SUMMARY OF TRAIT THEORIES: ALLPORT, EYSENCK AND CATTELL

SUMMARY OF TRAIT THEORIES: ALLPORT, EYSENCK AND CATTELL
Personality Theories SUMMARY OF TRAIT THEORIES: ALLPORT, EYSENCK AND CATTELL © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This presentation may be used and adapted for use in classes using the tenth edition of Personality. It may not be re- distributed except to students enrolled in such classes and in such case must be password protected to limit access to students enrolled in such classes. Students may not re-distribute portions of the original presentation. 1

QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED
What are the main ways in which individuals differ from one another in their feelings, thoughts, and behavior? How many different traits are needed to adequately describe these personality differences? Does every person have a unique set of personality traits, or is it possible to identify a set of traits that is universal, and that can serve as a taxonomy of individual differences? If individuals can be described in terms of their characteristic traits, how are we to explain variability in behavior across time and situations?

Tradition of Personality Typology
Hippocrates & Physiognomy Body Humor and Personality Choleric ( Yellow bile): irritable, short-tempered and angry Melancholic(Black bile): depressed and melancholic Sanguine(Blood): hopeful and sanguine Phlegmatic(Phlegm): Slow and lethargic Franz Gall & Phrenology Bumps & Contours of Brian and personality Sheldon & Somatotype Endomorphy: soft (fatty tissue), rounded features Ectomorphy:linearity & fragility(lack of muscle or fat) Mesomorphy: muscular & bones, muscular build

TRAIT THEORY’S VIEW OF THE PERSON
THE TRAIT CONCEPT Personality traits refer to consistent patterns in the way individuals behave, feel, and think Two connotations: Consistency (trait describes a regularity in behavior) Distinctiveness (trait theorists typically concerned with ways in which individuals differ from each other) Decision to build a personality theory on traits implies that individuals are consistent in spite of the changes presented by social life People possess psychological qualities that endure across time and place

TRAIT THEORY’S VIEW OF THE SCIENCE OF PERSONALITY
SCIENTIFIC FUNCTIONS SERVED BY TRAIT CONSTRUCTS Description Traits summarize a person’s typical behavior and thus describe what a person typically is like Trait theories could be seen as providing basic descriptive facts that need to be explained by any theory of personality Most trait theorists try to establish an overall descriptive scheme within which any and all persons can be described They try to establish a personality taxonomy – a scientist’s way of classifying the things being studied

SCIENTIFIC FUNCTIONS SERVED BY TRAIT CONSTRUCTS Prediction With traits, one should be able to predict things such as everyday behavior and aspects of personal environments With traits, one can often make predictions that have important practical value – for example, predicting which applicants will be most appropriate for a job

SCIENTIFIC FUNCTIONS SERVED BY TRAIT CONSTRUCTS Explanation Most important challenge for a scientific theory; differs from prediction Can predict without being able to explain and can explain without being able to predict Some trait theorists confine themselves to using traits to describe and predict Others treat traits as if they can explain by identifying biological factors that underlie traits Most trait theorists believe that inherited biological factors are a primary determinant of individual differences in traits

Human behavior and personality can be organized into a hierarchy
TRAIT THEORIES OF PERSONALITY: BASIC PERSPECTIVES SHARED BY TRAIT THEORISTS People possess broad predispositions, called traits, to respond in particular ways People who have a strong tendency to behave in these ways are high on these traits; people who have a lesser tendency to behave in these ways are low on these traits There is a direct correspondence between the person’s performance on trait-related actions and their possession of the corresponding trait Human behavior and personality can be organized into a hierarchy

THE TRAIT THEORY OF GORDON W. ALLPORT (1897-1967)
A VIEW OF THE THEORIST Harvard University psychologist Remembered for the issues he raised and principles he emphasized, moreso than for a particular theory Highlighted healthy and organized aspects of human behavior, which contrasted with the psychoanalytic emphasis on animalistic and neurotic aspects of behavior A visit with Freud early in his career solidified his view that psychoanalysis, “for all its merits, may plunge too deep, and that psychologists would do well to give full recognition to manifest motives before probing the unconscious” (Allport, 1967, p. 8). Allport and brother Floyd: traits are basic units of personality and are based in the nervous system Traits defined by frequency, intensity, and range of situations

TRAITS: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN ALLPORT’S THEORY Allport and Odbert’s (1936) analysis of personality descriptors Differentiated personality traits from temporary states and activities Identified three different kinds of traits Cardinal traits express dispositions that are so pervasive that virtually every act is traceable to its influence Central traits express dispositions that cover a more limited range of situations Secondary dispositions are traits that are the least conspicuous, generalized, and consistent

TRAITS: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN ALLPORT’S THEORY Allport recognized the importance of the situation in explaining why a person does not behave the same way all the time Felt that both trait and situation concepts are necessary to understand behavior Traits are necessary to explain consistency, whereas situations are necessary to explain variability

FUNCTIONAL AUTONOMY Although the motives of an adult may have their roots in the tension-reducing motives of the child, the adult grows out of the early motives Motives become autonomous from earlier tension-reducing drives and become a source of pleasure and motivation in their own right

IDIOGRAPHIC RESEARCH Focus is on the potentially unique individual In-depth studies of individual persons are viewed as a path for learning about people generally Contrasts with other trait theorists, who generally adopt nomothetic procedures in which large numbers of individuals are described in terms of a common universal set of personality traits

COMMENT ON ALLPORT Clarified the trait concept but did little research to establish the utility of specific trait concepts Believed that many trait were hereditary, but did no research to substantiate this Documented that people display unique and consistent patterns of trait-related behavior, but provided no detailed processing model to explain that behavior

COMMENT ON ALLPORT Allport’s emphasis on idiographic methods was received poorly by individuals who misunderstood them as unscientific Scientists in other disciplines recognize that to build a science of human beings, it may be necessary to study individual persons in detail Contrary to Allport’s suggestions, contemporary trait psychologists put little stock in idiographic studies

IDENTIFYING PRIMARY TRAIT DIMENSIONS: FACTOR ANALYSIS
Factor analysis: a statistical tool for summarizing the ways in which a large number of variables are correlated In a typical factor-analytic study, a large number of test items are administered to many subjects Some items will be positively correlated with one another, others will be negatively correlated These correlations might reflect the influence of an underlying “factor”

IDENTIFYING PRIMARY TRAIT DIMENSIONS: FACTOR ANALYSIS
Factor analysis is the premier tool trait theorists use to identify the structures of personality Factor analysis identifies patterns of covariation in test responses but does not answer the question of why the responses covary It is the researcher, using his or her knowledge of psychology and relying on his or her theoretical beliefs, who interprets the patterns of covariation

THE FACTOR-ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY OF RAYMOND B. CATELL (1905-1998)
A VIEW OF THE THEORIST Received Ph.D. in psychology in 1929 from University of London Did personality research and acquired clinical experience in Britain Moved to US in 1937 Was professor and director of the Laboratory of Personality Assessment at the University of Illinois for most of his career Has published more than 200 articles and 15 books, making him one of the most prolific and influential scientists of the 20th century A background in chemistry caused him to recognize the importance of a taxonomy of traits, much like the taxonomy of elements was foundational to the physical sciences Judged factor analysis to be the tool that could yield a set of basic “psychological elements” that would be foundational to personality psychology

SURFACE AND SOURCE TRAITS: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN CATTELL’S THEORY Surface traits represent behavioral tendencies that exist on the surface and can be observed Source traits are the internal psychological structures that were the underlying cause of observed intercorrelations among surface traits

SURFACE AND SOURCE TRAITS: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN CATTELL’S THEORY
THE FACTOR-ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY OF RAYMOND B. CATELL ( ) SURFACE AND SOURCE TRAITS: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN CATTELL’S THEORY The factors that summarized the correlations among surface traits are the source traits and are the core personality structures in Cattell’s theory Cattell identified 16 source traits which he grouped into 3 categories: Ability traits – skills that allow the individual to function effectively Temperament traits – traits involved in emotional life Dynamic traits – traits involved in motivational life

SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: L-DATA, Q-DATA, AND OT- DATA L-data is life record data Relates to behavior in actual everyday situations such as school performance or interaction with peers May be actual counts of behaviors or ratings made on the basis of such observations Q-data is self-report questionnaire data

SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: L-DATA, Q-DATA, AND OT-DATA
THE FACTOR-ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY OF RAYMOND B. CATELL ( ) SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: L-DATA, Q-DATA, AND OT-DATA OT-data is objective-test data Involves behavior in situations in which the subject is unaware of the relationship between the response and the characteristic being measured Assertiveness could be expressed in behaviors such as long exploratory distance on a finger maze test, fast tempo in arm-shoulder movement, and fast speed of letter comparisons Ideally, the same factors should be obtained from L-, Q-, or OT- data

SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: L-DATA, Q-DATA, AND OT- DATA Cattell’s Sixteen Personality Factor (16 P.F.) derived from factor analyses of Q-data Cattell concerned with problems of self-deception in questionnaire ratings and with the utility of mental patients’ self-ratings on questionnaires Later relied on OT-data for personality research

SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: L-DATA, Q-DATA, AND OT- DATA Repeated factoring of data from over 500 tests led to the designation of 21 OT-data source traits Do the OT-data factors match those derived from L-data and Q-data? Though some relations were found across all three data sources, no direct one-to-one mapping of factors was possible

STABILITY AND VARIABILITY IN BEHAVIOR
THE FACTOR-ANALYTIC TRAIT THEORY OF RAYMOND B. CATELL ( ) STABILITY AND VARIABILITY IN BEHAVIOR Cattell didn’t view persons as static entities who behaved the same way in all situations He highlighted two other determinants of social action: states and roles States refer to emotions and mood that are partly determined by the immediate situation Social roles determine certain behaviors moreso than do traits Traits, states, and roles, all contribute to behavior

COMMENT ON CATTELL Cattell’s theorizing addressed all major aspects of personality theory His systematic research efforts laid a foundation for generations of trait–based researchers 16 PF continues to be widely used in applied settings Nonetheless, his work exerts little impact in contemporary personality science Though he provided a theoretical system with a lot of personality factors (16), his approach is not parsimonious Based his theory on measurement, which is risky One’s measurement system may not capture important qualities

THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK (1916-1997)
A VIEW OF THE THEORIST Born in Germany in 1916; fled to England to escape Nazi persecution Work was influenced by Factor analysis European psychologists who studied personality types (e.g., Jung) Research on the heredity of psychological characteristics Experimental work on classical conditioning by Pavlov One of the most influential and cited psychologists of the 20th century; founded and edited Personality and Individual Differences Believed psychoanalysts failed to provide reliable measures of their constructs Believed that reliable measures of individual differences were necessary to identify biological foundations of each trait Recognized that without understanding the biology of traits, trait explanations could be circular

“SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY Eysenck conducted factor analyses and “secondary” factor analyses Factors are commonly correlated; intercorrelations among factors can themselves be factor-analyzed

“SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY
THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) “SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY Secondary factor analysis is used to identify a simple set of factors that are independent (i.e., not correlated with each other) Introversion-extraversion: organizes lower-level traits such as sociability, activity, liveliness and excitability Neuroticism (aka emotional stability vs. instability): organizes traits such as anxious, depressed, shy, and moody

“SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY Traits are uncorrelated; allows Eysenck to represent them as independent dimensions Any individual can be located within the two-dimensional space of his model Everyone has a greater or lesser amount of extraversion and neuroticism

“SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY Eysenck’s system captures individual differences identified in ancient times Hippocrates’ (≈400 BC) and Galen’s (≈200 AD) melancholics, phlegmatics, cholerics, and sanguine Maybe there are fundamental features of human nature with a biological basis that transcends time and place

“SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY Eysenck added a third dimension: psychoticism: “abnormal” qualities, including aggressiveness, a lack of empathy, interpersonal coldness, and antisocial behavioral tendencies Eysenck’s factors known as PEN

“SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY
THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) “SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY Measuring the Factors Developed simple self-report items designed to tap each of the factors Typical extravert will answer “yes” to: Do other people think of you as very lively? Would you be unhappy if you could not see lots of people most of the time? Typical introvert will answer “yes” to: Generally, do you prefer reading to meeting people? Are you mostly quiet when you are with people?

“SUPERFACTORS”: PERSONALITY STRUCTURE IN EYESENCK’S THEORY Measuring the Factors Eysenck also included “lie scale” items Used objective measures too “Lemon drop test”: lemon juice is placed on a subject’s tongue Introverts and extraverts differ in the amount of saliva they produce in response May be a biological basis to individual differences

BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS
THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS Individual differences in introversion-extraversion reflect individual differences in neurophysiological functioning of the brain’s cortex Introverts experience more cortical arousal from events than do extraverts; intense social stimuli make them overaroused and are therefore more socially inhibited Extraverts experience less cortical arousal than introverts from a given stimulus; they seek out more intense social experiences

BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS Since the trait has a biological basis, individual differences in introversion-extraversion should be at least partly hereditary Studies of identical and fraternal twins commonly suggest that heredity does account for some differences between individuals in extraversion

THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS Other evidence consistent with Eysenck’s biological theorizing: Dimension of introversion-extraversion is found cross- culturally Individual differences are stable over time Various indices of biological functioning correlate with E scores, including: brain activity heart rate hormone level sweat gland activity

THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS Eysenck hypothesized that individuals high in neuroticism may posses an autonomic nervous system that responds particularly quickly to stress and is slow to decrease this activity once danger disappears Research has not consistently supported this theory Less is known about the biological basis for psychoticism (P)

EXTRAVERSION AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Selected evidence indicates that introverts, compared to extraverts: Are more sensitive to pain than extraverts Become fatigued more easily than extraverts Experience decrements in performance when excited Tend to be more careful

EXTRAVERSION AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) EXTRAVERSION AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR Campbell and Hawley’s (1982) investigation of study habits among introverts and extraverts indicates that extroverts: More often chose to study in library locations that provided external stimulation than did introverts Took more study breaks than did introverts Reported a preference for a higher level of noise and for more socializing opportunities while studying than did introverts

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE
THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE Types of symptoms or psychological difficulties relate to basic traits and the nervous system functioning associated with the traits A person develops neurotic symptoms because of the joint action of a biological system and environmental experiences that contribute to the learning of strong emotional reactions to fear-producing stimuli Majority of neurotic patients tend to have high N and low E scores Criminals and antisocial persons tend to have high N, high E, and high P

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE Eysenck optimistic about treatment; people inherit genetic predispositions, but it is possible for a person to: Avoid traumatic situations Unlearn fear responses Learn appropriate social conduct

COMMENT ON EYSENCK Eysenck upheld the highest standards of science while theorizing in a creative manner Brought diverse forms of evidence to bear on questions of individual differences

Many have moved away from Eysenck’s views, for at least 4 reasons
THE THREE-FACTOR THEORY OF HANS J. EYSENCK ( ) COMMENT ON EYSENCK Many have moved away from Eysenck’s views, for at least 4 reasons Alternative two- and three-dimensional models have been proposed that better fit the available data His theories of the biological bases of personality traits lack consistent support The existence of a journal devoted to research in the Eysenckian tradition may have isolated this tradition from the rest of psychology Maybe more than two or three factors are needed to describe personality

SUMMARY OF TRAIT THEORIES: ALLPORT, EYSENCK AND CATTELL

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