – initial reward from parents, teacher; now, what?)

2. interested in concept of "self" and how this develops

1. believed individuals grew and changed over time (cf. Ericson, Adler)
2. proprium– all aspects of the self under one single concept

1. Henry Murray

1. Personology – study of traits influenced by psychoanalytic tradition, particularly by Jung
2. believed that personality is organized around needs


a. not physiological or viscerogenic needs (food, water), but psychological needs (psychogenic needs)

3. psychogenic needs are unconscious
4. came up with 27 basic needs (table 7.1, p. 189 in Burger)
5. developed TAT
6. Press – _______________________ (specified this construct, Allport did not)

1. Factor Structure of Personality

1. Cattel first to do this (was trained in physical sciences)

1. Did not believe we should search for traits we know to exist but look for structure of personality as it is in nature

1. Used Factor Analysis (FA) (adapted from description provided by SPSS, v. 8.0)

1. Examine how multiple variables correlate (go together)


a. can do this with Exploratory FA or Confirmatory FA studies

2. Look at correlation coefficients to identify underlying variables, or factors, that explain the pattern of correlations within a set of observed variables
3. _______________________

1. identify a small number of factors which explain most of the variance observed in a much larger number of manifest variables

1. FA can also be used to generate hypotheses regarding causal mechanisms (exploratory FA)
2. Example: What underlying traits lead people to respond as they do to the questions on a personality survey looking at "the Academic Personality"?

1. Examining the correlations among the survey items reveals that there is significant overlap among various subgroups of items--questions about achievement tend to correlate with each other, questions about critical thinking correlate with each other, and so on
2. you can investigate the number of underlying factors, and, in many cases, you can identify what the factors represent conceptually

1. Example with intelligence:

1. many ways to test this trait or construct
2. look at skills in abstract reasoning (assembling puzzles, noticing what is required to make a picture complete)
3. look at verbal skill
4. look at general knowledge of the culture
5. FA studies show IQ tests produce one common general factor (G) and several subfactors (crystalized vs, fluid; verbal vs abstract reasoning, etc.)

1. Example with Psychopathology – Smptom Checklist = SCL-90-R

1. many diagnostic categories, patterns of pathological behavior (OCD, Depression, Schizophrenia, etc)
2. can examine test to determine whether or not questions that are supposed to assess (e.g.,) depression actually do so à If they do, then should have certain number of factors equivalent to number of phenomena trying to assess
3. interestingly, SCL-90 shows one stable factor only, have to make sense of this

1. Cattel examined many sources of data and came up with 16 Source Traits or factors (Table 7.2; p. 193 in Burger)
2. The "Big Five" factors ("OCEAN")

• consistent number of factors in personality research, even when not looking for this number (exploratory FA) – numerous studies have shown these factors

1. _______________________ (Intellect, NOT intelligence)

1. High scores on this trait :

1. active imagination
2. willingness to consider new ideas
3. openness to experience, not interpersonally
4. divergent thinking
5. intellectual curiosity

1. Low scores on this trait

1. conventional
2. prefer routine and familiar

1. Conscientiousness (aka Will to Achieve; Work)

1. High scores on this trait :

1. organized
2. planning is important
3. determined
4. self-disciplined

1. Low scores:

1. Careless
2. Easily distracted
3. undependable

1. _______________________ (on other end of this is Introversion)

1. High scores on this trait:

1. very social people
2. energetic
3. optimistic
4. friendly
5. assertive

1. Low scores:

1. NOT asocial or without energy
2. Reserved
3. Independent
4. Retiring
5. Even-paced

1. Agreeableness

1. High scores on this trait :

1. Helpful
2. trusting
3. sympathetic

1. Low scores:

1. Ruthless
2. Suspicious
3. uncooperative
4. fight for interests and beliefs

1. Neuroticism (Emotional Stability)

1. High scores on this trait :

1. Frequent distress
2. Emotional lability (Swings)
3. Prone to negative emotional states (anger, sadness, anxiety, guilt)
4. Insecure
5. Self pitying

1. Low scores:

1. Calm
2. Well-adjusted
3. Not prone to extreme fluctuations of mood

1. These show up in a variety of contexts (rate own traits, students, children, adults)
2. Criticisms of the Big 5

1. five factors may not be sufficient to capture all of human behavior
2. may be cultural specific – tied to descriptions available in English language
3. not always supported with additional research (five plus or minus two)
4. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Model is purportedly atheoretical – why is this a problem?
6. Terms are too global – e.g., what kind of emotional instability is represented by Neuroticism? Depression? Anxiety? Both???
7. Stability of traits (see controversy below)

1. The Person-Situation Debate (Situation vs. Trait Controversy)

1. came from criticisms of over-interpreted scores on personality or trait tests (Mischel)
2. strongly question ability to predict distal (or long-range) outcomes based on these tests (aka predictive validity)
3. Mischel argued that you cannot predict behavior from one situation to another, that the situation will bring about some behaviors/traits but another situation will not bring out the same behavior = ________________ (context dependence)
4. Early research showed that both information about the person and about the situation predict behavior
5. Lead to a perspective called the person-by-situation approach to looking at the relationship between traits, situations, and behaviors

1. cons: trait scores rarely account for more than 10% of behavior (of the variance) in studies

1. some critics argue not a problem relative to psychology research or even medical research (aspirin studies)

1. what does this mean about traits???

1. Argue that there is not much evidence for cross-situational consistency

1. state that you do not see the same behaviors in different situations
2. measured honesty in children and found intercorrelations to be .23 (less than 10% of behavior can be explained by these traits)
3. example in book: professor in one situation may be a certain way; in another situation may be totally different kind of person

1. other researchers state that there must be cross-situational consistency because this helps us predict behavior and make decisions that involve other people (e.g., chose a partner, vote for a president, take a class, etc.)

1. Epstein argues that behaviors are not correlated because people are measuring the wrong behaviors and/or are measuring them incorrectly
2. Need to have test that has many different items
3. Need high internal consistency value for test

1. Need to use aggregate data (produce aggregate score)

1. e.g., test examining studiousness as trait – need to look at many different opportunities to study, attend class, etc. to come up with one score for the trait measure

1. Need to assess and examine relevant traits
2. Need to specify whether all people have the trait or just some of the people

1. Personality Trait tests in decision making

1. tests are used to help make decisions, they should not be used by themselves
2. Ask: does the test yield information (summary information) that is useful in answering a question
3. Employment setting vs. clinical setting (interview information, history of working with person)
4. Need to know reliability and validity indices
5. Need to know how researchers have discussed these measures and how the constructs are interpreted

1. Self-report measures

1. Objective measures of personality
2. Often higher in reliability and validity

1. highly constructed
2. validity is usually higher ("face validity")

1. The MMPI-2

1. MMPI (1) developed in 1940
2. MMPI-2 published in 1989 renormed
3. Given in clinical settings also in school and personnel settings
4. 568 items
5. ______________________________________________
6. empirically derived test
7. gave the test to find out what responses match personality styles
8. the purpose is to look at the pattern of responding
9. Yields scores on two scales

1. validity scales - tell whether the profile is an accurate measure of the subject & whether the subject answered honestly
2. Clinical scales what the test tells about how the subject is clinically

L F K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

1. look at how large groups of people respond and what outcomes they have had
2. e.g., case example from MMPI-2 in clinical setting (partial write up)
3. this test has scale to detect faking, when the test-taker tries to manipulate his or her image or results

1. Problems with objective personality tests

1. Faking (faking good, faking bad, frequency of answering "true" vs. "false"
2. Social Desirability (Marlowe-Crowne vs. Edwards) – manipulation of image to appear more socially acceptable

1. this is not the same as faking, this may be a less conscious process
2. look at correlation of Social Desirability scale and the test of interest, does it correlate negatively or positively or not at all
3. Marlowe-Crowne is blatant image manipulation
4. Edwards is constructed like MMPI, so it is impossible to guess how to manipulate image

1. interpreting values on test can be difficult even though it yields numbers
2. length of test can lead to test-taker losing interest while taking the test
3. Some have said that MMPI and MMPI-2 are just negative social desirability measures