Trait Approach

•Allport’s Trait theory•Catell’s Culture based system’s theory•Eyesenck’s Biological theory•Big Five Theory of Personality

Trait vs. Type approach

A trait is a characteristic pattern of behavior or conscious motive which can be self-assessed or assessed by peers

The term type is used to identify a certain collection of traits that make up a broad, general personality classification

Allport’s Trait Theory

at birth the infant is almost entirely a creature of heredity

with growing maturity, we become increasingly active, creative, self-reliant, and characteristically rational, largely as a result of learning experiences

Major concepts

The proprium or self, and how they are shaped as the self continues to develop as the person proceeds through the lifespan.Concept of Cardinal, Central, and Secondary TraitsPersonal dispositionsValues

Major concepts

A Humanistic View of Personality

•Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristic behavior and thought•person is in a state of becoming

Major concepts

traits are the key structures within the self; traits initiate and direct the individual’s behavior in unique ways.

“a generalized and focalized neuropsychic system(peculiar to the individual) with the capacity to render many stimulifunctionally equivalent and to initiate and guide consistent (equivalent) forms of adaptive and expressive behavior”

Cardinal traits•Characteristics that are pervasive and dominant in a person’s life

•These are master motives, ruling passions, eminent traits.

Central traits•Characteristics that control less of a person’s behavior but are nevertheless important

Descriptions of people-intelligent, sincere, kind, possessive, competitive, ambitious, funny, and honest.

Secondary Traits•Characteristics that are peripheral to the person––preferences

•Such traits are generally less important, less conspicuous, less generalized, and less often called into play than central traits.

Common traits vs. Personal Dispositions

Common traits are categories for classifying groups of people on a particular dimension e.g. some people are more dominant than others or that some people are more polite than others.

The Personal Disposition is a unique characteristic of the person, a trait not shared with others.

PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT

Substituting the term proprium for self, Allport used it to mean a sense of what is “peculiarly ours,” including “all aspects of personality that make for inward unity”

The proprium, or self, develops continuously from infancy to death and moves through a series of stages.

Development of the Proprium

1. The bodily self-Infancy2. Self-identity—by around 18 months3. Self-esteem-2nd or 3rd year4. Self-extension--4 to 6 years5. Self-image6. The self-as-rational-coper--6-12 years7. Propriate striving- adolescence onwards8. The self-as-knower—able to integrate all

the aspects of the proprium

Development of the Mature Personality

•The development of the mature personality takes time, he believed, so that only the adult is capable of coming close to self-realization.

As their propriums develop, children also learn to protect themselves against threats through the use of various defensive strategies

Functional AutonomyEarly childhood-Peripheral motives

Later, as the proprium develops, there is a shift from this type of motivation and learning toward propriate strivings .

“Functional autonomy regards adult motives as varied and as self-sustaining, contemporary systems growing out of antecedent systems but functionally independent of them”

Characteristics of Maturity

1. Extension of the sense of self-participate in activities that go beyond themselves.

2. Warm relatedness to others—intimacy and compassion

3. Self-acceptance--emotionally secure.4. Realistic perception of reality--do

not continually distort reality .5. Self-objectification--insight into their

own abilities and limitations

Maturity and Religioncommitment to religious beliefs can help organize and give constructive meaning to our lives

Extrinsic religious orientations with immaturity-use their religion as a means to an end

Intrinsic religious orientations with maturity-as ends in themselves.Religious Orientation Scale (Allport and Ross, 1967) a measure of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity based on Allport’s original conceptualization.

Values1.Theoretical: Focus on the discovery of truth, and interests that are empirical, critical, and rational.2. Economic: Focus on usefulness and being practical.3. Aesthetic: Focus on form and harmony, and interests in the artistic side of life.4. Social: Focus on the altruistic love of others, and a tendency to be kind, sympathetic, and unselfish.5. Political: Focus on power over others, dominance, influence, and social recognition.6. Religious: Focus on unity, and a tendency to seek to comprehend he cosmos as a whole.

Research on Valuesmale adolescents and young adults scored higher on the theoretical, economic, and political valuesfemales scored higher on the aesthetic, social, and religious values

Assessment techniques1.Constitutional and physiological diagnosis2.studies of sociocultural membership status, and roles3. personal documents and case studies4.self-appraisal techniques, such as self-ratings and Q-sorts 5.conduct samplings, such as behavior assessments ineveryday situations +observer ratings personality tests and scales6.projective tests7.depth analysis, such as free association and dreamAnalysis8. Synaptic measures9. Idiographic approach to measuring personality

Cattell’s Structure-BasedSystems Theory

Catell was influenced by great psychologists/psychometricians of the Era -Spearman, G. Stanley Hall, Thorndike, William McDougall

personality as a system in relation to the environment, and seeks to explain the complicated transactions between them as they produce change and sometimes growth in the person

begin with empirical observation and description and, on this basis, to generate a tentative rough hypothesis.

inductive-hypothetico-deductive spiral

Key ElementsCattell relied heavily on factor analysis—a highly complicated statistical procedure used to isolate and identify a limited number of factors that underlie a larger group of observed, interrelated variables

Surface vs Source traits

Cattell defined personality as “that which tells what [a person] will do when placed in a given situation”

R =f(S, P)

Constitutional traits vs Environmental-Mold Traits

Multiple abstract variance analysis (MAVA)-Catell

Ability Traits, Temperament Traits, and Dynamic TraitsCommon vs Unique traitsSurface traits are “simply a collection of trait elements, of greater or lesser width of representation which obviously‘ go together’ in many different individuals and circumstances”

A source trait, in contrast, is the underlying factor that controls the variation in the surface cluster

Cattell began by examining the 4500 trait names found in the English language by Allport and Odbert.Reduced them down by eliminating synonyms to 171By observer ratings by experts-46 surface traits16 primary factors or major source traits -These 16 basic traits were then used in the construction of the Sixteen Personality Factor (16 PF) Questionnaire( from A to Q)

1. Life data (or L-data)- data from the individual’s natural, everyday life behaviors, measuring their characteristic behavior patterns in the real world.

2. Experimental data (or T-data) -which involves reactions to standardized experimental situations created in a lab where a subject’s behavior can be objectively observed and measured.

3. Questionnaire data  (or Q-data), which involves responses based on introspection by the individual about their own behavior and feelings

(A) Reasoning Ability (B) Emotional Stability (C) Dominance (E) Liveliness (F) Rule Consciousness (G) Social Boldness (H) Sensitivity (I),Vigilance (L),Abstractedness (M), Privateness (N), Apprehension (O), Openness to Change (Q1), Self-reliance (Q2), Perfectionism (Q3), and Tension (Q4).

Attitudes, Sentiments, and Ergs-Dynamic Traits

an Erg is an innate drive triggered by stimuli in the environment that ceases when its goal is reached.

Attitudes as specific interests in particular courses of action toward certain objects in a given situation

Sentiments are large, complex attitudes. They incorporate a host of interests, opinions, and minor attitudes.

Dynamic traits are organized in complex ways within the cognitive and motivational structure of the organism, and form a Dynamic Lattice.

Subsidiation—the process whereby certain dynamic traits are subsidiary to (or dependent on) other traits. Ergs↦Attitudes↦Sentiments

The Dynamic Lattice describes a complicated and often bewildering intertwining of interests, attitudes, sentiments, goals, and drives.

View of personalityHeredity and Environment- prenatal development, maturation

Classical Conditioning- Fears and inhibitions

Instrumental conditioning-personality learning

Integration learning-form of cognitive and instrumental learning in which the developing person uses ego and superego processes to maximize long-term satisfactions.

Theory of Abnormal Development

Cattell sought to develop quantitative techniques to aid the therapist in diagnosis and treatment

Clinical Analysis Questionnaire