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Personality Theory

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Title: Personality Theory


1
Personality Theory
  • Chapter 9 Trait Theory Gordon Allport, Raymond
    Cattell, Hans Eysenck, and the Big Five

2
An Introduction to Trait Theory
  • Traits have a long history in psychology, in
    culture, and in language.
  • We must note the distinction between traits and
    types.
  • Traits are continuous dimensions
  • Types are categorical.
  • Jung didnt observe the distinction neither did
    Hans Eysenck.
  • We wont make a strict distinction.

3
Where Does Knowledge of Traits Come From?
  • Trait names exist in language in every culture
    and time.
  • This is the lexical hypothesis that the folk
    wisdom of language fully describes traits.
  • Traits are intuitively appealing.
  • But are they scientifically explanatory, beyond
    the subjective?
  • We must be able to predict and to find
    antecedents.

4
Gordon Willard Allport
  • Born in Indiana, Allport grew up in a Cleveland,
    Ohio suburb
  • His father was a country doctor
  • Youngest of 4 boys he followed an elder brother,
    Floyd, into psychology
  • Harvard University in economics and philosophy
  • On graduation, taught at Robert College in
    Istanbul

5
  • Met Freud in Vienna disappointed in
    psychoanalysis
  • He returned to Harvard
  • Obtained a PhD in 1922
  • Exposure to European psychologists on travelling
    fellowship induced him to abandon behaviourism.

6
  • Return to Harvard and then spent 4 years at
    Dartmouth College
  • He then went back to Harvard, and remained
  • He died in 1967
  • A truly American psychologist
  • eclectic, inclusive in his personality theory

7
  • Honoured by presidency of American Psychological
    Association and Distinguished Scientific
    Contribution Award

8
  • Extensive research and writing in personality
  • Personality A Psychological Interpretation
    (1937), The Nature of Prejudice (1954), Pattern
    and Growth in Personality (1961), Letters from
    Jenny (1965)
  • Studies of expressive movement
  • Personality tests

9
  • Allports theory is no longer accepted, but his
    influence survives in the notion of traits.
  • To Allport, personality and its constituents are
    real.
  • Personality is what a person really is.
  • Patterned uniqueness requires an idiographic
    approach, not a nomothetic one.
  • Traits are structural, both cognitively and
    physiologically.

10
  • There are different types of traits.
  • Common traits, characteristic of people
  • Personal dispositions, characteristic of
    individuals (the structure of a given
    personality)
  • Cardinal dispositions dominate a personality.
  • Central dispositions are distinguishing traits
    that determine behaviour.
  • 5 to 10 per individual

11
  • Secondary dispositions are minor traits.
  • How many common traits are there?
  • An empirical problem. Consider the trait names in
    the language there are 4,000-5,000.
  • How do traits determine behaviour?
  • Interaction with situations, a pioneering view
  • Idiographic study of Jenny a model

12
Factor Analysis
  • Factor analysis is a statistical technique for
    reducing large matrices of correlation
    coefficients to a small number of factors.
  • 2 major procedures
  • Orthogonal, yielding independent factors
  • Oblique, yielding correlated factors
  • Cattell thought the oblique analysis was
    appropriate to personality.

13
  • Having obtained factors, we can determine
    individual scores on factors.
  • Cattell reduced a list of 4,500 trait names to
    171
  • obtained ratings on a large sample and
    intercorrelated ratings
  • after factor analysis of different types of data,
    he arrived at 16 factors the basic traits of
    personality
  • developed a personality test, the 16PF Inventory

14
  • What kinds of data?
  • Life record (L-data)
  • Personality questionnaire (Q-data)
  • Objective (T-data)
  • not evident whats being measured

15
  • Two approaches
  • Measure many subjects on many variables, then
    correlate and factor analyze R-technique
  • Measure 1 individual on many occasions
    P-technique

16
Raymond Bernard Cattell
  • Born in 1905 in the county of Staffordshire,
    England and grew up on Devonshire coast
  • His father was a mechanical engineer
  • Seeing badly wounded WWI soldiers at a nearby
    hospital emphasized his understanding of the
    fragility of life

17
  • He entered the University of London at age 16,
    majoring in chemistry
  • Turned to psychology after reading British
    philosophers
  • Graduate study in psychology at the University of
    London
  • His PhD advisor was Charles Spearman, the creator
    of factor analysis

18
  • He was invited to Columbia University, then Clark
    University, Harvard, and finally, in 1945, the
    University of Illinois
  • After his retirement, he performed research in
    Colorado, and then Hawaii
  • Major award withdrawn after accusation of racism
  • He died in 1998

19
  • An incredibly prolific researcher and writer.
  • The Description and Measurement of Personality
    (1946), An Introduction to Personality Study
    (1949), Personality A Systematic Theoretical
    and Factual Study (1950), Personality and
    Motivation Structure and Measurement (1957), and
    The Scientific Analysis of Personality (1966)

20
Emphases and Major Concepts
  • The definition of personality that which
    permits prediction of what a person will do.
  • Personality is made up of traits.
  • Surface traits descriptive but not inclusive
  • Source traits only discovered by factor
    analysis, they are the basic dimensions of
    personality (number 16)
  • Constitutional source traits
  • Environmental-mold traits

21
A Set of Ten Traits Rated on a Sample of Subjects
  • Adaptable versus Rigid
  • Emotional versus Calm
  • Conscientious versus Unconscientious
  • Conventional versus Unconventional
  • Prone to jealousy versus Not jealous

22
  • Considerate and polite versus Inconsiderate and
    rude
  • Quitting versus Determined
  • Tender versus Tough
  • Self-effacing versus Egotistical
  • Languid, fatigued, and slow versus Energetic,
    alert, and active

23
Cattells 16 Personality Factors, in Order of
Amount of Variance
24
(No Transcript)
25
  • Ability traits (e.g., intelligence)
  • Fluid intelligence innate problem-solving
    ability
  • Test with culture-fair intelligence test
  • Crystallized intelligence from experience
  • Test with standard intelligence test
  • Both are influenced by heredity.
  • Temperament traits constitutional and emotional

26
  • Dynamic traits
  • Attitudes
  • Sentiments environmental-mold traits at an
    intermediate level
  • Ergs motivate behaviour.
  • Cattell claimed 10 ergs identified in factor
    analytic studies
  • Hunger, sex, gregariousness, parental
    protectiveness, curiosity, escape, pugnacity,
    acquisitiveness, self-assertion, narcissistic sex

27
  • Attitudes are subsidiary to sentiments which are
    subsidiary to ergs.
  • The dynamic lattice
  • Most important of the sentiments is the self, the
    master sentiment.
  • Prediction from trait measurement
  • The specification equation

28
The Specification Equation
  • R is the response to be predicted.
  • s refers to the relevance of the trait to the
    situation
  • the greater the relevance, the bigger the value
    of s).
  • If a trait is relevant but inhibitory, s will
    have a negative sign.

R s1T1 s2T2 s3T3 snTn
29
  • T refers to traits.
  • The equation assumes that traits are independent
    and additive in their effects.
  • It is simple but effective.

30
Personality Development
  • Study personality by taking personality factor
    measures at different ages
  • A bridging strategy
  • Multiple Abstract Variance Analysis (MAVA)
    involves study of twins and estimates of
    heritability and environ-mental influence
  • Hereditys influential but learning also plays a
    role in personality development.
  • The factor analytic approach to society
    syntality of social group and society

31
Research and Implications
  • The entirety of Cattells theory is research
    based.
  • Implications
  • Traits are built in to the person.
  • Data from an unimpeachable source (everyones
    language)
  • Similar trait structures in other societies
  • Since we can predict from traits, we must be on
    the right track.

32
Cattells Factor Analytic Theory in Perspective
  • A massive amount of research
  • Factor analysis works in extracting basic
    dimensions from trait names.
  • Is the theory not a theory at all but a catalogue
    of abstract attributes?
  • Cattell did attempt to predict individual
    behaviour through the specification equation.

33
  • Cattell was a prisoner of his psychological
    heritage from Spearman and Galton.

34
Introduction to Hans Eysencks Type-Trait Theory
  • Eysenck was influenced by factor analysis and by
    Galton
  • Cultural and historical ideas important in
    identifying traits
  • The humours of Hippocrates
  • 3 basic ideas
  • Traits determine behaviour
  • Traits derive from types
  • Types are constitutional in origin and are
    dimensional.

35
  • 2 dimensions of classic temperaments
  • Stable versus Unstable (emotions)
  • Changeable versus Unchangeable
  • Introversion-Extraversion replaced the
    Changeable-Unchangeable dimension.
  • A 3rd dimension psychoticism versus normality

36
  • These are phenotypes. What about the genotypes?
  • Neural processes
  • Behaviour genetics

37
Hans Jurgen Eysenck
  • Eysenck was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1916 to
    actor parents
  • His parents divorced when he was 2 and he was
    raised by his grandmother
  • He was an opponent of Hitler while he was young,
    but was protected from repercussions because of
    his athletic talent

38
  • Eysenck left Germany in 1934 for France. Shortly
    thereafter he moved to England and began studying
    psychology at the university of London
  • PhD in 1938 under Cyril Burt
  • In 1947 became both a professor and the director
    of the Psychology Department at the Institute of
    Psychiatry

39
  • Incredibly productive scholar 1,097 articles
    and 79 books.
  • Just a few of his books Dimensions of
    Personality (1947), The Scientific Study of
    Personality (1952), A Model for Personality
    (1981), The Biological Basis of Personality
    (1967)
  • Founded 2 important journals and developed
    personality questionnaires
  • Died in 1997

40
Emphases and Major Concepts
  • A test of the dimensions of psychiatric disorders
    (Jungs dimensions)
  • Neuroticism versus normality
  • The neurotic is an emotional worrier
  • Stable normals are calm, even-tempered, unworried
  • Introversion versus extraversion
  • Neurotic introverts are dysthymic
  • Neurotic extraverts are hysteric

41
  • These type dimensions are super-factors
  • The sociable extravert
  • The quiet, retiring introvert
  • Psychoticism The high scorer is solitary,
    doesnt care for people, hostile, poorly
    socialized

42
  • A basic difference between Eysenck and Cattell
  • Cattell used factor analysis to discover traits
  • Eysenck used factor analysis to test hypotheses
    about types and traits

43
  • Whats behind types and traits?
  • From Pavlov and Hullian learning theory
  • Excitation and inhibition
  • Hulls inhibition R D X H - I
  • A typological postulate

44
Eysencks Typological Postulate
45
  • Experimental tests of excitation-inhibition
    differences
  • Monotonous task Extraverts build up inhibition
    and take rest periods
  • Vigilance task Introverts are more vigilant and
    keep up with task
  • Eye-blink conditioning dysthymics (neurotic
    introverts) condition better than neurotic
    extraverts (hysterics) or normals

46
  • Problem conditioning studies dont replicate.
    Did certain experimental details cause failures?
  • A basis for excitation-inhibition an arousal
    model
  • Differences in Ascending Reticular Activating
    System (ARAS) arousal are responsible for
    excitation-inhibition differences
  • Neuroticism-normality involves the Visceral Brain
    (limbic system).

47
  • A 3rd proposal if arousal motivation, more
    aroused introverts will reach maximum more
    quickly than extraverts.
  • Confirming experimental tests

48
Eysencks Biological Basis of Personality
49
Research and Implications
  • Like Cattells theory, Eysencks is research
    intensive.
  • It is also a better formal theory.
  • Implications
  • Personality is best conceived dimensionally
  • A theory relating type-trait phenotypes to
    genotypes

50
  • Requirements to show biological basis of
    personality
  • Superfactors show heritability
  • Same factors in nonhuman animals
  • Superfactors are cross-cultural
  • Superfactors are stable in time
  • Twin study evidence confirms the heritability of
    types.

51
Type-Trait Theory in Perspective
  • Theory and research are impressive and
    believable.
  • The theory is vulnerable on the person-situation
    interaction.
  • We dont have to anchor psychological processes
    in biology.

52
  • Critics have noted that research was not all
    confirmatory.
  • Despite empirical inadequacies, there is no
    comparable theory. Do you agree?

53
Big Five Theory
  • The Big Five Theory begins with the question How
    many traits are there?
  • A number of factor researchers have found 5, not
    16 or 3.
  • Two researchers, Robert McCrae and Paul Costa,
    Jr., argue for the lexical hypotheses.
  • They developed a personality questionnaire to
    measure traits and emerged with 5.

54
Examples of NEO-PI-R Items
  • Habits I keep my belongings neat and clean.
  • Attitudes We can never do too much for the poor
    and elderly.
  • Relationships Most people I know like me.

55
  • Preferences I find philosophical arguments
    boring.
  • Social skills I dont find it easy to take
    charge of a situation.

56
Five-Factor Names, in Order of Date of the
Research (Costa and McCrae are at Bottom,
Italicized)
57
  • Theres a very large collection of research
    literature
  • Findings
  • Cross-cultural replication of superfactors
  • Many confirmed trait predictions
  • e.g., conscientiousness predicts safe sex,
    responsive parenting extraversion predicts
    social prominence
  • Strong heritability findings on traits

58
Big Five Theory in Perspective
  • An impressive body of evidence that is persuasive
    for 5 traits
  • Is it a theory?
  • Perhaps not yet

59
Take-Home Messages
  • Personality traits are part of language, culture,
    and history.
  • There is a distinction between traits
    (dimensional) and types (categorical)
  • Not maintained by modern theorists
  • The lexical hypothesis trait description from
    language
  • The trait theory of Gordon Allport

60
  • Gordon Allport
  • Born in 1897, a midwesterner, one of 4 sons of a
    physician
  • Followed older brother to Harvard (economics and
    philosophy major)
  • A year teaching in Turkey after graduation met
    Freud in Vienna
  • Graduate school in psychology PhD, 1922

61
  • Studied in Europe, then return to Harvard,
    Dartmouth, Harvard permanently
  • Extensive research and writing on personality
  • Significant influence, but personality theory
    mostly rejected
  • Personality and traits are real

62
  • 2 approaches to personality
  • Study of the individual (idiographic)
  • Search for general laws (nomothetic)
  • Kinds of traits
  • Common traits (characteristic of people)
  • Personal dispositions (individual traits)
  • Cardinal dispositions
  • Central dispositions
  • Secondary dispositions

63
  • How many common traits?
  • 4,000-5,000
  • Trait-situation interaction
  • Allport had a major influence on important
    psychologists
  • Factor Analytic Trait Theory
  • Factor analysis a statistical method to find
    meaningful clusters in large correlation matrices

64
  • Start with trait names in language, obtain
    ratings on subjects, correlate, factor analyze
  • 3 types of data
  • Life record (L-data),
  • Questionnaire (Q-data),
  • Objective (T-data)

65
  • 2 techniques
  • Measure many subjects on many variables
    (R-technique)
  • Measure 1 individual on many occasions
    (P-technique)

66
  • Raymond Cattell
  • Born in west of England in 1905, father a
    mechanical engineer
  • University of London (chemistry major)
  • Graduate school in psychology factor analyst
    Charles Spearman his PhD advisor
  • Columbia University, then Harvard, then finally
    University of Illinois

67
  • A prodigious researcher and writer
  • A major influence on factor study of personality
  • Death in 1998 at 92
  • Emphases and major concepts in factor theory
  • Personality is what enables us to predict
    behaviour

68
  • Personality traits
  • Surface traits
  • Source traits
  • Constitutional
  • Environmental-mold
  • Ability traits
  • Fluid and Crystallized intelligence
  • Temperament traits

69
  • Dynamic traits
  • Attitudes, sentiments, ergs
  • A dynamic lattice
  • The specification equation to predict behaviour
  • Personality development
  • Measure same traits at different ages
  • Multiple Abstract Variance Analysis (MAVA) to
    study heritability and environmental influence
  • Factor analysis of social groups

70
  • Research and implications
  • A theory with an exhaustive research base
  • Implications
  • Factor analysis the perfect method to reveal
    personality.
  • Start with best possible data trait names in
    the language
  • Cross cultural replication
  • Genetic influence on traits

71
  • Factor analytic theory in perspective
  • The theory makes sense, but is it a theory or
    just a descriptive catalogue? Was Cattell a
    prisoner of his intellectual heritage?
  • Type-trait theory
  • Personality types from the ancients
  • Hippocrates and personality structure
  • The contributions of Jung
  • Introversion-extraversion, neuroticism-normality,
    psychoticism-normality

72
  • Hans Eysenck
  • Born in Berlin, 1916 to actor parents
  • Raised by grandmother
  • Hatred of Nazis
  • Left Germany in 1934 for France, then London,
    England
  • Studied psychology at the University of London
  • PhD in 1940 under Cyril Burt

73
  • Research psychologist until wars end
  • Director of Psych. Dept. and professor, Institute
    of Psychiatry, Maudsley Hospital
  • Even more prolific than Cattell (1097 articles,
    79 books) both influential books on personality
    and popular books about psychology and
    personality personality questionnaires
  • Died in 1997

74
  • Emphases and major concepts in type-trait theory
  • A test of Jungs dimensions produced 2
    superfactors
  • Introversion-extraversion
  • Neuroticism-normality
  • A 3rd factor psychoticism
  • Factor analysis used to test hypotheses about
    types-traits

75
  • What causes personality types?
  • A learning theory from Pavlov and Hull
  • Excitation-inhibition
  • Introverts high in excitation
  • Extraverts weak in excitation, rapidly build up
    inhibition
  • Experimental tests of hypotheses from theory
    mostly confirmed

76
  • An arousal theory subsumes the excitation-inhibiti
    on theory
  • Introversion-extraversion derives from arousal
    effects of Ascending Reticular Activating System
    (ARAS)
  • Neuroticism-normality derives from activation of
    Visceral Brain (limbic system)
  • Experimental tests are mostly confirmatory
  • Research and implications
  • Theory research based at every step

77
  • Implications
  • Personality is a dimensional structure of
    types-traits
  • Types and traits from language and
    cultural/historical wisdom
  • Strict requirements to demonstrate biological
    basis of personality, including heritability,
    cross-cultural evidence, stability, replication
    in animals
  • Type-trait theory in perspective
  • Vast amount of research on a credible theory

78
  • But . . .
  • Research not all confirmatory
  • Neural model outdated
  • Theories of personality dont have to be
    biologically based.
  • Despite shortcomings, is it the best theory there
    is?

79
  • Big Five Theory
  • Starts with the lexical hypothesis
  • The question How many traits are there?
  • Costa and McCrae develop a personality
    questionnaire to measure traits.
  • Factor analyses disclose 5 factors
  • Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to
    Experience, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness

80
  • Factors show up cross-culturally
  • There is impressive genetic evidence
  • A causal model
  • But does it qualify as a theory?
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