KV PetridesKV Petrides

Lecture 2

Trait Theories ITrait Theories I

Dr. K. V. PetridesDr. K. V. Petrides

www.psychometriclab.com

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Definitions of personality I

• It is very difficult to provide a single coherent definition of the term ‘personality’.

• Hall and Lindzey (1957) claimed that the term has as many different meanings and definitions as there are personality theorists.

• Perhaps more important, there are many different approaches to the study of personality.

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Definitions of personality II

• One reasonable working definition is provided by Child (1968, p. 83):– “more or less stable, internal factors that

make one person’s behaviour consistent from one time to another and different from the behaviour other people would manifest in comparable situations.”

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Definitions of personality III

• Another definition is provided by someone with a valid claim to being the greatest psychologist of all time:– “a more or less stable and enduring

organization of a person’s character, temperament, intellect, and physique, which determines his unique adjustment to the environment”.

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Professor Hans J Eysenck (1916-1997)

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Definitions of personality IV

• Two points should be noted about the definitions above:– Both are rooted in the ‘trait’ approach to

personality.• A trait is defined as a stable characteristic or quality

distinguishing one person or thing from another.

– Both include features that many theorists would not view as part of personality (e.g, cognitive abilities, physical characteristics).

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Humanistic approach

• This approach has its roots in the philosophical schools of existentialism and phenomenology.

• It emphasizes that individuals have free will, personal worth, and a need for self-actualization.

• The main impact of this approach has been in the areas of clinical psychology and counseling.

• Major figures in the humanistic tradition are Kelly, Rogers, and Maslow.

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Psychodynamic approach

• This class of approaches originates from Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.

• Freudian theory has been highly influential in very diverse areas of enquiry.

• Today, psychoanalytic theory continues to play an important role in psychotherapy, although its influence within mainstream psychology is very limited.

• Major figures in the psychodynamic tradition are Freud, Jung, Adler, Horney, and Erikson.

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Humanistic and psychodynamic approaches

humanistic psychodynamic

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Trait theories of personality

• The trait approach to personality is undoubtedly the dominant approach in the field. Some major advantages of trait theories:– Predicated on a vast body of empirical evidence.– Explicit, testable, and subject to falsification.– Results and observations are replicable.

• While there is little doubt as regards the relative advantages of the trait approach, the question of whose trait theory is best has led to fierce debates between some of the greatest psychologists of all time.

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“When he died, he was the most cited living psychologist and he is the third most cited psychologist of all time (after Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget). In this writer’s opinion, Hans Eysenck was the single most important psychologist who ever lived. His citation legacy will be tracked for decades to come.”

– J Philippe Rushton (2001, Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 17-39).

“Raymond Cattell has been one of the most influential and original psychologists working in the field of individual differences in intelligence and personality, in psychometrics and in behaviour genetics, and his voluminous writings have been crucial in the development of a scientific psychology.  Many of his discoveries have become universal property, such as the distinction between fluid and crystallized ability, or the state-trait dichotomy.  Few people can have a better claim for recognition by virtue of the rigor and originality of the work done.”

- Hans J Eysenck (written shortly before their death)

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Cattell’s theory of personality I

• To summarize 500+ scientific journal papers and 50 odd books:

• Cattell (1946) argued that every interesting aspect of personality would probably have been observed and entered into everyday language as an adjective (lexical sampling hypothesis).

• He removed synonyms and unfamiliar words, sifted through the literature, and kept about 45 variables.

• Proceeded to examine the factor structure of these 45 variables in rating data (L), questionnaire data (Q), and objective test data (T).

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Cattell’s theory of personality II

• Findings from L and Q data converged, but those from T data did not.

• However, reliable objective test data (T) are extremely difficult to obtain for personality variables.

• Factor analysis of the L and Q data convinced Cattell that the number of personality factors in normal adults were approximately 16.

• Subsequently, Cattell proceeded to construct one of the most widely used questionnaires ever developed – the 16PF.

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Cattell’s theory of personality III

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Cattell’s theory of personality IV

• Ironically, a major limitation of Cattell’s personality theory is that virtually no one, except himself and his colleagues, have managed to replicate the 16 factor structure with his questionnaire.

• Factor analysis of the 16 scales in the 16PF leads to 4 or 5 broad second-order factors.

• It is the number and nature of these second-order factors that are at the heart of a continuing debate among personality theorists.

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Big 5 theories I

• Big 5 theories tend to be primarily descriptive, i.e., they attempt to document how people differ. As a result, their theoretical foundations are relatively weak.

• Big 5 theories originate from Cattell’s psycholexical approach, but over the years many Big 5 studies mutated from discovery investigations into confirmatory tests of a preconceived model.

• The empirical roots of Big 5 theories are in an obscure paper by Tupes and Christal (1961). Norman (1967) was the first to predicate a theory on these findings.

• Currently, the most popular measure of the Big Five is Costa and McCare’s (1992) NEO PI-R.

P T Costa, Jr. R R McCrae

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Big 5 theories II

L R Goldberg

O C E A N

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The Big Five – Core meanings I

• Extraversion (positive emotionality, surgency)– The extent to which people prefer to be alone or with others.– The extent to which people experience positive emotions.– + “I love life”, - “I am not easily amused”

• Neuroticism (negative emotionality, adjustment)– The extent to which people experience negative emotions.– Primarily concerns intrapersonal feelings.– + “I get irritated easily”, - “I am very pleased with myself”

• Note that E and N are, in some form or other, part of all major personality taxonomies (Eysenck’s, Cattell’s, Gray’s, etc.).

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The Big Five – Core meanings II

• Agreeableness– The extent to which people are pleasant and well-liked by others.– + “I hate to seem pushy”, - “I distrust people”

• Conscientiousness– Concerns the manner in which people complete tasks.– + “I excel in what I do”, - “I have difficulty starting tasks”

• Openness-to-Experience (intellect)– Has been variously thought of as a dimension of creativity,

culture, curiosity, intellectuality. – Perhaps the most problematic dimension in the framework.– + “I have a vivid imagination”, - “I do not like art”

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Big 5 theories III

• Despite their weak theoretical foundation, Big 5 theories enjoy very considerable empirical support:– They emerge in different cultures (Saucier, Hampson, &

Goldberg, 2000).– They have high heritability indices (Plomin & Caspi, 1999).– They predict many external criteria (Furnham & Heaven,

1999).– They can be recovered in self- and peer-ratings and

observations (McCrae & Costa, 1987).– They remain relatively stable across the life-span (Caspi &

Roberts, 1999).

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Correlates of the Big Five I• Neuroticism

– Unsatisfactory sex life, stress symptoms, cancer (-), gaze avoidance, psychosomatic conditions (migraines, muscular problems, etc.), smoking, likelihood of divorce (primarily in females).

• Extraversion– Sporting behaviour, early onset of sexual behaviour,

tobacco and alcohol consumption, hedonism, multitasking, more likely to initiate conversations with strangers.

• For more N and E correlates, see Lecture 4.

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Correlates of the Big Five II• Openness-to-Experience

– Interest in the arts, commercial creativity (advertising), hypnotic susceptibility, cognitive ability, training responsiveness.

• Agreeableness– Marital satisfaction, cancer, performance in competitive

settings (-), capacity for teamwork, drop in self-esteem after conflict.

• Conscientiousness– Longevity, vandalism (-), job performance, educational

achievement, safe sex.

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Big 5 theories – Limitations I

• Weak theoretical foundations.– About all we can say is that these are some major ways in which

people’s personalities differ, but we have little idea, or convincing data, as to the origins of these differences (A, C, and, especially, O).

• Questions concerning orthogonality.– The A and C dimensions consistently show high positive correlations.

• Over-reliance on pre-structured datasets (confirmatory bias). – Many factor analyses (whether by design or not) specifically select

clusters of variables that are bound to produce five factors due to semantic overlap.

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Big 5 theories – Limitations II• The generality and universality of the five factors

has been exaggerated by advocates. Not all ‘Big 5’ factors are the same 5 factors. There are at least two salient Big Five theories that are not fully consistent with each other (‘Big 5’ versus ‘Five Factor Model’).– Big Five: circular/circumplex structure, based on

lexical hypothesis, ‘Intellect’.– Five-Factor theory: hierarchical structure, socio-

biologically based (?), ‘Openness-to-Experience’.

• Block (1995, 2001) presents a lucid and detailed exposition of the shortcomings of Big 5 theories.

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Major personality journals

• European Journal of Personality (EAPP)• Journal of Personality • Journal of Personality Assessment (SPA)• Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

(APA)• Personality and Individual Differences (ISSID)• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

(SPSP)

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On the web

• http://www.personality-project.org/– Maintained by W. Revelle

• http://www.cattell.net/devon/rbcmain.htm– The R B Cattell memorial page

• http://www.spsp.org/– Society for Personality and Social Psychology