Contemporary Research on Personality Trait theory BIG 5

Contemporary Research on Personality • Trait theory • BIG 5

The Trait Perspective An individual’s unique constellation of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving (traits) constitutes his personality. This is different than “states” • Describing rather than explaining – no interest in the why. Traits like honestly, laziness, ambition, outgoing are thought to be stable over the course of your lives.

Gordon Allport • First person to describe fundamental personality characteristics – Cardinal trait (single most dominant and consistent trait) – Central traits (a small number of significant tendencies) – Secondary traits (present but not nearly as defining)

Raymond Cattell Used factor analysis to analyze the correlations among traits and to identify the most important ones. Identified “source” (more important) and “surface” (less important) traits. Developed the 16 Personality Factor (16 PF) inventory. that assessed 16 dimensions of traits based on personality adjectives taken from everyday language.

16 Personality Factor

Eysenck and Eysenck Suggested that personality traits could be reduced down even further. Extraversion versus Introversion Emotional stability versus Neuroticism (instability) Psychoticism is a third dimension added later.

Biology and Personality • Brain scans – Brain arousal – low levels of activity associated with extraversion • Genetics – Autonomic nervous system reactivity

Assessing Traits Personality inventories are questionnaires (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors assessing several traits at once. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality inventories. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders.

MMPI Test Profile

Assessing Personality Traits Personality types, assessed by measures like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), consist of a number of traits that can be categorized into 16 distinctive personality types that result from the interactions among those traits and preferences.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a selfinventory test designed to identify a person's personality type, strengths and preferences.

The Big Five Factors Today’s trait researchers believe that Eysencks’ personality dimensions are too narrow and Cattell’s 16 PF too large. So a middle range (five factors) of traits does a better job of assessment.

Endpoints

Questions about the Big Five 1. How stable are these traits? Quite stable in adulthood. Though change over development. 2. How heritable are they? Fifty percent or so for each trait. 3. How about other cultures? These traits are common across cultures. 4. Predict other personal attributes? Yes. Conscientious people are morning types, and extraverted evening types.

Evaluating the Trait Perspective The Person-Situation Controversy Walter Mischel points that traits may be enduring but the resulting behavior in different situations is different. Thus traits are not good predictors of behaviors. Trait theorists argue that behaviors may be different from situation to situation, but average behavior remains the same, thus traits matter.

Social-Cognitive and Behavioral Perspective

Behaviorist Theory of Personality � The way most people think of personality is meaningless. � Personality changes according to the environment (reinforcers and punishments). Think Skinner � If you change environment then you change the personality.

Social-Cognitive Perspective Bandura (1986, 2001, 2005) believes that personality is the result of an interaction that takes place between a person and his social context. Reciprocal determinism - we make choices in our environment which influence future choices and our experiences, and so on… Albert Bandura

Reciprocal Influences Stephen Wade/ Allsport/ Getty Images

Individuals & Environments Specific ways how individuals and environments interact. Different people choose different environments. The school you attend, the music you listen to, are partly based on your dispositions. Our personalities shape how we react to events. Anxious people react to situations differently than calm people. Our personalities shape situations. How we view and treat people influences how they treat us.

Positive Psychology Positive psychology attempts to foster human fulfillment. Positive psychology in addition seeks positive subjective well-being, positive character and positive social groups. Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive. Martin Seligman

Locus of Control Julian Rotter emphasized our sense of personal control – whether we control the environment or the environment controls us. External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate. Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate.

Learned Helplessness When unable to avoid repeated aversive events an animal or human learns hopelessness. This can lead to a lower sense of self-efficacy This can lead people to doubt their ability to affect their environment and accomplish what they try

Explanatory Styles According to Martin Seligman, an optimistic or pessimistic explanatory style – is your way of explaining positive or negative events. Defensive Pessimism – set low goals to cushion defeat. Anxiety can cause us to work harder and accomplish our goal. Excessive Optimism – blind to one’s own incompetence

Assessing Behavior in Situations Social-cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and simulated situations because they have found that the best way to predict behavior of others is in similar situations.

Evaluating the Social-Cognitive Perspective Critics say that social-cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention to the individual, his unconscious mind, his emotions and his genetics.

Behavior emerges from an interplay of external and internal influences.

AP info… • Know the schools and at least two people from each • How does society and culture influence our view of people • Connect this unit to the intro unit, and you will connect this one to therapy unit later • Know strengths and criticisms for each of theories

More AP info… • Psychoanalytic (Freud) id, ego, superego • Psychodynamic (Adler, Jung, Horney)relationships • Humanistic (Maslow, Rogers) • Trait (Allport, Cattell) cardinal, central, Big 5 • Social-cognitive (Rotter, , Bandura, Seligman) locus of control, reciprocal determinism • Behaviorists (Skinner) conditioning,